While sharpening my 2010 LV inlaid sebenza on my work sharp sharpener I rounded the tip. I had been thinking about having the blade upgraded to S35VN so I decided to send it in for replacement but I wanted to keep my S30V blade as a "user" blade so I asked that they return that to me. Well, I ended up buying a second sebenza as a user so I had this extra blade laying around....
I've always wondered how strong the hollow grind is on the sebenza. I keep hearing people say that it's fragile because it's too thin, but I wanted to find out for myself so I did some testing. I sometimes hesitate to use my sebenza for anything "hard use" because I'm just not sure how strong the blade actually is. I am not claiming this is a conclusive test of blade strength or anything like that. I'm just sharing the results of some tests I did to satisfy my own curiosity. There are probably much better ways to test blade strength but this is what I did with the resources I had.
The first thing I did was use a 16oz hammer to cut through a 2"x2" piece of cedar. The sebenza blade did this without breaking a sweat:
No noticeable damage to the blade other than some hammer marks on the spine. The blade edge was still pretty sharp, but it wasn't overly sharp to begin with. Next up I decided to try some .5" PVC pipe:
This was a silly test because one hammer whack later the sebenza cut right through it. Absolutely no damage to the edge. Next I decided to try some wire I had laying around. I don't know what gauge it is but it felt fairly thick. It's grounding wire that you use when installing server racks. The sebenza cut through it easily multiple times without any damage to the blade again:
Next I decided to try some concrete on a slab near my house:
Before:
After:
I didn't want to damage the cement too much so I didn't spend much time on this test. Also, it was at sort of a weird angle so I didn't go straight in with the blade. This lead to the first bit of damage on the blade. A fairly large dent because of the angle I went in at:
Next I decided to try a 1/4" steel rod that I have. I don't know what kind of steal this is, sorry. No surprise, this led to some more dents in the blade, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Keep in mind, I am banging hard on the spine of the blade with a 16oz hammer. Here's the damage:
Finally, I had some G10 laying around so I decided to try the blade against that. G10 is alot tougher than I give it a credit for, but again, no extra damage to the blade (as far as I can tell). Also, for the safety conscious, yes I was wearing proper safety equipment (including a respirator) when cutting this G10.
The G10 doesn't look very damaged but I was hitting it hard. That stuff is really tough!
Overall I am surprised at the results. The blade took MUCH more abuse than I thought it would. Before I started I thought that I might break the blade hitting it with the hammer through the cedar. The blade is actually still in pretty decent condition after all of this. I'm thinking about heading to the store to buy some bricks to see how well it does on that.
Anyone have any suggestions on what else I may try?
I've always wondered how strong the hollow grind is on the sebenza. I keep hearing people say that it's fragile because it's too thin, but I wanted to find out for myself so I did some testing. I sometimes hesitate to use my sebenza for anything "hard use" because I'm just not sure how strong the blade actually is. I am not claiming this is a conclusive test of blade strength or anything like that. I'm just sharing the results of some tests I did to satisfy my own curiosity. There are probably much better ways to test blade strength but this is what I did with the resources I had.
The first thing I did was use a 16oz hammer to cut through a 2"x2" piece of cedar. The sebenza blade did this without breaking a sweat:
No noticeable damage to the blade other than some hammer marks on the spine. The blade edge was still pretty sharp, but it wasn't overly sharp to begin with. Next up I decided to try some .5" PVC pipe:
This was a silly test because one hammer whack later the sebenza cut right through it. Absolutely no damage to the edge. Next I decided to try some wire I had laying around. I don't know what gauge it is but it felt fairly thick. It's grounding wire that you use when installing server racks. The sebenza cut through it easily multiple times without any damage to the blade again:
Next I decided to try some concrete on a slab near my house:
Before:
After:
I didn't want to damage the cement too much so I didn't spend much time on this test. Also, it was at sort of a weird angle so I didn't go straight in with the blade. This lead to the first bit of damage on the blade. A fairly large dent because of the angle I went in at:
Next I decided to try a 1/4" steel rod that I have. I don't know what kind of steal this is, sorry. No surprise, this led to some more dents in the blade, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Keep in mind, I am banging hard on the spine of the blade with a 16oz hammer. Here's the damage:
Finally, I had some G10 laying around so I decided to try the blade against that. G10 is alot tougher than I give it a credit for, but again, no extra damage to the blade (as far as I can tell). Also, for the safety conscious, yes I was wearing proper safety equipment (including a respirator) when cutting this G10.
The G10 doesn't look very damaged but I was hitting it hard. That stuff is really tough!
Overall I am surprised at the results. The blade took MUCH more abuse than I thought it would. Before I started I thought that I might break the blade hitting it with the hammer through the cedar. The blade is actually still in pretty decent condition after all of this. I'm thinking about heading to the store to buy some bricks to see how well it does on that.
Anyone have any suggestions on what else I may try?
