Gary W. Graley
“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Mar 2, 1999
- Messages
- 27,472
Emails from Jimmy the Toucan; all text and photos below are from him...
Here's Shiva's small Spirit blade laid out next to my ready-to-test interpretation of his design. My knife is not finished, obviously, and should cut just somewhat better once the handle is wrapped and the blade geometry finalized during the polishing process.
This photo shows a piece of bamboo that I dropped with one cut using my version of the small Spirit blade. I tried a cut with the small Spirit blade and you can see that cut going partially through the bamoo a couple of 'joints' to the right of the cut made with my blade. Both cuts were made when the plant was standing. The plant rolled as it fell and hit the ground. That's why the cuts appear to have been made from the left rather than the right. All blades, as they slow down, tend to turn in the cut to follow the grain... and this is well illustrated by the cut made with Shiva's blade. This applies to wood as well as bamboo. Bamboo at the place where my cut was made was 1.9 inches in diameter. Green bamboo (meaning 'living' bamboo) is easy to cut.
I decided to give both blades something much more difficult to cut... a larger / dead / partially dried bamboo. I made ever effort to really lay into the cuts and to make sure that the blades did not turn down to follow the grain. If you look carefully, you might be able to see that the cuts were very slightly 'S' shaped. The upward turn at the end of each cut was the result of my body swinging around as I attempted to 'cut through' the cane. Shiva's small Spirit hung up in the cut. Nothing wrong with that, by the way... and I would guess the cause to be the recurve in the blade. The cut appears to have ended almost exactly between the two small vertical white marks on the bamboo, but actually continued to the vertical mark on the left.
My blade pulled out of the cut and the vertical scratch was placed on the cane by me to show where the cut ended since there were no naturally occuring visual 'landmarks' as there were on the cut I made with Shiva's blade. The scratch mark (very short) that looks like a continuation of the cut is *just* a scratch. I would guess it was made by the tip of my blade still being in contact with the bamboo even though the blade had pulled out of the cut. This can be seen a lot better in the close up pic.
This cane is fairly large... 2.5 inches where my cut was made... and plenty hard. Keep in mind that these cuts were made with 8 inch blades used in one hand. Cutting 3 inch diameter living (or just having been harvested) bamboo with a katana length blade using both hands??? Well... how difficult would that be?
After I'd dropped the larger bamboo, I limbed it and then attempted to lop off pieces while holding the bamboo off the ground with my left hand. The two cuts toward the right of the picture were made with Shiva's small Spirit. My blade severed the cane because of the weight difference and because my handle shape feels better in *my* hand... but maybe not in yours. The cane was right at 1.2 inches (according to my trusty dial calipers) where I made the cut with my blade.
Just a little 'visual' to show the wall thickness of the bamboo.
On the very next node down the cane, your trusty reporter let the blade turn into the cut. Note that the knife is in the cane in the exact position in which it stopped. Just a bit more force and that blade could have pulled out of the cut and HURT me. Even worse, it could have slipped right out of my hand... blasted through the front window in my house and stuck right into my piano.
I'm never doing this again. This kind of thing is for the paid professionals.
Any future testing will be conducted by my mild-mannered, sweet and loving wife, Maggie, using her own knives (one of which she can be seen here, clutched ever so gently in her tiny fist). Her's will cut just as well as mine... or perhaps better.
Or, if Maggie is otherwise occupied... the testing will be conducted by Wilford Brimley's hungover brother, Bufford the Terrible.
That's all, Folks!!!
Here's Shiva's small Spirit blade laid out next to my ready-to-test interpretation of his design. My knife is not finished, obviously, and should cut just somewhat better once the handle is wrapped and the blade geometry finalized during the polishing process.
This photo shows a piece of bamboo that I dropped with one cut using my version of the small Spirit blade. I tried a cut with the small Spirit blade and you can see that cut going partially through the bamoo a couple of 'joints' to the right of the cut made with my blade. Both cuts were made when the plant was standing. The plant rolled as it fell and hit the ground. That's why the cuts appear to have been made from the left rather than the right. All blades, as they slow down, tend to turn in the cut to follow the grain... and this is well illustrated by the cut made with Shiva's blade. This applies to wood as well as bamboo. Bamboo at the place where my cut was made was 1.9 inches in diameter. Green bamboo (meaning 'living' bamboo) is easy to cut.
I decided to give both blades something much more difficult to cut... a larger / dead / partially dried bamboo. I made ever effort to really lay into the cuts and to make sure that the blades did not turn down to follow the grain. If you look carefully, you might be able to see that the cuts were very slightly 'S' shaped. The upward turn at the end of each cut was the result of my body swinging around as I attempted to 'cut through' the cane. Shiva's small Spirit hung up in the cut. Nothing wrong with that, by the way... and I would guess the cause to be the recurve in the blade. The cut appears to have ended almost exactly between the two small vertical white marks on the bamboo, but actually continued to the vertical mark on the left.
My blade pulled out of the cut and the vertical scratch was placed on the cane by me to show where the cut ended since there were no naturally occuring visual 'landmarks' as there were on the cut I made with Shiva's blade. The scratch mark (very short) that looks like a continuation of the cut is *just* a scratch. I would guess it was made by the tip of my blade still being in contact with the bamboo even though the blade had pulled out of the cut. This can be seen a lot better in the close up pic.
This cane is fairly large... 2.5 inches where my cut was made... and plenty hard. Keep in mind that these cuts were made with 8 inch blades used in one hand. Cutting 3 inch diameter living (or just having been harvested) bamboo with a katana length blade using both hands??? Well... how difficult would that be?
After I'd dropped the larger bamboo, I limbed it and then attempted to lop off pieces while holding the bamboo off the ground with my left hand. The two cuts toward the right of the picture were made with Shiva's small Spirit. My blade severed the cane because of the weight difference and because my handle shape feels better in *my* hand... but maybe not in yours. The cane was right at 1.2 inches (according to my trusty dial calipers) where I made the cut with my blade.
Just a little 'visual' to show the wall thickness of the bamboo.
On the very next node down the cane, your trusty reporter let the blade turn into the cut. Note that the knife is in the cane in the exact position in which it stopped. Just a bit more force and that blade could have pulled out of the cut and HURT me. Even worse, it could have slipped right out of my hand... blasted through the front window in my house and stuck right into my piano.
I'm never doing this again. This kind of thing is for the paid professionals.
Any future testing will be conducted by my mild-mannered, sweet and loving wife, Maggie, using her own knives (one of which she can be seen here, clutched ever so gently in her tiny fist). Her's will cut just as well as mine... or perhaps better.
Or, if Maggie is otherwise occupied... the testing will be conducted by Wilford Brimley's hungover brother, Bufford the Terrible.
That's all, Folks!!!
:foot: 
