CS Ultimate Hunter regrind convex to zero edge

[maximus83]

Thought folks would be interested in seeing pics of this blade regrind, done by Josh @razor-edge-knives.

Have never owned a custom knife, and not a highbrow knife owner. This is my first semi-custom. I bought this Cold Steel Ultimate Hunter because I liked the CTS-XHP steel, drop point blade profile with a deep belly, strong back lock, and full-sized handle. But...I wanted the blade to be thinned out so it would be more of a slicer and useful all-purpose knife. Josh took this CS UH that I paid $95 for retail, charged $165 for "convex to zero edge regrind" with a 600-grit satin finish and a thinned out blade profile. So for basically $260 and change for shipping, I got the knife I really wanted in the first place. The only sad thing now is, I'm gonna have to get it dirty.

 

[Jason B.]

Looks good

 

[Mo2]

What makes it a semi custom? To me it's just a modded production knife.

In any case it looks great and I want to have this done to at least one of my models.

 

[Chris "Anagarika"]

Very nice!

A zero convex folder isn’t very common indeed.

 

[maximus83]

What makes it a semi custom? To me it's just a modded production knife.

OK, it's a modded production knife. See, I told ya I'm not a custom knife owner, so I don't know custom knife terminology.

 

[Alberta Ed]

Looks like an awesome slicer. CTS-XHP is a great steel IMHO.

 

[David Martin]

Yes, after doing this modification one would notice quite a step up in performance. DM

 

[maximus83]

So.....since this is the MAINTENANCE forum, here's a more interesting question than just showing off pictures of the shiny knife. Which will soon get dirty, because I don't do "safe queen" knives.

How do you sharpen this thing when it needs it? Micro, convex-style stropping, add a regular v-bevel....what?

 

[awestib]

He does great work indeed.
I️ had one Mora companion reprofiled by him to a thin full flat.

 

[maximus83]

He does great work indeed.
I️ had one Mora companion reprofiled by him to a thin full flat.

That's a super interesting regrind. And gets me thinking....there's a new-ish Mora knife, the Garberg, that I'm really interested for 2 things: the steel (Sandvik 14c28n), and the fact it's full tang. But I'm not fond of scandi grinds. Be interesting to have Josh profile one of those to FFG.

 

[HeavyHanded]

So.....since this is the MAINTENANCE forum, here's a more interesting question than just showing off pictures of the shiny knife. Which will soon get dirty, because I don't do "safe queen" knives.

How do you sharpen this thing when it needs it? Micro, convex-style stropping, add a regular v-bevel....what?

Wet/dry over a hard surface or on a hard stone with rolling action in the grip. It might still need a micro to beef up the edge depending on how it holds up, maybe not.

Noooo V bevel...!

 

[awestib]

That's a super interesting regrind. And gets me thinking....there's a new-ish Mora knife, the Garberg, that I'm really interested for 2 things: the steel (Sandvik 14c28n), and the fact it's full tang. But I'm not fond of scandi grinds. Be interesting to have Josh profile one of those to FFG.

The "perfect" regrind for a Mora for me personally if I did it again, would be a compound grind with a full flat for most of the knife and something else ? on the tip area. Otherwise the tip gets too thin and fragile - for wood drilling for instance etc.

 

[maximus83]

Wet/dry over a hard surface or on a hard stone with rolling action in the grip. It might still need a micro to beef up the edge depending on how it holds up, maybe not.

Noooo V bevel...!

I was hoping somebody would react to that v-bevel statement.

So yeah, I guess it's the "rolling action" probably on DMT EF or EEF stones for touch-ups. Or I assume, I could do same on a hard strop with compound. I've seen Murray Carter videos demonstrating that rolling wrist action for convex.

 

[HeavyHanded]

The "perfect" regrind for a Mora for me personally if I did it again, would be a compound grind with a full flat for most of the knife and something else ? on the tip area. Otherwise the tip gets too thin and fragile - for wood drilling for instance etc.

I'm considering similar with one of mine. Drop the main part of the edge and leave the tip at the original grind.

Just recently did a Mora at 8°/side and microbevel at about 12/side. Wicked for EDU but it wouldn't hold up to hard use.

 

[maximus83]

I'm considering similar with one of mine. Drop the main part of the edge and leave the tip at the original grind.

Just recently did a Mora at 8°/side and microbevel at about 12/side. Wicked for EDU but it wouldn't hold up to hard use.

That sounds like an interesting project to try out with my cheap carbon steel Mora. Maybe do a full blade profile on the coarse Crystolon, then finish/refine on the AF? I totally don't care about the Mora, probably paid like $12 for it, so it's a great beater to practice on.

