Folding knife lateral strength tests ?

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If some of you want to spend the time and $ and are curious, take your folding knives with G10 or macarta or FRN handles and clamp their

blades in a vise sideways(flat side up), then hang 2 Olympic 45Lbs plate(90lbs). I've looked on the web and only find vertical(spine) tests.
 
Have you done this test with your prototype?
That would be interesting to see pictures or videos of. :)
 
No sir.......$6000 prototype. But I'm sure there are a few folders out that qualify. Not to mention .....there could be interesting results.
 
Well it is curious to me that there are no lateral strength tests on folding knives. Idk....It's like only having strength at the front line and then your out flanked.
 
You could probably call that the "crowbar test" because essentially that's what you're doing. No knife is intended for that use or abuse.
 
While I think tests like these can be fun and sometimes prove valid points, often they end up sending the wrong message. The trend of super thick steel is a result of such tests. Sure they may be indestructible but how well do they cut? I admit that I bought into it for awhile, too. If you want to carry a folding prybar then that is totally fine by me. If you want to show a particular knife can take a bullet then that's okay too. But the end result seems to leave people thinking that the surviving knife in the maelstrom is somehow better.

I made a fixed blade that my buddy takes camping. He loves it. He says it performs around the camp better than anything he ever used. This knife (and a fixed blade mind you) has a blade of 5" long and .098 thick Elmax, would probably fail the 90 pound test miserably. I guarantee you though that it will outcut a blade that passes.

I don't mean to come across as so negative and I would even like to watch the video of that test but ultimately it proves nothing.
 
Idk.......If I were out for a while in the wilderness I would have a fixed blade for most tasks and a folder as backup. If then I'm down to my backup folder for some reason, then what ? Will it handle lateral force chores ?
 
What would you be doing that required you to put lateral stress on your folder or fixed blade to begin with in any situation?
 
Ok, I guess we're even. We fail to see each other's points.

If you only have knives thick enough to pry with when you're out in the wilderness then I hope you also have a satellite phone.
 
I guess I'm a little lost here. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for lateral strength. That's one of the reasons I carry a Swamp Rat Camp Tramp in my BOB. (Another reason is . . . well . . . you never know when you're going to need to cut your way out of Jeep. ;) ) But I also have a Mora in there for, you guessed it, cutting stuff. I wouldn't ask my Mora to perform the kinds of tasks I'd expect my Camp Tramp to handle and the same holds true for my folders. There's another issue, of course. Any folder that's capable of surviving the kind of lateral forces I assume you'd subject it to would have to be a tank. And the weight limit for most of my folders is 4 ounces or less . . . usually less. So a folding knife lateral strength test, while interesting, would be all but useless for my purposes.
 
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bld522,
I just wonder how current large folders,4" blade or longer, would do.
 
I don't know. Of course Cold Steel has this test where they suspend the Empire State Building off an Extra Large Espada and somehow it survives, so they must be onto something. ;)
 
Something I learned a long time ago, when you make anything that's supposed to do fill multiple roles you find that it never excels in any.

That's why they say right tool for the right job, prybar to pry, ax to chop, knife to cut, when you try to make one that does it all, something will suffer for it.

Sharpened prybars make terrible scalpels, scalpels make terrible prybars.

Do you see where I'm goin' with this?
 
As you can see from the link FTO posted the blade itself is where your likely to break the knife prying. Thats with just unlined g10 for scales, now up that with titanium liners with g10, a steel liner your not going to just snap it at the handle or have the scales snap. So you go with thicker steel or a tougher steel, like many makers have and do. You get to a point of diminishing returns eventually, either over complicating something thats not terribly complicated or ending up with blades that are thick and stout and don't cut worth a crap.


In other words the tests that your wanting to use to prove a need don't really prove anything at all in actual use. If your determined to show us all that we don't understand what your trying to prove, video it yourself on a few folders and then explain how that relates to actual use.
 
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