Excalibur

[PeterPHWS]

In the "Dark Peaks" of Britian legend has it that the body of Arthur is buried .... that it lies in a strange "supernatural" place ... and that those who seek their "perfect blade" may be "blessed" with fulfilment of their wish ... if they can but look long enough ... and hard enough ... to find his tomb ...

So begins the "odyssey" as we walk the Dark Peaks ...

Miles and miles of barren Moors ...

Across treacherous ridges ...

To find at dawn's break ... Arthur's tomb ... :foot:

And how can this be ??? How is it so cold ??? To find on a sunny day such an an eerie place ... miles from no where ... and as you approach the cold chills the air !!

The tombs of Arthur and Gueniviere lie frozen in time ...

and a voice speaks from the battlements ...

"We know that which you seek ! " "Your search for your knife is over" ... and behold you see a knife glistening in the ice surrounding the tomb ...

There one minute and gone the next ...

How could fate be so unfair ??? You wonder where the knife has gone ... and the voice answers ... that the knife will come to you when you need it most ... that you should travel and search for one whole day ... and walk to the end of the horizon ...

The horizon beckons .... and off you set ...

All day it takes until dusk comes and you find the shelter of a gully with a wood and stream below ... you need a fire for food an warmth ... but no knife to work with ... and then the same voice ... it tells you to "look in the dead tree" ...

and behold the knife you saw is there !! You rush to the tree eager to claim your prize ... but the tree just sucks the knife in ...

Hours pass trying to pull out the knife ... darkness comes ...

The tree shakes with your efforts ... and the voice speaks ... "only the worthy shall draw the knife" ...

So you shout back ... "my name is "Wilson" and I AM WORTHY" ...

The knife is released and the knife is yours ...

Yes folks ... if you want a knife with "magical properties" contact Phil Wilson ...

I have had this Smokey Creek knife for 6 months and it is in Bohler Microclean K294 which is the same chemical make up as CPM10V and I can definately vouch for the magical edge holding and cutting ability ... This knife holds an edge that would make Arthur proud !:thumbup:

 

[firebolt]

very nice review

 

[Noctis3880]

Wait wait wait, so you stuck a 9% vanadium steel with a tapered tip and thin ground edge(traditionally found on all his works), probably hardened to Rc 63+, into the ice and a tree?

I'm not sure Phil would approve.

 

[PeterPHWS]

Here is a quote from a review of another knife of Phil's explaining matters ....

Originally Posted by Phil Wilson
"Outdoors, Yes both CPM 10V and K294 are the A11 grade. To be correct I should use the full name Bohler Microclean. K390 is a mod of K294, and is tweaked for a little better toughness but at the cost of some wear resistance. At least according to the data sheet . I have some of it and plan to make a few knives and try it out. The old standby for me is CPM 10V and is the datum on which I compare edge holding to all others. I have not seen a significant difference between 10V and K294. The Bohler grade is advertised as a finer grain and that could come into play at very high hardness but RC 64/64.5 seems to be the practical limit for both of them. Phil "

Originally posted by PeterPHWS
"Hi Phil,

I know I owe you some feed back on the Bohler Microclean K294 knife you did for me and it will be the subject of a good in depth report, but such is the edge holding and great geometry of the knife that after some 6 months of using it I have only had to sharpen it twice LOL ... (and both of those occasions were just "light" touches on the ceramic rods of a sharpmaker to do a bit of shaving ... Seriously !! No joke !!) so the "scope" of what the knife can do in normal use is taking a while to find out ... but never has the bar been raised this high in my knife use ... so it should be worth waiting for ... I hope

The bottom line here is that I feel I should work with the blade at least a year to give any sensible feedback because so far it is re-defining for me a lot of my thinking on what is the best type of knife for belt carry.

I don't really see the benefit of replicating rope and card board cutting when it has already been done ... and these tests have already proven that the knives you do have a superb heat treatment and take a great edge which will last and last

My interest lies more in what the knife can be used for ... does it have any short comings ... how it can be improved ... and why ... and whether there are any competing knives which work better in the same "all-round" category ... and again ... if so ... then how ?

As I say ... your knife is very much "educating me" ... as much as I am "testing it" ...

The "education" is coming through "big time" as to what a difference a thin well thought through "geometry" the knife has and how "tough" it can be if used properly without "torquing" the blade so it might break BUT at the same time how fast and well it performs ... very much so when the geometry is applied to the cutting aspect of tasks ... but "tough" is'nt a word I thought would apply so much to the knife ...
and I do mean "tough" ...

Anway ... for a bit of fun I thought I might do a little "Excalibur" parody ... Hope you enjoy it ... "

And yes Noctis ... Phil's knife does have a very fine tip and fine edge geometry ... but if you use it properly you would be suprised at what it can accomplish ... although a full explanation of the "tree" and "ice" is that this looks a lot more severe than it actually was ... the tree is not as hard as it might first appear ... notice the termite holes ... the tree was actually as soft as putty ... and the ice was truely a weird phenomenon ... but there was no perma frost in the ground so sticking the knife in for the pic was no more difficult than other surrounding soil ... however this knife has been my belt knife now for 6 months and it is still educating me with what it can do ... it's pretty amazing :thumbup:

 

[Noctis3880]

True, though there are those knots I would watch out for. I myself have a Phil Wilson South Fork in M390. After I made a few cuts into 3 layer cardboard about an inch thick, I found that the edge had rolled(an impressive feat at Rc 62). I concluded that the razor thin edge geometry is different from most knives that I'm used to, and that there are certain things I shouldn't cut with it.

