We've been getting a bit of wind this evening here in seacoastal Maine, and my tomato plants are getting a little blown-about, even in their cages/stakes
I have a Pineapple Tomato plant (red/orange stripey heirloom, indescribably delicious, sweet and tangy) in a large tomato cage, but the wind is causing the plant to actually lean the cage over a good angle, and a Sunsugar cherry tomato plant (orange cherries, incredibly sweet, tastes like candy, even people who don't like tomatoes seem to like sunsugars) that is tied to a thin bamboo stake (1/4" or so)
I found some 3/4" 6 footer bamboo stakes in the toolshed that I forgot I had, these stakes are far stronger and more rugged than the wimpy 1/4" stake and the steel tomato cage, so I decided to turn these stakes into supports for the tomato cage, and replace the Sunsugar's stake with one of the 3/4" stakes
First off, I had to point the narrow end of the stake, so I perused my pockets, and found I had enough knives on me to perform an impromptu cutting competition...
The contenders;
Case TruSharp Peanut
Case TruSharp Stockman
Victorinox Alox Soldier
Spyderco Spyderhawk SE (H-1)
Spyderco Manix PE (forest green, FFG S30V)
First contestant, the Peanut, I wanted to see if the little Peanut could handle putting a point on the bamboo stake, sadly, it would have taken a long time to point the stake with the Peanut, I got about half way through before I decided it was taking too long, and yes, the Peanut was Scary Sharp, it *DID* make short work of the baling twine though
Second contestant, the Stockman, the sheepsfoot blade made short work of the stake, whittling a point on in short order, and allowing decent control to shape and form the edges of the cut, after the cut, it had lost a *little* bit of hair-popping sharpness
Third contestant, the Vic Alox Soldier, this one *amazed* me, the Soldier's blade cut through the bamboo like a laser, it took a mere 6-7 cuts to create the point, and I was able to smoothly round the edges off and bring the tip of the stake to a nice, sharp point, truly brilliant performance
Fourth contestant, the Spyderco Spyderhawk, I was expecting big things of the 'Hawk's serrated H-1 blade, but was sadly dissapointed, it performed worse than the Peanut, probably due to the serrations, it just couldn't get a decent "bite" on the bamboo, I finished this stake off with the Soldier
Fifth and final contestant, the Spyderco Manix, it performed identically to the Vic. Soldier, quick, solid cuts (6-7), and great shaping ability, I was also able to create a nice sharp pointed stake with the Manix
This was an interesting little contest, and I'd rate the contestants as follows;
First place (tie); Vic. Alox Soldier and Spyderco Manix, I expected the Manix to do well, after all, it's a big, brute of a knife, powerful, sharp, yet amazingly precise and able to make finesse cuts with ease, I wasn't expecting the Soldier to perform as amazingly well as it did, it's just a plain great knife, amazingly good cutter, and the additional tools make it all the more useful, there's a reason I've had this knife on me since I bought it five years ago
Second Place; Case Stockman (medium), the TruSharp Sheepsfoot blade did a great job bringing out a rough point on the stake, but lost a couple points for the lack of finesse cutting ability, I wonder if the spear point blade would have finesse cut better
Third Place; Case Peanut, I guess that hard bamboo stake was just too much for the Peanut's thin main blade, that same main blade cleaved through the baling twine incredibly easily though, so not a total loss, just not the right knife for the job at hand (pointing a bamboo stake)
Last place; Spyderco Spyderhawk SE, I really hate to give last place to *ANY* Spydie, as I love them (yes, i know, heresy to say this in the Traditionals forum
), but the facts don't lie, the SpyderEdged Spyderhawk was the *wrong* knife for the job, the serrations could simply not get a decent bite in the bamboo and kept wanting to rise out of the cut and skate over the surface, I wonder how a PE H-1 knife would fare in this test, sadly, I have no more 3/4" bamboo stakes, 'cause I also wanted to try my Buck 303 Stockman, but that one was on my computer desk...
One final group of ratings, the resharpening test;
First place; Case TruSharp, both the Peanut and Stockman sharpened back up to hair-popping Scary in less than 10 strokes on the Sharpmaker, TruSharp may not hold an edge particularly well, although it's not bad, but it resharpens nicely
Second place; (tie) Spyderco Spyderhawk H-1, Victorinox Alox Soldier, both of these knives easily returned to Scary with 12-15 strokes on the Sharpmaker
Last place; Spyderco Manix; Dear Og I forgot how much of a pain in the arse it is for me to resharpen S30V, and the Manix didn't get too far off Hair-Popping Scary, it just is giving me a headache getting it back there
I was pleased to see that my "traditional" knives were able to stand head-to-head with my "moderns", and in some cases, actually surpass them, the ease of resharpening is alo quite welcome, as that's the one thing I'm really starting to hate about the "Übersteel" knives, once you have that Scary edge on them, it's always a headache (at least for me) to get them back to Scary, but then again, I'm kind of obsessive like that , traditionals easily get to Scary levels, and it's dead easy to resharpen them back to that level as well
I have a Pineapple Tomato plant (red/orange stripey heirloom, indescribably delicious, sweet and tangy) in a large tomato cage, but the wind is causing the plant to actually lean the cage over a good angle, and a Sunsugar cherry tomato plant (orange cherries, incredibly sweet, tastes like candy, even people who don't like tomatoes seem to like sunsugars) that is tied to a thin bamboo stake (1/4" or so)
I found some 3/4" 6 footer bamboo stakes in the toolshed that I forgot I had, these stakes are far stronger and more rugged than the wimpy 1/4" stake and the steel tomato cage, so I decided to turn these stakes into supports for the tomato cage, and replace the Sunsugar's stake with one of the 3/4" stakes
First off, I had to point the narrow end of the stake, so I perused my pockets, and found I had enough knives on me to perform an impromptu cutting competition...
