ironraven,

My experience with rope is very positive with serrated blades. Some of my "sharp" knives seem to slip a bit on slick plastic/nylon rope, where the serrated edges will dig in and rip its way through.

Kind of like a cutting a tomato. Using only the weight of the knife, a shaving sharp blade may sometimes slip over the skin. Take the same knife and touch up the edge with a courser stone and the rougher edge will dig right in.

Serrated knives have their place, I just personally hate sharpening them.

re: cardboard. I used to like using serrated blades to tear through the cardboard. After buying a new Al Mar Nomad I put it to work cutting up some cardboard. The flat grind and perfect edge on this knife cut through cardboard like a lesser knife would cut through note paper. I just used push cuts. No sawing motion, no slicing, just put the blade at one end and push. It was a real eye opener and one of the final clinchers for me with regards to flat grind blades.

In my infinite wisdom I thought I could improve the Al Mar edge with a bit of "pizzaman polishing". What the hell was I thinking??? <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> It's still a wicked cutter, but I have yet to match the factory edge.

Per a number of folks on knife and blade forums, I now use a course stone on my plain edge utility blades. It seems to be a nice way to keep a plain edge, while getting a touch of the positives of a serrated edge.

TR