Need a Benchmark Blade... Suggestions?

H

hugeo

Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
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Hello fellow knife nuts!

Looking for suggestions/feedback/opinions on what you consider to be a good benchmark blade. I am looking at buying something (under $300) that I can use as a reference point as how my knives are performing. This will obviously be very subjective but something to go off. I think the obvious is a well known maker who uses D2 but other suggestions?

I'm primarily interested in game processing (Hawaiian pigs) and like something a little longer than 3" usually for skinning, deboning etc. I've had good luck with a few knives that I've made and one in particular I'm able to fully dress a 100+ pound pig and its still shaving sharp. Does a "proper" knife do noticeably better? Does it matter at that point?

I'll try and get some pics up if I can figure it out. Thanks for the feedback.
 
Thanks for the reply, living in Hawaii I do like the corrosion resistance of s30v However...

I was more interested in actual knife models or maker suggestions. I assume most people here have multiple knives. Which are your BENCHMARKs i.e. Which one do you measure your other knives by.

Or what is a good performance benchmark?

Clean 5 animals still shave
Clean 1 animal still shave
Clean 1 animal sharp but not shaving
 
Knife performance is very subjective and allmost impossible to judge unless thy are identical blades in identical cutting tests by the same person. This is where experance comes in, pick a steel and keep working with it till you get the max performance out of it you can. Just a few deg diffrence on edge angle will make a huge difference. Another thing is the grit that the blade was sharpened at. This really affects how it preforums in different materials.
 
The good news is that in Hawaii, you have big, nasty sand encrusted feral hogs to test your knives in. My 1084 and W2 blades will for sure skin two of those critters with no need for a touch up.
 
I tend to agree with JT. Given two identical blades, even just a slightly different edge angle, or a toothier edge can made a relatively significant difference in performance/function, depending on what you want to use it for.

Then there's the actually testing/use. Short of using something like a CATRA machine, that become somewhat varied as well.

Personally, I'd make a knife, use it, and then see what could be improved. Skin out a couple of hogs and look at the edge. Did it chip? Did it roll? Did you have to push harder than you'd like to cut through the skin or muscle tissue? Did it need touched up after 10 slices? 20? 1 hog? 2 hogs? Most of this can be readily observed and adjusted for, ESPECIALLY if you know exactly how you made and heat treated it.

You can buy a d2 blade, or s35v, or name the steel, and you still may not know exactly how it was heat treated, tempered, how well the process was controlled, etc.... Meanwhile, you can make 2 or 3 more of your own blades for what another maker's might cost, and have that much more testing done.
 
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