With a blade long enough to become blade heavy in a full flat, a saber grind shifts even more weight to the blade end. Usually that makes more of a dedicated chopper, and less of a well-balanced all-around knife. I'm not a fan of saber grinds on large knives. Furthermore, saber grinds aren't very good for batoning - the harsh corner at the transition from flat to saber grind is more likely to bind up in the wood, and that's also the first place your coating will wear. If you want to beef up a large knife, a convex primary grind is the way to go, IMHO - shifts the weight out like a saber grind, but no harsh corner to bind up. Of course, convex grinds are labor intensive to do, which is why you see lots of them on Busse's and few of them on Scrap Yards.

In smaller knives, I'm still not in love with the saber, but it does have its benefits, especially on thin knives that could use some beefing up, or knives short enough that the saber grind helps improve the balance. That is ESPECIALLY true for Busse blades, with their full tangs and micarta/g10 handles, which can tend to be blade heavy. It works on other blades too - the Scrapper 5's saber grind gives it a very slightly blade heavy balance, which is far superior to a handle heavy balance for an actual user knife, IMO.

On mid-sized knives, like a Dumpster Mutt or SJTAC, a saber grind can make the difference between an all-arounder that can chop a bit and one that you really wouldn't want to use for chopping. Given the choice, I'd probably prefer my smooth bolt SJTAC to have a full flat grind, since it's already a pretty heavy knife, but the saber grind does make it a pretty respectable chopper for the length.



In general, I dislike saber grinds, but there are some knives that I own and like despite their saber grinds. On the flip side, I got rid of my Desert Dogfather very quickly, because I didn't like the saber grind on that one at all.