I'm a big fan of the show. And I'm sure some if you are too. I have a question. On the show almost all of the character tees have and use knives matter of fact it is one of the main weapons of the show thT all the. Hard tees use besides various guns a crossbow and a samurai sword. What my question is, is it plausible to push or jab a knife through the forehead of a zombie without at least breaking the tip? Granted the fight scenes where this is shown the knife is almost always a fixed blade and they look to be of a decent thickness. Now I know this can be done, but can it be done with out damaging the tip of the blade?
The Walking Dead
- Thread starter ATaylor
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Certainly, it depends on geometry, but keep in mind this is a TV show and one of the premises of Zombie anatomy is that their tissue is decomposing and therefor their cranium is very brittle compared to the human skull. There are a lot of knives that simply wouldn't penetrate the cranium of a human before the tip would break - others would fair differently. Was there a particular model of knife you had in mind? Oddly enough, testing someone's hypothesis wouldn't be out of the question, you may even get Cold Steel to spend some time with a Pig's skull in their next marketing video.
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Darryl's knife is a TGLB from Busse.
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They make stabbing motions toward actors in zombie makeup with knife handle props, and blades are digitally added later.
What is a character tees?
What is a character tees?
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The pig skull should be able to move back and forth under the impact, similar to a human head on a body, and not fixed on a workbench or lying on the ground. Quite a challenge under more realistic conditions, I imagine.
Cold Steel Knives
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We actually do a lot of penetration testing on a variety of different media all the time. It's a big part of the design process for some of our products and there is a lot more testing that goes on that we do not release to the public.
In this case however, we actually did quite a few tests to this effect inspired by the show. Lynn and some of the PROOF crew are big fans of the show and they wanted to try it for themselves
We have used Pig and Cow skulls as well as other testing media. Some of which we filmed in an impromptu test outside our warehouse a few years ago (you can find the video on our Official Facebook Fan Page) and some of it may appear in our new PROOF video which will be released early next year
We found that we could indeed pierce even a super thick pig skull with our folding knives without compromising the integrity of the lock or damaging the tip of the knife but the penetration varied on the knife / angle etc...
The tantos did very well
With larger fixed blades we had even more success (a Laredo Bowie actually split the skull length ways as well!)
We also tested a variety of "Specialty Items" such as the SF Shovel and a selection of hawks
The over all winner by a long margin was the Spike Hawk which not only effortlessly penetrated deep into the skull, but it also was incredibly easy and fast to extract and get back into play.
One of the advantages to having daily on-site testing and an experienced crew is that we can watch a TV show and be inspired to try something and then almost immediately go out and test it.
It was a little gruesome, but very interesting
That's one thing about our HQ, it's never boring
In this case however, we actually did quite a few tests to this effect inspired by the show. Lynn and some of the PROOF crew are big fans of the show and they wanted to try it for themselves
We have used Pig and Cow skulls as well as other testing media. Some of which we filmed in an impromptu test outside our warehouse a few years ago (you can find the video on our Official Facebook Fan Page) and some of it may appear in our new PROOF video which will be released early next year
We found that we could indeed pierce even a super thick pig skull with our folding knives without compromising the integrity of the lock or damaging the tip of the knife but the penetration varied on the knife / angle etc...
The tantos did very well
With larger fixed blades we had even more success (a Laredo Bowie actually split the skull length ways as well!)
We also tested a variety of "Specialty Items" such as the SF Shovel and a selection of hawks
The over all winner by a long margin was the Spike Hawk which not only effortlessly penetrated deep into the skull, but it also was incredibly easy and fast to extract and get back into play.
One of the advantages to having daily on-site testing and an experienced crew is that we can watch a TV show and be inspired to try something and then almost immediately go out and test it.
It was a little gruesome, but very interesting
That's one thing about our HQ, it's never boring
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Cold Steel Knives
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No problem. I'm happy to help
Have a great day
Have a great day
We actually do a lot of penetration testing on a variety of different media all the time. It's a big part of the design process for some of our products and there is a lot more testing that goes on that we do not release to the public.
In this case however, we actually did quite a few tests to this effect inspired by the show. Lynn and some of the PROOF crew are big fans of the show and they wanted to try it for themselves
We have used Pig and Cow skulls as well as other testing media. Some of which we filmed in an impromptu test outside our warehouse a few years ago (you can find the video on our Official Facebook Fan Page) and some of it may appear in our new PROOF video which will be released early next year
We found that we could indeed pierce even a super thick pig skull with our folding knives without compromising the integrity of the lock or damaging the tip of the knife but the penetration varied on the knife / angle etc...
The tantos did very well
With larger fixed blades we had even more success (a Laredo Bowie actually split the skull length ways as well!)
