Bowie test, 1 of 6 knives

[David Loukides]

Well here is the stats on the first flat grind TEST Bowie I made. 3/16" thick,
0-1/rc58 heattreated in a gas forge, 2 tempers in a oven.
Cuts a 2by4 ok
Cuts stacked soda can with water in it, bottom left standing:thumbup:
Broke 1/2" of point in the end grain of a log trying to stab a ping pong ball
[the point got to hot during hardening and the grain grew to large]
Shaved hair after the tests with no sharpening
With out the bend test [I am saving that for later] What tests do you recommend. I normally make shorter knives using a heattreat oven.
THANKs For Your Input:thumbup:

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

I'm not saying this is any kind of a standard test, but I recently...

D2 test blade at around RC62. This was a relatively thin edge, under .015 before sharpening.

Using a hammer and a piece of aluminum as a cutting board, I cut through 16 ga copper wire, then size 2D nails, then 4D nails. The edge was smashed (not cracked) by the 4D nails. The other materials left no sign of abuse. The technique was to use several sharp blows with the hammer, not gentle tapping, but not a huge knock to get through in one hit either. This test told me the blade was not too soft and not to brittle. The hammer left no marks on the blade, but the blade did leave pronounced marks on the hammer face.

I then sliced dirt with a production knife, a piece of sharpened RC65 M2, and the test blade. This test told me something about the relative abrasion resistance. Obviously, that is a function of my steel choice as much as anything.

I then put the tip in a vice and bent it until it broke. Probably around 60 deg. I felt it yield before it broke.

The purpose of this test was to convince myself that a new heat treat I was experimenting with would not leave the steel fragile. I'm performing the ultimate test now, which is carrying an identical blade and subjecting it to my normal use for several months. Today it sliced and dug out drywall, pried bits of dry putty out of cracks, and in the shop it deburred over 12' of aluminum sheet. It won't shave, but it is still pretty sharp. And the tip hasn't bent or broke and I was using it as a screw driver the other day.

 

[Allan Molstad]

m very interested in what advice you are given about future tests.

I think that there is no point to doing a test unless you can do the very same test in the same way , again and again, and be able to record and compare results.

Any test must have some way to record tha amount of forced used so that the very same force can be used in the future by people all over the world so that they can test and see their own results.
The problem I always had when I tried to think up good tests for my knife blade is that too many of my test ideas were not so much testing the knife itself, but rather were testing my skills useing the knife.

Cutting a 1" hanging rope is a skill, yes you have to have a sharp edge, but you have to do it a lot of times before you understand how to cut stuff like that.

Im also not sure that many of my cutting ideas were testing the knife edge, or where they just testing my ability to sharpen an edge?