Tested to Death !!

Greg Covington

Greg Covington

Joined
Oct 28, 1999
Messages
1,563
Here is a Combat Special that I made sometime back....I wasn't happy with the stamp so it became a "test" knife. I have chopped into nails, hardwood knots, dug holes...etc with this one and the blade shows the wear. It never chipped out and always hung in there. It is 1/4 in thick 1084, edge quenched and triple tempered at 375F.

Well today I decided to euthanise the knife by giving it the big test. I clamped it into the vise about 1.5 in from the tip...put a big pipe on the grip and gave it a big bend. It went 90 degrees fine on the first bent with, of course, a bend left in the blade...but no edge cracks, etc. On the second bend, past 90 degrees, the handle let loose where the tang ends and split near the guard. I am happy with the result....I dont think that anyone could generate that kind of force on the grip by hand alone. What do you guys think?


death.jpg


Greg Covington
 
I'd definitely be happy with that performance from any knife I made. Esp. as while you can see the abuse on the blade, like you said, don't see any real chips or anything.

Good job. :)
 
actually been doing a good chunk of knife work today, trying to finish up some of knives I had in process, so getting back into this.

THink next knife I make here will be one I test until it snaps, as I want to really see if my heat treating has improved(almost sure it has, as I've learned a lot here) but I want to see the grain structure and compare it to old ones.

Course, I'm not going to use one that looks that nice. :) Will give it my normal grind, but probaly not go past 400 grit, and since it's a full tang, won't worry too much about the handle, and probably just use some of the cheap poplar or something from Home Depot. Was going to say the red oak they had, but they don't sell it now, and I actually like way that stuff finishes up, so saving last chunk I ahve for a real knife. :)
 
Thats a good test and will build confidence in your knives. Customers need to see that in your face when buying from you. However why did the handle break off? It appears by the picture that the tang was a little short. I think you are right that nobody could abuse it that bad by hand but customers dont play by the rules, some will use a cheater pipe too. I like these kind of tests. Good work.
 
IDitto what Bruce said. I have a number of them that get used and abused and then destroyed just to see what needs improving. Kinda makes you sick sometimes to snap something that you worked on for so long.
 
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Originally posted by XRAYED
the handle let loose where the tang ends and split near the guard...What do you guys think?
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I think that a full-width full-tang knife would have made the testing last longer. ;) :D Seriously, that blade shows impressive "hang in there" toughness, since the metal itself did not fail, not even to the point of cracking if I understood your results correctly. Nice to see that you're willing to push a blade past the limit to determine where it would give way first. As Bruce noted, having performed this will be a big boost on self-confidence when a potential buyer questions the toughness of your blades.

You may want to take this one along to shows so that folks can see for themselves how tough blades can be made. One visual inspection is worth ten thousand words of assurance.
 
Originally posted by Bruce Bump
However why did the handle break off? It appears by the picture that the tang was a little short.
Click to expand...

Bruce....the tang extended 2 inches into the grip and the handle broke at a point just beyond that...just about where the pipe made contact. This happened at well past 90 degrees. I might end up running the tang to extend into the second Corby bolt for added strength.....but I doubt that kind of stress would ever be placed by and normal or even abusive use.
 
Xrayed (Greg), that'a way pal!!! Great heat treat. You did it yourself and tested the single most important aspect of knife making and it performed superbly, the heat treating. Well done and I respect that ability. Keep doing it yourself. Well done.

RL
 
How could you destroy that??!!??!!

On a serious note, I would love to hear the response you would give to a customer if they sent THAT knife back and said "it broke when I was using it".

Good grief....I have soldiers out here that could f*ck up a stainless steel bowling ball, but I don't think that even they could do that sort of damage to a knife like you did!!
 
I've got a custom that I had Greg make me a while back. I beat that knife like a red headed step child, and it suffered no damage. I've got a LOT of faith in Greg's heat treat in particular, as well as his overall work.
If I needed to have another blade forged for any extreme use application, Covington is the guy that I'd ask to make it.
 
Thanks for the vote of confidence Gary! It means alot!

Another interesting note in this test was where the micarta split up near the guard. The handles on these are two pieces of 3/8" linen micarta with the guards cut into them. They are mortised and the slabs are glued together with Acraglas, then the grips has 3 stainless pins, a thong tubing, and 2 Corby bolts to hold it together. I expected the micarta to separate up near the guard where it is glued (you can see where the pins pulled thru). It did not separate at the glue joint but rather split the micarta rather than the Acraglas junction.

This completely sells me on Acraglas!
 
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