Any Imput Concerning The Blade Show's Cutting Competition Would Be Appreciated...

Drdan

Drdan

Joined
Dec 24, 2003
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Who won? Was the contest popular with the attendees as is usually the norm? Did our own Dan Koster fare well?

The American Bladesmith Association's cutting contest is an interesting trial for a well made knife. Here's a link to its rules:
http://www.americanbladesmith.com/CuttingCompetition.htm


I'm intrigued as to the philosophy behind the most winning blades. What seems to be the most winning shape, balance, and blade geometry within the parameters of a maximum blade length of 10", width of 2.0", and 15" overall?

Here's an excellent BladeForums link to an actual competition with photos also showing the various contenders:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=314543

The enclosed photo (#1) shows a curvy blade made by bladesmith Dan Farr, which was a winning entry in an ABS competition. Photo # 2 shows a lineup of the competitors at an ABS approved event. Reggie Barker is the current world champ...

It would be rewarding to have a serious cutter made by a bladesmith. You can't deny that it's a very interesting event, and an outstanding test of a well made blade...
 
Dan didn't compete at Blade.

I want to say Reggie won. Bamboo? RR?

(I actually did watch the comp, but I hadn't known any of the competitors beforehand.)

Most of the knives were a large bowie shape, with one with a more weight-forward design.

John
 
Some years ago, before his move South, I believe Dan made a bigmutha cutter and competed with it. The pictures are long gone, but he may have them stashed somewhere.

I think he is going for elegance these days. He seems to have arrived.
 
Well said Kis...Dan's routine knives simply go *snic* as they pass through hemp rope. We were all taking little 6" pieces off the rope one after another at last years MWKK...and then Dan showed us how to make the same edges.

Too bad Master slice-a-cheese didn't compete...I guess when you are *that* good, you simply say so.

.
 
Dan's cutter is called Lil' Moby, and the design is silimiar to other knives which have won in the past. Here's a photo of Lil' Moby below. Dan is definitely interested in sharp knives, and I hope he keeps competing. I've just arranged to have a Bark River Golok sent to him to tweak, and it is very similiar as far as the basic geometry...

I'm very happy Reggie Barker won again! :eek: He's certainly competing with an elite group of bladesmiths. I know that technique has a lot to do with it, but the knife has to be pretty well studied and made well too.

I'm going to have to have a cutting knife made. It's impressive to have a knife that will make things go "snic"...! :D
 
This design could not have effectively competed. Some of the trials- or prequalifiers- tested, among other things, effective tips. I believe stabbing ping pong balls was the test for a decent tip this year.
 
The cutting competition was very entertaining, and educational too. I watched it with Mark Nelson. The fastest time on the 2x4 test was 5.2 seconds! That was with 13 hits. The best I did with Lil' Moby was 23 hits (untimed). I know I could do better now because my technique has improved (at least 5-6 of my hits were not as "effective" as they should have been....:o). That said, it all comes down to how you deal with the pressure during the event. You have to have a good knife, have good technique, and on top of that, a cool head.

What made/broke this competition was the rope cut. At the very beginning, each contestant has to state how many ropes they'll cut. They get 5 points for each rope, but only if they "get them all". If it cuts through 2 and leaves the last one - zero points.

Most of the guys picked 3, one guy picked 2. I would have picked 2. I know I can do 2 (one-inch sisal ropes bound together, btw). I have done 3, but not "every time" - more like 1-outta-5. I can do two 70-80% of the time. And one, 100% of the time (with my test knife). Anyway, all but one of the "3 rope" guys missed it. So the one guy that "got his right" took all the points. They would have been better had they just chosen "1". But pride and anxiety set in. ;)

One neat event was the mouse-catch. They tied a short dowel to the end of a measuring tape. They released the lock on the tape and the cutter had to chop the dowel in half "in motion". Lots of fun. More about technique/hand-eye coordination, than actual "knife toughness".

Then there was the apple on top of a soda can, and the "how many water bottles can you cut" events. Both were dramatic.


I really enjoyed it. I got to inspect the 2nd place knife and it had the exact shape/profile/grind I expected to see (based on watching it perform). :cool: Good news for me. :D

I'll be competing at the October Hammer-In this year. In order to make it to the "finals" at the Blade Show, you have to compete at several of these competitions and earn "points" - you also have to have won first place in at least one of them.

So, what you're seeing is the very best of the best from all across the country. At least, based on the guidelines the ABS has laid out. It's an "invitational". Make sense?


Spectre - I knew what was being tested at the competition I attended - hence the "blunt" tip. When I go in October, I will have a test-knife with a tip....just in case. ;)

I'm playing around with designs right now, but it will likely be a trailing point with a slight recurve, and a full convex grind, of course. :D I'll have the advantage in the 2x4 and rope cut, over plain-ole bowies. Lots of testing to do ahead of time.....


I should mention......the apple on the soda can test.....one guy missed it completely....and my heart nearly lept outta my chest! I did the exact same thing once......very embarassing! nerves can get ya soooooo easy.....you get up there ready to go and you feel you need to show off, or impress.....gotta keep a cool head and stay focused on the knife.

