Cliff Stamp
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 5, 1998
- Messages
- 17,562
To start, this video is unlike the "Proof" video used by Cold Steel in that it isn't promotional, it doesn't have any commercial vibe, there is little mention of Fikes by name, no where does it mention price or how to order knives, or give any contact information. It mainly comes off as a bunch of guys just using some knives, I showed it to a few friends and it wasn't obvious to them immediately that Fikes made the knives he was using.
Parts of the work are very precise, measurements on media and cut depth, there is also a lot of fairly loose work, just cut up some things to just clear some room in a densely wooded area, so it is balanced in respect to field/testing. It is also clear that this is enjoyable, a lot of banter and joking around which creates the atmosphere of a few guys working with blades they own rather than trying to sell knives they make.
The first section starts off with Fikes using I think the Jungle Honey on some wood. He refers to it as an unnamed blade several times, but it looks very much like the Jungle Honey, which is similar to this in general style :
http://www.dfoggknives.com/Cloud Cutter.htm
The knife is used to cut a lot of wood, some of it is single cuts at maximum power, but there is also just general hacking to cut off a stick, work through a notch, and general clear away brush. The cutting is heavy, a lot is two handed, and the blade is not handled very gentle when it is drawn out of the wood at times either. The blade appears really light in hand to Fikes, there is one point where he holds a stick in his off hand and just whacks off sections one after another with the blade.
The next section has Bill Phillips shave with another knife which has elements of a cleaver in style and he does the shaving above the skin. It is very difficult to make out on video the exact details, as you can shave just barely touching the skin and have it very difficult to spot on film, but the knife is obviously very sharp.
Cutting is then performed on a series of paperback books, blades are simply pushed through the books, which are quite thick (inches), as well as chopped through a pile. The main point of this is to show the cutting ability by how easy they go through the books and the fact they are smoothly cut with no tearing. The blades used are the same blade used for the wood chopping, a large sword and a large cleaver-ish blade which is refered to as a chopper.
500 cuts are made through 3/4" hemp with the cleaver styled blade (I assume the same one), the cuts are made by a variety of people which focus the cutting on the back section of the blade and are made in a push/rocking cut. At the end of the cutting Fikes does a few cuts one handed to show the force has not increased significantly (he does this ever hundred or so cuts) and then slices some newsprint noting it hangs a little, but on the video it still appears to cut it very well. This is hard to show in a picture, but very easy to notice the difference in hand. The blade is then lightly buffed on "red chrome rouge" and restored to optimal. During the cutting, some of the guys harshly scrape the blade sideways across the stump which serves as a backing board, as well cutting into seasoned wood like that is also fairly blunting in and of itself, so the actual edge retention is a lot greater than just cutting the rope.
A bunch of single focused cuts are made into wood locked in a vertical vice. The size of the wood is increased until the blades stop being able to make clean cuts and the size of the wood and the length of the cuts is periodically measured. The cuts are done very heavy with a few blades including full length swords. Similar work is done then with rolls of newsprint consisting of incremental sizes up to fairly large rolls and sections of spruce 2x4, including one severed with two cuts, one on each side. There is also some commentary on technique showing some cuts which round and others which travel through on a consistent angle.
There is a short section which has about a half dozen people whacking at some woods in a densely wooded area with various blades, some of them are unfinished, have no handles.
A steel barrel is chopped into with a sword, a series of chops go about a third of the way into the barrel. This is noted as "abusive", and Fikes comments about how it chips the edge, little if any damage is apparent on the video aside from the scuffing along the sides which is mainly cosmetic. A tanto is then stabbed into the barrel and then pounded point first through a concrete block which does little aside from dulling it. The tanto is resharpened on a 1200 grit DMT hone by working freehand along the length of the blade, rocking the hone to conform to the profile, and finished on plain leather. The video ends with a short forging section.
A few things stand out strongly, one is that effort is made to allow the viewer to duplicate the work because details are given such as the type of wood in the 2x4's, the exact number of sheets of the newsprint, and measurements made on the depth of cuts, and up close shots of the cutting to show what the edges should look like. Fikes specifically encourages this for some work, and notes that he choose the media for that reason. The work is also extended to the point where the knives are damaged to show what this takes and it is noted this is abusive so don't do it unless you have to. There are also a lot of little details concerning cutting, such as rope flattening during cutting and the things that some people do to make it easier.
It is also clear that the knives are not designed specifically for the tasks, such as making a pure rope cutter which would be unable to chop hard wood, or making the blade so thick at the edge it cut the barrel well. Specifically for the barrel and concrete work, it looks like the same general profile is used as on the other blades, it is noted that they are just as sharp and not profiled with thick edges like cold chisels. In general this point is made by having the same blades both do precision cutting such as the rope and paper cutting and then taken to heavy cuts on hard woods, including specific cuts into knots at times.
I have not done some of the cutting performed so it is hard to judge the performance, however as noted it is easily duplicated and while some of it is very obviously dependent on skill such as cutting the rolls of newsprint, some of it is just dependent on the geometry and sharpness such as the paperback cutting so there is nothing stopping anyone for getting a feel for comparative performance independent of the blade user and just focused on the knife/knives. On a fairly amusing side note, there is a short blurb about how the aforementioned "Jungle Honey" is a small blade and how it can be used for utility with a foward grip, it has a 16" blade on a 14" handle, the steel stock isn't noted but I would be surprised it if wasn't at least 3/16" and more like 1/4" as it is very rigid in the wood working.
