Flat Grind
The flat grind is a common grind for knife blades offering very good "middle-grade" cutting properties. Blades with a flat grind are used for a wide variety of knives, mainly kitchen knives, hunting knives and outdoor knives. This type of blade is flat-ground on both sides.
Typically, a flat-ground blade tapers at a flat angle from the spine or just below all the way to the cutting edge of the blade. The cross-section of a flat-ground blade appears as V-shaped. Due to the high starting point of the grind, a flat-ground blade has a relatively thin top and center section compared to convex or hollow-ground blades. Like other grinds, the flat grind has several variations.
They mainly differ in the higher or lower starting point of the grind. A full flat grind begins at the back of the blade on both sides and continues to the blade tip. Blades with a hollow flat grind have a lower starting point (first third of the blade length), while the grind of the so-called Scandi blades begins in the last third. In terms of cutting edge and stability, the flat grind offers a good compromise between the two other common grinds, hollow and convex.
A flat-ground blade cuts better than a convex blade but not quite as well as the extremely sharp hollow grind. For most applications, this blade offers good cutting properties and provides the necessary stability for rougher cutting jobs. When it comes to cutting thinner materials, a hollow grind is superior to a flat-ground blade.