• The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
    Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
    Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.

  • Today marks the 24th anniversary of 9/11. I pray that this nation does not forget the loss of lives from this horrible event. Yesterday conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was murdered, and I worry about what is to come. Please love one another and your family in these trying times - Spark

Get together at the CPK compound on November 12th, the day after the cutting competition.

tokerblue said:
Impressions of the K18 and K20 from the people who were fortunate enough to handle them?
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yoko said:
K18 is a monster
K20 precision scalpel
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Yoko is right in his statement. The K18 is a masterfully designed powerhouse. Each edge is designed for specific cuts. The K20 is for effortlessly cutting soft targets (and LARPing🤣)

Both the K18 & K20 can be used one-handed. The difference is the K20 feels like a feather and flicks effortlessly. Both swords can chop through a 2x4, I tested it out firsthand. Obviously, the K18 was designed for chopping through wood and the K20 was not. The K18 can 3 hit 2x4s in my case, one hit them if you're Dan the MAN. But I was blown away after I experienced the K20 chop through a 2x4 in 3-5 hits. And show no signs of wear whatsoever. For such a lightweight & thin blade it can perform a lot of cuts/chops that would break or damage other swords. Truly remarkable.
 
DrBC said:
Yoko is right in his statement. The K18 is a masterfully designed powerhouse. Each edge is designed for specific cuts. The K20 is for effortlessly cutting soft targets (and LARPing🤣)

Both the K18 & K20 can be used one-handed. The difference is the K20 feels like a feather and flicks effortlessly. Both swords can chop through a 2x4, I tested it out firsthand. Obviously, the K18 was designed for chopping through wood and the K20 was not. The K18 can 3 hit 2x4s in my case, one hit them if you're Dan the MAN. But I was blown away after I experienced the K20 chop through a 2x4 in 3-5 hits. And show no signs of wear whatsoever. For such a lightweight & thin blade it can perform a lot of cuts/chops that would break or damage other swords. Truly remarkable.
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Both the K18 and K20 can perform cuts that historical blades could not perform, and can withstand use and abuse that would destroy a historical sword. I would wager that either one of them could cut most swords into pieces
 
yoko said:
Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist .... do you remember Saturday night by the fire you said

"I'm changing the logo to a picture of you"

I still advise against that

Hahahahaha
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OK, I didn't wanna open my BIG mouth and say anything but now that you have started me off, I can not stop! LOLz...

Based on all the photos which I've seen posted from the event, the clear supermodel material among the bevy of the beauties I had the pleasure of seeing their actual faces is BEAU (DrBC)! I mean, there is not even a close 2nd, LOL... He is young, fit and in shape; clearly a rose among the thorns :p 🤣

Now for some other purely biased opinion, Eric (FinestFoneDorkDirk) shows potential specially when donning Kevlar dresses and I have to hand it to Jo, she married a handsome guy who seem to be aging like fine wine if he takes care of himself. The rest of youse better have very fat bank accounts 🤣

Oh lastly Mike, my bestie: the best looking monk ever in that attire complemented with the Kevlar! I can take him to Tibet and he will easily supplant the Dalai Lama or any other lama or even alpacas for that matter! He's just so pure, so angelic looking 😁
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
Both the K18 and K20 can perform cuts that historical blades could not perform, and can withstand use and abuse that would destroy a historical sword. I would wager that either one of them could cut most swords into pieces
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No doubt.

I posted about it before, that historians have actually tested historical swords (European, Middle Eastern and Asian), and a couple of striking things that stood out:
- edge hardnesses were all over the place, ranging anywhere from the mid-40s hRc, to generally mid-50s hRc.

- one of the tests I read about, was testing the consistency in the heat treat of various historical swords. They tested the edge hardness of several swords every 5cm/2" down the blade, and found that many swords showed variations in the hardness down the edge of the same blade.

- even with historical Japanese swords like tachi and katana, (which any sword enthusiast knows is differentially hardened, so the edge is harder, while the spine stays softer to better absorb impact without the blade snapping from being too hard/brittle all the way through), it's pretty rare to find edge hardness reaching 60 hRc. Most of the historical katana and tachi tested, topped out in the high 50s hRc (with the spine in the low 40s).

Nate's D3V is really in a whole different league for swords. His D3V is 60.5 hRc, which is already harder than just about any of the historical swords, but what REALLY blew my mind, was the K18 flex test video. Until that video, I had NO idea that D3V could do that and return to true.

No historical swords even close to that hardness, would survive that (also posted before about seeing an idiot with more money than brains/skill, permanently bend their 5-figure genuine Nihonto on a poorly angled cut in tameshigiri).

*** just an FYI, but Albion swords has a good reputation amongst sword enthusiasts for their quality, and historically accurate Western sword designs and construction. Their swords are flexible, and resilient and are very common in HEMA cutting competitions. They average about 54.4 hRc.


An old BF thread, that gives an idea, from ABS standards
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads...-read-this-and-tell-me-what-you-think.141810/

*** I tried to warn Nate how the K20 preorder would go. I don't think he believed me 😅

P.P.S.
Nate, you really should tell Bennie to wear eye pro for some of these tests. All it takes is one high velocity bit of material to the eye, to make for a bad day.
 
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Nathan the Machinist said:
Both the K18 and K20 can perform cuts that historical blades could not perform, and can withstand use and abuse that would destroy a historical sword. I would wager that either one of them could cut most swords into pieces
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And this is how Dan and Nathan got kicked out of the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds and declared persona non grata by His Majesty's government.
 
I met "the" or "a" Royal Armourer years ago at the Blade Show...20+ years ago...he had built a magnificent knife with steel from the Towers following 9/11. It was a wonderful tribute. Very nice man.

I tried to meet up with him at Windsor Castle when I was in London working a case, but he was unavailable that day. They had quite an assortment of cutlery on show at Windsor Castle. I could've spent a month. This would be in 2002 or so.
 
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