Knife testing ...

blgoode

blgoode

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Oct 3, 2003
Messages
7,260
Well, I thought I would post about a test blade I just recently destroyed.
The steel is 1/8", 4.5" drop/spear point 0-1 that was flat ground and heat treated by myself. This knife was diferentially heat treated to have a hard edge and a soft spine to aid in flex. I put a hairpopping edge on it and headed for the bush :biggthump
Finding 2" to 3" hard wood is pretty easy around my house. I took my baton and went through 3 of these pretty fast.
handsizedriedtree_knife.jpg

A nicer handle would have made this alot more cumfy but its the steel I am testing in this situation. What I was looking for was wood I would have usen in a shelter building situation. Wood that is tough, not rotten, and wood that is hard to see if the blade will chip out. Chip out she did not. Shave still...yes

With out sharpening I went into the kitchen. In my kitchen a potato will let you know a dull blade fast. A dull knife will not slice a potato but will make it break off in pieces. Glad to see that the edge cut this potato with ease.
potato.jpg


Next - make this blade fail. I have read where a car hood is a good test on the durability of the blade so I went a step further. A folding chair. Next time your sitting in one just feel how hard the seat is. I took my baton and went at the chair using the tip to pierce the seat to get started. The tip did not break. I used the baton to cut a nice size hole in the chair.
I was surprised at just how far I got before the blade showed substantial edge damage. I was very pleased at how the blade held up. I would not have one second thought about using this knife hard in the field and knowing it would not fail.
chair_hole.jpg
:biggthump :biggthump

I will etch the blade to read the grain structure and keep this knife as a guide. It will tell me more about the knives comming out of the shop in the future.
 
How hard was the edge, did it tend to chip or roll dent? It looks line in some places that the damage actually went beyond the edge and up into the primary grind. You might want to try it out on smoe bone before the metal next time, this is usually a less extreme test so it gives you another benchmark. Nice looking knife.

-Cliff
 
Good idea on the bone. What was happening is that the edge wanted to bend first. I think as I went along the "bends" wanted to grab at the seat and hold on to it so me beating the he** out of it still caused those "bends" to chip out in some and just mushroom up in others.
I have had some of my steel test pieces come back with RC hardness between 57.5 to 59.5 rc. Most were at 58. (Where my mom works has a tester :D ) I made about 8 sample pieces this summer and had those tested so now I use them as benchmarks.
 
Nice test, just wait till the missus see's her fav chair though :footinmou


I would like to see a rescue from a crashed vehicle test done. If someone could get a manakin and put in in a scrapped car and then go in through the roof to get them out.

How long would it take, how hard would it be to get through the skin, what if you didn't have a baton, or there was no time to find one?

I have a design for a multi-tool of sorts that is specifically designed for to be kept in a vehicle, and would be suited to to cutting through car skins, breaking glasss and a few other cool things not seen on MT's yet :D . The design can also be adapted to suit a fixed blade and the parts carried in the sheath.
 
Temper said:
How long would it take, how hard would it be to get through the skin, what if you didn't have a baton, or there was no time to find one?
Click to expand...

Well, a car skin is alot thinner than that hair was. With that said a shoe would work as a baton. You could pierce through a car fairly easy just stabbing it and connect the stabs as you go. I was amazed that the tip didnt fail in my test. I had to literally hit the knife almost as hard as I could to get it to puncture and cut the chair. I have a blood blister where my ring pinched my hand. It took about 6 to 10 min to open that chair up.
 
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