Is it actually possible for a knife to do this?

timsclips said:
Frank J. Richtig of Clarkson, NE is the knifemaker alluded to I believe. He was written up in Ripley's as being able to cut up steel bolts with his knife without it affecting the edge.
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Just quoting this for later reference :thumbup: :D
 
rockstead knives do this kind of demonstration on knife show.
The hardly beat a large bamboo with some of their knives (even folders !)
Then they cut some paper sheet quite easily...:D
Result is people asking the cost of the knives.. and running away to see other knifemakers !:D
(rockstead knives are really impressive ... and expensive...;))
 
Bainite does not have "remarkable" toughness. Over on Swordforum we had long discussions about bainite gradually breaking down the myths until bainite finally went away !!A properly HT'd martensitic steel will come so close to bainite that it's not a signifiant difference.
 
I doubt heat-treating 1095 to bainite is easy to do, but tempering the bejeebers out of it after the fact is do-able.

Dan Maragni's heat-treating of 5160 suggests he's using lath martensite for the new Ontario line and the only complaints I've read regard the sheath.
 
timsclips said:
Frank J. Richtig of Clarkson, NE is the knifemaker alluded to I believe. He was written up in Ripley's as being able to cut up steel bolts with his knife without it affecting the edge.
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Yes! That's the guy... and Confederate posted that famous drawing of him... It's like the legend about Richard the Lionhearted comparing his sword with Saladin's. :thumbup:
 
Guys,
Thanks for this thread, those posts about Frank Richtig. I'd have never imagined. I googled him and found a few short articles.
My great-grandfather made knives out of sawmill blades with poured aluminum handles, same type as Richtig's knives, and traveled around during the Depression era on a wagon selling or trading knives and tools he'd made, and we(family) still have several of them. Brought back memories of my grandfather, and my great-grandmother, who are also gone now, telling me stories about him.
'Course his knives don't cut through steel bolts...
 
thombrogan said:
I doubt heat-treating 1095 to bainite is easy to do, but tempering the bejeebers out of it after the fact is do-able.
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I was wondering if it was maybe upper or lower, the steel on a large knife was pretty soft. I may orer the pdf of the paper just to get the answers. There was also a mention of comparing it to authentic damascus steel. I guess they mean woots/bulat/crucible/watered/whatever people wanna call it. But would carbide banding help cut through bolts? Plus I don't see it in the pictured knives.
 
Well im a believer now, richardj sent me pics of a piece of steel he hardened. He then placed it in a vise and laid brass rod and nickel rod on top of the blade hit it with a hammer cutting the rod in half. Did not effect the edge at all, until he smacked the heck out of the blade with the hammer he was using cause his rod fell off while swinging. Which chipped it just a little bit. He then removed the chip and sharpened the blade to razor sharp. Cut some more brass and nickel rod and it was still shaving sharp. It amazes me that anyone can harden a blade to cut through metal objects and it still shave afterwards.
 
hardheart said:
I was wondering if it was maybe upper or lower, the steel on a large knife was pretty soft. I may orer the pdf of the paper just to get the answers. There was also a mention of comparing it to authentic damascus steel. I guess they mean woots/bulat/crucible/watered/whatever people wanna call it. But would carbide banding help cut through bolts? Plus I don't see it in the pictured knives.
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Bhadesia's big bad bainite book suggests that hypereutectoid steels can't readily form upper bainite. Nor is upper bainite particularly dreamy as compared to lower bainite or lath martensite.

I'd suspect the 1095 was quenched as normal and then tempered to high heavens before bainite or anything else came to mind.

So long as it's still hard than what it's cutting, it needn't be complicated, right?
 
thombrogan said:
So long as it's still hard than what it's cutting, it needn't be complicated, right?
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of course it needs to be complicated, this is the intarwebz. The speculation really just comes from comments I've read without seeing the actual research paper. I think Larrin made a comment on bainite another forum and I can see a couple small photos of microstructures that are included in the article on sciencedirect. The stuff Richtig did isn't all that crazy awesome on it's own. I'm more interested in the fanciful idea that he worked out an isothermal treatment solo with no burning desire to peer through a microscope being the motivating factor. Just a man experimenting in his shop and coming up with something, if that's what happened.
 
realitycheck, i started off with just a sharp edge cutting the brass and nickel silver rod. i didnt run the edge over the paper buffing wheel after working up a tiny burr. the pictures of the blade clamped in the vise is after i buffed the edge. i dont think it was necessary to sharpen it but i just did to see what kind of edge was left after cutting the brass rod.

michdad has the test blade and he is going to see what else it will cut other than brass rod. it will be very interesting to see what it will hold up to. i told him to beat it with a hammer after he's done testing the edge to see how hard it is to break a piece off.

i tried to break a piece i heated up way beyond the temp i would ever take a knife to (and oil quenched it) and beat it with a hand sledge. with the piece laying flat i beat it till i gave up trying. the only way i broke a piece was to lay it on the edge at an angle on the welding table at my friends shop. i had to beat the crap out of it to finally get a piece to break off.
 
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After all these years collecting and using knives hard, richardj has become my secret weapon when it comes to edge profile and heat treat. I am still trying to dull the chopper he made for me, having chopped through tons of hardwoods, and chopping through drywall to remove it in a house I am working on.

After all that, it still shaves and cut me wickedly on one of my fingers...

Richardj has hit upon some secret that I cannot explain. His knives are the "immortals" of the knife world IMHO at this point. It is uncanny and has me pleasantly mystified. :)
 
Completely forgot about this, had a lot of military related stuff come up right after this thread. Funny thing, I'm in training again at the moment. I'll see what I can find again.
 
here is the article if someone wants to buy it, gonna try to track down a hardcopy since the issue had several interesting articles.
 
Isn't there a guy, last name "Novack", who knew "Richtig" who has duplicated-or is trying to duplicate his knives?:confused:
 
a lot of the stuff thats done to these knives are actually apart of the test to becoming a master knifesmith of the american knifesmith society which i believe (but dont quote me) has a little over 300 master knife smiths throughouts its known history
 
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