IMPORTANT- SCIENCE PROJECT POLL- Please Reply

S

Soloman

Joined
Jun 20, 1999
Messages
358
I am conducting a science project on knives for my school, and I need the following questions answered, preferrably all of them but answers to any of the questions would be appreciated.
1. Best/Strongest Lock on a Production Folder
2. Most Ergonomic/Comfortable Handle on a Production Folder
3. Sharpest Production Folder Out of the Box
4. Fastest Draw on a Production Folder
5. Best Utility Production Folder
6. Best Self-Defense Production Folder
7. Best All Around Production Folder
Thank you very much for any information you may have, I'm sure my science teacher will appreciate it as much as I will.

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"If you come to a fork in the road, take it"
 
In order:

1.Rekat's Rolling Lock
2.Rekat's Carnivore held in a reverse grip.
3.Emerson Commander
4.Emerson Commander
5.Speedtech Synergy
6.Emerson Commander
7.Speedtech Synergy

Remember, these are my opinions, your mileage may vary.
smile.gif


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C.O.'s-"It takes balls to work behind the walls "
 
I can only speak about what I have owned in the past, or what I currently have.

1. Strongest - Sebenza, same idea as a liner lock, but it works.

2. Ergonomic - Spyderco Endura (old style)

3. Sharpest - All things Spydee.

4. Fastest Draw - Spyderco Military.

5. Best utility - Sebenza

6. Best self defense - Serrated Endura

7. Best all around - Endura

I am no expert, but there are my opinions.

Richard
 
Answering these questions are at least as much art as science, and the answers will vary with user, affected by all sorts of factors from the size of one's hands, and whether left-handed or ambidextrous design is a requirement, to the sort of work one does, to the size of one's budget.

There are people who will confidently answer "Sebenza" to all seven questions. And other people who will argue with with a passion ordinarily reserved for religion and politics.

1. Best/Strongest Lock - "Best" is not necessarily the same as "strongest." I think Benchmade's Axis Lock was a stroke of genius, but integral/frame locks are plenty strong, and offer the advantage of easy cleaning, and I met a very authoritative-feeling lockback prototype at the SHOT Show whose company's CEO said would handle over 800 pounds of negative load.

2. Most Ergonomic/Comfortable Handle - Your hands or mine? In a large knife or a small one? The Outdoor Edge Impulse, with it's integrated pocket clip, has a lot going for it, but I would hesitate to say "best in show." And there are a lot of really comfortable Zytel handles out there.

3. Sharpest Production Folder Out of the Box - Spydercos consistenly come out of the box scary-sharp. So do some others.

4. Fastest Draw on a Production Folder - I'll mention the Spyderco Military in the drop-handle draw league, but I'm not a very fast moving person.

5. Best Utility Production Folder - Are you skinning a large dead herbivore (need belly)? Opening boxes (need something pointy)? Slicing bagels (need something 3" range for a safe but efficient circular cut)? If price is a factor in weighing utility, a Spyderco Delica is hard to beat.

6. Best Self-Defense Production Folder - The one you trained with and have with you when you need it, God forbid. A folding stock on a 12-gauge?
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7. Best All Around Production Folder - Oy! As I said, art, not science.

And one can indeed make a good case for the Sebenza in most or all categories.




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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
 
The Best/Strongest lock was the topic of a recent thread here. After some discussion, the general conclusion is that that distinction falls to the balisong.

I would also argue the balisong for fastest draw.

Best self-defense folder is the Rekat Escalator, though they are out of production.

Best all-around production folder: also sadly out of production, the Benchmade 45.


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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.4cs.net/~gollnick
 
1) Chris Reeve Knives Sebenza IBL (Integral Bar Lock). Simple, reliable, strong.
2) Speedtech Synergy. Has to be held to be appreciated.
3) CRK Sebenza. Spyderco comes close, but the Sebenza stays that way.
4) Benchmade AFCK in a Gary Graley horizontal carry sheath. The main advantage of that darn hole, combined with a clever and useful accessory.
5) Sebenza. The finest in quality and reliability on the best all around user.
6) REKAT Sifu. Scares off the EDs (Evil Doers).
7) CRK Sebenza. The winner by a knockout
cool.gif


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James Segura
San Francisco, CA

[This message has been edited by stjames (edited 01-23-2000).]
 
Good Question(s)
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1. CRK Sebenza
2. I don't think anyone's made this yet!!!
3. CRK Sebenza - Spyderco & Cold Steel close second
4. Spyderco Military
5. CRK Sebenza
6. Spyderco Civilian
7. CRK Sebenza

Hope this earns a 4.0
biggrin.gif
 
as others have stated, these are my opinions and are far from scientific.

1.since you said best/strongest, i'll have to go with a frame lock by whatever name you call them.
2. spyderco native
3. any spyderco, hands down
4. never done it, but i'd agree with the emerson commander
5. spyderco calypso jr
6. REKAT SIFU
7. if i could only have one...spyderco military

great thread, let us know when you compile the results.
 
1. CRK Sebenza
2. Spyderco Tim Wegner
3. Spyderco Calypso jr plain edge
4. Benchmade Stryker
5. Spyderco Endura
6. Spyderco Civilian
7. Spyderco Military
 
Soloman, as a scientist, all I can say is that you'll need two things for this to produce any sort of meaningful results:

1 A lot of answers.
2 Some very fancy statistical analysis.

Good luck
smile.gif


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"..it is foolishness and endless trouble to cast a
stone at every dog that barks at you.."


