Krein reground knives

gunmike1

gunmike1

Joined
Dec 9, 2005
Messages
2,402
I recently sent in 3 knives to Tom Krein for him to regrind. They had all been sharpened flat to the stone to thin them as much as possible with a stone, and looked pretty sad. After using a Krein modified Fallkniven U2 I knew he was the man to regrind them with nice, thin, & high hollows.

The first knife was a Jess Horn ZDP, and the first picture is a comparison with a Jess Horn that was ground flat to the stone so you can reference how much better the grind is now. My photo skills suck, so unfortunately I can't provide any edge into shots, which is where you really see the difference in how much thinner the edge is.





The edge is very thin now, under half the width of the flat to the stone knife.
 
Next up is my Spyderco Native in S30V. Tom also rounded off the sharp edges on the choil so the knife is much more comfortable to use now, and much thinner. The first picture shows it next to a Native 3 for reference, and the edge is now in the .007-.008" range, well under the factory .019-.021" range. The higher hollow, like all the others, also allows you to go more acute with your angle when you go flat to the stone. We'll have to see how the S30V does with a real thin edge.



 
Next up is a Byrd Meadowlark. This one has a very thin edge, as in .004-.005" behind the edge. It is extremely thin, and I expect real good things from it for edge stability, considering it's lower carbide content and hard RC levels.



Many thanks to Tom Krein for doing such a good job on these knives, I am very happy with the results and look forward to testing them.

Mike
 
Feel free to send them to me for FULL, COMPLETE testing.

I did say long term testing too didn't I?

Beautiful job. I especially like the Meadowlark. I am impressed and more than a little jealous. Congrats.
 
QuietOned said:
Feel free to send them to me for FULL, COMPLETE testing.

I did say long term testing too didn't I?

Beautiful job. I especially like the Meadowlark. I am impressed and more than a little jealous. Congrats.
Click to expand...

Tom Krein does great work, and he was real generous with his time talking to me on the phone about how I wanted the knives done up. The Jess Horn and Meadowlark that were reground are actually Cliff Stamp's knives that he sent me to test with and use, and I plan on doing some cardboard and possibly rope slicing testing with them and the Fallkniven U2 Cliff also sent me. I will add my reground Native and my flat to the stone Jess Horn to the testing, as well. If you want to thin your knives out for serious cutting performance, Tom Krein is the man. Not to mention his own knives are VERY nice, I really need to save up and be a good boy so my wife will let me get one! Check out his site at http://www.kreinknives.net/. I am really wanting one of his Ultimate Capers in M4 steel right now!

P.S., when you get knives with edges this thin (well under .010" at the top of the bevel with a very thin hollow grind) it is very wise to cut straight and not twist out of any tough cuts, or else you will have some big chips in your future. But, when you use them as the precision cutters that they are designed to be, they have tremendous cutting ability and sharpen up almost instantly when you apply a microbevel.
 
Awesome ! I enjoy seeing folks taking production knives and customizing them to thier own specifications. :thumbup:

Mr. Krein does do great work.
 
Very nice!!! I'll bet you are having some fun with them, both cutting and sharpening!

Congratulations!
 
Cliff Stamp said:
That is insane, the Meadowlark looked horrible before the grind.

-Cliff
Click to expand...

The Meadowlark was by far the worst looking knife short of my Endura Wave that I took flat to the stone on the DMT XX coarse before the regrind. Actually, the Meadowlark was even worse than that one! Tom is amazing in what he can do, and how good he can make it look while greatly thinning it and improving performance. The top picture of the Jess Horns is basically a before and after, as Cliff's looked almost exactly the same as mine before the regrind, except he had a little more of the hollows left in it. Tom made it look factory. My Native was similarly ugly like my Jess Horn after flat to the stone sharpening, and it looks great now, again like it was factory ground that way, and he also rounded off the sharp edges of the choil. His work is just great.
 
Given how fine you seem to be able to hollow grind, I'm surprised that you don't offer a folding straight razor on your site... Seems like the perfect match.

Ever given it any thought?
 
hey tom, i tried to email you a little bit back from the email address on your website but it said it couldnt deliver it because your inbox was full, just thought you might want to know
 
I just got a Krein reground Caly Jr. ZDP. Will add pics tomorrow, or probably start a new thread. Turened out great, makes a factory Caly Jr. ZDP (I compared it side by side in a store tonight) look very chopper like. The edge is about .005", and 1/4" up the blade the thickness is .020". This thing should cut like a champ! Thanks Tom and Sodak!

Mike
 
QuietOned said:
Feel free to send them to me for FULL, COMPLETE testing.

I did say long term testing too didn't I?

Beautiful job. I especially like the Meadowlark. I am impressed and more than a little jealous. Congrats.
Click to expand...

I've got some coming, when I'm done playing, if you're serious, I'll send them to you for a while.
 
Tom does incredible work. I have a busse Leaner Meaner and a Bud Nealy that he worked on, and both are exceptional slicers. I just sent him a box of knives... wish I'd thought to take before pix...

What I enjoy almost as much as his work is his ethos. You know you're in good hands when you deal with him. I agree that everyone should have at least one knife from him, if only to see what "sharp" really is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top