Saw "Nail Busting" thread and that reminded me :What Knife for steel nail cutting

[Wowbagger]

Welp after searching out some threadage on Cold Steel 3v and the mini hunter, Master Hunter and all like that I am thinking I should start thinking about rethinking the mini hunter. Sounds like it is a really nice knife that normally I would really like and the steel is nice and on the hard side of the range . . .
but
for my crazy application it may be all wrong.
What could be "right" for this crazy application you might ask ?
I am thinking . . . steady your self . . . a . . .
Cold Steel Ti Lite in the 7075 aluminum handle. Get the 4 inch and cut off all but two or three inches of the blade and grind the end maybe to a chisel shape (more like a Razel actually (double bevel)).
Bevel the rest of the edge 40° or >.

Probably get the CTS-XHP; is that a good idea or stick with the AUS-8 ? I get along with CTS-XHP and never chip it in NORMAL use.

I was even thinking of doing the same with the 6 inch rather than the 4 inch. Has a more mother handle. Just wondering if the longer handle is going to keep me from getting it in where I need to debur stuff. I like my Opinel #12 that I did this with. That long handle is handy; lots of leverage.
Hmmmmmmmmm
Why not have both ?
Right ?

 

[skyhorse]

Ginsu
[video=youtube;6wzULnlHr8w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wzULnlHr8w[/video]

 

[Wowbagger]

Nah dude, nah
It's only fun if you can hit it with a hammer.

Although you do make a good point there.

 

[skyhorse]

Darn it Chris Reeve where's my steak knives and potato peeler

 

[blade dude]

Could buy some cold chisels and weld them together


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[blade dude]

https://vimeo.com/166662349 mtech or similar grade I forget the brand. Minimal damaged required medium effort in my opinion to fix. Rolled edge badly no chipping. When I say medium this is coming from me. I spend under 5 minutes sharpening my daily knives and that's light effort


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[exracr]

If you must cut nails... buy a cordless sawzall with a demo blade... they go thru nails in like 2-3 seconds!

 

[WK ONE]

The kind you don't care about.

 

[Revolverrodger]

I don't see the point of cutting nails with a knife

 

[Sharp Steel]

THis is what you're looking for

Alternatively; Mission or Busse, but both will get slightly deformed.

I ruined my very first Leatherman trying to cut a wire coat hanger with the wire cutters. It was an original Leatherman from way back. Got a nice round dimple in both sides of the cutter, and the pliers never closed all the way again. Unless the cutters are certified for hard materials, I would stick to cutting copper wire with the Leatherman.

 

[Wowbagger]

If you must cut nails... buy a cordless sawzall with a demo blade... they go thru nails in like 2-3 seconds!

hahaha

We regret to inform you that the Madness must firmly remain a part of our project.
But
Not that mad.

no but seriously have you ever tried that on a single nail held in a vise ?
Not with a demo blade.
Nope, nope, nope, nope

perhaps with a metal cutting blade of 24 or 32 tpi and even then is really difficult.
I have spent some time using a saws all on just structural steel, a really nice variable speed, quick change, extra mother, Porter Cable and it is not an application I can recommend.

probably you were just yoking though.

Besides, and I have said it before, to have fun here a big hammer is a permanent figure in this equation.

PS: my latest Sawsall acquisition is a Ridgid R3031 Fuego One Handed Reciprocating Saw
I am a corded power tool kind of guy (had some of the battery stuff; just call it a character flaw of mine) . . .
anyway the little Ridgid :
has a head light
really works great one handed (unique grip and balance)
powerful enough
smooth
quiet
light weight but not chintzy

I use it for polishing more than sawing especially on complex chromed shapes.
She's a keeper

Here's the end effector I made for it out of a saw blade, some aluminum angle (back to back) and just a "hint" of closed cell foam padding. Don't laugh at the document clips they work super well and stay in place with very coarse steel wool and with wads of aluminum foil.

I have since gone with a narrower version than this one.





Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[Wowbagger]

I don't see the point of cutting nails with a knife

YOU ARE CORRECT SIR !

A perfectly potty, pointless, preposterous. project
We call it PPPPP

Think of it as on the order of writing your name in the snow.
Fun though.
Or at least something to do until something fun comes hurtling down on you out of the sun with all muzzles blazing.

I suppose I am too easily entertained.

 

[Wowbagger]

Pretty isn’t it ?


I found out from my Opinel #12 mod that I really like a knife with a huge handle and a fairly short blade. I can put lots of power into the blade but still have great control. The metal cutting / extreme use version I am going to make from the Ti Lite is the next step from the thin Opinel which is like a box knife that’s been on some buff up program.


Here where the left edge of the photo is cropped that is about where I am going to cut off this blade and turn it into a Razel sort of blade. I got to leave some taper on the spine there to tuck into the handle. I think I got that scoped but I am going to take it slow and see what I can learn. Any links to good discussion of the Razel edge design would be most appreciated.


Yup this is a long knife can it be longer than the Hold Out I ? I thought it wasn’t but it looks longer here. Won’t be for long though. I find tons of use for the Hold Out, at home, just as it is. For the Ti Lite ? Other than opening envelopes I have zero use for it with such a long blade. Around here, as an EDC at work, all it is going to do is get me in trouble with the law. So . . . soon it is going to be like three or three and a half inches blade length.