 

[maximus83]

So, nothing to do with sharpening, but a follow-up on using the regrind since the OP. Used this as primary EDU knife almost 2 weeks, for everything in daily life (haven't been backpacking though). Doing typical sharpness tests, opening and breaking down boxes, chopping through some thick vines in the back yard, prying open paint cans to check tip strength, carving wood and making a fuzz stick, cutting some 1/2" rope and some paracord, and my favorite of all--food prep. Can't tell any drop in sharpness yet. As thick as this blade still is at the spine after the regrind (0.130"), it'll take a wedge out of an apple without splitting it. This thing is a laser, never had a knife this sharp whether sharpened by me or someone else. With the regrind, it performs as well as some of my much thinner Spydie slicers on slicing tasks. The regrind really transforms this knife into something that is useful, I like it better than more expensive knives I've had even though they used more premo materials, because now it's superior at actual knife tasks.

Yep, thinner is better for most real world knife tasks. At least, for MY real world knife tasks. Even on the trail, I don't need a folder to have a thick blade. I usually bring a 2-knife solution anyway, a larger folder like this or a small fixed, and then an 8" to 10" chopper. Thin is in!

Interesting takeaway: I won't be able to do it as pretty as Josh does, but really want to learn how to take some of my more modest priced fixed blades knives--like a Mora in carbon steel or a Buck Maxlite in 420HC--and do a manual blade regrind on a Norton Crystolon. Does anybody know a recommended YT tutorial on doing a full blade grind/profile? I don't really know where to begin.

Here's my biggest "hard use tactical knife" task ever: prepped lunch. Killed, skinned, gutted, cleaned, and sliced. Please do a favor and don't tell Josh that out of sheer laziness and not wanting to get a table knife dirty, I used his beautiful regrind to spread mayo on my sandwich.

 

[chiral.grolim]

... really want to learn how to take some of my more modest priced fixed blades knives--like a Mora in carbon steel or a Buck Maxlite in 420HC--and do a manual blade regrind on a Norton Crystolon. Does anybody know a recommended YT tutorial on doing a full blade grind/profile? I don't really know where to begin.

A word of advice on manually re-reprofiling - if you need to hog off a lot of material, use a REALLY REALLY coarse grit, <120 if you can. My other tip would be to use a WIDE stone, at least 2x8, and have at hand a wash to remove swarf and keep the stone from clogging. You want to make each pass on the stone as capable of removing metal as possible.

Have an idea of what you want the final edge-thickness to be, i.e. the thickness of the blade ~1/16" or less back from the apex, wherever you expect the shoulder or near-final decent to the apex to begin. This is important for keeping your edge at the appropriate strength (thickness) while optimizing cutting efficiency (thinness). As you grind a new primary bevel, the edge will thin out very quickly if care is not taken.

When I am grinding down a saber-grind, I focus first on the shoulder of the primary, i.e. where the flats meet the bevels. I draw a line with a marker at the height I want the new flat to be, or just use the spine as the reference if going all the way, and then grind just that shoulder without the knife-edge touching the hone at all - sometimes i will put tape on the knife edge just to make sure it never touches the stone. I stop when my coarse "back-bevel" is nearing the reference line mentioned before.

This done, i now have a new "shoulder" sitting in the middle of my primary bevel, the primary now has 2 smaller bevels/facets. Depending on how well i held my angle on the previous grinding, I might be near to done already and can just switch to a finer grit to work away the scratch marks and descend to my final profile until there is only one facet/bevel before the edge bevel. If there is an obvious transition in the midst of the primary, I will work this one down as I did the previous shoulder, cutting away the shoulders from each grind-angle until they are sufficiently small that i can quickly blend them together and proceed to a finer grit for scratch removal.

DON'T FORGET ABOUT YOUR EDGE THICKNESS - if it was too thick before, you now need to remove the protective tape or simply stop holding the blade with the edge elevated and let the hone grind into the shoulder of the edge as it also removes material further back in the primary. If you are going for FLAT, continue to grind down the "high-points" of the new primary until you achieve a flat plane from edge-shoulder to primary shoulder with your desired edge-thickness. If you are going for convex, then decide on just how much curvature you want in the bevel and switch to a soft-backed hone before all of your facets are ground completely away - blending these facets together creates the convex curve.

 

[on_the_edge]

I had Josh do my UH over a year ago. It will be backup to my custom fixed blade hunter when/if it runs out of edge. These have a high Rockwell hardness already and if used strictly on flesh, I would expect that sharpening will be needed once every blue moon depending of course on how much one meat one needs to process.