Out with the Boys

[Jake Bauer]

Those noss tests are ridiculous. Dont judge a knife based purely on them. Anything will break/perform badly if the "tester" is trying to break them or misuse them.

 

[chiral.grolim]

Anything will break/perform badly if the "tester" is trying to break them or misuse them.

It's likely this thread will get tossed if we talk about Noss, but the above statement is demonstrably false.

That said, there seems to be some variation in how thinly ground the Bravo 1 blade edges are. I believe Mike Stewart even made mention of this at one point, that some of the knives were ground far more thinly than intended...? I don't have a quote on that...
Anyway, the edge on my Bravo1 is VERY thin-ground, almost like my dedicated skinner (I'll try to get a picture or two up sooner or later). It'll make an excellent hunting knife, I think (albeit a bit thick-spined, and I prefer drop-point for that purpose), but I am hesitant to put it to any real 'hard use' such as it claims to be intended for (note: 'hard use' for me includes carving, chopping, batonning wood; loosening dirt / minor digging; minor prying, etc.). I am just not confident in the durability of that edge, and I'd hate to ruin it needlessly. A2 isn't INFI afterall...
And perhaps that is why the edge performed so badly in those videos (vs the Bluntruth4u videos, for comparison).

Perhaps someone could start a thread comparing thickness of grinds? I'll try to get a good shot of mine, or maybe someone can get Noss to post a grind-pic of the one he busted... if any section still shows the original grind . Anyone know someone with a Bravo1 that has performed well under hard-use, if we could get a shot of that knife's grind for comparison? At the very least, it would help instill confidence in those of us weak-minded fools deterred by negative reviews And either way, it will help users determine whether or not their knives are the 'right tool for the job', no?

 

[Jake Bauer]

It's likely this thread will get tossed if we talk about Noss, but the above statement is demonstrably false.

So... do you put your knives in a vise and bend them till they snap every once in a while? This guy does that, beats on them with hammers, chops cement blocks and so on. He IS trying to destroy them, and he succeeds. Testing in the field using real, practical applications which knives are designed to be used for is completely different from what noss does.

 

[chiral.grolim]

So... do you put your knives in a vise and bend them till they snap... This guy does that, beats on them with hammers, chops cement blocks and so on. He IS trying to destroy them, and he succeeds. Testing in the field using real, practical applications which knives are designed to be used for is completely different from what noss does.

I wish we could focus on the question of knife-edge-profiles, but this whole new discussion is a commandeering of the OP's photo-collection thread. My apologies. I am an ass.

Great photos, btw!

Jake, if you ever get around to watching any of the vids, it's best, like most stories, to start from the beginning, not the end - Lateral-stress is this guy's 3rd-to-last 'test'. If you do watch from the beginning, you'll note differences in how different knives perform. They do not all 'break/perform badly if the "tester" is trying to break them or misuse them'. That is part of what makes those demonstrations so interesting (imho), and it's also what makes your previous statement demonstrably false. Just making an objective correction, no offense intended.

And you are correct, 'testing in the field' IS very different from what he does. He does not claim to be doing a field-tests with hammer and vise, he is doing limit and abuse tests. As for 'real, practical applications which knives are designed to be used for' - I think you may have a fairly limited view of what constitutes 'real, practical applications' for the sorts of knives he 'tests' if you discount slicing, cutting, chopping, batonning, tip-prying, digging, and puncturing (the first and most prominent demonstrations he performs). But, to each his own. *shrug*
I've never heard this guy claim that the knives 'tested' should be used for such purposes as chopping concrete, slicing 1/4" steel, prying-open car doors etc., sledge-hammering, or even use as a make-shift step. His demonstrations simply highlight comparative strengths and weaknesses of various products, and give the viewer a base from which to estimate the stress limits of those products. What will happen if you DO use this knife to pry, cut metal, if it strikes a rock or concrete, or if the spine encounters another metal object? Personally I find that information more useful than viewing demonstrations of 'hard-use' knives slicing toilet paper and cardboard, or sitting on someone's desk as they brag about them , and also more informative than simple 'destruction" videos where a knife is subjected to an acetylene-torch or .50 impact - much more efficient if your intention is simply to destroy a knife But, to each his own.

 

[spydercofan]

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