[This message has been edited by Trevor Calder (edited 01-23-2000).]
 
1. Best/Strongest Lock on a Production Folder is REKAT's rolling lock

2. Most Ergonomic/Comfortable Handle on a Production Folder is Spyderco's Wegner

3. Sharpest Production Folder Out of the Box is a Cold Steel Voyager

4. Fastest Draw on a Production Folder is the Spyderco Military

5. Best Utility Production Folder is again the Spyderco Wegner

6. Best Self-Defense Production Folder probably the Spyderco Civilian

7. Best All Around Production Folder has to be the Spyderco Wegner


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Dennis Bible
 
Thanks a lot for the replies

Sol

------------------
"If you come to a fork in the road, take it"
 
May I ask what the experiment is, and what kind of project it is (high school science fair, etc.)?

Good luck
Howie
 
1.Strongest lock-a tie Sebenza and Benchmade axis
2 Most comtortable handle-Speedtech
3.Sharpest-Sebenza
4.Fastest draw-Endura (never tried the Commander)
5.Best utility-Sebenza
6.Best defense-Carnivore
7.Best all around-Sebenza
This is hardly scientific.It's all opinion
 
1)Speedtech Synergy
2)Speedtech Synergy
3)Speedtech Synergy
4)Speedtech Synergy
5)Speedtech Synergy
6)Speedtech Synergy
7)Speedtech Synergy

Did I happen to mention the Speedtech Synergy?
biggrin.gif
biggrin.gif
biggrin.gif
biggrin.gif
 
Solomon, I am a scientist. Science is what I do. Please understand, I mean no disrespect. And I want to help you.

Science is a way of finding out about things. You ask a question. You research the available information on your subject. You conduct an experiment to find out the answer to your questions. You ask questions, tabulate the responses, and try to come to some conclusion about things. The Most important part by far is Asking the Question. The question determines the quality of the experiment and its conclusions.

What you are doing is called a Survey. Marketing guys in any business always ask questions like yours. And there is a Science behind doing this kind of experiment. Unfortunately, All you can find out in this thread is what a few guys think. And you might get a different answer for every question. Or the same answer for every question.

There are some Big problems with your methodology. Because you have asked Seven questions with Hundreds of possible answers, you will likely need thousands, or even tens of thousands of respondants to come to any meaningful conclusions. You're going to have to tabulate a Lot of disparate data. There is always Serious sampling bias in the responses to such questions. Only those strongly motivated enough to respond will answer the question (or mail in the response form if this were a mail survey). You have to figure out a way to Control for this bias in order to formulate conclusions.

So, I wanted to suggest a real science question for you. One you can really do some interesting Science with. You might even be able to conduct some real experiments that would have meaningful results. So....

What is Sharpness? And why do some edges last longer in use than others?

By this I mean, try to define: What Is a sharp knife? What is it about the edge and the geometry of the edge that makes it sharp? Does the angle matter? Does the steel alloy matter? You could extend this question by asking: what are the parameters that contribute to edge Retention? This is seemingly a simple problem. But it's not. In fact, nobody can give you all the answers. You won't be able to come up with any definitive answers, but you will Learn a great deal.

You could start doing background research by searching for key words here in the forums. This question and related ideas or constantly asked here. You could read the sharpening FAQS. You could try sharpening knives at different angles and testing their performance. You could diagram edge geometry. You could try to find out why different allows of steel allow for thinner edges without performance failure (edge breakage, roll over, etc).

You could ask even more fundamental questions. You could describe the processes involved in making a knife. What is hardening? what is the Rockewell scale? What is tempering? What are different steel alloys, and what are the differences in their molecular structures? What are the concentrations of different elements in different steels, and why?

What I am trying to tell you is pick a Simple question. Explore (read) everything you can think about that might relate to your question. I can assure you there will be much more to learn than you imagined. Formulate a hypothesis (what do you Think the right answer is). Try an experiment. See what happens. And then write up the Background, the Experiment (including both materials used and methods), Your results, and your conclusions. If your results are different from what you expected, Great! You still learned something.

You could even ask your question here in the forums and see what happens. I am sure lots of folks would be glad to help. Especially me.

Paracelsus, noticing that once you've Taken the fork in the road, you are Still going to need a knife to eat your dinner.

[This message has been edited by Paracelsus (edited 01-23-2000).]
 
4. Fastest Draw on a Production Folder
6. Best Self-Defense Production Folder
Click to expand...
As open as many science projects and schools are, I'm not sure any of them would encourage openly asking or discussing the above, especially when asked to justify your findings ...
I'm sure my science teacher will appreciate it as much as I will
Click to expand...
So is this maybe just a private project between you and your knifenut teacher?
 
For those curious about my project, this survey will be included in my report but I will also be doing tests of my own with my own knives- standard spine wack test, shaving, cutting tests, etc. This survey is merely a section of my project to make it more interesting, I realize it is just opinion hence the tests I will be conducting on my own. Thanks for the suggestions though.
Sol

------------------
"If you come to a fork in the road, take it"
 
I think best and strongest lock should be seperate. A stronger lock is not necessarily the best. I think the Rolling lock has the strongest lock, while CR's Sebenza has the best lock.

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Johnny
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I still need a couple more replies...

Thanks,
Sol

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"If you come to a fork in the road, take it"
 
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