Random Thought Thread

I misplaced my Shiro so I've been carrying a knife I picked up at Blade Show with a magnacut blade. It's a mass-produced knife. I don't want to call out any names but the name starts with a "Ker" and ends with a "shaw" and the edge retention is nothing like what it should be.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I misplaced my Shiro so I've been carrying a knife I picked up at Blade Show with a magnacut blade. It's a mass-produced knife. I don't want to call out any names but the name starts with a "Ker" and ends with a "shaw" and the edge retention is nothing like what it should be.
Click to expand...
Did you test the hardness?
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I misplaced my Shiro so I've been carrying a knife I picked up at Blade Show with a magnacut blade. It's a mass-produced knife. I don't want to call out any names but the name starts with a "Ker" and ends with a "shaw" and the edge retention is nothing like what it should be.
Click to expand...

Is it the one I'm thinking of that a few of us picked up there(is it a tan toe lol)?

The cruwear military 2 I picked up at Blade has been awesome for me!
 
yoko said:
Is it the one I'm thinking of that a few of us picked up there(is it a tan toe lol)?

The cruwear military 2 I picked up at Blade has been awesome for me!
Click to expand...

It's an out the front.

Been wanting to try one
 
Last edited:
I've bought one OTF from one of those manufacturers that are known for them and have never been inclined to buy another. It's fun to fidget with but I haven't fallen in love with them, given the constant maintenance that seems to be required. I should never have to gamble on whether the blade will deploy or not (which has been my experience). Plus, the blade wobble when the blade is out is unnerving to me, hard for me to get past it when I'm trying to cut stuff.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I misplaced my Shiro so I've been carrying a knife I picked up at Blade Show with a magnacut blade. It's a mass-produced knife. I don't want to call out any names but the name starts with a "Ker" and ends with a "shaw" and the edge retention is nothing like what it should be.
Click to expand...
Well that's discouraging. I've got a magnacut Blur from a similar "Ker" themed manufacturer and it seems to hold up well so far. I probably haven't put it through enough abuse to really know yet. Is yours just not holding an edge?
 
So I posted about this video a few pages back, and said I would update after some testing, as I'd ordered the ingredients to try it out.


Preliminary testing indicates this stuff kinda works like magic.

*** that's not to say that it works so well, it's like magic. It's more along the lines of magic like installing brand new snow tires after 3 weeks of snow every single day, only for the rest of the season to have only 2 days with more than an inch on the ground 😂.

Figures that when the delayed components finally all arrived, and I had the time to cook up a small batch, chill it and finally have the time to try to test it, the temps drop ~10f, and are projected to be even cooler the next 2 days 🤣🤣🤣

Anyway, I ordered all the components on Amazon.
- 1 Summer Cooling Vest with 20pcs Ice Packs: $21.99
- 1lb Sodium Sulphate powder 99% pure: $14.99
- 1lb Sodium Chloride high purity 99.9% 500gm: $18.99
- MD. Life Xanthan gum 12oz: $11.99
- 50pcs 1 pint Mylar bags 5.9"x7.9"

I followed the recipe in the video:
5 cups water
1 cup Sodium Sulphate
1/4 cup Sodium Chloride
4tsp Xanthan gum

As it turns out, 1lb of Sodium Sulphate is just over 1.5 cups, so I just used 150% of all the ingredients. That was just enough to fill 5 of the pint sized mylar pouches (I already had an impulse sealer for mylar bags).

One recommendation I would suggest is to premix the Xanthan gum into a paste with a small amount of water, gradually adding water bit by bit. I added it into the mix of all the other ingredients last, and it made it a PITA to mix thoroughly without clumping.

The ice packs included with the vest are apparently supposed to be some kind of phase change material, too. They already have some kind of powder in them. The user adds tap water and the packs have some kind of adhesive press seal.

I stuck 10 of the included ice packs in the freezer, and 2 of the home made PCM packs in the freezer, the other 3 in the refrigerator.

After cooling overnight, the packs in the freezer were at 4.6f when I took them out. The 2 packs from the refrigerator were at 41.2f (until now, I hadn't ever measured the temperatures in various parts of the refrigerator. Turns out the top shelf where the bulb is (where I placed the packs) seems to stay ~41.2f, and the lower shelves where the meat and crisper drawers are, stay around 33f 🤔

The vest has 6 pockets. 4 on the back, and 1 in each front half. Apparently, I should have measured ALL the pockets, as opposed to assuming they were all the same size. I only measured the front pocket at 6"x8". The shoddy stitching on the back pockets means the grid isn't even, and the pockets on one side were 5" wide, and 5.5" on the other side.

The homemade 5.9" packs that had frozen solid in the freezer wouldn't fit in the 5" pockets (but the refrigerator packs that weren't frozen solid could be squeezed in. The included ice packs are smaller). I guess that explains the $22 price 😅

Testing was done mowing the yard in 83f for an hour. As mentioned in the video, I snugged the vest down to ensure there was contact with the packs. I put one homemade pack from the freezer and one from the fridge in each of the front pockets, then put 2 of the included ice packs in a diagonal, and one each of the homemade packs from the freezer and refrigerator on the other diagonal of the 2x2 grid of pockets on the back.

After that hour, I measured the temperatures of all 6 packs again.

The HM homemade pack from the freezer in the front pocket was at 50.2f
The homemade pack from the fridge in the other front pocket was at 67.2f

The homemade packs in the back pockets measured 48.2f and 64.2f respectively from the freezer and fridge.

The IIPs included ice packs were still frozen and measured ~36.5f.

The frozen packs were initially somewhat uncomfortably cold with just a thin t-shirt under the vest, but by the end of the hour, they felt fine. And although 83f definitely wasn't particularly hot, I could still appreciate the cooling effect in comparison to mowing in those temperatures on other days.

