Green Beret Destruction Test

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I think the knife tests are great. For me personally I buy a knife to cut things. I use a hatchet to chop/dig, and generally abuse. If you use a knife for these things the tests will really tell you what a certain knife will take. To each his own.
 
RoyalM said:
If I was going to take only 1 knife with me on a mission as maybe a Green Beret will do from time to time then I would want it to be the best knife for the job. Any questions in my mind about a knife would have to be answered before I would take it so I would be looking to independent testers to answer some of my questions.

I've used knives for years when i've been operational and the tasks have gone from digging shell-scrapes, dropping trees, prying open stuff, hammering stuff and yes even piercing sheet steel on occasion. If I took a knife purely on the manufacturers advert and it broke I would not only be pissed but without a knife as there aren't many shops selling knives in the desert or the Himalayan Kush.

I recommend knives to friends but I also advise looking online for reviews so they can select the best knife for them. Noss adds to the info out there and does tests that answer any nagging little doubts many people have to the levels of extreme use they may or may not use their knife for.

I say keep the testing going Noss, ignore those that can't be open minded about how a knife is tested.
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I agree. It's good to see just how much 'abuse/misuse' a blade, esp one touted as a "field/hard use/survival/fighting" knife. I'm generalizing here but I hope my point is understood.

JTR357 said:
Interesting videos.Have you ever done one of these destruction tests with 3V like Ferhmen's or a Zt0100?I'd like to see how they held up.
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I was going to ask the same thing. I know if forced to choose I would pick and actually have chosen my Fehrman over my Green Beret to accompany my B.O.B. It's just a matter of knowing that my Fehrman is more suited to the things I may require of it.
I like my G.B. but notice that I tend to 'baby' it due to the cost of it and the nagging fear that it could chip/break more easily than any of the other fb I own.

My $0.02, ymmv.
 
Awesome test Noss, I was REALLY surprised the flagship TACTICAL knife for CRK industries that was designed specifically for Rangers failed under such small stress. It is crazy to see something a $20 knife can do easily (Cold Steel GI Tanto) that a $300 high end production can't. That being said there is defiently a question in the back of my mind about an inclusion or stress fracture present at production. With the 58 RC that CRK tempers at it's hard to believe that under normal failure such a pronounced and symmetric fault line would seperate. Maybe Noss could send it in to someone like Paul Bos to check it out????

Once again Noss, I REALLY appreciate what you do. Knowing what can, and what can't take a beating definetly helps. Some knives are just meant to cut, and there is nothing wrong with that, but then they aren't tactical are they??? ;)
 
I expect the new test for any piece of SEAL equipement to hit it with a 3 lb hammer
 
I dont care about the test he did. I carried a GB in Iraq 2003-2004. And will carry it on my next trip also.
 
Noss, thanks for your tests. My grandfather told me that when he was a kid and two guys thought they had the best knife the test was simple. Place the knives at a 90 degree angle(make an X), cutting edge to cutting edge, and smack them with a hammer. The best knife would survive.
 
eagle359 said:
Noss, thanks for your tests. My grandfather told me that when he was a kid and two guys thought they had the best knife the test was simple. Place the knives at a 90 degree angle(make an X), cutting edge to cutting edge, and smack them with a hammer. The best knife would survive.
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That is the dumbest idea I have ever heard.
 
It is a facinating part of a Journeyman's test the 90deg bend. However look at all the journeyman tests that include for cutting rope chopping wood etc. Those are for entering the guild. I have a few MS blades and they are quite awsome. However they tend towards differentially treated blades of carbon steel and not Stainless.

I have taken to making up a few blades, as much to understand the materials as to work out stress in the office, and there is one truth out there that going stainless is a serious compromise to Carbon performance. The balancing act between edge retention, toughness, cost and profile is very much more difficult.

I have many knives in my collection and two things come forward as priority: Edge retention and Egonomic profile. Do you want a knife that is a companion or a prybar with an edge on?
 
My bitch is that the tests are on one area of knife usage only and don't resemble normal usage. $300 knife with so little learnt.
 
My bitch is that there is a lot of data out there regarding the capabilities of knives and steels but that data is readily unavailable. Manufacturers can destroy these expensive knives near cost and presumably they do but until they're willing to share their results, we have very little to go on before making a purchase that, in the case of the G.B., is a significant amount of money. I mean even something on the straightforward side, like a flex test before breaking would be a welcome addition to the dearth of information we as consumers are given by the manufacturers. Lots of items we buy, TVs, computers, cars, all come with performance details, often at a level that takes some time to decipher, but with knives we are pretty much stuck with marketing hype. Perhaps we should just be thankful we at least get a hardness range.

Basically Noss4 is one of only a handful of testers I'm aware of who readily make his results transparently available and for that, he regularly gets vilified for his contributions to the barren landscape of knife testing data. One of the most common complaints I've heard is lack of scientific method. Well presumably manufacturers have actual scientific data but I haven't seen much more than a few bar charts from Crucible. I'm guessing that the lack of data made available to knife enthusiasts is simply because they make up such a small percentage of the market its not worth it for manufacturers to cater to their whims.

Its unfortunate, perhaps the G.B. is the toughest knife ever created and Noss4's test somehow wildly missed the mark, but with little else to go on in terms of performance metrics, this knife should probably be avoided.
 
Hey Noss, out of curiousity, how many manufacturers have sent you a knife to test? I know Jerry Busse sent you a FFBM...while the rest are having heart attacks I know he isnt :) ...bring on the test for the A2 CRKs now :) ...and again keep up the great work!

Originally Posted by caine
I dont care about the test he did. I carried a GB in Iraq 2003-2004. And will carry it on my next trip also.
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Thanks for you service bro and no disrespect intended to you (not many can handle going to a hell hole like that) but did you actually use the knife a lot? I see a lot of mint knives come up for sale that have been to the sandbox and back as most guys seem to depend on their multitools more from what I read.
 
I own a Project I and would be very interested to see how that stands up in a similar test. I believe Mr Reeve built his reputation largely on the one-piece range, so I think this would have been a more appropriate choice.

Personally, I don't think knives should be named for any particular branch of the military. Its just a marketing ploy IMO and I would never buy a knife because its named after some snake-eating spec-ops unit.

I'm pretty sure SF soldiers don't all carry the same knife. I bet they have their individual preferences just like we do.

I say let's continue to test these high end knives. The more the merrier! Many of these manufacturers put their knives out there as the strongest, sharpest, etc etc. Well, let's see if that's really the case then!

That said, I am primarily interested in cutting and edge holding ability, not prying ability. If I want to pry I will use a crowbar. If I want to chop wood, then certainly a knife must be able to step up in a pinch, but ultimately a hatchet would be more appropriate.

A knife is designed to cut, after all. Everything else is really just in an emergency.
 
I emailed CRK yesterday to see their opinion on this. Here is the response I got
Joe,



Thank you for the information. It is interesting. Please give us a few days to formulate a response as the Reeve’s are out of town and I would hate to speculate on the test. I will either get back to you or we may decide to post a response because I’m sure others will inquire about it as well. I am glad you are happy with your Project. It is a wonderful knife and should serve you well.

We will “speak” soon.


Kind regards,

Heather

I'm Looking forward to their response!
 
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