Carothers Performance Knives, Use & Abuse

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Ok. This is my work knife. It has been my daily carry since 2018. I beat the hell out of it. It cuts wire regularly (up to 10awg stranded). It is used to pry, scrape, burrow through walls, strip large wire, and all kinds of other stupid stuff I probably shouldn’t use it for. This is the one CPK I own that I will hand to any fool who needs a knife for a minute.
It has been “field sharpened” on rocks or anything else at hand. I do carry a couple small sharpening implements in my truck but I suck at hand sharpening. I can put a good working edge on a knife but it won’t be a pretty edge (think multiple mini edge bevels).
I am slightly afraid Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist will see this and refuse to sell me knives going forward.
Here it is Monday evening after some weekend projects.
IMG_3017.jpegIMG_3018.jpegIMG_3019.jpegIMG_3020.jpeg
Don’t mind the dog hair. It’s there on account of me having a dog. Make sure to zoom in and look at that snaggle toothed edge. It was very dull. Couldn’t cut paper.

Later Monday evening:

IMG_3024.jpegIMG_3023.jpegIMG_3022.jpegIMG_3021.jpeg
This is it cleaned up and edge touched up.
It now cuts paper easily. You will notice all the wee chips are still present in the edge.
That’s because I don’t need this blade to be perfect. I need it to cut stuff a knife isn’t the best tool for. I’m going to abuse it again all week. Being able to cleanly cut paper is well beyond the sharpness I actually need for the things I’m going to put it through.

To whomever needs to hear this.
I treat my other CPK’s better than this and should be allowed to continue to buy CPK’s directly from the maker.
 
bluemax_1 said:
Don't know who the person referenced is, or what kind of testing he does
Click to expand...

He does destructive testing of knives, admitted abuse of the blades far beyond what would be considered within any 'normal use', of course. While it is not scientific by any stretch, due to the sheer amount of knives that have gone through the same regimen, some themes start to develop. While it doesn't necessarily tell us mathematical data on a given knife, it does point to how a particular knife may do compared to many others going through the same/similar destructive process, generally speaking. If you can approach the tests with a 'how far can it go' mentality, it starts to make more sense. I do think that there are blade designs and geometries that work better for the abuse at the expense of working better for normal tasks, yet it is interesting to see how far a particular piece will run the gauntlet of destruction without giving up. The Mora Pro Robust was a big surprise, as well as several others. The regimen is roughly in this following order:

1. Water bottle cut (establishing sharpness baseline)
2. Chopping - how many minutes to go through a tree, relative to the size of the blade
3. Batoning - how easily, and how big a piece can it go through
4. 2nd water bottle cut test
5. tip/stab test through sheet metal (car skin)
6. slash test against sheet metal (car skin)
7. tip bend test at tree stump (starting light and going progressively heavier)
8. blade bend test at tree stump
9. the brick - 5ish minutes at a granite block on edge
10. the brick - 5ish minutes at a granite block on spine
11. thick metal pole - 10 minutes total time, alternating btw edge and spine

None of these is necessarily too meaningful in a sample size of one. But after a few hundred, you can start to make out the bell curve of each test for a large collection of knives. If the knife makes it past all of these steps relatively intact, it is considered a successful test. He'll then do some entertainment stuff w/ the blade (pull ups, shooting it, etc)

I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea. I have found it instructive, and far more enlightening regarding blades that have actually survived. I expect the Carothers to do well, and I'm excited to see it. My hope is that it will introduce more people to these knives.
 
Red Leader said:
He does destructive testing of knives, admitted abuse of the blades far beyond what would be considered within any 'normal use', of course. While it is not scientific by any stretch, due to the sheer amount of knives that have gone through the same regimen, some themes start to develop. While it doesn't necessarily tell us mathematical data on a given knife, it does point to how a particular knife may do compared to many others going through the same/similar destructive process, generally speaking. If you can approach the tests with a 'how far can it go' mentality, it starts to make more sense. I do think that there are blade designs and geometries that work better for the abuse at the expense of working better for normal tasks, yet it is interesting to see how far a particular piece will run the gauntlet of destruction without giving up. The Mora Pro Robust was a big surprise, as well as several others. The regimen is roughly in this following order:

1. Water bottle cut (establishing sharpness baseline)
2. Chopping - how many minutes to go through a tree, relative to the size of the blade
3. Batoning - how easily, and how big a piece can it go through
4. 2nd water bottle cut test
5. tip/stab test through sheet metal (car skin)
6. slash test against sheet metal (car skin)
7. tip bend test at tree stump (starting light and going progressively heavier)
8. blade bend test at tree stump
9. the brick - 5ish minutes at a granite block on edge
10. the brick - 5ish minutes at a granite block on spine
11. thick metal pole - 10 minutes total time, alternating btw edge and spine

None of these is necessarily too meaningful in a sample size of one. But after a few hundred, you can start to make out the bell curve of each test for a large collection of knives. If the knife makes it past all of these steps relatively intact, it is considered a successful test. He'll then do some entertainment stuff w/ the blade (pull ups, shooting it, etc)

I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea. I have found it instructive, and far more enlightening regarding blades that have actually survived. I expect the Carothers to do well, and I'm excited to see it. My hope is that it will introduce more people to these knives.
Click to expand...