We also tested a variety of "Specialty Items" such as the SF Shovel and a selection of hawks
The over all winner by a long margin was the Spike Hawk which not only effortlessly penetrated deep into the skull, but it also was incredibly easy and fast to extract and get back into play.
One of the advantages to having daily on-site testing and an experienced crew is that we can watch a TV show and be inspired to try something and then almost immediately go out and test it.
It was a little gruesome, but very interesting
That's one thing about our HQ, it's never boring
Talk about a dream job! Whoo hoo! Sign me up!
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Is this supposed to be a serious question
I'm really hoping you realize zombies aren't real.
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They are not!? But I spent all this money getting ready for the Apocalypse Maybe I can get a refund
Maybe I can get a refund
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In this case however, we actually did quite a few tests to this effect inspired by the show. Lynn and some of the PROOF crew are big fans of the show and they wanted to try it for themselves
That's one thing about our HQ, it's never boring
haha nice. I have watched a handful of CS videos where the crew lops off pig skulls. At least somebody is answering the real important questions around here (i.e. Walking Dead!)
Seriously though, I don't think enough people test knives and firearms to their limits, or at least don't document and share their results effectively. Sometimes people just want to know what a tool is capable of. One of the most productive wastes of 40,000 bullets and 5k worth of AR15s was a test Lucky Gunner did showing effects of steel bullets compared to copper cased bullets over the life of a barrel. It lets the people that own such things know where they stand!
So OP, I defer to the experts lol.
Cold Steel Knives
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We are much more concerned about assailants that still have a pulse
We also do a lot of product testing...and a TV show gave us an idea for a test
It was kinda gross, but also very interesting
I learned a lot
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Aim for the eyes.
Okay a little off topic, but maybe not. Does stabbing anything in the skull (zombie, pig, bad guy), put the same stress on a folding knife as say a spine whack test? Just wondering... sorry for the derailment... please continue with the Zombie talk :thumbup:
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We are much more concerned about assailants that still have a pulse
A pig's skull is probably closer to the density, hardness and thickness of a human's skull than the hypothetical skull of a Walking Dead zombie anyway.
Walking Dead is probably the most popular television program in the country. It's also a rare program that features a lot of knives. They try and explain all the surreal and suspect things (Zombies are attributed to a virus, and even though not medically accurate, they have went into a fair amount of detail about how the zombies rely on a diminished amount of electrical signal confined to their brain stem, and other various pieces of backstory to build a whole Universe around the program). Star Trek explained their Warp engines with a little help from Einstein and the Lorentz transformation, and so the Walking Dead proved the viability of their preferred method of zombie killing with the help of the esteemed scientists at Cold Steel!
Offering science based and real world explanations for aspects of the Walking Dead is as much a part of the show as the Governor's eye patch.
Cold Steel Knives
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Esteemed Scientists?
I'm adding that to my business card
Our videos have a bunch of different stuff in them. Some of them I consider "tests" (testing strength, durability, edge retention etc) and others I would define as "feats" (precision cutting, throwing etc) and we are always looking for new ideas and new ways of demonstrating both. Plus, sometimes we just do things for fun!
Our videos are there to entertain just as much as they are there to educate.
A weight hang test with a knife in the vice is a good test...a meat bicycle is just fun
The Walking Dead inspired stuff was cool because it was fun, but we also learned a lot.
It was a tough test on the locks for sure. They had to endure a lot of shock and a lot of flexing and twisting. It was tough on the blades too, hitting bone is no joke! The pig skulls are very thick (actually they are often much tougher than the cow skulls) and that's a lot of tough material to get through.
We've also tried similar feats with other materials - some of which may appear in our next video so I won't ruin the surprise - and although we found that our knives can stand up to that, there are other things that do the job better.
If those slackjawed dead heads come a shufflin' round Cold Steel HQ I'm grabbing a Spike Hawk
I'm adding that to my business card
Our videos have a bunch of different stuff in them. Some of them I consider "tests" (testing strength, durability, edge retention etc) and others I would define as "feats" (precision cutting, throwing etc) and we are always looking for new ideas and new ways of demonstrating both. Plus, sometimes we just do things for fun!
Our videos are there to entertain just as much as they are there to educate.
A weight hang test with a knife in the vice is a good test...a meat bicycle is just fun
The Walking Dead inspired stuff was cool because it was fun, but we also learned a lot.
It was a tough test on the locks for sure. They had to endure a lot of shock and a lot of flexing and twisting. It was tough on the blades too, hitting bone is no joke! The pig skulls are very thick (actually they are often much tougher than the cow skulls) and that's a lot of tough material to get through.
We've also tried similar feats with other materials - some of which may appear in our next video so I won't ruin the surprise - and although we found that our knives can stand up to that, there are other things that do the job better.
If those slackjawed dead heads come a shufflin' round Cold Steel HQ I'm grabbing a Spike Hawk
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