Cutting Test Material

M

meistermachinist

Joined
May 28, 2006
Messages
2
Hi,

I was trying to test for edge retention this evening and was wondering what you other makers use for a cutting medium?

I tried 3/8" sisal rope, made over 500 cuts each and the knives still shaved, still sliced paper and still sliced paper towel. Kinda upset that it didn't noticeably dull. (I made two knives exactly identical, one from D2 and the other from ATS-34, heat treated to HRC 60-61; I'm trying to see which one has the better edge retention).

Anyway to make the blades dull faster, I'd ideally like to make less than 100 cuts per knife and notice a significant degree of dulling. Poly rope? Manila? Anything that offers more resistance?

Thanks!
 
Cut up a batch of heavy cardboard, chop through a 2X4, cut up a length of old garden hose into 1/2" pieces - all proven edge tests.
 
Hi Meister , Post some pics of your Blades & the tests if you get a chance . BTW - welcome to BladeForums :) Wo sind Sie von Meister?
 
Find some 1 inch manila rope. You should be able to get 100 or so cuts. It also depends on the size of the knife. Wayne Goddard talks a lot about cutting tests in his books. He set up devices to measure amount of force used to cut (bathroom scale), chopping tester, etc... Whatever you can come up with to test the blades the same way works. Good luck and am looking forward to your results.....
Chuck
 
You will find a very large difference in rope. Dirty vs clean, some have plastic marker bands and some just plain rope. Some rope you can get 200 cuts and on others only 50. For that reason I usally buy 50 ft or so of the same rope so comparisons can be made on many different blades. Mark off 2 or 3 inches of the blade and only cut with that part. 2 inches dulls a lot quicker that 6 inches. Try to cut against something that will not dull the blade when you go through the rope. Newspaper works pretty good for that. The way you cut makes a huge difference. A combo push and slice will net many more cuts than a slicing cut. You can do a pure push (shear) cut and get tired cuttiing before the blade dulls. Cutting against a scale like Wayne does is also important. When you get to 25 pounds consider the blade dull. That is a lot of force and the blade will still cut but think about how much force that is if you are cutting meat or skinning a deer. Wayne is the expert in this area and if you can get his book you will learn a lot about this. Phil
 
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