I was cleaning out some cardboard when I realized I was saving it for testing, and so in order to complete my cleaning job I had to do some cutting.
To benchmark I used some shoelace on a kitchen scale and watched for the pressure that it usually cut at. Then I cut some cardboard and measured again. I picked these numbers as sort of an average out of many cuts, it's pretty much what I "felt" was a good representation of how the knife was performing on the string. Of course there were still sharp spots that cut almost like new and sometimes the string would flatten out and max out the scale without being cut. I tried to get the average of how the knife was cutting around where it was the least sharp.
Note that the jump from 15 to 25 feet of cardboard cut represents much more abrasion per foot since that cardboard was extra thick and cut against the grain.
To start all knives cut the string with less than 1.5Kg of pressure.
Feet of cardboard cut
3.0| 15| 25| 45|
Force to cut string (Kg)
2.0|3.0|4.5|5+|
2011 Voyager (AUS-8) .016"-30 degrees (edge thickness-edge angle [inclusive])
1.4|2.3|2.9|4.5|
Military (CPM M-4) .008"-16 degrees
1.4|2.4|4.0|5+|
Military (CPM S90V) .011"-23 degrees
1.8|2.7|4.0|5+|
Para 2 (CPM S90V) .021"-25 degrees
1.4|2.0|3.1|4.0|
Caly 3 (ZDP-189) .006"-12 degrees
1.2|2.0|4.0|5+|
Caly 3.5 (Super Blue) .016"-21 degrees
Have we learned anything about the edge holding of steel? Probably not in regard to the performance of different alloys, I'm pretty sure the best performers did so because of edge geometry more than steel type.
I'm sure they'll all have the same crazy grind on them someday. I did throw in the S90V Para 2 (nearly stock edge) after doing the initial set because I though there was something terribly wrong with my S90V Military. Guess not.
Edit: Then I remembered that S90V shines most in long term edge holding, this only tested a little below shaving sharp.
To benchmark I used some shoelace on a kitchen scale and watched for the pressure that it usually cut at. Then I cut some cardboard and measured again. I picked these numbers as sort of an average out of many cuts, it's pretty much what I "felt" was a good representation of how the knife was performing on the string. Of course there were still sharp spots that cut almost like new and sometimes the string would flatten out and max out the scale without being cut. I tried to get the average of how the knife was cutting around where it was the least sharp.
Note that the jump from 15 to 25 feet of cardboard cut represents much more abrasion per foot since that cardboard was extra thick and cut against the grain.
To start all knives cut the string with less than 1.5Kg of pressure.
Feet of cardboard cut
3.0| 15| 25| 45|
Force to cut string (Kg)
2.0|3.0|4.5|5+|
2011 Voyager (AUS-8) .016"-30 degrees (edge thickness-edge angle [inclusive])
1.4|2.3|2.9|4.5|
Military (CPM M-4) .008"-16 degrees
1.4|2.4|4.0|5+|
Military (CPM S90V) .011"-23 degrees
1.8|2.7|4.0|5+|
Para 2 (CPM S90V) .021"-25 degrees
1.4|2.0|3.1|4.0|
Caly 3 (ZDP-189) .006"-12 degrees
1.2|2.0|4.0|5+|
Caly 3.5 (Super Blue) .016"-21 degrees
Have we learned anything about the edge holding of steel? Probably not in regard to the performance of different alloys, I'm pretty sure the best performers did so because of edge geometry more than steel type.
I'm sure they'll all have the same crazy grind on them someday. I did throw in the S90V Para 2 (nearly stock edge) after doing the initial set because I though there was something terribly wrong with my S90V Military. Guess not.
Edit: Then I remembered that S90V shines most in long term edge holding, this only tested a little below shaving sharp.
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