Carbide tips

eyeeatingfish

eyeeatingfish

Joined
Dec 9, 2003
Messages
4,817
I am deeing carbide tips on the butts of knives fairly often, and i like the utility of it. Unfortunately i dont always like the "rescue" knives they are attached to.
I was thinking, why not just buy carbide bits and epoxy them to the ends of all my knives? Cheap and easy modification!

Just gotta figure out where to get carbide.

Besides wont an exposted butt of a knife break glass pretty readily anyway? You can push a screwdriver without much effort through a car window and it will shatter.
 
A hardened steel sharp point is all you need .Carbide doesn't improve things .I carry an automatic center punch in my truck for that purpose.
 
eyeeatingfish said:
I am deeing carbide tips on the butts of knives fairly often, and i like the utility of it. Unfortunately i dont always like the "rescue" knives they are attached to.
I was thinking, why not just buy carbide bits and epoxy them to the ends of all my knives? Cheap and easy modification!

Just gotta figure out where to get carbide.

Besides wont an exposted butt of a knife break glass pretty readily anyway? You can push a screwdriver without much effort through a car window and it will shatter.
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The weak point in your design would be the epoxy joint. Epoxy adhesives don't take impacts well. I agree with your last statement. I don't think you need carbide. A properly shaped knife butt should work just fine.
 
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i agree with knarfing i dont think epoxy would work.

and as stated the butt of the knife would probably be fine for that, a lot of mine are pointy on the bottom anyway ie emerson CQC8.
 
I wonder how the carbide tips are mounted on other rescue type knives?
Epoxy was just the first idea that came to mind, im sure i could find other methods or glues.
 
eyeeatingfish said:
I wonder how the carbide tips are mounted on other rescue type knives?
Epoxy was just the first idea that came to mind, im sure i could find other methods or glues.
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I have designed special carbide insert cutting tools for machining and the carbide inserts are usually brazed or silver soldered into the steel tool insert holders.
 
That would be easy enough to do. Now to figure out where I can get some carbide. Anyone have carbide for sale?
 
So i can add window smasher tips on the knives I like instead of buying "rescue knives" that i dont like.
 
On my MOD CQD MARK II, the have a hole drilled out at he bottom of the knife. Then, it looks like they inserted the round carbide tip and is held in place by a hex screw on the side.

I know with microtechs, they have a round ball type deal. They both work fine. I would say jsut keep a Bm ERT-1 in your car for windows. Thats what I do.
 
Jared Stenoien said:
What I was asking is, why do you want carbide instead of just hardened steel?
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Ive heard some people say that they couldnt smash through glass with the knife because it wasnt hard enough.
These carbide glass breaking points seem to be a real seling point on quite a few knives, I was just looking for a cheap easy way to get around it.
 
Carbide tipped drill bits for masonry & glass can be found for just a couple bucks in most hardware stores. Maybe cut one off & stick it in a hole in the pommel. I sharpen my carbide scribe on a cheap bench grinder, so I suppose it wouldn't be impossible to slightly reshape the tip to your liking.

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When I was working in a machine shop, we had Carbide inserts that were placed in to the tooling heads on the cnc machines, if I remember correctly most were held on with screws. While I am sure they were not cheep, I am also sure that they got damaged or worn. So if you know and machinists or shops in your area they may be worth checking in to. Also I will cast another vote for the automatic center punch, fast easy and you don't need to swing it, risking putting your wrist through the hole and injuring your self. The auto punch only costs like 5$ at lowes. Joe
 
eyeeatingfish said:
Ive heard some people say that they couldnt smash through glass with the knife because it wasnt hard enough.
These carbide glass breaking points seem to be a real seling point on quite a few knives, I was just looking for a cheap easy way to get around it.
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Eyeeatingfish,

Like someone else alluded to, it isn;t the carbide that's breaking the window, nor is it that the steel isn;t hard enough. It's the SHAPE of the point that breaks it. As long as you have a sufficiently thick blade of reasonably acceptable steel, just re-shape the butt. Now, if you have thin steel, say 1/16" of an inch, for example (i'm just guessing here), you may need carbide because, after breaking a few windows, the steel will begin to mushroom or otherwise deform. Of course, it would do this anyway under the carbide. Also, you may not have enough heft in a small piece of steel. But really, all it takes is the right shape and a quick, snapping, stab.
 
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