Fighting Knife Testing and Reviews ??????

[Samurai6]

I don't think we need standardized tests for knifemakers to move ahead in making fighting blades. All a knife maker needs to do is pick a good, tough steel and heat treat it as well as he can, think of a way to simulate the kinds of abuse that will get heaped on the blade in a fight, and use those simulations to make improvements, loan or sell the blades to martial artists to get their feedback, compare their blades to fighters from other makers. If a maker can show that he has done his homework diligently, that is all that is required. Fighting blades from different makers who have gone through a long period of development and evaluation such as the above will have a great fighting knife in the opinion of somebody at least. It will be unique, but it won't be that much better than all the other fighters produced by the same process. Steel is steel, and balance is balance. It is just not that complicated a formula. But there are an infinite number of ways to solve it. You don't need standardized tests for that.

 

[bart]

To all-

Good post. I don't have a lot of people around that will let me cut on them, so I think I will stick to denim, wet newspaper, etc. I am not sur ewhere I stand on testing standards. I feel that a lot has to do with technique and ability, so I feel that is had to do. Full speed cutting magnifies this. Look at the posts Turber has done when compaing ATAK and MPK and those 7 inch tests. Thsoe were fair at taking out human factors. I personally think that you should compare a knife to a common, low cost baseline to let everybody have an idea how it performs. For example, you might use an Endura for folders or a Bush Ranger for mid size fixed blades. You get the idea.

Steve-

A Martin Kozuka is exactly what I carry. Sweet knife. I also have a Sebenza that's used for jobs that are tougher on the edge. I feel it is probably a little tougher than my Martin just due to thickness. *Disclaimer* BG42 at the same thinness and hardness would, in my estimation, be suitable only for a kitchen knife. Do NOT say that I said A2 was not tough.


-Bart

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Donna, it would be very nice to have an agreed upon set of tasks so blades could readily be judged against each other. I think cutting tests should be developed first as they are far less likely to be controversial than durability work. Of course there is room for variation because of technique, but this just means that you expand the scope of the review.

In regards to machines doing the work. People are not very controlled in movements, because of the variation in direction and magnitude of the forces during a cut, the blade can encounter stresses of magnitudes far far greater than in a straight controlled push. Thus a machine doing the cutting would tend to cover up durability flaws and thus overpromote edge holding and toughness.

While of course people vary from one to the next, you can get around this easily by having multiple people do the same work. All the results can be compiled (I'll do this) and thus you can the variation in ability across a host of users. You can even then judge the suitability of a blades performance in a specific area with a certain technique as the individuals will not all use the same methods so you can subdivide the results based on technique.

As an example, chopping with large blades can be done from the wrist with hand snaps, from the elbow, from the shoulder or from the back and hips. You could compile the results of many people using variations of these techniques and display the results in a table which would give a wealth of information. You could also do different tables for different sizes and types of wood. Similar could be done for different martial strikes of different systems.

Bart, I have long been interested in R.J.'s work, your comments about the edge durability are interesting. The Sebenza doesn't have what I would call a thick grind and referencing some of the recent posts in the Reeves forum it is not difficult to chip it out. What is about the most difficult cut you have performed with the Kozuka and for what kinds of things do you switch to the Sebenza?

-Cliff