I like it
 
Cap’n Smudge said:
Ok. This is my work knife. It has been my daily carry since 2018. I beat the hell out of it. It cuts wire regularly (up to 10awg stranded). It is used to pry, scrape, burrow through walls, strip large wire, and all kinds of other stupid stuff I probably shouldn’t use it for. This is the one CPK I own that I will hand to any fool who needs a knife for a minute.
It has been “field sharpened” on rocks or anything else at hand. I do carry a couple small sharpening implements in my truck but I suck at hand sharpening. I can put a good working edge on a knife but it won’t be a pretty edge (think multiple mini edge bevels).
I am slightly afraid Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist will see this and refuse to sell me knives going forward.
Here it is Monday evening after some weekend projects.
View attachment 2653167View attachment 2653168View attachment 2653169View attachment 2653170
Don’t mind the dog hair. It’s there on account of me having a dog. Make sure to zoom in and look at that snaggle toothed edge. It was very dull. Couldn’t cut paper.

Later Monday evening:

View attachment 2653171View attachment 2653172View attachment 2653173View attachment 2653174
This is it cleaned up and edge touched up.
It now cuts paper easily. You will notice all the wee chips are still present in the edge.
That’s because I don’t need this blade to be perfect. I need it to cut stuff a knife isn’t the best tool for. I’m going to abuse it again all week. Being able to cleanly cut paper is well beyond the sharpness I actually need for the things I’m going to put it through.

To whomever needs to hear this.
I treat my other CPK’s better than this and should be allowed to continue to buy CPK’s directly from the maker.
Click to expand...

You are, 100%, the intended user type I make knives for and this is the perfect use case for Delta 3V. This is what it's all about.
 
More panel silliness today. Here is what I was talking about, regarding the shoving, twisting, prying, metal-on-metal, etc.







While what I’m asking it to do is nothing special really, there have been tests with other knives that have broken under far less strain than you’d have thought they could endure. It would have been impossible for me to get these off without the knife, at least in a safe manner. It’s pretty windy today. The foam tape acts like a glue. At least I’ve got the ladder roped off so it won’t slip under me again.

Everyone stay safe out there today!
 
Red Leader said:
More panel silliness today. Here is what I was talking about, regarding the shoving, twisting, prying, metal-on-metal, etc.







While what I’m asking it to do is nothing special really, there have been tests with other knives that have broken under far less strain than you’d have thought they could endure. It would have been impossible for me to get these off without the knife, at least in a safe manner. It’s pretty windy today. The foam tape acts like a glue. At least I’ve got the ladder roped off so it won’t slip under me again.

Everyone stay safe out there today!
Click to expand...
Copy, Red Leader Red Leader

(someone had to do it)
 
I would have loved to have known about and/or owned a CPK when I worked in cable. I had a Cold Steel Recon folder that I used for EVERYTHING. Stripping coax, trimming dielectric, digging trenches, cutting tree roots, prying open power supplies, beating open frozen locks, and so much more. Thinking back on it, I'm surprised that folder held up as well as it did...
 
Cap’n Smudge said:
Ok. This is my work knife. It has been my daily carry since 2018. I beat the hell out of it. It cuts wire regularly (up to 10awg stranded). It is used to pry, scrape, burrow through walls, strip large wire, and all kinds of other stupid stuff I probably shouldn’t use it for. This is the one CPK I own that I will hand to any fool who needs a knife for a minute.
It has been “field sharpened” on rocks or anything else at hand. I do carry a couple small sharpening implements in my truck but I suck at hand sharpening. I can put a good working edge on a knife but it won’t be a pretty edge (think multiple mini edge bevels).
I am slightly afraid Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist will see this and refuse to sell me knives going forward.
Here it is Monday evening after some weekend projects.
View attachment 2653167View attachment 2653168View attachment 2653169View attachment 2653170
Don’t mind the dog hair. It’s there on account of me having a dog. Make sure to zoom in and look at that snaggle toothed edge. It was very dull. Couldn’t cut paper.

Later Monday evening:

View attachment 2653171View attachment 2653172View attachment 2653173View attachment 2653174
This is it cleaned up and edge touched up.
It now cuts paper easily. You will notice all the wee chips are still present in the edge.
That’s because I don’t need this blade to be perfect. I need it to cut stuff a knife isn’t the best tool for. I’m going to abuse it again all week. Being able to cleanly cut paper is well beyond the sharpness I actually need for the things I’m going to put it through.

To whomever needs to hear this.
I treat my other CPK’s better than this and should be allowed to continue to buy CPK’s directly from the maker.
Click to expand...
I've always quietly loved your particular EDC2. I hope when I get an EDC it ends up looking like yours.
 
Cap’n Smudge said:
Ok. This is my work knife. It has been my daily carry since 2018. I beat the hell out of it. It cuts wire regularly (up to 10awg stranded). It is used to pry, scrape, burrow through walls, strip large wire, and all kinds of other stupid stuff I probably shouldn’t use it for. This is the one CPK I own that I will hand to any fool who needs a knife for a minute.
It has been “field sharpened” on rocks or anything else at hand. I do carry a couple small sharpening implements in my truck but I suck at hand sharpening. I can put a good working edge on a knife but it won’t be a pretty edge (think multiple mini edge bevels).
I am slightly afraid Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist will see this and refuse to sell me knives going forward.
Here it is Monday evening after some weekend projects.
View attachment 2653167View attachment 2653168View attachment 2653169View attachment 2653170
Don’t mind the dog hair. It’s there on account of me having a dog. Make sure to zoom in and look at that snaggle toothed edge. It was very dull. Couldn’t cut paper.

Later Monday evening:

View attachment 2653171View attachment 2653172View attachment 2653173View attachment 2653174
This is it cleaned up and edge touched up.
It now cuts paper easily. You will notice all the wee chips are still present in the edge.
That’s because I don’t need this blade to be perfect. I need it to cut stuff a knife isn’t the best tool for. I’m going to abuse it again all week. Being able to cleanly cut paper is well beyond the sharpness I actually need for the things I’m going to put it through.

To whomever needs to hear this.
I treat my other CPK’s better than this and should be allowed to continue to buy CPK’s directly from the maker.
Click to expand...
AWESOME!
 
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