Glock Knives

G

gamboolman

Joined
Mar 18, 2006
Messages
25
I am curious as to the members opinion on the Glock Field knives?

Any comments and information would be much appreciated

Thanks, gamboolman.....
 
cheap durable, feild knife, similar quality to a kbar. easy and fun to throw. cheap plastic sheath.
 
Yup! I'd like to see Glock come out with a folder. A Good Glock folder!
 
way too steep of a grind,doesn't cut worth a darn without a lot of reprofiling.
 
I looked at previous threads about the Glock knife, and the best comment found was from a poster called 'confederate,' who, commenting on the vaunted toughness of the Glock knife, said:

"You can bury it, freeze it, pour lye all over it, leave it out under a sprinkler for a week, throw it out of a plane and it'll do everything but cut.

When buying a pistol, buy a Glock. When buying a knife, get a Benchmade or a Spyderco.
"
 
I test one when I was in the army, decent knife for the buck but ... too light for batoning, poor edge holding, the blade will broke easly if abuse of it ...
My conclusion is : If you want a low priced knife for moderate use , why not, other than that, there are better choice on the market ;)
 
Great balance for throwing!
It's no throw away if one can manage to keep the rust at bay.
As said in dozens of similar threads; with an adapter, it becomes a military bayonet - works very much like a USGI M7 bayonet which has its roots im the WW2 US M3 trench combat knife.
Bottomline an excellent ecomomically priced fighting knife first and foremost.
 
TAKULU said:
Low hardness about HRc48-50.
Click to expand...

If you take a look at the Glock website, they specify HRC55, I remeber this being the case several years ago as well, when I bought my Glock FK 78.

It's not a great cutter, since it's thick and has a steep saber grind. You'll probably need to sharpen it when new if you want it (shaving) sharp. I recommend you also take the time to sharpen the clip point. From the two examples I've sharpened, they took a polished shaving edge very easily. They keep the edge decently, but again, not exactly great. I've found they respond well to steeling and stropping.

After sharpening, A glock FK is a good 'sticker', as much as any bayonet, and stands up well to prying (as it was designed to). The cap lifter that's built into the guard works well - Glock knives are probably one of the coolest bottle openers around :D The sheath is robust and smart.

All in all, these are tough tools that can take abuse. You won't really filet a trout with one, but as a well-balanced, sharpened pry-bar it's excellent value. Good in a toolbox for random tasks, surprisingly good as a garden tool(!), and I'm sure it would be an acceptable weapon...
 
Mine came with an edge that was as dull as butter knife, although I've handled examples in stores who's factory edges were shaving sharp, so if you're going to order one off the internet, you won't know whether it will come with a decent edge or not. I used a file to put an good working edge on it, but it doesn't hold the edge worth a crap, probably due to the softness of the steel. Speaking of which, I have heard that Glock uses 5160 carbon steel in these, but that might not be true. At any rate, it is THE toughest knife I've ever owned. I've done things with it that knives should not be used for, and it just kept on coming back for more. Just for kicks, I once stuck it into a tree and stood on it. No problems. I thought, what the heck, why not try THIS, and jumped on it a few times, putting all my 190lbs into it. (It is only a $30 knife, so I wasn't too worried.) It bent a little, then came back to true. In short, its edge holding and cutting abilities leave much to be desired, but its a darn tough knife. Oh, and the bottle opener is neat, too. Nothing like pulling out a big ol' fightin' knife in front of your friends, and then popping open a beer (or soda, in my case) bottle with it!:D

Out of 5:

-Edge retention:1.5 Sucks, not much more to say here.
-Toughness/ Duribility:5 :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
-Ergonomics :2.5 It's comfortable in the hand, but nothing special.
-Sheath Design:5 For a $30 knife, it comes with an excellant sheath.
 
Way-O said:
If you take a look at the Glock website, they specify HRC55, I remeber this being the case several years ago as well, when I bought my Glock FK 78.
Click to expand...
I have tested three Glock field knives (2 G78 and 1 G81) personally, and all these knives have hardness around HRc 48-50. Before the hardness test, I have calibrated the Rockwell tester and indenter with a standard (hardness of HRc62).
I am a doctor of material science and now in charge of a material test lab. Being a hobby knife maker, I have ever tested many knives using the Rockwell tester and IMO the website specification is not always right, Glock knife for example. While the low hardness results in their low edge retention, it also constributes to the higher toughness.
 
Interesting. I never felt that I got as poor edge retention as I'd expect from HRC ~49... But I'm not going to argue with those test results. May I ask what area of the blades did you test?
 
