I think Infi might have done better...

M

mach 5

Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
609
Part 1:
So my son, who is a card carrying lifetime member of MENSA, gets a stereo microscope from his grandparents for Christmas.

Part 2:
In these Infi lean times, awaiting orders to fulfill, I pick up a trendy knife that is so popular right now they are almost impossible to get. It is a very well thought of a hard use knife and features 3V with the latest magical heat treatment. After using it to shred some Christmas cardboard for recycling (which in fairness it did exceptionally well and kept its sharpness) it gets knocked off the window ledge in the garage onto a concreted floor (about 3 ft high).

Now this is not catastrophic and it will sharpen out with the Kalamazoo, and I think this 3V/HT combo will probably be more wear resistant than infi, but I don't think I would have seen all this chipping on an Infi blade. Steel is all about tradeoffs, you can't have it all, and these high hardness, wear resistant, supper edge holders have a price.

my punishment for straying ;)


i-gDRHKps.png


i-gDRHKps.png


P.S. I am gonna have more fun with this microscope than the kiddo; more edge pics will surely follow.
 
That's weird. What brand is it? All those chips from one fall? How big is that photo in terms of millimeters or inches?
 
Really strange :confused:

That looks more like you cut dirty carpet or cut through a cinder block
 
Maybe you could drop an infi blade on the same concrete floor from the same height and photograph the edge. I'd be interested in seeing the difference. :)
 
--The chips are about .5 mm so not large, but about 1/2 the way up the secondary bevel. 30x mag
--This knife has seen no hard use other than the one drop and a couple of bounces on the concrete floor and only from about 3ft.
--Its not a bad knife, but I am not a huge fan of this microchip wear pattern, the Infi rolls tend to be more shallow and easier to grind out. This would be a p.i.t.a. to grind out in the field without a power sander or at least a coarse diamond stone.
-- I am also a big fan of convex edges, but have not re-profiled this one yet. I bet if this was a convex edge of the same thickness and steel, the chips would be half as deep.
-- I have had many Infi vs stone contacts and while I lost the tip of my beloved sarge 7, most of the rest have been benign confrontations. I think Jerry runs his infi at the lower end of the quoted rockwell hardness, which combined with the steels innate characteristics make it really really tough and resistant to chipping.
 
rcb2000 said:
Now if that was a factory edge,,, I'd be concerned
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It is the unsharpened factory edge.

One of the great things about the Kalamazoo is that the belt speed is really slow, about 1/2 of harbor freight and other sanders, so the heat is easy to control and I am very careful.
 
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mach 5 said:
It is the unsharpened factory edge; it is not one of Nathans.

One of the great things about the Kalamazoo is that the belt speed is really slow, about 1/2 of harbor freight and other sanders, so the heat is easy to control and I am very careful.
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I see, well that just sucks :thumbdn:
I stray, but always come back to Busse
In Jerry we trust!
 
i-CB5KdBb-L.png


keep in mind that although 3v is pretty tough, at Rockwell 62 it has less than half the toughness it has at 58
 
Sorry guys, I don't want to troll a maker who has a pretty good product for my dumb knife drop. I do just want to offer kudos to Busse for what they do best, making indestructible knives.
 
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mach 5 said:
Sorry guys, I don't want to troll a maker who has a pretty good product for my dumb knife drop. I do just want to offer kudos to Busse for what they best, making indestructible knives.
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Good call brother...:thumbup:

And it's not too much damage especially for a HT run as high as those, almost looks like the beginning of a wire edge...OTOH, 3V is renowned for it's toughness.

We all know INFI is the gold standard for hard use knives, even if it's properties weren't as good as advertised-- the warranty IS! ;)
 
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I am a bit surprised, but not overly so for a drop onto concrete. That being said, it looks like that damage can be easily sharpened out. Im guessing that I know the maker of that knife, and if so you need to remember that their knives ship with a 18 - 20 DPS edge, so they are typically much thinner than a Busse edge from factory. A factory edge from Busse is damn near bulletproof, but at a significant chopping performance penalty because of it. In my experience if you sharpen the two steels to a similar angle you will see fairly similar performance in chopping and incurring damage. INFI is my favorite steel, but I do love me some 3V with a great HT almost as much.
 
Agreed, the New HT on 3V is Outstanding!!
zmbhntr said:
I am a bit surprised, but not overly so for a drop onto concrete. That being said, it looks like that damage can be easily sharpened out. Im guessing that I know the maker of that knife, and if so you need to remember that their knives ship with a 18 - 20 DPS edge, so they are typically much thinner than a Busse edge from factory. A factory edge from Busse is damn near bulletproof, but at a significant chopping performance penalty because of it. In my experience if you sharpen the two steels to a similar angle you will see fairly similar performance in chopping and incurring damage. INFI is my favorite steel, but I do love me some 3V with a great HT almost as much.
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As thin as the edges are on those knives, I am surprised it didn't chip worse.
 
mach 5 said:
Sorry guys, I don't want to troll a maker who has a pretty good product for my dumb knife drop. I do just want to offer kudos to Busse for what they do best, making indestructible knives.
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Agreed.

But you could send the pic to the maker to get his take on it. Photomicrographs are frequently hard to understand. Someone commented that it looks like a thin edge, but IMO without context or comparison one cannot say that. What is the black area above the raggedy edge; just shadow?

That chart you had posted may not reflect the latest data on the newest optimized HT for 3V in cutlery.
 
resinguy said:
Agreed.

But you could send the pic to the maker to get his take on it. Photomicrographs are frequently hard to understand. Someone commented that it looks like a thin edge, but IMO without context or comparison one cannot say that. What is the black area above the raggedy edge; just shadow?

That chart you had posted may not reflect the latest data on the newest optimized HT for 3V in cutlery.
Click to expand...

hahaha...you're correct rg these extreme close-ups can make you lose relative perspective and make it hard to tell which end is up...for instance, if I understand your post correctly-- you may be looking at the pics upside down! ;)

"the black area above the raggedy edge" is actually the secondary grind...the shadow is oriented below the raggedy part in the pic...

the pock-marked <kinda> looking stuff on top is the painted primary grind blade face of the blade...

I ASSUME <ass - u - me> :o --- hahahaha!

But that micrograph kinda reminds me of the classic optical illusion...what do you see? a vase? or two faces facing each other?

2FneEAq.jpg
 
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