Bruce :
If you want a variable standard I can shoot it with a bow and set the poundage up to 70 lbs. If this doesn't induce fracture I can go to a friend and up this to 160 lbs.
Along these lines. I think Jeff Clark about a year ago suggested that I add a repeatable measurement to the edge durability tests. In the same light as the above I recently made a guide that allows me to drop a steel rod from a variable height and impact the blade. I will be adding this as well after the field use on certain blades. Once I get a reasonable estimate of what is expected performance I'll do it as a quaility check on all blades.
Cougar, many blades don't respond well to that (side pulls in wood). It is usually more of a problem with differential tempers. The soft back cannot help the blade out and the edge has to take the full stress. Many people don't even think this is fair. There are lots of blades that don't have a problem with it though. I had my brother hang off the Basic after I drove the edge straight into a tree. He is only 180 lbs though. I'll repeat this later on.
maybe pulling sideways with the knife partly embedded in particle board is a harder test than chopping kamagong straight on
It is much easier for the edge to resist compression than a lateral shear. As an example of this, to be specific I have had blade do poorer on chopping tests even when they were stronger/tougher than blades that passed. Reason - the stronger/tougher blades were actually less powerful choppers (weight mainly), so at the end of a chop they were imbedded in the material (a steel rod), whereas the better choppers when straight through and the final shock was absorbed by the wood. For a similar reason a loose grip chop is much easier on a blade than a tight one and both are easier to take than if you pound on it (even if you use a soft object).
Will, yes, for sensible use after any period of extended heavy strain the edge should be recut to remove the weakened metal and stop cracks from propogating.
As for edge holding, on soft materials the TUSK was very good. As long as I kept the impacts low and the material soft the blade kept cutting for a long time. I never had any complaints about that area. As long as you don't fracture the edge it should respond to steeling well. I didn't do any hard wood chopping with the TUSK as I wanted to repeat the work that failed the first one before I did that. I intended to do it later.
In comparison to INFI, there should not be any. O1 is a low carbide steel, it should wear relatively quickly exposed to the same stress. However the TUSK has a better egronomics in certain respects and significantly better edge geometry so this could raise its performance and thus lower the stress recieved for a given amount of work.
By the way, I should be finished with my initial review of the Battle Mistress in a couple of months. Any desire to compare it to your ATAK? I would be interested in your comments.
-Cliff