Considering it has a full hardening blade, I have tested three points on the flat area of the blade (two near the spine and one near the recasso) with each knife. (The bevel area is hard to test due to its bevel and I don't have a proper jig for it.)

OK, I know people will say "Hey, the edge should be harder than the spine", but trust me I don't think in such low price knives they will partially harden them. And even the thiner edge area will cool faster than the thick spine area in quench process, still I don't think the hardness will show huge difference, say more than 3 degree, because the heat from spine will transfer back to the edge area in the quench.

I guess the better edge retention of these Glock Field knives as you mentioned may come from their better geometry than most other knives at the same level (price and hardness). My own experience shows that the edge retention of these GFs are OK when cutting soft material but poor when cutting hard stuff. However, after reprofile the edge of my M7 bayonet to the same angle, I didn't see much difference on their edge retention. Forget to say, the M7 bayonet has also hardness about HRc50.

I don't know whether the GFs they sold to Taiwan are inferior or they are all the same, but my test showed the results. Maybe you can do the hardness test by yourself or deputed. If its not convenient, a simple rod compression test on the edge can also tell something. Why not try it and tell us the result. These information will be helpful to us formites.:)
 
Yeah, I don't think they are differentially hardened, and testing several points like you did, should reduce any error or anomaly... A test closer to the cutting edge would be nice, but as you said, hard to do - and likely not as accurate. Only things that I can think of that could affect the test outcome would be the coating and also possible carbon loss on the surface of the blade. But of course it's not a big deal to sand off the coating and a bit of metal (one-fifth of a millimeter or a bit more perhaps..?) from the test area...

Yes I could send mine to be tested, it doesn't cost too much. Maybe I will, but since you've already done multiple examples, I'm not sure if that's necessary.

BTW, have you approached the GLOCK company concerning these findings? I'm sure they do some kind of quality control checks, but whether or not specific hardness tests on random samples, who knows. They might be interested to hear about the difference between what they market and what the actual product is. I think 5-7 rc points is quite a large difference... Another thing is if they find this sort of thing just trivial - or do they know at all that their product is not up to specs.
 
Way-O said:
Only things that I can think of that could affect the test outcome would be the coating and also possible carbon loss on the surface of the blade.
BTW, have you approached the GLOCK company concerning these findings? I'm sure they do some kind of quality control checks, but whether or not specific hardness tests on random samples, who knows. They might be interested to hear about the difference between what they market and what the actual product is. I think 5-7 rc points is quite a large difference... Another thing is if they find this sort of thing just trivial - or do they know at all that their product is not up to specs.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I do have experience of the lower hardness on possible carbon loss area on the surface of the blade.:) The buck strider 880 folder for example. My test on the 880 blade showed the hardness of HRc54, which made me very upset. However, my later edge test like scratching another knives with known hardness revealed that the edge is much harder than 54. After sanding off the blasting surface, my 880 has recover its nominal hardness.:) Those D2 knives I heat treated myself also need to be ground 0ff at least 0.5mm on the surface to reach its real hardness.
However, that is another case. For GFs, my test on the edge like chopping 2x4 wood, cutting carpet and cardboard boxes show a low edge retention. Honestly, I have ever thrown one of my GFs, a G78, and after a few throws this knife bended. That's what made me do the hardness test of these GFs.

I gave away all my GFs to my friends who are not knife fans soon after the hardness test and never turn back. I never contacted Glock company about this since my english, as you can see, is poor and its too time-consuming for me. But I do have warn my formites about these finding in Taiwan's Knifeedgeforum (I am administrator of this Knifeedgeforums : http://www.knifeedgeforums.com/forums/)
I tell them just treat the GFs like military style bayonet, then it will be OK. No big deal.:)
 
TAKULU said:
I gave away all my GFs to my friends who are not knife fans soon after the hardness test and never turn back. I never contacted Glock company about this since my english, as you can see, is poor and its too time-consuming for me. But I do have warn my formites about these finding in Taiwan's Knifeedgeforum (I am administrator of this Knifeedgeforums : http://www.knifeedgeforums.com/forums/)
I tell them just treat the GFs like military style bayonet, then it will be OK. No big deal.:)
Click to expand...

I think that we should expect more from a company like Glock that has refined the pistol to the point that it is now synonymous with police sidearm.

Your english seems a lot better than many native speakers.
I think you should totally approach Glock and make them aware of your findings so that the next person like me that buys one isn't dissapointed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top