REKAT ATS-34 durability

Doh!
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I was going to wait until I got some more data points before I nailed this up on this forum...but that's what's so great about Cliff! He doesn' dic_ around.
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Seriously, I am going to repeat the test tonight, making several attempts this time to make sure that the results were not due to variations in technique or anomalies in the edge hardness. I will post more results tomorrow.
 
I repeated the "test" and got much more consistent results this time. I resharpened the Pioneer and Ascent to 44 degree S-co Sharpmaker angles this time, and tried to be very consistent with the force of the pounding.

This time I saw very similar, and much less severe in the case of the Pioneer, damage between the two blades. Instead of chips the diameter of the coat hanger, I only sustained minor chipping and edge deformation.

I threw in an ATS-34 Black Cloud Sharktooth also. It has a finer edge on it, but it sustained similar damage to the other two.

So the surprise is that the Benchmade ATS, which is so infamous for being brittle, is actually in the same strength and toughness league as other ATS-34 blades. The Pioneer seems to be neither better or worse.

The biggest surprise was my ATS-34 Gerber Covert folder. I took some whacks with that blade and saw no visible damage to it at all. Wow. Edge geometry is the only thing I can think of to explain it. Thought he Covert is sharpened at the same angle, it has a narrower edge bevel, indicating a narrower edge. Logically, one would expect that to make the edge weaker rather than stronger.

???

[This message has been edited by Steve Harvey (edited 14 October 1999).]
 
Steve
You might mention the Pioneer was the only hollow ground knife in your test. As far as the chipping test that makes a diffrence. All the others testes=d were flat ground I belive.

Bob Taylor

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Some days it's not worth chewing through the restraints and escaping.
 
I am thinking that was a major factor. The more steel there is behind the edge, the more stable it is going to be. And something that I did mention elsewhere in regard to this comparison, the Pioneer was actually performing better than the other two knives in my opinion, including cutting shavings from the wire. It was cutting a lot better on cardboard. It wasn't until I became abusive and irrational that the Pioneer proved to be mortal after all. The Synergy edge came back a little better when steeled after shaving the wire, but the Pioneer was somewhat more comfortable and the more efficient cutter. My appreciation of the little Pioneer is undeminished.

[This message has been edited by Steve Harvey (edited 14 October 1999).]
 
Assuming bevel angles are consistent, it would be reasonable to assume resistance to fracture to be proportional to the width of the blade behind the bevel. Note that even minor details such as shape of bevel (convex / flat) and finish (coarse / fine) can play a part in strength / durability, but since you reprofiled most of the knives in a consistent manner Steve, this is not relevant here.

So Bob from your above comment can I assume this was the expected behavior of the RECAT blade?

-Cliff
 
This was a great exercise. Very eye opening and imformative.
Well done Steve.



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The individualist without strategy who takes opponents lightly will inevitably become the captive of others.


 
Steve and Cliff
We have worked on our heat treat and always looking elsewhere. We recently tried the posted Hatchi recomended one and in one word it sucked. We have 4 Sifus ala Blade Forums grind and they only RCed at 56. There is no magic heat treat there will always be a tradeoff somewhere sharping ability, edge retention and ductility. We are happy where we are thinking we are middle of the road in all three.

Bob Taylor

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Some days it's not worth chewing through the restraints and escaping.
 
I'm quite happy with the heat treat on my Carnivour.
I get a fine edge and it lasts and it doesn't chip out like some other manufacturer's ATS34.
As a matter of fact it doesn't even act like the ATS34 I'm familiar with.
It seems to get as fine an edge as I get on my VG10 blades.
I don't have any explanations for it, but there it is.
Go figure...

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The individualist without strategy who takes opponents lightly will inevitably become the captive of others.


 
I think, in the final analysis, I learned that edge geometry was a much bigger factor in edge strength than the differences in heat treatment between the blades I tried. I started out with some slight misconceptions that the Pioneer would be a lot tougher and the Ascent would be a lot more brittle. Finding out that they are really pretty close is not too surprising considering they are professionally heat treated and of the same composition. This is a fine conclusion as far as I am concerned because I am very happy with the performance of all the blades. They held their edges very well, and suffered no damage until they were extremely abused.
 
Bob,

Thank you for providing feedback on your Heat Treating experiments. It is nice to know that REKAT is looking for ways to improve an already fine product.


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AKTI Member No. A000370
 
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