Testing flawed blades

[J. Neilson]

I just wonder if it's only me. I know we all test our blade and most of us do it quite extreme (I do at least one a month) but, I've always been in the habit of testing the flawed ones, too. I've been very fortunate to not have too many blades screw up on me but, the one's that do and are still able to be finished (crack or cold shunt sp?, ect.), I tend to finish, carry and beat the snot out of. I just finished a canister that didn't weld up the way I hoped. It's an 8.5" recurved blade that has a couple small cracks along the spine. I'm finishing it (with cheap materials, of course) and planning on putting it through the works for a couple weeks. I finish these blades just as I would any other except for putting my name/logo on them. I figure if a flawed blade can perform well that makes me feel even better about the good ones. Anyone else do this or have opinions on this habit?

 

[L6steel]

I think it's an excellent idea J!
Why let the work and materials you already have in the blade go to waste when you can gain knowledge from it.
I'm going to start doing this too!
I've always tried to salvage the blade by regrinding into a different style/pattern or just gotten so disgusted I trashed it. Next time, and I'm sure it's not very far down the road, I'll finish it up and run it through the mill to see how it holds up.
Thanks for the post J!!
Michael

 

[Robert Hankins]

Testing your blades give you the confidence to present your blades and know exactly what they can do. If you don't test at least a few you are guessing and customers will pick that up. Post pics when you do that always helps.

PS: Nothing will grab attention at a show like a nice custom blade that shows some abuse and having it on display. Add some pics of what you did Etc and it will get comments.