Forged in Fire: Knife or Death

kuraki said:
Yeah. I have a few projects to clear before I start, then I'll have this and the bowies we talked about on deck.
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I’m behind right now too. I’ve had one of the busiest springs with my real job that I can remember.
 
kuraki said:
Long winters lead to lots of therapy? :D
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I’m 1/2h north of the most northern major metropolis in the world. Very cloudy long winter, where over 30% of the population experiences seasonal affective disorder. 168 days consecutive where the temp went to 0 deg C or lower every day. A record, for us, yeah!!!!

Lots of very angry, irritable people here.
 
skillgannon said:
I have always read that 1/4" was the min for a good competition chopper and sometimes they would go to 3/8". It's part of the reason they are crazy expensive especially if you have to buy a pre cut piece that will have waist.

I'm not sure that you would need something that thick though. Since a longer blade will get you the weight and might be wanted anyway. I would think something 1/4" to 5/16" with some distal taper would be ideal. Maybe even something like a Viking sword for the double edges. It seemed like you should start buy making a nimble slicing blade and then beef it up until it won't fail on the heavy chopping.
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For competition choppers anyway, you don't want distal taper. In fact, adding a swedge to the blade stopping 1/3 of the way from the tip to ADD weight at the tip is preferred. If no stabbing is required, that's the way I would go. My competition chopper is .25" thick O1.
 
kuraki said:
Ok here it is. My Knife or Death Competition Parang. 22 inches of murder and hate and 0.300 thick CPM 3V. I have no experience in cutting competitions though I don't believe this is a typical cutting competition, so I've tried to design something optimized for the challenges I saw.

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Yeeeeaaaahhh. I like the blood groove. So that when you chop into the pig carcass it doesn't get stuck by any vacuum. :)
 
Kevin McGovern said:
For competition choppers anyway, you don't want distal taper. In fact, adding a swedge to the blade stopping 1/3 of the way from the tip to ADD weight at the tip is preferred. If no stabbing is required, that's the way I would go. My competition chopper is .25" thick O1.
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For a competition chopper distal taper would be bad. The fun thing with this is that it is a unlimited contest. I'm going to guess that it will move to more of a slashing sword shape. It would need to be ruged enough to stand up to the hard chopping task but I think distal taper would help on all of the meat slicing test. Something like a Dao or a falchon might do good. As soon as the blade gets very long a cleaver type of knife is going to be really heavy.
 
Kevin McGovern said:
For competition choppers anyway, you don't want distal taper. In fact, adding a swedge to the blade stopping 1/3 of the way from the tip to ADD weight at the tip is preferred. If no stabbing is required, that's the way I would go. My competition chopper is .25" thick O1.
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Yep, when grinding a comp blade, you stop halfway across the belt when you reach the end of the blade to keep from tapering it.
 
skillgannon said:
1/2" chopper:eek:. Good God man, remind me never to shake your hand.

It does sound like a lot of fun. I was going to make some big bush machetes out of 80CRV2. It's only 3/16" but I was going for 24" overall. A2 would be pretty awsome
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The half inch was actually going to be for some integral (sort of estwing like) hatchets I had been thinking about. May make some smaller integrals or keyholes from the offcuts. 1/4" A2 is plenty for a chopper that size as far as I'm concerned..

My grip would be up to swinging a 1/2" thick knife, but the rest of me not so much!
 
skillgannon said:
For a competition chopper distal taper would be bad. The fun thing with this is that it is a unlimited contest. I'm going to guess that it will move to more of a slashing sword shape. It would need to be ruged enough to stand up to the hard chopping task but I think distal taper would help on all of the meat slicing test. Something like a Dao or a falchon might do good. As soon as the blade gets very long a cleaver type of knife is going to be really heavy.
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Think about it like a golf club. Light, long shaft and most of the weight at the end. This will help to keep weight down and swing speed up.
 
This'll be my entry, I think I'm going to build it just for fun. On my property I have a lot of small trees that are in badly need of some steel discipline. :cool:

And it'll probably work just fine for thinning out zombie herds.

Disclamer: I have no formal knowledge of these matters, I just try to combine form, fit and function to the best of my ability. And then have fun with it. Preferably by chopping choppable (or as it sometimes turns out) non-choppable objects.

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I like it just not the holes in the blade. I still think a double edge type knife or short sword would be the best with two edges, one for wood ect. ect. and the other side for meat type of cutting...fish...chicken ect. I'm sure you all will design something to compete with that's cool.
 
d762nato said:
I like it just not the holes in the blade. I still think a double edge type knife or short sword would be the best with two edges, one for wood ect. ect. and the other side for meat type of cutting...fish...chicken ect. I'm sure you all will design something to compete with that's cool.
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Thanks! Yeah, I wasn't sure the holes would be present in the final design. Just mucking around with it and wanted to try something new. I think I'll go with the well-proven Blood Groove(TM) design. Perfect for a Knife or Death type of competition. :rolleyes:

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Stromberg Knives said:
This'll be my entry, I think I'm going to build it just for fun. On my property I have a lot of small trees that are in badly need of some steel discipline. :cool:

And it'll probably work just fine for thinning out zombie herds.

Disclamer: I have no formal knowledge of these matters, I just try to combine form, fit and function to the best of my ability. And then have fun with it. Preferably by chopping choppable (or as it sometimes turns out) non-choppable objects.

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I offer some discussion.

Reucing weight holes in the belly - that reduces chopping force, plus introduces points where cracks will start

You have such a short tapered bevel- it's a thick wedge
Look clocely at that cowboy's competition chopper.
From what I can see, it's a full height flat grind -
with a holow ground middle for friction free clearance - with a thinly ground bevel and a convex edge.


I see cracks starting at the forward lanyard hole, to the forward pin hole then through.

There was no length limit on that first show, why not a longer handle for two hand hold, right now it looks short.
 
Yeah. I know that fellow won with a BSI compliant competition Chopper but I think there were some unnecessary compromises.

If you think about it, if one is not constrained by the 10" blade length of a BSI knife they could redistribute the weight from the ~5/16" blade thickness into a longer knife with a 1/4" blade. Same grind angle and edge geometry, same weight, potentially even the same center of gravity, but it moves the center of percussion (and the sweet spot just behind it) out a little giving you a larger cutting zone and a little more velocity in your cut.
 
Practical or not, I’d have a strong urge to show up with something like an Iron Age Celtic sword (in modern steel rather than work hardened iron of course). Good stabbing point and nice double edged slashing ability. Whack away on one edge through the beginning then spin to the second edge for slicing. Of course the main value would be going through the course swinging a sword like a crazy man.
 
If your blade is too long or too heavy you're going to struggle with things like falling watermelons...
 
It certainly didn't appear stabbing was either necessary or helpful. Unless you're worried about wrapping your relatively thin, mostly pearlite blade around the wooden crate.
 
Competitors did not know what sort of challenges they would face, considering the knives were being described as "Weapons" it was reasonable to assume that some stabbing would be necessary.
 
kuraki said:
It certainly didn't appear stabbing was either necessary or helpful. Unless you're worried about wrapping your relatively thin, mostly pearlite blade around the wooden crate.
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I’m rather surprised nobody simply stabbed the crate straight up through the bottom panel. I would think a nice hole directly in the bottom would theoretically drain out the contents nicely.
 
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