I watched one competition where not a single competitor made the cut on one event. Simply put, they did not understand how cutting works. Their knives were sharp, they were strong dudes, but failed to finesse.

Since they change this stuff up so much.....there's really no way to prepare for everything. Just make a knife that will do the 2x4 and rope cut and pray hard you don't have to go first on one of the other events. :eek:
 
Hmmmm... Sounds a lot more difficult than I had imagined. I was under the impression that there were many different events, but that the contender knew exactly what they were, and therefore had time to design his knife accordingly.

The "mouse catch", stabbing a smiley faced ping pong ball, and having to call how many objects you would cut through would really put one under a lot of pressure to say the least. :eek: Missing the apple on top of the soda can would be an embarassment, but if you're nervous, could happen time and time again.

Thanks for the info, Dan. The cutting competitions sound like a lot of fun, and I appreciate even more what the winners must overcome in order to walk away with the title. :)

P.S. Cutting a 2X4 in 5.2 seconds with 13 chops is impressive...
 
It was Dan Winkler who had the more weight-forward design (thanks for the link to that thread, btw):

p60431812lf.jpg
 
I bet you enjoyed the competition, Spectre; I sure would have liked to have been there myself. Thanks for the input... :cool:
 
Daniel Koster said:
I watched one competition where not a single competitor made the cut on one event. Simply put, they did not understand how cutting works. Their knives were sharp, they were strong dudes, but failed to finesse.
Click to expand...




It was great to get to watch this with Dan. He has a great deal of insight on how the cuts should be done. I think that there is a great deal of truth in his above statment. I do not mean this in any way to take away from what the guys in these events do. They are first and formost knifemakers and great knifemakers at that. They understand the hows and why of making a great cutting knife but lack some basic understanding of making the cut itself. Almost to the man these are big strong guys and that is exactly what they use to make the majority of there cuts. Most of their cuts get power just from the arm and shoulder. Very little hip movement and almost no wrist snap and the thing that hurts them the most, little if any follow through. I think that beyond making a great knife Dan understanding of "the cut" will help him greatly. It was tough to watch the guy miss the apple cut, they let him go again mainly it seemed because the crowd called for him to have a second go. The judges had not considered what to do if someone missed all together. On a side note Jerry Hossom on another forum talked about a group trying a organize a non ABS cutting competition. It would be open to anyone with any knife that meet the standereds that they will set (for the knife, length, width, etc). It will have two groups one open to anyone cutting with any knife and one where a maker will cut with their own knife. This will be interesting if it gets up and running because it will give us stock removal guys a chance to play. I will check with him and see if he has and more details on this. Thanks guys.
 
I had to catch an early flight back from Blade and miss the cutting competiton, which was a major drag. :grumpy: On the up-side, I was able to purchase from Dan Farr his latest version of his cmpetition cutter (which was his back-up blade for the actual contest) so at least I have a nice little souvenir. ;)

I had seen all the finalists (except Adam DesRosier) compete at Spirit of Steel last September - it is some kind of fun to watch them have at it.

Roger
 
RogerP said:
I was able to purchase from Dan Farr his latest version of his cmpetition cutter (which was his back-up blade for the actual contest) so at least I have a nice little souvenir. ;)
Click to expand...

I'd love to see some photos and/or a description of the knife and it's feel in the hand. Congratulations on a great purchase, Roger! :cool:
 
Hey Drdan,

I have only taken a few quick snapshots of the knife and I'm not real happy with the results so far. I'll be doing a write-up on the knife (hopefully with some input from Dan on its design features) with some better pics.

But here is a sneak peek of a not-quite-ready-for-prime-time pic of the knife:

orig.jpg


Dan is well known for his extremely comfortable handles, and this one is no exception. Terrific feel in the hand. Heck, once I picked it up from his table I didn't put it down again for about an hour. ;)

Roger
 
Beautiful knife, Roger; nice fit and finish for a competition blade, too...! I bet she's sharp too. :eek:
 
The knife I picked up was made by Shawn Mcintyre out of Australia. He had just gotten his Journeyman status at the show.

He had been planning on entering the competition, but didn't realize you had to qualify for it. Anyway, we were chatting a bit about it all, me looking over his knives, and he said, "you might like this one..." He reaches under the table and pulled out the blade he was going to use in the competition.

I picked it up and all I could do was smile. :D I asked him to put it back under the table and give me a half hour to think about it. Didn't really need that much time of course... Its on my table now, waiting for zombies. :D

After seeing the competition, and how these particular blades are designed to do so much so well, I knew I had found what I was looking for.

I too talked with DesRosiers and Dan Farr, as well as with Daniel Winkler about all of their knives. DesRosiers was awesome. They were all very serious knives, but his had something special about it for me. Same with the one I ended up buying.

I'll post some pictures in about a week.

~ Bamboo ~

edit ~ Dan Farr's handles were exceptional. Even DesRosiers gave him credit and said he is copying a lot of what Farr is doing. They were parked next to each other at the show and pretty clearly having a good time...

edit II ~ a couple of links:

Adam DesRosiers

Dan Farr

Reggie Barker

Ok, I'm done now.
 
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