Heavy vs Light

If you use heavy as a generic term meaning the proportionality constant between force and acceleration in its various forms, then as the knife gets heavier there will be more inertia and energy in the swing up to the point where you can no longer accelerate it to maximum and it slows down and eventually decreases because you can't accelerate it at all. Note that there are some cuts which are also much more dependent on speed vs inertia and thus more weight doesn't have much of a benefit at all. Cutting a paper tube for example is almost all velocity whereas cutting a roll of papers is heavily dependent on inertia.

-Cliff
 
Ok, so Ive been pondering this. Would a busse limited edition battle mistress out-chop a zero-tolerance battle mistress or vice versa?
 
Assuming the edge geometries are similar, if the user has enough strength then the heavier knife would have better chopping power. If the user isn't strong enough then the lighter knife will be more effective.

-Cliff
 
It all comes down to gravity. Just use the heavier knife when cutting downwards, and use the lighter knife to cut upwards.

Maybe rig up some kind of block and tackle system to attach to the light knife, and use that to assist in cutting upwards.

Then attach a big lead fishing sinker to the heavier, downwards-cutting knife.

I'm disappointed that some of you guys didn't figure that out already. ;)
 
all specs being equal between 2 knives, except 1 is substantialy heavier than the other,
which would cut easier. I say the heavier one. Any opinions?
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There are a tremendous amount of variables involved in cutting weight being just one. With the parameters being both knives are the same design wise the only difference isweight/mass we will keep it simple.

The heavy knife will require less acceleration and force to accomplish a given cut where as the lighter knife will require more. So you could say that the heavier knife will cut easier, not necessarily so it depends on the task.

In cutting 2 tameshigiri matts as an example one must start the cut farther out with the lighter knife whereas the distance can be much less with the heavy knife.

For short cutting chores say cutting up some meat for dinner or skinning one or two animals the heavy knife will make easy short work of it however for long chores fatigue will set in quickly with a heavy knife.
To last for a whole day of chores the lighter knife would be a better choice.

For example 19th century hide hunters (buffalo hunters) did not start out the day with a 2 pound Bowie knife when faced with upwards of a 100 animals to skin by the end of the day.

So in keeping it simple which cut's easier heavy or light depends on the task at hand.

Bors
 
It comes down to Physics. It takes more force just to make the larger heavier knife to move than the lighter knife (kinetic energy). Thus the heavier knife will cut farther than the lighter knife if the geometry is similar.

Another comparison would be to take two trucks of equal size year and modle. One truck is loaded and the other is empty. Tie the steering wheels with rope to keep them driving in a straight line. Now put a brick on the gas peddle and see which one does the most damage when it hits the wall. The heavier one almost always will.- From my highschool physics teacher from back in the early 1970's.
 
Almost always - depends on how fast the light truck is compared to the heavy truck on impact, which is why this is just about the same argument as the .45 vs. 9mm.
 
Bufford said:
It comes down to Physics. It takes more force just to make the larger heavier knife to move than the lighter knife (kinetic energy).
Click to expand...

If you apply a given force over a given distance, both the heavy and light knives will have the same amount of kinetic energy. But it isn't just kinetic energy which is important in cutting, it is the actual velocity and inertial moment, how much of which is critical depends on the type of cutting.

-Cliff
 
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