Cliff Stamp
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 5, 1998
- Messages
- 17,562
You can see the full review at :
http://www.physics.mun.ca:80/~sstamp/knives/a1.html
The A1 is a very strong knife. I stressed it much harder than what had faulted many knives and it was not even effected. Its corrosion resistance is also very high which you would expect. Its edge holding is very good on hard materials as the edge will not chip and it takes serious impacts to indent it. Its abrasion resistance is higher than AUS-8A but lower than ATS-34 (at 60-61 RC). The handle is durable and shows little wear after extended use with the checkering just being slightly worn. The only damage to it is a slight cut/tear just under the finger guard. I don't know what caused it, it was either a rock/metal impact.
The blade durability does have a tradeoff and that is in slicing performance. A full flat grind would improve performance in this area significantly but if this was the geometry used a lot of mass would be lost and it would probably lower chopping performance and obviously make the knife a lot weaker. To improve the slicing ability you can put a final x-coarse micro bevel on the first inch or two of the blade as Joe Talmadge often recommends to give the A1 the ability to bite strongly on the initial cuts. You can also lower the edge bevel down a little which will improve its cutting ability as well.
-Cliff
http://www.physics.mun.ca:80/~sstamp/knives/a1.html
The A1 is a very strong knife. I stressed it much harder than what had faulted many knives and it was not even effected. Its corrosion resistance is also very high which you would expect. Its edge holding is very good on hard materials as the edge will not chip and it takes serious impacts to indent it. Its abrasion resistance is higher than AUS-8A but lower than ATS-34 (at 60-61 RC). The handle is durable and shows little wear after extended use with the checkering just being slightly worn. The only damage to it is a slight cut/tear just under the finger guard. I don't know what caused it, it was either a rock/metal impact.
The blade durability does have a tradeoff and that is in slicing performance. A full flat grind would improve performance in this area significantly but if this was the geometry used a lot of mass would be lost and it would probably lower chopping performance and obviously make the knife a lot weaker. To improve the slicing ability you can put a final x-coarse micro bevel on the first inch or two of the blade as Joe Talmadge often recommends to give the A1 the ability to bite strongly on the initial cuts. You can also lower the edge bevel down a little which will improve its cutting ability as well.
-Cliff
