I'm trying to decide between two Tina knives:

640/10 which has a straight blade, no upward curve at the tip, and is called a grafting/budding combination knife (probably because it has the little bump on the top of the blade for spreading).

641/10 which has an upward curve at the tip of the blade and what seems to be a slight curve in the actual blade. It's classified as a budding knife.

The 641/10 is cheaper and I'm tempted to order it, but I'm not sure if the blade, with it's slight curve, will work as well for grafting.

There's my dilemma, I want to do both grafting and budding, and the 641/10 budding knife is half the price as the other on. Does anyone have experience using the 641/10 for grafting? Or an opinion on the subject.

John

I don't have any problem using the left handed 641 for grafting and the flat sided blade works either way for me (right or left handed) for budding.

I have used the knife for cleft grafts, whip/tongue grafts, bark grafts and T-budding. I do not see any drawback to having the upturned tip when grafting and it is much easier to use for cutting the bark for bark grafting or T-budding.

Skeeter, have you had to sharpen your Tina 641 since you got it? Weren't you send a right handed one by mistake...

I like the turned up tip on my 641, and it will help me as I learn budding. I've been using the knife for whip grafting, but I still have the problem of dips in my cuts and it's not cutting like butter although it seems to be sharp. My knife technique may be wrong...I'm still trying to figure this out. I wonder if you had to sharpen your knife soon after you received it.

Yes, when I first got it--it had a burr on the bevel side. It did not take much to work that off, now it shaves clean and I have not had to sharpen since.

We thought it was right handed, but if you hold the knife in your left hand with the sharp edge toward you--if the bevel side is up --it is left handed.

I actually have the opposite concept of left handedness. If you hold the knife in your left hand(in the whittler's position), with the sharp edge of the blade away from your body, as if you were preparing to cut or slice the scionwood by thrusting away from your body...you'd want the bevel to be on top and the flat to be on the bottom. That would be a left handed blade, or so I think. If this is correct, then your knife is righthanded. By your description, if you held your Tina knife in your right hand in position to cut the scionwood by thrusting away from your body, then the bevel would be up.

This much I can say, one of us is right! What do you think...