The knife test standard.

Man....I thought that guy was gonna have a MI right there. He looked a bit out of shape. Step away from the buffet dude.
 
Steel pipe and a 3 pound sledge.

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:D :p
 
I think we have a good array of basic tests. People sometimes laugh at the bread and salami cutting, but if i can get see through salami slices, the knife cuts well and tracks good. Especially after a bit of field work.

Random log batoning is a good test, if I was going to standardize I'd choose red oak or maple 2 inch and 4 inch logs. Cross grain batoning, and knot hacking on lumberyard material is good, too.

For stabbing and impact stuff I often use a head height stump in the backyard wrapped in some old groundpads and 3 layers of carpet. sometimes I'll toss some 1/4 inch leather on there, too.

Impact testing the edge on a brass rod is a good one, not all knives are made for this, but a bushcrafter or camp knife should handle it. enough swing to cut a notch and another to make a V cut and you can see if the edge is going to chip out.

Throwing is a great one- three solid misses and 2-6 sticks will generally give you plenty of information about the state of the tip and whether or not the blade is brittle.

Some knifemakers use a concrete drop test as well.
 
Actually, after reading posts from noss, vassili, etc., I've put a lot of serious thought into this subject too... after some experimentation and after consulting with the people I knew who were quite knowledgeable on metallurgy and other related subjects, I've finally come up with as close to a universal knife test as possible. It's actually quite simple. All you have to do is send your knife to me, and if I don't send it back, then take satisfaction in the knowledge that your knife passed the test.
 
Spooky Pisotlero is correct, he does own cold steel although his name slips my mind. If you want to see some crazy tests ( and some practical ones) they will send you a free video called sword proof or something like that, it's pretty entertaining to watch. Supposedly he's a 400th degree black belt ( obvious exageration, but he is a martial artist of some sort) so he should be in great shape. He also claims to hunt wild boar with a knife ( I have seen no proof either way though) and his company sells a boar hunting knife with the edge up when the knife is held properly in the hand.

As far as knife testing goes, I think Koyote's tests would give more useful info to our group than the cold steel ones. I also think that a standard set of tests for each reviewer would be a great idea to give a more apples to apples comparison of knife capabilities.

Lastly, I'd like to offer my services in the same test that dumdeedum performs. I will at least send you a picture of me using the knife though. lol

David
 
Christof,

I agree with you - I was, ofcourse, kidding. I think the paper test is very good as well. I know I can tell the parts of the blade that are lacking by seeing if they tear at certain portions of the cut.

TF
 
I totally agree with Christof. Sensible knife testing should be about cutting and durability and it should be not be performed in a way that yells "GIVE ME ATTENTION!!!" all the time. Stabbing car hoods and crushing bones are entertaining, but do you need these tests to see how well-made a knife is? Personally, I don't think so.
Cold Steel and LT...hmm..let's skip this one, I don't wanna mess with a warrior.
 
I remember Ray Mears feathering a stick with LARGE curls - that too is a good test of a blade and how it feels in the hand.

However, when I get the Koyote knife for a pass around and I am going to hit it with a claymore mine and stab it into a Post Office brick wall.

You never know when you will need these skills in the bush.

TF
 
Lynne...... ohhhh, Lynne........ ohhhhhhhhh, Lynne. Most say that he is a very nice guy in person. My friend has met him several times.


Paper tests are good for sharpness... but a wire edge slices paper well, too.

I have tested many of my knives using the ABS Journeyman Smith Test with great success. Next year I'll test at the Blade Show.

I also do the brass rod test....

The Brass Rod Test (as it appeared in BLADE Magazine) by Wayne Goddard

The brass rod test was demonstrated to me in 1959 by an old blacksmith who made knives in the 1930s. Here is my version of the brass rod test which is simple test of heat treating to help determine that a blade will hold up in normal use.

Clamp a 1/4-inch-diameter brass rod horizontally in a vise with the top half above the jaws. Or glue it to a piece of hardwood. Lay the knife edge on the brass rod at the same angle used for sharpening (about 15 degrees). Have a good light source behind the vise so that you can see the deflection caused by the rod on the edge. Apply enough pressure so that you can see the edge deflect. (When tested on a scale, the pressure works out to 35-40 lbs.) If the edge chips out with moderate pressure on the rod, the edge will most likely chip out in use. If the edge stays bent over in the deflected area, it will bend in use and be too soft to hold an edge. The edge of a superior blade will deflect on the rod and spring back straight.

The test is intended for knives in the hunting knife class. Thin filet knives or thick camp knives will not respond to the test in the same way. The blade that is too hard will chip out in normal use, too soft and the edge will bend. The brass rod test can quickly determine if the blade has a good balance of flexible strength and hardness sufficient to hold an edge.

The brass rod test as I present it is not intended to replace a hardness test to determine that a blade was fully hardened. It only applies to blades that have been tempered. I have worked out my version using it on blades made of alloy and carbon steel types that backyard heat treating methods are adequate for. The brass rod test is only a comparison test to determine what is in my opinion a hardness that will hold up in normal use. I started using is about thirty years ago and still think it is the best non field-use test I've found for testing the suitability of a blade steel and heat treatment for a working knife.
 
That is a great test Rick... I know that my SAK - I can watch it deflect when cutting a walking stick (oak) and it comes right back.

You make a good point about wire edges. I shave a little on both sides - if I have a wire edge - it will pop hair on one edge and not on the other.

TF
 
I start in the kitchen slicing meat and vegetables before moving out into the woods where whittling and notching lead to chopping and batoning, eventually I will chop and cross grain baton some very hard deadwood to really test the edge for toughness.

I like to slice paper during all stages of testing just to see how the sharpness is holding up.



"If you're not living on the edge, …you're taking up too much space."

Big Mike
 
Talfuchre said:
Christof,

I agree with you - I was, ofcourse, kidding.
TF
Click to expand...

With Jake running around shooting knives and testing their ability to cut cinderblock on the construction site, you simple have to be sure! :D

Some of these weird tests are useful, some aren't. A lot of the rope/mat/waterjug tests are useful in the sense that giving a bicycle racer a bike is useful. he can tell you if it's a dog or not, but whether he wins a race is more up to HIS skill, beyond a certain fair minimum value on equipment. One of the Mushashi novelizations has this scene where a samurai cuts a flower with his sword to see if anyone will notice the mastery in the cut, and only musashi can tell. That's not a test of the blade beyond- can cuts flower.



Talfuchre said:
I remember Ray Mears feathering a stick with LARGE curls - that too is a good test of a blade and how it feels in the hand.

However, when I get the Koyote knife for a pass around and I am going to hit it with a claymore mine and stab it into a Post Office brick wall.

You never know when you will need these skills in the bush.

TF
Click to expand...

I'd prefer the cinderblock, honestly. that red dust is abrasvie as hell. As for the claymore, well.... as long as I get the VIDEO.


In all seriousness, mythbusters likes to use pig heads, if one really want to test your uberclaymorethreehandedsword, one could do the same. Me, I have the perfect knife test- Tony and his friends.
 
after reading these other posts, I still say that the method I offered above is best... even Echo4V agrees (though he's an imitator, not the originator :) )
 
dumdeedum--I'm an Innovator not an imitator.

See I improved the process by offering photos of me using the knife. lol


David
 
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