Russian glass defeats German steel

S

Silver Puss

Joined
Apr 13, 2002
Messages
114
I just tried to decapitate an empty Stoli bottle with a Boker Applegate-Fairbairn. The knife got the worst of it. The glass wasn't even scratched. But if you view along the edge of the blade, you will see that the metal has been peened or crushed where it struck the bottle! It does look repairable though.

I suppose that if I tried this with an F-S, it might have snapped off at the tang. So Col. Applegate's design does appear to be an improvement.
 
Yep, glass is much harder than any blade steel. Hence the fact that some people will hone the edge of their blade on the top of their rolled down car window if it's needed in a pinch. You won't scratch a harder material with a softer one.
 
Originally posted by Silver Puss
I just tried to decapitate an empty Stoli bottle with a Boker Applegate-Fairbairn...
Click to expand...

...So, what's the point? I think a hammer would have worked-out better for that trick. Use the right tool for the job!
 
Originally posted by Silver Puss
I just tried to decapitate an empty Stoli bottle with a Boker Applegate-Fairbairn...
Click to expand...

I just tried to break concrete wall with my Ford Escort. My car was shattered for good but this damned wall was hardly scratched only!

No, I’m not an idiot and didn’t do such experiments.
I just tried to show how your post looks...
 
Originally posted by Sergiusz Mitin


I just tried to break concrete wall with my Ford Escort. My car was shattered for good but this damned wall was hardly scratched only!

No, I’m not an idiot and didn’t do such experiments.
I just tried to show how your post looks...
Click to expand...

:rolleyes: LMAO...
Last I knew Ford Escorts weren't German...:p
You make a good point though!!!:D
 
"Think..." I thought about what you said and went back to check. It indeed appeared that the edge was not so much dented as burnished by the impact. There were shiny lines where steel contacted glass and these shiny sections no longer felt "sharp". However in profile, it did not appear that the metal was deformed.

Yes, I believe now that you could actually sharpen a blade like this on glass. Now on the other hand the Stoli bottle was smooth, not rough like the top edge of a car window...

Whatever it was, a few passes on a fine DMT (I've got the 10x4 ones which I use on my kitchen knives) has repaired the damage.

I really don't know anything about industrial materials, but I find that I just have to post something as ridiculous as this and I'll be able to discover who the knowledgeable people are. Thanks.
 
Glass is much harder than blade steel but it is not abrasive material. So knife sharpening on the edge of car window works like edge steeling but not grinding. This straitens and aligns the edge practically without metal removing.

Very edge is only thin foil of steel what can be damaged with ease meeting some hard material, glass for example. When you are looking onto perfectly sharpened edge straightly in blade symmetry plane you can’t see the very edge because of its super-minimal width, literally fractions of micron. The bright area on your edge shows where the top of cutting wedge is damaged (no matter rolled or chipped) - now it has visible width.

No wonders here, just elementary things of geometry, material futures and small bit of common sense.

And welcome to the Forums :)!
 
glas is one of the worst enemies of kitchen knives. You should not cut anything on glas dishes.


Last I knew Ford Escorts weren't German...
Click to expand...

The ones sold in Europe and the UK were built in Germany.
 
ThinkOfTheChildren :

glass is much harder than any blade steel.
Click to expand...

Most alloy steels have carbides which can readily cut glass. The problem with whacking a knife edge into a piece of glass isn't just due to the high hardness of glass, but the very thin nature of the knife edge. If you hit the spine of the knife off of the bottle, the glass will easily be broken with no damage to the knife.

That being said, you can cut glass with a knife, just be prepared for some work on the knife once it is over. I have cut a windshield out with a knife (Strider WB) :

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

This will result in basically impacting the edge bevel completely away, so you will lose a mm or so of width. I have also struck bottles before while clearing brush, they tend to leave large edge impactions and are as bad as hitting rock, and worse than most metal inclusions.

-Cliff
 
Sergiusz thanks for the welcome. I feel pretty stupid. Next time I try something like this I'll use an Ekco knife instead.
 
You at least had the brains to EMPTY the bottle FIRST, right?

Cut the guy holding the bottle next time :D

Welcome and we look forward to your further adventures!
 
If you have to repeat this trick, do it the RIGHT way. Use the back (spine) of the knife. This unsharpened, thick piece of metal can in fact decapitate a beer bottle. At least a Busse Badger Attack can do it! But I know better than to abuse the cutting edge unless i really need to do so.
 
Yeh, the bottle was empty. It previously contained homebrewed cane vinegar with spices added. I brought it home from a birthday party my friend threw for his cousin. A stew of pig entrails, raw crab, and other good Filipino dishes...
 
A F-S is not a cutting device, is a stabbing device.
I don't see col. Applegate modification as an improvement, it's more a different type of dagger.
It's an alteration that brought out something that trades a bit of stabbing ability in exchange for some cutting ability.

The top of a car window is usually not polished, just ground round,
so that it is quite abrasive.
 
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