New bulat blades

nozh2002 · May 19, 2005

New bulat blades from Ivan Kirpichev:

Thanks, Vassili.

kamkazmoto · May 19, 2005

I have never seen bulat with patterns like that. Beautiful

nozh2002 · May 19, 2005

What I like about Ivan - that he always experimenting, in his search to perfection. I am looking forward to compare this blades with his first blades I already have.

Thanks, Vassili.

Keith Montgomery · May 20, 2005

Where can I see more of Ivan's work?

nozh2002 · May 20, 2005

As well as I know he for several years making bulat and he come to the point when he fill comfortable to give his bulat blades away. He send it to me and as I know to some other people to have a look. But I don't know so far does he making it for "commerce" or not. I know he send few blades to US. May be this people will speak up. All what I have I published already.

Thanks, Vassili.

thombrogan · May 20, 2005

Those are gorgeous, Vassili! Your friend makes wonderful bulat.

Cliff Stamp · May 20, 2005

What is the hardness? How does the performance compare to various common cutlery alloys?

-Cliff

nozh2002 · May 20, 2005

Cliff Stamp said:
What is the hardness? How does the performance compare to various common cutlery alloys?

-Cliff

So far I did 2 tests which does not wokr as I thought - wrong methodic.
1. I whittle oak:

I hope at some point it just stop cutting - I was wrong I finished my testing after 30cm because of permanent pain in my wrist.

And it continue to cut and continue to cut newspaper.

2. I cut rope

To awiod damage of my arm I made this "equipment". Again after 320 cuts (12 feet) it continue to cut and I have no rope.

So I consider this as not bad, but I like to make better job with testing.

Now I came up with thread cutting to really measure sharpness after thius tests and I sharpening set of knives to compare and measuring sharpness.

http://playground.sun.com/~vasya/Testing-Res.html

And as for hardness - it is exactely as in antient time - nodody know.

When I finish my testing I'll send it to you - remember - we have some conversation over mail few monthes ago, but things happend too slow. However it will be possible to test old and new bulat from Ivan - I'll make handle for this blade over weekend.

Thanks, Vassili.

nozh2002 · May 23, 2005

As I promised - I made handle over weekend - I need few days to polish handle with finest sandpaper, and then I'll start testing.

And on this stage of production you may see betteer handle geometry:

Cliff Stamp · May 23, 2005

That is a very fine looking handle. I would prefer the front to be a little less flared as I often grip around the choil area, but that looks very nice for hammer and similar style grips.

-Cliff

nozh2002 · May 23, 2005

Cliff Stamp said:
That is a very fine looking handle. I would prefer the front to be a little less flared as I often grip around the choil area, but that looks very nice for hammer and similar style grips.

-Cliff

After I cut my pointing finger badly by SOG Navy Seal 2000 I am kind of paranoic in terms of secure grip. For example - this is my stake knives set

as you may see they have good guard

just in case who knows what may happen when you get overexcited testing good thick stake!

However for gentle kind of work I do make angle on the front of guard - it has diamond shape if you look from the top (picture #4) and it is possible to hold it with 3 fingers around this "diamond". IMHO it is even more comfortable this way because fingers grip it better then flat handle.

Thanks, Vassili.

Cliff Stamp · May 24, 2005

nozh2002 said:
After I cut my pointing finger badly by SOG Navy Seal 2000 I am kind of paranoic in terms of secure grip.

Yeah, it depends on the knife, how it is being used. Some of my EDC knives have little to no guard like :

http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/images/aj_utility.jpg

or

http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/images/parrell_parang_side.jpg

lack if a guard does limit some use such as hard thrusting, and forces a certain perspective on use.

The grips on the steak knives are really striking.

-Cliff

nozh2002 · May 25, 2005

OK, I finally made it:

After, I sharpened it it shows good result

Knife №78 (Bulat second run by Ivan) - 57+/-12.36

Better then befoer

Knife №73 Bulat first run by Ivan - 78+/-20.74

Busse Model T Street (INFI) - 60.67+/-11.12
Benchmade Nivramus (High Speed Steel - M2) - 56.67+/-9.94
Knife №71 (Lauri UHB17Va Progressive Tempered) - 63.67+/-9.28
Buck Vangard Alaskan Guide (CPM S30V (Paul Bos)) - 57+/-8.77

In general with this mathod and thid deviation I may say they are all same sharp.
I may try to resharp first run - may be I did something wrong with sharpening, because it was first in my testing when I was not quite skilled yet (same for Busse).

Thanks, Vassili.

Cliff Stamp · May 26, 2005

nozh2002 said:
I may say they are all same sharp.

I have never seen any significant difference in sharpness either unless you go to really low angles, ~5 degrees or so, as then you may see breakouts on the coarse grained steels.

-Cliff

nozh2002 · May 26, 2005

Cliff Stamp said:
I have never seen any significant difference in sharpness either unless you go to really low angles, ~5 degrees or so, as then you may see breakouts on the coarse grained steels.

-Cliff

In theory you may expect from bulat internal carbides structures to affect edge sharpness, because this inpurityes are harder then steel matrix. However it is in theory and may be too microscopic to effect sharpness noticible.

Achim Wirtz sad something about it (about stainless bulat):
"sharpness of the edge is not as good as in classic wootz because the same chromium carbides are a lot bigger than iron carbides and the carbide size determines the minimum size for the edge. But that's not as important because this heterogenous steel is made for draw cutting anyway. If you want a perfect blade for push cutting and it has to be made from steel, nothing beats a plain carbon steel. If it can be from non-steel, take an obsidian edge."

http://playground.sun.com/~vasya/Bulat-Achim-Stainless.html#English

Thanks, Vassili.

Cliff Stamp · May 27, 2005

nozh2002 said:
In theory you may expect from bulat internal carbides structures to affect edge sharpness, because this inpurityes are harder then steel matrix. However it is in theory and may be too microscopic to effect sharpness noticible.

Boye's knives have a huge network of segregated carbides and this isn't a factor for them. They can still take a hair popping edge. As you noted the carbides are simply too small to be a factor. You can actually see the aggregates in wootz though, but sharpening them didn't seem to be a problem for you.

"sharpness of the edge is not as good as in classic wootz because the same chromium carbides are a lot bigger than iron carbides and the carbide size determines the minimum size for the edge. But that's not as important because this heterogenous steel is made for draw cutting anyway.

You can take a plain carbon steel and give it an aggressive edge with a rough stone and the teeth will be many times larger and readily outslice steels which have inherent aggression due to hetrogenity. I did this readily with Boye's dendretic steels. It is fairly trivial to test, just cut some 3/8" hemp on a scale and measure the force required on a two inch draw.

-Cliff