ESEE pictures and chat 👍🏻

I took some of my ESEE's off the trail yesterday for the express purpose of hitting trees with them.

The Izula and the ESEE 3 have been profiled to 18 DPS recently on my TS Prof and haven't been used. The ESEE 6 mostly has the factory bevel, but I have honed it by hand on a black arkansas stone.

PXL_20240622_134433320~2.jpgPXL_20240622_131619649~2.jpgPXL_20240622_130328718~2.jpgPXL_20240622_124702078.jpg


I'm not an outdoorsman, just a hobbyist, but I chopped up some small trees and vines, no dead or hard wood. The ESEE 3 was a better chopper than I expected given it's size. The edge I had put on it was aggressive and really bit into the soft wood.

When I got back home, I wiped the blades off and put them on my Bess tester; I was interested to see how the edges had held up with the little bit of whacking I'd put the knives through. I marked a specific spot on the middle of each blade, and tested that spot 3 times each. I use the testing base with the spool of media in it, and I tension the thread each time with a 100g gram weight. This is also what I do when I Bess test my knives after sharpening.

Here are the Bess results for each knife, before and after I hit trees with them.

Izula 180 -> 208
ESEE 3 148 -> 190
ESEE 6 292 -> 300

Not a dramatic change, and in some cases can be interpreted as within the margin of error of the Bess tester.

Then I put each knife under my $30 digital microscope and checked for edge damage. The ESEE 6 didn't seem any worse for wear, but the 18 DPS edges on the Izula and ESEE 3 chipped and rolled in few places. I was a initially a little disappointed to see the damage, but I remembered that I needed a strong magnification device to see the damage in the first place; none of it was visible to the naked eye.

I aimed to correct these blemishes with the black arkansas stone, and I honed each knife with alternating slicing strokes with light pressure. The edges noticeably became more prickly under my fingertips, and I took the knives back to the Bess tester. The edges that had previously been profiled to 18 DPS showed the most improvement. The Izula and ESEE 3 are back to push cutting thin paper and shaving hair.

Izula 208 -> 130
ESEE 3 190 -> 146
ESEE 6 300 -> 277


Here are screenshots from my digital microscope showing the Before and After of the largest blemishes to the Izula and ESEE 3 from my novice tree stabbing. The darker strip close to the cutting edge in all the after pictures demonstrates that I was holding the knife angle a bit high on the arkansas stone and was basically micro-beveling. I didn't do it long enough to get all the edge damage out, but the edges are far more cleaned up and do not feel or perform as if they need more repair.

Izula 2

Izula 1.jpg
Izula 2.jpg


ESEE 3

ESEE3 1.jpg
ESEE3 2.jpg
ESEE3 4.jpg

As advertised, the 1095 is able to take a beating and get back to shaving sharp with minimal effort and equipment. I plan on putting the Izula and the ESEE 3 in my EDC rotation, and to buy more ESEE's.
 
Dutch87 said:
I took some of my ESEE's off the trail yesterday for the express purpose of hitting trees with them.

The Izula and the ESEE 3 have been profiled to 18 DPS recently on my TS Prof and haven't been used. The ESEE 6 mostly has the factory bevel, but I have honed it by hand on a black arkansas stone.

View attachment 2598743View attachment 2598744View attachment 2598745View attachment 2598746


I'm not an outdoorsman, just a hobbyist, but I chopped up some small trees and vines, no dead or hard wood. The ESEE 3 was a better chopper than I expected given it's size. The edge I had put on it was aggressive and really bit into the soft wood.

When I got back home, I wiped the blades off and put them on my Bess tester; I was interested to see how the edges had held up with the little bit of whacking I'd put the knives through. I marked a specific spot on the middle of each blade, and tested that spot 3 times each. I use the testing base with the spool of media in it, and I tension the thread each time with a 100g gram weight. This is also what I do when I Bess test my knives after sharpening.

Here are the Bess results for each knife, before and after I hit trees with them.

Izula 180 -> 208
ESEE 3 148 -> 190
ESEE 6 292 -> 300

Not a dramatic change, and in some cases can be interpreted as within the margin of error of the Bess tester.

Then I put each knife under my $30 digital microscope and checked for edge damage. The ESEE 6 didn't seem any worse for wear, but the 18 DPS edges on the Izula and ESEE 3 chipped and rolled in few places. I was a initially a little disappointed to see the damage, but I remembered that I needed a strong magnification device to see the damage in the first place; none of it was visible to the naked eye.

I aimed to correct these blemishes with the black arkansas stone, and I honed each knife with alternating slicing strokes with light pressure. The edges noticeably became more prickly under my fingertips, and I took the knives back to the Bess tester. The edges that had previously been profiled to 18 DPS showed the most improvement. The Izula and ESEE 3 are back to push cutting thin paper and shaving hair.

Izula 208 -> 130
ESEE 3 190 -> 146
ESEE 6 300 -> 277


Here are screenshots from my digital microscope showing the Before and After of the largest blemishes to the Izula and ESEE 3 from my novice tree stabbing. The darker strip close to the cutting edge in all the after pictures demonstrates that I was holding the knife angle a bit high on the arkansas stone and was basically micro-beveling. I didn't do it long enough to get all the edge damage out, but the edges are far more cleaned up and do not feel or perform as if they need more repair.

Izula 2

View attachment 2598807
View attachment 2598784


ESEE 3

View attachment 2598785
View attachment 2598786
View attachment 2598787

As advertised, the 1095 is able to take a beating and get back to shaving sharp with minimal effort and equipment. I plan on putting the Izula and the ESEE 3 in my EDC rotation, and to buy more ESEE's.
Click to expand...
Very comprehensive data and very interesting mate 👍🏻👍🏻

Dan 🦘 🇦🇺
 
GD7jdmt.jpg
 
link2derek said:
I'm really digging this one, too. The handle scales are much more comfortable than I thought they would be.
With the PR4 and an ESEE-6 together, I can do pretty much any woods/bush task that you can think of.

View attachment 2613772
Click to expand...
The only thing I didn't like about the PR4 was the leather sheath, but that's just me. I did like the knife.
Dan 🦘 🇦🇺
 
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