After measuring the temperatures, I left them on an upturned milk crate (eg. Vented plastic) in the 91f garage to see how fast they'd continue warming up.

After an hour in the garage:
IIPs were 47f and 46f.
HM freezer packs were 73f and 71f
HM refrigerator packs were 74f and 79f

The HM packs still felt cool against the body in the 91f garage, but the IIPs still felt cold.

Interesting experiment, but at this point. I'm not sure there's any advantage/point to making the homemade packs, vs using the included ice packs. The $22 vest includes 20 of those, so someone could potentially keep an additional 2 spare sets in a freezer/cooler to swap out when the ones in use have warmed up to where they aren't providing appreciable cooling.

The HM packs I made, are bigger than the included ice packs, which in theory, means more thermal mass to absorb heat, but they're warming up faster than the IIPs. Don't know about the wonder-material claims in the video.
 
Last edited:
bluemax_1 said:
So I posted about this video a few pages back, and said I would update after some testing, as I'd ordered the ingredients to try it out.


Preliminary testing indicates this stuff kinda works like magic.

*** that's not to say that it works so well, it's like magic. It's more along the lines of magic like installing brand new snow tires after 3 weeks of snow every single day, only for the rest of the season to have only 2 days with more than an inch on the ground 😂.

Figures that when the delayed components finally all arrived, and I had the time to cook up a small batch, chill it and finally have the time to try to test it, the temps drop ~10f, and are projected to be even cooler the next 2 days 🤣🤣🤣

Anyway, I ordered all the components on Amazon.
- 1 Summer Cooling Vest with 20pcs Ice Packs: $21.99
- 1lb Sodium Sulphate powder 99% pure: $14.99
- 1lb Sodium Chloride high purity 99.9% 500gm: $18.99
- MD. Life Xanthan gum 12oz: $11.99
- 50pcs 1 pint Mylar bags 5.9"x7.9"

I followed the recipe in the video:
5 cups water
1 cup Sodium Sulphate
1/4 cup Sodium Chloride
4tsp Xanthan gum

As it turns out, 1lb of Sodium Sulphate is just over 1.5 cups, so I just used 150% of all the ingredients. That was just enough to fill 5 of the pint sized mylar pouches (I already had an impulse sealer for mylar bags).

One recommendation I would suggest is to premix the Xanthan gum into a paste with a small amount of water, gradually adding water bit by bit. I added it into the mix of all the other ingredients last, and it made it a PITA to mix thoroughly without clumping.

The ice packs included with the vest are apparently supposed to be some kind of phase change material, too. They already have some kind of powder in them. The user adds tap water and the packs have some kind of adhesive press seal.

I stuck 10 of the included ice packs in the freezer, and 2 of the home made PCM packs in the freezer, the other 3 in the refrigerator.

After cooling overnight, the packs in the freezer were at 4.6f when I took them out. The 2 packs from the refrigerator were at 41.2f (until now, I hadn't ever measured the temperatures in various parts of the refrigerator. Turns out the top shelf where the bulb is (where I placed the packs) seems to stay ~41.2f, and the lower shelves where the meat and crisper drawers are, stay around 33f 🤔

The vest has 6 pockets. 4 on the back, and 1 in each front half. Apparently, I should have measured ALL the pockets, as opposed to assuming they were all the same size. I only measured the front pocket at 6"x8". The shoddy stitching on the back pockets means the grid isn't even, and the pockets on one side were 5" wide, and 5.5" on the other side.

The homemade 5.9" packs that had frozen solid in the freezer wouldn't fit in the 5" pockets (but the refrigerator packs that weren't frozen solid could be squeezed in. The included ice packs are smaller). I guess that explains the $22 price 😅

Testing was done mowing the yard in 83f for an hour. As mentioned in the video, I snugged the vest down to ensure there was contact with the packs. I put one homemade pack from the freezer and one from the fridge in each of the front pockets, then put 2 of the included ice packs in a diagonal, and one each of the homemade packs from the freezer and refrigerator on the other diagonal of the 2x2 grid of pockets on the back.

After that hour, I measured the temperatures of all 6 packs again.

The HM homemade pack from the freezer in the front pocket was at 50.2f
The homemade pack from the fridge in the other front pocket was at 67.2f

The homemade packs in the back pockets measured 48.2f and 64.2f respectively from the freezer and fridge.

The IIPs included ice packs were still frozen and measured ~36.5f.

The frozen packs were initially somewhat uncomfortably cold with just a thin t-shirt under the vest, but by the end of the hour, they felt fine. And although 83f definitely wasn't particularly hot, I could still appreciate the cooling effect in comparison to mowing in those temperatures on other days.

After measuring the temperatures, I left them on an upturned milk crate (eg. Vented plastic) in the 91f garage to see how fast they'd continue warming up.

After an hour in the garage:
IIPs were 47f and 46f.
HM freezer packs were 73f and 71f
HM refrigerator packs were 74f and 79f

The HM packs still felt cool against the body in the 91f garage, but the IIPs still felt cold.

Interesting experiment, but at this point. I'm not sure there's any advantage/point to making the homemade packs, vs using the included ice packs. The $22 vest includes 20 of those, so someone could potentially keep an additional 2 spare sets in a freezer/cooler to swap out when the ones in use have warmed up to where they aren't providing appreciable cooling.

The HM packs I made, are bigger than the included ice packs, which in theory, means more thermal mass to absorb heat, but they're warming up faster than the IIPs. Don't know about the wonder-material claims in the video.
Click to expand...
That's freaking awesome

I too would be happy to mow the lawn with rock hard nipples!!!!!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top