I opted to let go of my obsession with 3V, for now at least. People have said many steels if heat treated decently can be a mild steel cutter.
So
Here we are with CTS-XHP


Shaves nails with the factory grind; no problem. I haven’t hammered it through a nail. That I am going to take real easy and experiment with edge geometry until I get to where it isn’t getting dinged up before going for it. I won’t be cutting nails after that but I want that kind of edge durability for lots of other sorta similar daily cutting.

I dig the “sculpted” handle. I wish it came in Titanium . . . I wish I could get any knife in sculpted titanium for a $100. This 7075 aluminum should be pretty tuff. I believe I saw where it is forged not just machined so I know from actually taking components to failure aluminum made from some serious alloy and forged / heat treated is a whole monstrously different world from some sort of mild aluminum. Hugely different animal.


They call this coating Electric Discharge . . . looks like powder coat paint to me . . . does anybody know if this is something better than really durable paint ?

anyway . . .
if you aren't already too horrified and disturbed by all this . . .
tune in next week . . . when . . .
we will find out whether or not the Bagger has turned a seriously beautiful brand new knife into a hideous monster to be unleashed on the world by it's maker to do his bidding . . .
and . . .
what about Neome ?

 

[Wowbagger]

Step One
It begins

Remove everything that doesn't look like a Razel (and in the process make it legal length for my area).

A few minutes with a Dermal and an abrasive cut off wheel. Then a quick touch with a small grinding wheel to take off the rough and sharp edges. All but that one good one.





While I was at it I separated the blade from the handle and made it about a billion times easier to close one handed.
Note the corner that sticks up out of the blade slot when closed. That catches on my pocket before the pocket catch quilion and can start to open the knife while I draw it and not in a good way. Until I taper that corner the secret to a clean draw is twist first. No prob.



Also before I forget I used the suggestion to hook a loop of paracord behind the pocket clip and pull to open up the clip a little. Since this is a heat treated metal handle I wasn't leery about pulling the screws out of the handle or damaging something (well I was a little still ) but I tried it and it worked. I almost over did it but good enough.

Thank you sir; sorry I don't recall your name at the moment. Blame it on manic delirium.

While I was in the shop I spent some time carving nails and then it was back up stairs to take these photos of carnage and mayhem.

Dr. Frankenstein would be pleased.

More later . . . (still got to shape the chisel end and taper the top / spine corner so it doesn't catch on my pocket).
And then . . . wait for a nice night with LOTS of lightening to bring my little creation to LIFE !

PS: Some of you will like this. I asked my hair cutter, who comes to my house to cut my hair. She has been my hair cutter for 25 years. She is in her sixties and all of about 95 pounds. I says to her "Do large scary knives bother you ?" She says "No . . . not even M sixteens bother me, unless they are in the hands of the wrong people, I was in the army you know". :grumpy:
Isn't that beautiful ?
I showed her the Ti Lite (when it was still full length) and she practiced drawing it out of her pocket for a while.
Anyway . . .

 

[KELAMA]

Some of you will like this. I asked my hair cutter, who comes to my house to cut my hair. She has been my hair cutter for 25 years. She is in her sixties and all of about 95 pounds. I says to her "Do large scary knives bother you ?" She says "No . . . not even M sixteens bother me, unless they are in the hands of the wrong people, I was in the army you know". :grumpy:
Isn't that beautiful ?
I showed her the Ti Lite (when it was still full length) and she practiced drawing it out of her pocket for a while.
Anyway . . .

^ "Anyway"...what happened next??? Pictures please!

In the meantime, I highly suggest that the next time you feel the need to cut a nail, try a Porter Cable Tiger saw Sawsall! :thumbup: :thumbup: My very first Sawsall that I purchased, was the PC TS 11 amp model & that thing lasted me 12 years! I finally gave it away to a friend, still working perfectly. I purchased & used a Milwaukee after that, but eventually went back to the Porter Cable TS.

Now a days, I usually just pull out my cordless. The thought of cutting a nail with a hammer & knife....well that will never happen. :bull_head:

 

[Wowbagger]

Where's your sense of adventure ?
Nah dude, nah I think you didn't read my comments on sawsalls above. They suck at sawing nails as such.
Too heavy for one thing. Like killing ants with atom bombs.

If I were to want to take the easy way out, the nambi pambi, I don't want to act all insane today rout, the I want to do this quietly and safely and with some measure of poise and . . .
well you get the gist . . .
I would just use one of these



But these can not do what I want to do with this knife and that is not so much nail cutting as metal carving and deburing and general other weirdness.

and huh . . . this is a knife forum not a power tool saws all forum. We do every thing with knifes. Even stuff that is not really recommended to do with knives. Why ? Because we are knife dudes, and dudetts and that's what knife dudes, and dudetts do.

For gosh sakes . . .
Doesn't anyone screen these calls ?


Nah KELMA I'm just funning you
Thanks for your support .

 

[KELAMA]

This is a knife forum not a power tool saws all forum. We do every thing with knifes. Even stuff that is not really recommended to do with knives. Why ? Because we are knife dudes, and dudetts and that's what knife dudes, and dudetts do.

For gosh sakes . . .
Doesn't anyone screen these calls ?


Nah KELMA I'm just funning you
Thanks for your support .

^ You win! Where can I find one of these nail cutting knives- I need one!?