chopping branches

[Cliff Stamp]

... pure v-carbide is it actually being produced?

Limited runs, Hitichi is producing it but since thier P/M abilities is really low the volume is small. It was a hard sell because they could not believe a knife was being made to do that type of work they thought it was crazy, I mean blister packs and shrubs. Busse actually had to being in a group of hard core "Operators" and do field trials. Right now Hitachi has complete control, they won't sell it unless they have preapproved control and oversee all areas of production. Last I checked Busse was looking into a US source but its hard to find someone to produce such a special product in fairly small runs.

in reality would it fuse together at all (v-carbide and steel, im guessing yes)? would it delaminate easily?

Yeah that was one of the first problems but that was easy to solve. The inner laminate actually has micro-grooves on oscillating reverse 45 degree angles and these are filled with the steel during the HIP process and this basically makes a compete self-adhesive interlock. Even if the surface bond completely fails there is no way the geometric bond can be broken. Plus the inner core is only 3/8" deep and above that it is just metal/metal which of course is fused into one solid piece. There was some concern about the "limited" lifetime since the core was only partial height but then it was pointed out that it was the same height as the edge quench on the Swamp Rat's and who the hell is going to wear back 3/8" of solid vanadium carbide anyway.

i think youre on to something here, maybe cubic boron nitride or boron carbide core would work too. or perhaps aggregated diamond nanorods

Yeah, that's next year, the diamond one is hard to sharpen though. The edge is actually created by inducing fracture along a cleavage plane. Field sharpening trials were problematic until discussions with carpenter yielded a P/M diamond which uses a silicon carbide substitutional hardening to strain strengthen the diamond. It isn't a large amount but is enough to scratch regular mono-crystals. The cool thing is that this will be infused into the blade flats as part of the coating, so not only will it be completely scratch resistant, it also serves as the sharpener. You of course have to buy two blades however the coating is offered as a free service on any existing Busse model. It is also a low temperature perma-bond and there are plans to release it as a general spray on coating. You just have to be really careful in the application. I coated my nails with it for a laugh last week which was kind of stupid because now they are basically impossible to file or cut.

-Cliff

 

[hardheart]

There was some concern about the "limited" lifetime since the core was only partial height but then it was pointed out that it was the same height as the edge quench on the Swamp Rat's and who the hell is going to wear back 3/8" of solid vanadium carbide anyway.

I dunno, I might try to cut through some 24 gauge stranded copper wire with it. I hope the warranty would cover such abuse.

 

[sodak]

Custom mini-Steel Heart, 1/2" thick INFI, full convex grind, apex angle 35 degrees per side, edge, 1/4" thick; made for extremely demanding use such as chopping small sticks. Jerry is bring out a new model at the end of this year which is for the really hard work like slicing crusty French bread and drilling holes in styrofoam. L6/S5 bainite/martensite laminate. The inner S5 core is 3/8" thick and the bainite L6 slabs are each 1/2" thick. The blade is basically full stock except for the last 1/8" towards the edge which has a convex grind which peaks at a 90 degree apex angle.

-Cliff

Ok, now I'm getting interested. Only you left out the most important parts. What color epoxy will it be? I need to blend in to the general populace if I'm going to have a chance in hell to

----------- HERE IT IS -------------
covertly deanimate
--------- THERE IT WAS --------

my objective.

 

[TNRat]

You're a moron, quit trying to break your knives just to imitate Cliff Stamp. Anyone with half a brain knows that knives can't handle chopping, much less through something so thick and tough. Your knives should be confiscated!!!1 :thumbdn: :thumbdn:

Also why would you use a ruler to measure things?!? RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB!!!

..Funny post you have there :]..

 

[TNRat]

H,

Tell us about the first pictured knife.

Thanks.

T

 

[hardheart]

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=392617

I also hope you picked up on Vivi's sarcasm, Terry. I started this thread because he was getting railed on for cutting up wood with a 6" bladed Opinel.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

What color epoxy will it be?

The outer coating is a tri-phase light mimic, it will absorb and then reflect incident light. If you hold it in front of a piece of green cloth it will turn green. The cool thing is that it is activated by impact shock so in training drills it constantly changes colors. The color can be perma-set by exposing it to extreme hot/cold which needs re-exposure to unlock. It has a lifetime though, last I heard you could only perma-set the colors a half a dozen times.

I dunno, I might try to cut through some 24 gauge stranded copper wire with it. I hope the warranty would cover such abuse.

Metal cutting came up in the field testing and it was discovered it was generally not necessary because your teeth are about 33 HRC so you can just bite through those metals and not risk worrying about damaging a high strength, high shock, tool steel. One of the guys discovered that you can actually tear apart a lot of materials with your hands and teeth which saves a lot of wear on the edge as well. You can also improvise by using rocks and pointy sticks for a lot of uses. One of the smarter guys actually figured out if he carried another knife he could pretty much avoid ever having to use the prototype and that seemed to be the ideal solution.

Knots were also a big concern and there was a lot of debate about making the knife able to take that level of abuse and it was decided that rather than try to basically aim for the stars to just get some blades made and then advance the scope of work gradually. It was later determined that with a bit of effort you can always section/shape wood without cutting knots anyway. I had a really puzzler for awhile as it was a section of spruce which was tri-ring knotted and I could not see any way to split it without having to chisel cut at least two knots. However one of the more experienced operators took one of the prototypes and very carefully carved out a series of hollows in the wood. Of course its a knife not a drill or prybar so it was slow work. About a week later there were three decent sized holes. Three M80's later and the wood was splintered. One of the others guys got really creative and just traded his prototype for some pre-split wood and thus solved the problem indirectly.

That's a really nice little knife.Bandsaw steel and M2, both of them are basically free in ideal stock for knives, can be just ground as is and make excellent knives. What more can you want.

-Cliff