The contenders;
Case TruSharp Peanut
Case TruSharp Stockman
Victorinox Alox Soldier
Spyderco Spyderhawk SE (H-1)
Spyderco Manix PE (forest green, FFG S30V)
First contestant, the Peanut, I wanted to see if the little Peanut could handle putting a point on the bamboo stake, sadly, it would have taken a long time to point the stake with the Peanut, I got about half way through before I decided it was taking too long, and yes, the Peanut was Scary Sharp, it *DID* make short work of the baling twine though
Second contestant, the Stockman, the sheepsfoot blade made short work of the stake, whittling a point on in short order, and allowing decent control to shape and form the edges of the cut, after the cut, it had lost a *little* bit of hair-popping sharpness
Third contestant, the Vic Alox Soldier, this one *amazed* me, the Soldier's blade cut through the bamboo like a laser, it took a mere 6-7 cuts to create the point, and I was able to smoothly round the edges off and bring the tip of the stake to a nice, sharp point, truly brilliant performance
Fourth contestant, the Spyderco Spyderhawk, I was expecting big things of the 'Hawk's serrated H-1 blade, but was sadly dissapointed, it performed worse than the Peanut, probably due to the serrations, it just couldn't get a decent "bite" on the bamboo, I finished this stake off with the Soldier
Fifth and final contestant, the Spyderco Manix, it performed identically to the Vic. Soldier, quick, solid cuts (6-7), and great shaping ability, I was also able to create a nice sharp pointed stake with the Manix
This was an interesting little contest, and I'd rate the contestants as follows;
First place (tie); Vic. Alox Soldier and Spyderco Manix, I expected the Manix to do well, after all, it's a big, brute of a knife, powerful, sharp, yet amazingly precise and able to make finesse cuts with ease, I wasn't expecting the Soldier to perform as amazingly well as it did, it's just a plain great knife, amazingly good cutter, and the additional tools make it all the more useful, there's a reason I've had this knife on me since I bought it five years ago
Second Place; Case Stockman (medium), the TruSharp Sheepsfoot blade did a great job bringing out a rough point on the stake, but lost a couple points for the lack of finesse cutting ability, I wonder if the spear point blade would have finesse cut better
Third Place; Case Peanut, I guess that hard bamboo stake was just too much for the Peanut's thin main blade, that same main blade cleaved through the baling twine incredibly easily though, so not a total loss, just not the right knife for the job at hand (pointing a bamboo stake)
Last place; Spyderco Spyderhawk SE, I really hate to give last place to *ANY* Spydie, as I love them (yes, i know, heresy to say this in the Traditionals forum
), but the facts don't lie, the SpyderEdged Spyderhawk was the *wrong* knife for the job, the serrations could simply not get a decent bite in the bamboo and kept wanting to rise out of the cut and skate over the surface, I wonder how a PE H-1 knife would fare in this test, sadly, I have no more 3/4" bamboo stakes, 'cause I also wanted to try my Buck 303 Stockman, but that one was on my computer desk...One final group of ratings, the resharpening test;
First place; Case TruSharp, both the Peanut and Stockman sharpened back up to hair-popping Scary in less than 10 strokes on the Sharpmaker, TruSharp may not hold an edge particularly well, although it's not bad, but it resharpens nicely
Second place; (tie) Spyderco Spyderhawk H-1, Victorinox Alox Soldier, both of these knives easily returned to Scary with 12-15 strokes on the Sharpmaker
Last place; Spyderco Manix; Dear Og I forgot how much of a pain in the arse it is for me to resharpen S30V, and the Manix didn't get too far off Hair-Popping Scary, it just is giving me a headache getting it back there
I was pleased to see that my "traditional" knives were able to stand head-to-head with my "moderns", and in some cases, actually surpass them, the ease of resharpening is alo quite welcome, as that's the one thing I'm really starting to hate about the "Übersteel" knives, once you have that Scary edge on them, it's always a headache (at least for me) to get them back to Scary, but then again, I'm kind of obsessive like that
, traditionals easily get to Scary levels, and it's dead easy to resharpen them back to that level as well
