The absolute toughest material you have cut through?

Hot tub hose with my zt 301. After cutting one piece I used a sawzall for the rest :p

Coax with my Tasman SE. One really hard pull split it in two, but dented a point on one of the serrations.

My most knife abusive job was doing asbestos abaitment. I used a fully serrated Endura to remove sections of duct insulation with black asbestos mastic. The mastic was globbed on over 1/4" thick in some places and bound with tie wire. My knife was completely trashed by the end of the day.

I never cut carpet with anything except a carpet knife. In the past 10 years I've removed and installed over 700,000 square feet of carpet in homes and commercial buildings. This is my carpet knife.
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The metal bands that are used to hold down materials for shipping are pretty rough on a blade. It will dull it incredibly fast and I try to avoid it as much as possible. Tie wire is really tough too, and also must be cut sometimes. I try to keep some wire cutters for both handy, but you just never know. The aluminum in beer cans is a lot softer, so punching holes in them for shotgunning purposes isn't really too hard. Soup cans are pretty soft too, and if I forgot my can opener that day my knife opens them up for lunch no problem.
 
Ive opened loads of cans when i couldnt find a canopener, just punched the knife in and saw away. Chipped the edge on my 154cm blade, as expected.
 
Ankerson said:
Might as well have went outside and cut dirt with it as it gave the same results.
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Speaking of dirt. I had to carve foothholds in some compacted red clay. I was welding some patches in the steel walls of a chute under a rock crusher at the quarry I used to work at. I couldn't fit a ladder in the access hatch and I needed to reach up high so I carved four holes so i could reach up an extra 4 1/2 feet.

I was using a CRKT M16-14LE and the AUS 8 didn't quite hold its edge. On the other hand the black DLC coating wasn't even scratched.
 
What I thought was cardboard, would've sworn it was cardboard, but was just like drywall. The whole thing must've been made of nothing but inclusion! (Some products we just cut off the entire top flaps and set the whole box on the shelves. Mostly imports from China @ the 99cents ea. price range.) :confused:
 
Recycled cardboard I use to get from my old job, I would use it for edge testing because it could destroy the best steel in a matter of minutes. 1095 would only make it 4in before crushing and folding the cardboard, S30V and better could slice up a whole 2x2 sheet but was butter knife sharp when done. Beyond that I think carbon fiber was one of the most damaging materials I have subjected my edges to.
 
I don't know. Ask what's-his-name* or the other guy who likes to destroy knives.


*The Canadian dude who walked the plank. :D





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This composite house siding I came across on the job one day. Didn't know I'd have to cut a hole out for a lighting box so I didn't have a hole saw. After I completely destroyed the blade on my VG-10 Endura I jumped in the car to go get a hole saw. This stuff was like trying to cut through a rock.
 
I don't have any amazing stories, but 20 guage wire isn't much of a problem lol. There are also some big logs I've cut through.
 
Heavy weight Fiberglass/uni-directional/bi-directional carbon fiber (hull and deck of a vespoli rowing shell that needed "repairs") Eventually switched to sharpened stiff puty knives for the light stuff but my rc3 did most of the work.

Triming bondo (I can never find a razor blade at work)

Scraping plastic, its heavy molded plastic thats used on skegs/fins and rudders on the boats which on our older boats the rudders are too tall and need triming to fit modern skegs. An angle grinder or 40 grit works well for the big stuff but for fine work I find a knife works better.

Zip ties because I can't carry a pair of klien cutters everywhere.

Toughest was either the fiberglass/carbon, or a bit of 3/8" filthy plastic that was used as a cover for the shift linkage on an outboard motor, Tasman salt SE cuts like a hacksaw!
 
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3-4 Inch exhaust hose with the steel coil inside, those plastic straps they put on pallets, and zip ties for some reason eat up my knives.
 
flexible PVC pipe is tough to cut - fiberglass cuts easy, but is tough on the edge.
 
Memory foam. I had a large 10 inch thick piece and even razors werent much use. Unlike other foams it compacts and becomes denser and harder to cut, the more pressure you apply and it takes so long to spring back. thin pieces are not bad but the thick stuff stuff is a bear. I tried using all manner of knives real vs, electric vs razors etc. I thought it would cut easy like standard urethane foam but it didnt and of course I discovered this christmas night.
 
Rubber tire off my trailer coming back from a hunting trip in Mississippi. Blew a tire and it got wrapped around the axle. Had to cut it and the metal wire around the inside. It was tough.
 
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