Jerry and I talked about doing a test at the Blade Show and we did just that. Unfortunately we could not make a big scene about it so we went out back and just whacked away at some 1" hemp rope. The test was a simple rope cutting test. He held the blade against the rope and pushed it through the hemp rope. Jerry wanted to show me that his basic line (Which I just picked up as a distributor) would do everything he claimed.
Up to this point all tests on Busse's knives where done in house without anyone outside of the Busse camp witnessing the results. Well not this time. We did this test right out in the open and many BladeForums members could watch the test. Several people came by and watched at least part of the test which went on for quite a while, nearly 3 hours!
Those who watched at least part of the test were:
Les De Asis, Kit Carson, Rob Simonich, Bob Taylor, Field & Stream magazine and many forum members plus several people I did not know.
The test was simple. We placed a 2X4 on a table and clamped it down. We made guides, to lay the rope down on the 1&1/2" track the rope would lay on, for the cut by simply drilling some screws into the wood. Then Jerry took out a HUGE roll of hemp from his van. Jennifer (Jerry's wife) and I both would count the cuts. We each had a calculator and simply added each cut as it went through.
We used a Basic #9 for the test. We marked the blade with a marker so Jerry would be able to easily see and use the same part of the blade. I was amazed Jerry wanted to do this test even though his hand is still recovering from his accident.
Anyway I will cut to the chase as I am still tired from the show and this very poorly written review is a Testament to that.
Jerry's previous rope cut test with a Basic #9 made it to 1,254 cuts. This is truly amazing but the fact was that he video taped this test and he told me the reason they stopped at that count was because he was running out of video tape. Well for our test he did not need a video tape as I witnessed the entire test from start to finish.
How many cuts did we get?
2,771!
And we only stopped there because we ran out of rope!
After the 2,000th cut I was still able to shave my arm! At the 2,500 mark it lost the ability to shave but still sliced through paper really well. Lori took several pics of me shaving my arm and I will post those soon as well as the pics of the test.
Folks this is the most amazing thing I have ever scene when it comes to knives. During the test I wondered if the knife was actually just getting buffed by the rope. We even had hit the screws on the board at least 6 or so times. I was truly impressed and this has wet my appetite for a more complete test of the Basic line as soon a they ship.
I am tired and must get some sleep so look for more posts later.
