I just heat treated a batch of neckers and didn't like the grind on one so I decided to test it to destruction.
Blade steel is 3/32 O1 heat treated in my oven, quenched in peanut oil, and tempered three times at 400
Here is the test knife. I had put a swedge on it but didn't like the way it came out and now that I've tested it, I really don't like it as it cuts into your thumb when you use it for leverage on push cuts. It has a quick pine handle with screws. I didn't want to spend too much time on the handle since it would be destroyed anyways
After sharpening, I decided to cut corrugated cardboard. I was able to get 50 cuts at a time before it needed light stropping. But after stropping it would easily shave again. This is after 200 cuts and would still shave after stropping.
My next test was to push cut this piece of seasoned pine. It handled fine, even when I would pry the blade sideways to pop the new cut off. I expected it to fail here but it performed great. My hand gave out after a while. It would still shave without stropping
So now I decided to batton through the piece with this mesquite stump
And as you can see it is still shaving sharp after going through it - no stropping
Now I decided to carve some antler. This is a skull a buddy gave me that he found on his ranch down here in West Central Texas
It carved quite nicely and needed no stropping after cutting to shave
I also decided to hack at the antler and got some very fine micro chipping but didn't take pictures of it as my camera couldn't zoom that close. It was barely noticable.
Finally I decided to stab the same piece of pine and dig out the wood to see if there would be any tip damage. I expected it to snap here but was surprised when it didn't.
Although there was no tip damage, I did notice that the blade bent slightly, which wasn't a total shock due to the massive swedge I ground in the already thin blade. Here you can see that the tip slightly bends toward the left.
I'm not really worried about this bend as a knife, especially a thin necker, shouldn't be used to pry anyways and wouldn't be covered under my warrenty.
I'm looking for more test ideas before I snap the blade to look at the grain. Any suggestions? What do you think so far?
Blade steel is 3/32 O1 heat treated in my oven, quenched in peanut oil, and tempered three times at 400
Here is the test knife. I had put a swedge on it but didn't like the way it came out and now that I've tested it, I really don't like it as it cuts into your thumb when you use it for leverage on push cuts. It has a quick pine handle with screws. I didn't want to spend too much time on the handle since it would be destroyed anyways
After sharpening, I decided to cut corrugated cardboard. I was able to get 50 cuts at a time before it needed light stropping. But after stropping it would easily shave again. This is after 200 cuts and would still shave after stropping.
My next test was to push cut this piece of seasoned pine. It handled fine, even when I would pry the blade sideways to pop the new cut off. I expected it to fail here but it performed great. My hand gave out after a while. It would still shave without stropping
So now I decided to batton through the piece with this mesquite stump
And as you can see it is still shaving sharp after going through it - no stropping
Now I decided to carve some antler. This is a skull a buddy gave me that he found on his ranch down here in West Central Texas
It carved quite nicely and needed no stropping after cutting to shave
I also decided to hack at the antler and got some very fine micro chipping but didn't take pictures of it as my camera couldn't zoom that close. It was barely noticable.
Finally I decided to stab the same piece of pine and dig out the wood to see if there would be any tip damage. I expected it to snap here but was surprised when it didn't.
Although there was no tip damage, I did notice that the blade bent slightly, which wasn't a total shock due to the massive swedge I ground in the already thin blade. Here you can see that the tip slightly bends toward the left.
I'm not really worried about this bend as a knife, especially a thin necker, shouldn't be used to pry anyways and wouldn't be covered under my warrenty.
I'm looking for more test ideas before I snap the blade to look at the grain. Any suggestions? What do you think so far?
