Just picked up a new ESEE 4 for a fantastic price. Blade is brand new and it is pretty sharp. Most of my bush knives are either scandi or convex grinds. The ESSE is a flat grind and does not seem to cut wood with nearly the ease that my others do. I am ready to convex it and see it that improves it a little, but I thought I would ask here first. Are you ESSE guys keeping the flat grind that comes on them or are you reprofiling the edge? Thanks!
ESEE 4 Question
- Thread starter Ranger
- Start date
I used mine stock for a couple of years. I sharpened it on a Spyderco Sharpmaker. It did well overall. Are you comparing apples to apples? Are your other blades 3/16" thick? Obviously a scandi is going to have a steeper edge angle and thus generally excels at wood cutting tasks. A lot of folks convex their ESEEs. I have done mine. Cutting performance, I don't know that it's leaps and bounds better, but it is very useable and durable. I think a good bevel edge or convexing it, either one will give you a good edge. If you convex it, you'll end up thinning the edge out just a bit most likely, which can give you some added cutting performance without sacrificing durability.
You bet. Also, remember that the BK2 is sabre ground, so the actual flat grind toward the edge is thinner than .25", you just have a lot more meat at the spine. You'll figure it out, just play around with it a bit.
All I've done with the edge on my esee is sharpen it. I'm content with its all around performance as is. It does fine for fire and food prep and everything else I've used it for. It's not great for fine carving but that's not really what its for and the blade is too wide anyways
Trail Dust
Scout
The ESEE (or older RAT's) will never keep up with a Scandinavian or convex grind that has been properly set up when it comes to working with wood. Blade coatings don't help the issue either. And, obviously, the supplied V-ground edge doesn't spell 'efficiency' when it comes to woodworking (V-ground shoulders cause resistance or drag). It is possible to reprofile the flat-ground ESEE to a convex grind (I did three), but this is a task for the highly experienced on the belt grinder
The other option (and the least amount of effort) is, to convex the cutting edge only. I installed a convex edge on this RC-6 (in the photo) and GREATLY improved its wood carving capabilities. Rather than doing the convex on my belt grinder (slack belt) as usual, I did the convex on my Norton India bench stones. Little by little I thinned it back, until I was satisfied that it would do all it was going to do without being too fragile. Your mouse pad, thick leather, or dense wool surface with abrasive papers will get the job done on the ESEE also.
The other option (and the least amount of effort) is, to convex the cutting edge only. I installed a convex edge on this RC-6 (in the photo) and GREATLY improved its wood carving capabilities. Rather than doing the convex on my belt grinder (slack belt) as usual, I did the convex on my Norton India bench stones. Little by little I thinned it back, until I was satisfied that it would do all it was going to do without being too fragile. Your mouse pad, thick leather, or dense wool surface with abrasive papers will get the job done on the ESEE also.
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Jeff_C
Scout
Ive kept mine as is... and plan on keeping it that way. I agree, the coating and the blade thickness play a large part in the equation.
But I like the performance of mine just fine. Again, I will not be changing mine.
But I like the performance of mine just fine. Again, I will not be changing mine.
wingman115
Scout
I've had mine about a year now and love it just the way it came..It has always worked great for me.
ronins hawkeye
Tracker
Depends on your use, mission, etc. I have the esee 5, and from its development it was designed for SERE. The knife can do anything that is required in the bush. I also have a Izula II used for small camp chores etc. along with my Helle viking. Besides that you could carry a small case pocket knife for odd and things but then you start adding weight to your EDC and/or person. Besides you caant beat esee's warranty best one on the market. BHK makes good knifes as well but there is a wait on them, or find a dealer and get one from them.
I always felt the ESEE-4 should be either 1/8" or 5/32" but that is just a personal thing. When they designed it, they were clearly trying to distinguish it from their RC-3 model across a bunch of specs. I thought it was a great knife, but I own both an RC-3 and 6 and like them better in their respective tasks. Anyhow, when I had mine I both removed the coating and did the sandpaper mouspad convexing. It improved slicing performance markedly (no shoulders to hang up on) but I could never get it to be as an aggressive a cutter as a barkie or a scandi. But it is one hell of a tough knife and sometimes that is valued more over fine cutting tasks.
Regardless if you change the edge grind or not, if you decrease the angle of the bevel say to 30 degrees instead of 40 degrees out of factory, you will get a boost in cutting performance. This of course will give you a more delicate edge so I guess it really is up to you to decide which you trait you prefer to have and which you are willing to trade off on. For myself, I prefer cutting to overt robustness.
Regardless if you change the edge grind or not, if you decrease the angle of the bevel say to 30 degrees instead of 40 degrees out of factory, you will get a boost in cutting performance. This of course will give you a more delicate edge so I guess it really is up to you to decide which you trait you prefer to have and which you are willing to trade off on. For myself, I prefer cutting to overt robustness.