 

[PeterPHWS]

Interesting point about the knife edge "rolling" ... I have experienced "rolling" on ALL of my knives ( Phil's included ) doing some kitchen use when the edge was sharpened at a fine angle ... I have 4 knives that come to mind ... one in Cowry X by Ichiro Hattori ( Rc 64 ) , one in R2 Damascus by Hiro Itou ( Rc 62 ) and one in OU31 by Kiku Matsuda ( Rc 62 ) plus Phil's and all have rolled their edges when using them in the kitchen when running them around the inside of a glass jar ... usually in my case the jar would be a peanut butter one and coming to the end of the jar I would run the knife round the sides to scrape off the last remnants and this would cause some rolling on the edge. Noticing this on one knife had me curious as to whether it would affect the others or whether one might survive ... I gave them all the same task and more or less they all did the same ...

Glass is very hard though and all of the blades had 15 degree either side ( 30 degree inclusive ) edges on them ( mainly because for field use I find touching up with a spyderco sharpmaker nice and quick ) ... a little stropping on a leather paddle and a few strokes on the ceramic rods on the sharpmaker soon straightened them ...

You cannot stop this sort of thing unless you go for a less acute sharpening angle ... run the knives at 20 degrees either side ( 40 degrees inclusive ) and the edge does'nt roll but is "dulled" on the parts making contact ... and to get the edge back you still need to work it a little on ceramic rods ... but you do notice the difference of the angle profile on "cutting" tasks compared to 15 degrees inclusive ... slice old tomatoes which can easily go mushy and collapse and the 15 degree edge is much more effective than the 20 degree edge ... so the old saying of "go with what works best for you" applies ... and for my all round normal uses I prefer the finer edge and better cutting performance ...

 

[Noctis3880]

I prefer a fork for glass scraping. I also never let my brother touch one of my knives on his glass cutting board.

I also agree that the tradeoff is worth the cutting improvement, but it's fruitful to keep a different knife on hand for tasks which might strain the toughness of the edge. I bring my South Fork to work, but I also keep an Umnumzaan if I need to work some thick cardboard or stab it into something.

 

[Phil Wilson]

Hi Peter,
I enjoyed the photos, incredible landscape. My grandparents are from that part of the world so I guess it is in the blood somehow. Glad the knife is working out for you and appreciate the kind words. Sometimes I caution too much on the knife use just because I have pushed the heat treat and edge geometry to the limit of what is practical. I am currently carrying a thin grind RC 63+ CPM S110V blade while in the shop and around the place for everyday use and find that like you it is not fragile and as long as it is not abused the edge holds up just fine. I did find the limit while cutting dry bamboo sticks for support for the garden vegetables. Very aggressive slicing (probably more than 40lbs force) and I hit one of those knots where the branches take off and bingo a nice chip on the belly of the blade. I was twisting at the same time and that was the problem. I find I can whittle on hard wood all day long as long as the force is in line with the edge. The edge rolling Noctis and you describe is what I would expect if the heat treat is right on. Normally steel like this, even at very high hardness does have a narrow plastic limit. Meaning it will bend a little and then take a permanent deflection before it will break. On a low angle thin edge there is just not enough material to offset the force. If the hardness were pushed a little higher, then the plastic limit is narrower and chipping rather than rolling takes place. In my case with the bamboo the force was very high and out of line with the edge and the elastic and plastic limit was exceeded very quickly .
It will be interesting to see how your blade holds up in the wet climate. K294 has a very pure composition so that should contribute to better corrosion resistance than would normally be expected with this grade (A11).

Hi Noctis, Sounds like you are giving the knife a work out. Thick cardboard can really tear up an edge. It is the combination of junk in the material and the higher force needed to cut through the thickness. Ankerson has reported on that several times. Appreciate the feed back from both you and Peter. Phil

 

[Ankerson]

Very nice knife, it will last you a life time, excellent photos.

 

[Ankerson]

Thick cardboard can really tear up an edge. It is the combination of junk in the material and the higher force needed to cut through the thickness. Ankerson has reported on that several times. Appreciate the feed back from both you and Peter. Phil

Cardboard can be some real evil stuff, like going out and stabbing the knife in the dirt and slicing through that sometimes.

I have had a pile of what I call dirt more than a few times from cutting cardboard and all I can do is just shake my head, that just works wonders on the edges too. LOL

Harsh stuff, but that's why I like to use it after the rope.

 

[lava_lamp]

Thanks for the fun reminder that its not all about scientific testing. We're in this to enjoy ourselves, right?

 

[PeterPHWS]

Absolutely :thumbup: