The "Ask Nathan a Question" Thread

SixtyLion said:
Hi Nathan,

I am big fan of your work, currently putting away some money to purchase my first CPK knife, Behemother!
So my two-part question is what do you think about Fairbairn’s Smatchet knife, what are the chances to see one made by CPK with your famous Delta 3V?
Thank you!!!
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I don't have an opinion about it
 
C_Claycomb said:
Nathan,

Using nominally 3/8th Micarta, what is the maximum contour thickness you would be comfortable designing/machining?

I just measured my limited supply and different nominal 3/8th sheets measured between 0.3799 and 0.402 with mostly a 0.003" variation between points on the same sheet, but one piece varied by 0.01" across 12" width. Does this stuff ever come in under 0.375"?

Shaping by hand, it hardly matters but I imagine that you need to keep well within minimum sheet thickness to avoid waste with CNC cut designs.

Thank you,
Chris
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Our scales (and knives) are not designed around stock sizes. They're designed and then stock is procured for the run. We have our steel made to our specs and the micarta is available in many standard sheet thickness. I simply get a size thick enough to fit our scale. If the thickest part of the scale is .320, I'll order 3/8" and cut it down. The raw material cost on micarta isn't enough to worry about for most applications.
 
XtianAus said:
Have you played around with or plan to experiment with vanax steel?
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Vanax is designed with stainlessness as a top priority. There's 18% chrome in there without much carbon to carbideize it (I just made up that word). That's a lot of "stuff" in the matrix that isn't pulling its weight. I like the idea behind it (nitrogen steel), but I haven't experimented with it simply because there's so much chrome in it for the purpose of being highly stainless that is has to effect some of its other properties. I usually lean towards materials that put less emphasis on stainlessness when choosing materials to attempt development work.

It does sound like an interesting material. Everything BU makes is pretty good. I wish I had more time, I'd play with it.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
Our scales (and knives) are not designed around stock sizes. They're designed and then stock is procured for the run. We have our steel made to our specs and the micarta is available in many standard sheet thickness. I simply get a size thick enough to fit our scale. If the thickest part of the scale is .320, I'll order 3/8" and cut it down. The raw material cost on micarta isn't enough to worry about for most applications.
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Thank you Nathan.
I asked the same sort of question from the manufacturer's end by contacting Norplex-Micarta. The electrical grades quote compliance with various national standards which use +/- tolerances, some could be called barn-door-wide. Compliance doesn't mean they don't make it tighter, so I asked.

Paraphrasing:
Actual tolerance varies by cloth material and finished thickness, so linen and canvas give different thickness variation. Tolerance is all plus, not plus/minus, so for example, canvas 3/8" material would vary between 0.375 and 0.415 with the edges of a sheet being thinner than the center. 1/4" canvas would be +0.03" and 1/5" canvas would be +0.048"

I also got the same sort of response regarding stocking for the design rather than designing for the stock, that if the quantity is there, special thicknesses can be made to order. I have never understood why the standard thicknesses available off the shelf jump from 3/8 to 1" with nothing in between, and was starting to believe that that was all that could exist.

All very good food for thought. Thank you.

Chris
 
C_Claycomb said:
Thank you Nathan.
I asked the same sort of question from the manufacturer's end by contacting Norplex-Micarta. The electrical grades quote compliance with various national standards which use +/- tolerances, some could be called barn-door-wide. Compliance doesn't mean they don't make it tighter, so I asked.

Paraphrasing:
Actual tolerance varies by cloth material and finished thickness, so linen and canvas give different thickness variation. Tolerance is all plus, not plus/minus, so for example, canvas 3/8" material would vary between 0.375 and 0.415 with the edges of a sheet being thinner than the center. 1/4" canvas would be +0.03" and 1/5" canvas would be +0.048"

I also got the same sort of response regarding stocking for the design rather than designing for the stock, that if the quantity is there, special thicknesses can be made to order. I have never understood why the standard thicknesses available off the shelf jump from 3/8 to 1" with nothing in between, and was starting to believe that that was all that could exist.

All very good food for thought. Thank you.

Chris
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Something to be aware of, Micarta as we think of it was a Westinghouse brand and Norplex bought the name. Some of their micarta is import with the name "micarta" attached to it. While they do manufacture some quality materials, you cannot automatically assume that just because it is noreplex micarta that it is the quality that was historically associated with the brand.

I recommend Accurate Aculam made in Yonkers New York and Current as suppliers of quality domestically produced material.
 
Nathan, in sticking to the topic regarding your use of synthetics, perhaps you can shed some light on this... if you were using a given material, perhaps one of the Norplex products, and you were acquiring it oversized and then machining it to your specifications, and assuming the standard deviation was somewhere within .02mm with a regulated trajectory of approximately half of its resonant frequency, would you expect that it’s covalent bond would allow for consistent dynamic tension?

Asking for a friend.
 
Matthew Gregory said:
Nathan, in sticking to the topic regarding your use of synthetics, perhaps you can shed some light on this... if you were using a given material, perhaps one of the Norplex products, and you were acquiring it oversized and then machining it to your specifications, and assuming the standard deviation was somewhere within .02mm with a regulated trajectory of approximately half of its resonant frequency, would you expect that it’s covalent bond would allow for consistent dynamic tension?

Asking for a friend.
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Being a highly cross-linked thermoset it is easy to think of it in terms of materials with metallic properties. It even has the same coefficient of thermal expansion as aluminum. But no, like most polymers it is not a linear elastic material.
 
Guys, that was all random gibberish, and Nathan latched onto the little bits that may have made a little sense and made an answer out of if, knowing full well I’d have to answer with further gibberish.


...little did he suspect that I’d double down with Full Stupid, and even make a reference to Shop Talk from years gone by.


Now, if I could only remember that song we were talking about. Think it mentions rattlesnakes...
 
Matthew Gregory said:
Guys, that was all random gibberish, and Nathan latched onto the little bits that may have made a little sense and made an answer out of if, knowing full well I’d have to answer with further gibberish.


...little did he suspect that I’d double down with Full Stupid, and even make a reference to Shop Talk from years gone by.


Now, if I could only remember that song we were talking about. Think it mentions rattlesnakes...
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As a physical chemist I appreciate that some of your nonsense was based in that area!
 
SwarthyGnome said:
View attachment 1519160 View attachment 1519162
Hi Nathan. I just finished murdering some pablano peppers and saw the edge of Bloodlust here looking a little dinged up!
I am the only person who uses it (wife uses a different set of kitchen knives) and it is only used on this plastic cutting board.
What is your opinion on this?
It is still sharp otherwise. Thank you.
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My opinion is that I went too thin on these at the edge for most people. I was very gung-ho about making a hard thin kitchen knife that I failed to account for the wide range of users and uses these would see. Instead of sharpening these as a general purpose kitchen knife that most people would be well served with, I sharpened these at 15 degrees on one side only with a minor micro bevel. I could have doubled that angle and it would still have been thinner than most people have experience with.

I have three of these and they don't do this. But I gave these to my family and they all have similar issues. And the answer is to simply re-sharpen at a more obtuse edge angle. 15 degree (total included angle) is more for Japanese chefs. You'd be better serves with 25 (from one side side) and a small micro bevel added to that.
 
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