Abuse Testing round 3 (or, I finaly got off my butt and did the battoning test.)

[mr.trooper]

I dont want to beat a dead horse, but durring the original test someone requested i do a battoning test with the Gerber/Winny skinner. Well, I finaly got off my duff and did it. Results were as follows:

I began by selecting a prime subject: a section of hickory branch aprox. 2 1/2" thick and about 18" in length.

With the help of a stout baton, splitting the log was a smooth endevor

Here we see the results

moving on to the next target, I selected a section of sappy semi-green Christmas tree trunk. This is where things got a little sticky. The MANY stubs from the trees lower branches naturaly left lots of little knots in the wood for me to work through. As a result, the going was substantialy more difficult, even though the wood itself was much softer.

Eventualy we prevailed over the stuburn stump, and got it to split along a nice neat line.

After all that I wanted to inspect the blade to see if any damage had occured. As you can see, the knife was completely unharmed.

 

[mr.trooper]

Next, i hammered the blade into an old telephone poll using the batton. This was mostly just for fun.

After a titanic struggle, the grizzled old poll finaly relinquished its grip on the blade. As you can see, it is still unharmed.

With all the testing over, I wanted to see if the knife still retained a sharp enough edge to do detailed work. This is a picture of some dandelion stem fillet'. It cut cleanly without tearing the delicate skin of the plant.

Ok, Im done. You wont hear any more about this knife from me.

On a side note, I used the logs to cook some pork chops for lunch. They were delicious.

 

[Don M]

I would not consider batoning with a fixed blade abusive by any means, as long as proper technique is used (especially with a stick tang instead of a full tang). The knots may roll an edge if you hit them hard enough, but other than that it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[JD Mandrell]

I love it, I just get a kick out of seeing one of these "economy" knives actually hold up like this.

 

[Triton]

Not to hijack the thread but I thought you all would like to see this spiffy new knife I got that allows me to cut through a log crosswise rather then with the grain. It's made of D-2 tool steel and completely serrated. A great little knife... kind of hard to fit in a pocket though...

 

[AngryFish]

I dont want to beat a dead horse, but durring the original test someone requested i do a battoning test with the Gerber/Winny skinner. Well, I finaly got off my duff and did it. Results were as follows:

I began by selecting a prime subject: a section of hickory branch aprox. 2 1/2" thick and about 18" in length.

Well no wonder the blade went through the wood so easily. Look at the lower right side of the picture. There is a bottle of astroglide on the ground.

 

[mr.trooper]

I would not consider batoning with a fixed blade abusive by any means, as long as proper technique is used (especially with a stick tang instead of a full tang). The knots may roll an edge if you hit them hard enough, but other than that it shouldn't be a problem.

It is considered abuse for these "PIECE OF CRAP", "No-good 420 junk", "break if you look at them wrong" Wally world knives.

Not to hijack the thread but I thought you all would like to see this spiffy new knife I got that allows me to cut through a log crosswise rather then with the grain. It's made of D-2 tool steel and completely serrated. A great little knife... kind of hard to fit in a pocket though...

Show off. But when you build your next saw horse, mount the braces a little lower so you dont have to chew the hell out of them to get the correct angle for the blade.

I dont want to beat a dead horse, but durring the original test someone requested i do a battoning test with the Gerber/Winny skinner. Well, I finaly got off my duff and did it. Results were as follows:

I began by selecting a prime subject: a section of hickory branch aprox. 2 1/2" thick and about 18" in length.

Well no wonder the blade went through the wood so easily. Look at the lower right side of the picture. There is a bottle of astroglide on the ground.

hahaha!

Actualy, its a bottle of Target brand hand sanatizer. It says XTREEEEEEEMLY flammable, so i was investigating its use as a fire starter. It sucks; doesnt light on its own and doesnt even promote burning in other substances. I think they just SAID it was flammable to shield themselvs from any potential lawsuits.

 

[BadKarma05]

hahaha!

Actualy, its a bottle of Target brand hand sanatizer. It says XTREEEEEEEMLY flammable, so i was investigating its use as a fire starter. It sucks; doesnt light on its own and doesnt even promote burning in other substances. I think they just SAID it was flammable to shield themselvs from any potential lawsuits.

-Mr.Trooper


HE LIES! we know is astroglide! LOL

 

[thombrogan]

Nice! That knife has hollow-ground mystery stainless and it's easily doing stuff some folks said a Carbon V Cold Steel flat-ground blade shouldn't be forced to do.

 

[MikeH]

After the telephone pole, I wouldn't use that blade for food preparation.
Ever.

 

[Angelus1781]

Nice! That knife has hollow-ground mystery stainless and it's easily doing stuff some folks said a Carbon V Cold Steel flat-ground blade shouldn't be forced to do.

I agree, seems like a helluva deal for $15 bucks. Beat the crap out of it till it breaks, then toss it.

