question on purpose of recurve blades

[wildromanian]

What is the purpose of the recurve blade? On the cutting edge their is a curve, like a reverse rollacoster. The edge is not straight.

[jonet143]

an example would help. blades with a lot of belley are often skinning blades.

[Darksev]

blade geometry wise if your making a slicing motion, a curved blade means that less of the blade edge is making contact with whats being cut, resulting in higher contact pressure, as the whole of the cutting movement is focused on one small segment of blade. I could just be pulling this out of my you know where, but i've heard it before and it sounds reasonable to me

[muskrat man]

they are basically good for slashing and sometimes is better on a chopper as it puts the weight more forward of the handle which means less strength to do the same ammount of cutting. they also hook good (like a hawkbill) for slashing the belly will grab once you pass the recurve. I persoanlly don't like them as they seem to be a PITA to sharpen with anything less than round hones