ESEE vs Becker Cage Match Final Round

T

TAGannon

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Oct 14, 2009
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[youtube]A5GyJCP7FsI[/youtube]


As requested, this is the final installment of the Trilogy.

Basically I’m speechless. I upped the ante with a 24 oz. ball peen hammer and solid support under the blade so it could not slip down in the vise. You can hear in the video stuff flying all over the place and falling off my workbench.

You can also hear the phone ring in the background. That was Ethan Becker calling. I kid you not. What a thrill. He is a very kind and generous man. He will be providing a few knives to servicemen in Afghanistan on behalf of this venture. I enjoyed our visit immensely. Now I’m looking forward to that beer even more someday.

There was that strange yet familiar smell as in parts 1 and 2. But after the blades stopped cutting into each other, the smell went away. I knew at that time that any more pounding was an exercise in futility. Hopefully in the video you can see the polished interior of the “serration” on each knife. They basically pounded each other to a high gloss finish.

The cut in the hammer face did surprise me. The miniscule damage to the blade did as well.

The lawnmower blade did have some edge compression. The spine of the Becker did not. What was really amazing is the depth of the dent in the cold chisel. I had it under the mower blade to jack up the blade of the Becker. That in itself should be plenty of evidence of how hard I was pounding.

The spine of the ESEE did show some deformation, but nothing that a little emery cloth couldn’t clean up.

How neither blade exploded is beyond me. 1095 is clearly an amazing steel. Don’t let those hoity toity knife companies with the mystery steels fool you.

My respect for Becker is now HUGE. I honestly thought the ESEE would go through it. I was wrong. I am proud to own both brands and will now start carrying Becker on my site to be along side of ESEE. No other factory knives could possibly stand up to the punishment I doled out on these two warriors. I will proudly display them both and enjoy sharing the story of this somewhat unorthodox experiment.

Thanks,
Tom

 
Just eyeballin' it, but when you held both the edges up to the light, it looks like they both stopped gaining ground at the same approx. blade thickness. That bodes extremely well (duh) for the steel and heat treat that both Becker and ESEE apply to these two blades. Amazing work!
 
thanks for the conclusion, tom. i can't believe neither of them broke! i knew it could go either way, but never expected them to both survive this. just like you said, the only winner is anyone who buys either or both of these knives.

on another note, you, jeff, and ethan are really standup guys. it's cool that you did this on your own with no expectation of using the amazing warranty and then offer up the replacement to a service member. it's cool that jeff agreed to it and it's cool that ethan even joined in. i have nothing but respect for you three for all of this.

awesome.
 
that was cool,,thanks for doing it.i think i need to look into getting a bk2.
 
buck_wheat.jpg
 
NOW... I want to add an ESEE-5 to my stable. Just because I now know it is just as tough as the BK-2 that I already have (didn't really doubt it, but now I know), and because of the stand-up company that Jeff again showed his to be in the last thread. And Ethan, too, but I already have the BK-2. :thumbup:
 
WOW!! Thanks for "finishing" the test. I have to say that I am very happy/satisfied to see the results. Kudos to you! :thumbup::thumbup:
 
Calebklyne said:
I'd like to know if anyone has ever broken either of these knives?
Click to expand...

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Only one that I know of in 30yrs of it being made. I know its the first that Kabar has seen. Throwing it, broke it.

Moose

ETA Kabar warranty replaced it.
 
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I'm glad that both blades survived that test!!Both sides won a V on that one,with no hard feelings either way.You ought to display those two gladiators in your store along side the other items involved in the experiment.Might sell a bunch of knives,after you show that tape!While I still don't really approve of that test,it all worked out for both companies.You could stake your survival on either,for sure!!!
 
"S" "E" dag nab it:D Just kiddin around with you. Great show on everyones part.
Edit: I only watched the first few seconds of the video before making my comment above...you corrected yourself later in the video. Great commentary in the video by the way...too funny. And yes ...either knife would make any owner proud.
 
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Excellent video, both damn tuff knives.

still a waste of good steel.
Its also good to know these two blades are made to last a lifetme and then some.....


I was waiting for one of them to shatter
 
Honestly I am not very surprised. The hammer head, the chisel shaft, and the lawnmower blade are all designed to take percussive bows without shattering (and are tempered accordingly). The knives by contrast are hardened...so it follows (to me at least) that there would be more deformation on everything other than the hardened blades.

I predict that if you had continued long enough the hammer would start to look like a mushroom (as the head deforms), and one of the knives (probably the one you are striking with the hammer) would eventually fracture.



Good show!
 
Unbelievable. What an experiment in the name of science.

I might have to try one of these BK2 devices down the road. :D
 
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