 

[mr.trooper]

I believe the steel is 420HC, and yea, it is hollow ground.

They are indeed a great deal. I recomend them to all my non-knife nut friends who want a cheap, serviceable fixed blade.

 

[Vivi]

It's a step up from this, but I've done similar things with my small Colt fixed blade and larger Ontario Spec Plus. Neither are even close to what people here would consider high-end. Sometimes I wonder about people here though. See stuff like "My Sebenza cut through some cardboard and it was still sharp!"

I'll take a SAK or other < 20$ knife and carve through wood all day, slice meats and fruits, cut boxes and tape all day at work and so forth and they'll still be shaving sharp at the end of the day.

 

[Gringogunsmith]

I could drive a '71 pinto to Miami.. if I had to.
I prefer my Lexus...

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Since it didn't effect it, it can't be considered abusive. Generally it is called abusive when the user either lets the blade go off horizontal and continues to hit it and/or presses down on the handle with the off hand to increase the force transmitted from the blade to the wood, Joe Talmadge posted up a link recently which outlined this arguement in detail. Were you doing either during the batoning?

-Cliff

 

[ahgar]

thanks for your efforts. dang it now i'm going to end up picking up one. like i really need another knife. everytime i go to wally world i check to see if they are on sale, now i guess i'll just have to buck up and pay the 15. thanks again, ahgar

 

[Joe Talmadge]

It's a step up from this, but I've done similar things with my small Colt fixed blade and larger Ontario Spec Plus. Neither are even close to what people here would consider high-end. Sometimes I wonder about people here though. See stuff like "My Sebenza cut through some cardboard and it was still sharp!"

I'll take a SAK or other < 20$ knife and carve through wood all day, slice meats and fruits, cut boxes and tape all day at work and so forth and they'll still be shaving sharp at the end of the day.

The way to avoid this is mpt test a single knife by itself ... I always felt that testing a single knife perhaps got me better at doing tests, but didn't tell me much about how that knife performed. How do I know if the tests were difficult or not? How do I know if a $10 Mora wouldn't do just as well as the $300 custom I just tested? Testing your knives against another reasonable (preferably inexpensive) benchmark tells you what you really have.

I may test an inexpensive knife by itself, as trooper did here, because I think we all agree that it was enlightening to see how easily an inexpensive knife breezes through these tests. But an expensive knife? Definitely test with an inexpensive benchmark, so you can tell whether the higher-end knife is really delivering anything.

Joe

 

[Halfneck]

Good suggestion by Joe in having a better quality benchmark to test against.

Still, it is pretty damn interesting to see what a $15 beater knife can accomplish.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Testing your knives against another reasonable (preferably inexpensive) benchmark tells you what you really have.

Without references it is mainly meaningless except in the widest sense unless you take great care to do something really stock and repeatable. It also helps the more details you take note of when doing the work, I constantly find myself wondering about exact specifics when reading over older work.

Still, it is pretty damn interesting to see what a $15 beater knife can accomplish.

In general even really low alloy steels are extremely strong and hard compared to materials which knives typically cut. Too much work has been done claiming superior performance based on tasks that any knife can do readily and thus the perception of quality performance is skewed.

Benchmarks over a range of prices for direct comparisons would allow maximum information to be gathered from any work done. At a bare minimum you would want at least three which would be below average, average, above average. Just assemble them from your collection as time passes.

-Cliff

 

[mr.trooper]

Since it didn't effect it, it can't be considered abusive. Generally it is called abusive when the user either lets the blade go off horizontal and continues to hit it and/or presses down on the handle with the off hand to increase the force transmitted from the blade to the wood, Joe Talmadge posted up a link recently which outlined this arguement in detail. Were you doing either during the batoning?

-Cliff

Good gracious people, LET GO OF THE SEMANTICS

The point of the thread is to show that you dont need a $500 knife to do basic camp chores. Besides, this knife isnt a Pinto. Id say its more of a Festiva.

*EDIT*

The way to avoid this is mpt test a single knife by itself ... I always felt that testing a single knife perhaps got me better at doing tests, but didn't tell me much about how that knife performed. How do I know if the tests were difficult or not? How do I know if a $10 Mora wouldn't do just as well as the $300 custom I just tested? Testing your knives against another reasonable (preferably inexpensive) benchmark tells you what you really have.

I may test an inexpensive knife by itself, as trooper did here, because I think we all agree that it was enlightening to see how easily an inexpensive knife breezes through these tests. But an expensive knife? Definitely test with an inexpensive benchmark, so you can tell whether the higher-end knife is really delivering anything.

Joe

Iv done similar tests with an 8" Ka-Bar and a CS Kobun. The Winny preforms at least as well as the Kobun which costs twice as much, and it has a more durrable handle. The Ka-Bar preforms significanly better; probably due to its greater mass, and leverage afforded by the longer blade.

Thanks for the support guys! Ill put a few better knives through the testing when I get some.