Carothers Performance Knives, Use & Abuse

Status
Not open for further replies.
mes sincères excuses, mais je suis curieux de savoir l’opinion des autres sur le résultat des tests de Joe
 
Blues said:
You may express your opinions regarding the knives and / or the tests, but what you can't do is be rude and insulting to the membership.

You've received the only warning you will get.
Click to expand...
je suis désolé si j’ai offensé qui ce soit. Je ne froisserais plus jamais les émotions de qui que ce soi …promis ❤️
 
The performance was incredible. So it looks like he introduced a few modes of failure prior to the pole. I'm curious if the lettering on the blade + earlier induced stress caused the blade to break at that specific point. I'm not a ME or materials guy, but it was an interesting spot to break. The lettering has been moved to the spine in newer blades.
 
The biggest problem with these are the blissful ignorance many viewers have and the completely unrealistic expectations those who have minimal knowledge of what they are even viewing and then dive face first into the cesspool that is today's cancel culture for "likes" . And completely miss/ignore the actual meaningful pieces of the carnival games they are watching.

Did someone say something about Timmy was roasting hotdogs or some such weiner related talk?
 
Jshaffer7390 said:
The performance was incredible. So it looks like he introduced a few modes of failure prior to the pole. I'm curious if the lettering on the blade + earlier induced stress caused the blade to break at that specific point. I'm not a ME or materials guy, but it was an interesting spot to break. The lettering has been moved to the spine in newer blades.
Click to expand...
Nathan posted his thoughts in an earlier post. #94

Edited to add post number
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I'll bet it wouldn't if he started with the pipe.

The spine was dented up and beat to shit at that point.

Mine is pretty hard and it has chamfers, which reduced the damage that mine took, but I'll bet a lot of them have pretty serious stress risers started in their spines before they get to the pipe. And that pipe is a good way to whack the blade pretty hard.

Again, overall I think it was a very good demonstration of my knife and any other knife that's going to get subjected to extended extremely rough use.
Click to expand...

None of the blades tested ever get the benefit of meeting the pole first - they get their edges torn up, and then suffer through whatever stress risers may have developed. That is what ends up killing almost every knife in these tests, the most dramatic of which was his test of the Tops Operator 7, which developed a crack all the way from the edge to the fuller before it broke (at the brick).

I'm happy w/ the BFK, its a great knife. I'll keep carrying it:thumbsup:

I think most people that watch the video are going to say, "Well, I'm never going to whack my knife against a pole, and that thing's edge retention was amazing, so I'm going to want one". I have fun imagining what one of his tests would look like with a blade in S110V or Rex-121😂. It would be highly entertaining. I love Spyderco's (being in Colorado) and carried one for about 15 years. You should see what he does to Spydercos in testing (you shouldn't lol).

I think that by the time the performance envelope has been maximized to it's fullest extent with the steel and quality of knifemaking, we are just turning dials on a mixing board, a little more edge retention here, a little less toughness there. It's all about the balance and tuning to maximize the performance of the task in front of you, so I understand what you are saying. These tests won't ever see the nuances around maximizing the edge.

In his videos, the two most alarming knife test results I've observed are 1) when knives catastrophically fail really early (like when he tested the Ontario M9 and it just crumbled at the car) or the Bugout or Buck 119 which both crumbled at the stump, or 2) when the edge just falls apart, huge chips or breakouts either at the car or the brick. Most people expect a knife to break in half at some point, as a true 'survivor' is the exception not the rule, and of course his tests don't really favor edge/cutting performance, they give preference to absolute toughness performance, at the expense of edge retention. Messerfeiber sent him 3 prototype knives that will become a 'Joe X Signature' blade at some point, and the first two got pulverized lol. 1 at the brick, I think the other at the pole. The 3rd wasn't tested.

I like these tests, and I like the discussion. I think there is always something to learn from here.

I'd be really curious how one of these field knives in AEB-L would fare, comparitively. Nathan have you ever played around w/ CD1/Z-Tuff? The more I've read about that steel, the more interested I get about it.
 
While this test was interesting from an academic standpoint, I feel quite confident that if Nathan designed a knife for the purpose of surviving the Joe test that he would be very successful, and the amount of abuse a knife not designed for the test it received actually took looked fine to me.

Most of the level heads on this forum will really admit that just about everything about knife design and the materials for it is a matter of tradeoffs. Low-hardness spring steel sharpened prybars will perform better on this sort of test, but a BFK will outcut them handily. Since most of us get knives for cutting and Halligan tools for wrecking things, it makes sense to design a field knife to do field knife things first and foremost rather than prybar things.
 
madcap_magician said:
While this test was interesting from an academic standpoint, I feel quite confident that if Nathan designed a knife for the purpose of surviving the Joe test that he would be very successful, and the amount of abuse a knife not designed for the test it received actually took looked fine to me.

Most of the level heads on this forum will really admit that just about everything about knife design and the materials for it is a matter of tradeoffs. Low-hardness spring steel sharpened prybars will perform better on this sort of test, but a BFK will outcut them handily. Since most of us get knives for cutting and Halligan tools for wrecking things, it makes sense to design a field knife to do field knife things first and foremost rather than prybar things.
Click to expand...

Yep, true - objectively! Creely sent in a knife for testing, and it was a beefed up version of one of his other blades, designed specifically for this test. 1/4" 8670...there was no way it wasn't passing!

The v44X (Work Tuff Gear) had a similar, albeit more dramatic, failure. The edge really opened up, which of course led to stress risers that ended up killing it. The tip also wasn't meant for prying/bending, that snapped too. The more of these videos that I've watched, the more it has taught me about knife design, moreso that steel properties.

I do hope that he ends up with one of those fireman tools to test, or like someone mentioned, a HDFK...which would also be way more up his alley.
 
Last edited:
Red Leader said:
Yep, true - objectively! Creely sent in a knife for testing, and it was a beefed up version of one of his other blades, designed specifically for this test. 1/4" 8670...there was no way it wasn't passing!

The v44X (Work Tuff Gear) had a similar, albeit more dramatic, failure. The edge really opened up, which of course led to stress risers that ended up killing it. The edge also wasn't meant for prying, that snapped too. The more of these videos that I've watched, the more it has taught me about knife design, moreso that steel properties.

I do hope that he ends up with one of those fireman tools to test, or like someone mentioned, a HDFK...which would also be way more up his alley.
Click to expand...
Thank you for sending it in. I found the edge retention amazing.
Get yourself an SDFK!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top