-Cliff
Parts of the work are very precise, measurements on media and cut depth, there is also a lot of fairly loose work, just cut up some things to just clear some room in a densely wooded area, so it is balanced in respect to field/testing. It is also clear that this is enjoyable, a lot of banter and joking around which creates the atmosphere of a few guys working with blades they own rather than trying to sell knives they make.
The first section starts off with Fikes using I think the Jungle Honey on some wood. He refers to it as an unnamed blade several times, but it looks very much like the Jungle Honey, which is similar to this in general style :
http://www.dfoggknives.com/Cloud Cutter.htm
The knife is used to cut a lot of wood, some of it is single cuts at maximum power, but there is also just general hacking to cut off a stick, work through a notch, and general clear away brush. The cutting is heavy, a lot is two handed, and the blade is not handled very gentle when it is drawn out of the wood at times either. The blade appears really light in hand to Fikes, there is one point where he holds a stick in his off hand and just whacks off sections one after another with the blade.
The next section has Bill Phillips shave with another knife which has elements of a cleaver in style and he does the shaving above the skin. It is very difficult to make out on video the exact details, as you can shave just barely touching the skin and have it very difficult to spot on film, but the knife is obviously very sharp.
Cutting is then performed on a series of paperback books, blades are simply pushed through the books, which are quite thick (inches), as well as chopped through a pile. The main point of this is to show the cutting ability by how easy they go through the books and the fact they are smoothly cut with no tearing. The blades used are the same blade used for the wood chopping, a large sword and a large cleaver-ish blade which is refered to as a chopper.
500 cuts are made through 3/4" hemp with the cleaver styled blade (I assume the same one), the cuts are made by a variety of people which focus the cutting on the back section of the blade and are made in a push/rocking cut. At the end of the cutting Fikes does a few cuts one handed to show the force has not increased significantly (he does this ever hundred or so cuts) and then slices some newsprint noting it hangs a little, but on the video it still appears to cut it very well. This is hard to show in a picture, but very easy to notice the difference in hand. The blade is then lightly buffed on "red chrome rouge" and restored to optimal. During the cutting, some of the guys harshly scrape the blade sideways across the stump which serves as a backing board, as well cutting into seasoned wood like that is also fairly blunting in and of itself, so the actual edge retention is a lot greater than just cutting the rope.
A bunch of single focused cuts are made into wood locked in a vertical vice. The size of the wood is increased until the blades stop being able to make clean cuts and the size of the wood and the length of the cuts is periodically measured. The cuts are done very heavy with a few blades including full length swords. Similar work is done then with rolls of newsprint consisting of incremental sizes up to fairly large rolls and sections of spruce 2x4, including one severed with two cuts, one on each side. There is also some commentary on technique showing some cuts which round and others which travel through on a consistent angle.
There is a short section which has about a half dozen people whacking at some woods in a densely wooded area with various blades, some of them are unfinished, have no handles.
A steel barrel is chopped into with a sword, a series of chops go about a third of the way into the barrel. This is noted as "abusive", and Fikes comments about how it chips the edge, little if any damage is apparent on the video aside from the scuffing along the sides which is mainly cosmetic. A tanto is then stabbed into the barrel and then pounded point first through a concrete block which does little aside from dulling it. The tanto is resharpened on a 1200 grit DMT hone by working freehand along the length of the blade, rocking the hone to conform to the profile, and finished on plain leather. The video ends with a short forging section.
A few things stand out strongly, one is that effort is made to allow the viewer to duplicate the work because details are given such as the type of wood in the 2x4's, the exact number of sheets of the newsprint, and measurements made on the depth of cuts, and up close shots of the cutting to show what the edges should look like. Fikes specifically encourages this for some work, and notes that he choose the media for that reason. The work is also extended to the point where the knives are damaged to show what this takes and it is noted this is abusive so don't do it unless you have to. There are also a lot of little details concerning cutting, such as rope flattening during cutting and the things that some people do to make it easier.
It is also clear that the knives are not designed specifically for the tasks, such as making a pure rope cutter which would be unable to chop hard wood, or making the blade so thick at the edge it cut the barrel well. Specifically for the barrel and concrete work, it looks like the same general profile is used as on the other blades, it is noted that they are just as sharp and not profiled with thick edges like cold chisels. In general this point is made by having the same blades both do precision cutting such as the rope and paper cutting and then taken to heavy cuts on hard woods, including specific cuts into knots at times.
I have not done some of the cutting performed so it is hard to judge the performance, however as noted it is easily duplicated and while some of it is very obviously dependent on skill such as cutting the rolls of newsprint, some of it is just dependent on the geometry and sharpness such as the paperback cutting so there is nothing stopping anyone for getting a feel for comparative performance independent of the blade user and just focused on the knife/knives. On a fairly amusing side note, there is a short blurb about how the aforementioned "Jungle Honey" is a small blade and how it can be used for utility with a foward grip, it has a 16" blade on a 14" handle, the steel stock isn't noted but I would be surprised it if wasn't at least 3/16" and more like 1/4" as it is very rigid in the wood working.
-Cliff
