Cutting nail / Destruction Testing

N

Natlek

Joined
Jun 9, 2015
Messages
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I don't know if anyone will agree with me but let me try ?
There are some steel that can cut nail without damage , there are steel that will cut nail with little damage to edge , there are steel which will get catastrophic damage on edge or breakage of blade . Of course all steel have the same geometry on the edges.
Steel which can cut nail without damage can handle test like this on video .I mean we used hammer on blade to cut that nail , Big Bear use ax in that test which is little harder to control then hammer .We have some control on hammer but every single blow is different .Different on place where it hit blade , angle , force......
The stainless steels used in this video are not known for their high toughness compared to some carbon steel so they simple CAN NOT handle that imperfect inaccurately and repetitive hammer blows .
My point is that I don t think I learn something from this video , I can conclude absolutely nothing about the difference between these three steels.
I watched many times this video trying to notice how and where the hammer hits the steel . I'm not claiming anything, but to me it looked like this.
For 35VN , before last blow /when blade chip/ on spine he somehow angled blade / edge was already deep in steel/ and bang ! Edge chip !For other two steel something like on the drawing happened / not to bother to explain in words /
I wonder if some fixed setup for nail cut , where everything is controlled and repeatable, would give the right results and whether they would be valid at all to draw any conclusions about say these three steel ?
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My take away from that (one of many), would be the blade geometry may have been the same on those three knives but was not appropriate for that particular test.
I messed about with this for a couple years and my best results were not with maxed out hardness numbers in a particular steel. Everything you see going on in this video has an effect on the results, from the steel choices, the axe angle, the angle of the blade being held, the angle of the strike, the strike point, the force applied, the surface the nail is resting on, and even the nail itself.
I finally concluded in my journey through this that it did not matter. If the knife looked good, held a good edge, and performed as it was designed, it did not need to cut through a nail (I did eventually get everything right and had repeated successes).
Of course, when the zombie apocalypse comes I’ll feel differently about the performance.
Nothing wrong with high performance knives, just not a “thing” for me personally.
Interesting video nevertheless.
 
Should a wood baton or brass hammer have been used? hardened Steel on hardened steel isn't usually the best way to get good results. That's why you NEVER hit one hammer head with another hammer head.
 
I don’t know how to link a YouTube video but if you look this up you will see it happen.

Delta 3V knife destruction test, 20DPS.​

Nathan if you’d rather this not be here just remove it.
 
Nails are dead soft which is why they bend when struck off center. They are also kind of “grabby” being able to snag a hard blade when it is misaligned during the cut test. If a blade is clamped in a vertical position and then forced into the nail with a hydraulic press, the results are likely to be favorable.
 
Cutting nails on the anvil is more about technique and geometry over steel selection and heat treatment.
 
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