- Joined
- Jun 14, 2015
- Messages
- 17
Greetings to you all, I'm new to Blade Forums so please bear with me. I have been collecting knives of different sorts for years and love to study and read about them, and about metallurgy and the materials behind them.
Here are some questions related to knives that I would like to see what others have to say regarding.
1 Without getting into any overly political discussion, what are the main factors that determine a knife or cutting tool being high quality vs low quality? Is it the labor costs for the workers making the knives, is it the starting materials (ie the purity and quality of the iron ore and other metals), is it the level of quality-control that goes into each knife, or what? As an example:
I held two knives and used two knives side by side: One was a fixed blade Mora of Sweden (formerly Frosts of Sweden) with the superb Swedish Stainless Steel blade (Sandvik) and the other was a made-in-China fixed blade. Ironically, both the Mora and the China made knife were low in price compared to many other knives (both under 20 dollars). The Swedish Mora knife was definitely superior in quality, edge-sharpness, and other factors, such as cosmetic grind lines, and the rest. What are the defining reasons for this?
See, it gets odd, because, from my studies of ancient China and Chinese weaponry, the ancient Chinese made world-reknowned blade steel, up there with the Japanese laminated katanas and such. Some of the ancient Chinese swords, if their claims were true, were known to be "sharper than a bee sting" and the makers would test their strength by slicing pieces from boulders/rocks. And I have seen quality knives made in China, no doubt. And so again, what are some of the defining reasons that make one knife or knives good quality and others low quality and prone to breakage and problems?
2 If you were to speculate, and please by all means feel free to, based on what you see in science and technology advancement, and physics, what types of improvements in knife blades and handles and materials should we expect to or can we hope to see as the years and decades and centuries roll on by?
Will we see, for example, active-edged knives and blades made with nanotechnology based molecular precision materials like diamond, ceramics, and new alloys and polymers? And would we be able to see knives made of focused energy and electrical and laser based things?
How about 3d printed and "replicated" knives made at home and the blueprint software designs downloaded from the internet?
Thank you!
Here are some questions related to knives that I would like to see what others have to say regarding.
1 Without getting into any overly political discussion, what are the main factors that determine a knife or cutting tool being high quality vs low quality? Is it the labor costs for the workers making the knives, is it the starting materials (ie the purity and quality of the iron ore and other metals), is it the level of quality-control that goes into each knife, or what? As an example:
I held two knives and used two knives side by side: One was a fixed blade Mora of Sweden (formerly Frosts of Sweden) with the superb Swedish Stainless Steel blade (Sandvik) and the other was a made-in-China fixed blade. Ironically, both the Mora and the China made knife were low in price compared to many other knives (both under 20 dollars). The Swedish Mora knife was definitely superior in quality, edge-sharpness, and other factors, such as cosmetic grind lines, and the rest. What are the defining reasons for this?
See, it gets odd, because, from my studies of ancient China and Chinese weaponry, the ancient Chinese made world-reknowned blade steel, up there with the Japanese laminated katanas and such. Some of the ancient Chinese swords, if their claims were true, were known to be "sharper than a bee sting" and the makers would test their strength by slicing pieces from boulders/rocks. And I have seen quality knives made in China, no doubt. And so again, what are some of the defining reasons that make one knife or knives good quality and others low quality and prone to breakage and problems?
2 If you were to speculate, and please by all means feel free to, based on what you see in science and technology advancement, and physics, what types of improvements in knife blades and handles and materials should we expect to or can we hope to see as the years and decades and centuries roll on by?
Will we see, for example, active-edged knives and blades made with nanotechnology based molecular precision materials like diamond, ceramics, and new alloys and polymers? And would we be able to see knives made of focused energy and electrical and laser based things?
How about 3d printed and "replicated" knives made at home and the blueprint software designs downloaded from the internet?
Thank you!