Torture test ideas?

N

night man

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Aug 27, 2010
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I normally send off my blades for HT but I wanted to do this one myself. I did a quick torture test on it to see how well my HT was, and so far I am very happy with the results. Here is the vid. Does anybody have any other ideas on some simple torture testing ideas?

The knife is 1/4" 1075.

[video=youtube_share;nqoQQrPwrJk]http://youtu.be/nqoQQrPwrJk[/video]
 
HAHA atleast it held when you were standing on it, could slice your calf open pretty easy had it broke. Good stuff though.
 
quint said:
HAHA atleast it held when you were standing on it, could slice your calf open pretty easy had it broke. Good stuff though.
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Yeah, i forgot to put a disclaimer. Don't try this at home.

I guess I just trust my knives that much.
 
thegeek574 said:
Hammer it through a bar of mild steel. That will show how well your edge performs :D.
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It's 1075, so I know its not gonna be a super style like CPM 3V but I am looking for other realistic tests for this and future knives that I make. I really designed this one like a SERE style knife so i want it to be able to take a beating and still perform.

It's a 3 1/2" blade and when I stood on it I don't think it was hammered halfway into the tree. The last 1 1/2" of the blade pretty much held my weight and then some.
 
The knife certainly looks like it is tough enough.

I have to speak up and say that doing these tests, especially standing on the knife, in sandals and shorts is just plain stupid. Thankfully the knife passed the test. If it had failed, you would be posting a very different thread.

Please people, don't try this yourself.
 
The knife certainly looks like it is tough enough.

I have to speak up and say that doing these tests, especially standing on the knife, in sandals and shorts is just plain stupid. Thankfully the knife passed the test. If it had failed, you would be posting a very different thread.Please people, don't try this yourself.
 
What you can't see in the vid is that I am able to catch myself on the tree in the event of a break, so i wouldnt fall down to the ground, thus dragging my leg across the blade. I got caught up in the moment and forgot all about my shoes. Yes bladsmth is right, some long pants and full foot coverage is a must. I was wearing eyepro most of the test, gloves would have been a good idea to. Dress accordingly.
 
I usually test my edge by cutting through some 12-15 AWG stranded copper wire. After a few cuts I test of chips and rolls.
 
Sharpened prybars are close to my heart but you must realise that tests like these are showing attributes that most good "knives" aren't expected to have. The last thing we want to do is promote that a proper knife should be able to handle use as a treestand or a cold chisel. Personally, I prefer knives that can take such abuse but my goal is to find a happy medium where a knife can still perform as a "knife".
 
I would say that tree held up pretty well to your torture. If you're going to continue I suggest fire, trees hate fire. :D
 
if you are out of ideas for torture tests after this clip, may i suggest the "noss" destruction videos... mostly pointless destruction of blades in a relatively unscientific test set up, but he really goes to town on those babies... and they are just fun to watch. IMHO, a knife with the dimentions of the one you have on the video, would be pretty tough no matter what. it looks to be what, 1/4 inch thick and give or take 3 1/2" blade length, so it's a pretty good set up for taking abuse and i wouldn't lose sleep on how much beating it can take.
 
rustyrazor said:
if you are out of ideas for torture tests after this clip, may i suggest the "noss" destruction videos... mostly pointless destruction of blades in a relatively unscientific test set up, but he really goes to town on those babies... and they are just fun to watch. IMHO, a knife with the dimentions of the one you have on the video, would be pretty tough no matter what. it looks to be what, 1/4 inch thick and give or take 3 1/2" blade length, so it's a pretty good set up for taking abuse and i wouldn't lose sleep on how much beating it can take.
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There is a point to all parts of my tests. Every part has a purpose to test different aspects of the whole knife. If I just wanted to break them I would simply place them in a vice and put a 4 foot pipe on the handle and save me a ton of time (unless it's a battle mistress ) My tests are no more unscientific or scientific than any other tester or reviewer out there.
 
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I agree whole heartedly there is a point to all of your tests and please don't take too much offense to my comment as I for one love watching you put a blade through it's paces, especially since i can't afford to buy each one and wreck em like you do to see where they fail and why. however that being said... as i stated, they are not exactly scientific in the sense that although each test does have a point to some degree, the control measures for each one are usually less than ideal.
 
didn't figure you'd get too hurt by anything i said... and keep up the destruction tests. like i said, i can't afford to do it and i'm glad someone else can and puts it out there for us to see.
 
Rick Marchand said:
Sharpened prybars are close to my heart but you must realise that tests like these are showing attributes that most good "knives" aren't expected to have. The last thing we want to do is promote that a proper knife should be able to handle use as a treestand or a cold chisel. Personally, I prefer knives that can take such abuse but my goal is to find a happy medium where a knife can still perform as a "knife".
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Understood. Most of my blades are the happy medium style also. But, you have to realize i am selling alot to guys in my unit and othe military members. I have seen how they use them in Afghanistan and Iraq and believe me some of them will still manage to do a number on the knife in my VID. So in this knife I am looking for something that will take a pounding and still cut. From my experience the tip is the week point overseas. It seems like everybody wants to pry with the last half inch of blade and snap, they break.

I made this knife for a specific audience and so far it has had pretty good reception.
 
rustyrazor said:
if you are out of ideas for torture tests after this clip, may i suggest the "noss" destruction videos... mostly pointless destruction of blades in a relatively unscientific test set up, but he really goes to town on those babies... and they are just fun to watch. IMHO, a knife with the dimentions of the one you have on the video, would be pretty tough no matter what. it looks to be what, 1/4 inch thick and give or take 3 1/2" blade length, so it's a pretty good set up for taking abuse and i wouldn't lose sleep on how much beating it can take.
Click to expand...

I agree, the dimensions lends itself to being stout by nature, which was my point. I also hate carrying big knives. When you are on the ground moving alot, going over walls, terraces, fences in small openings, or God forbid low crawling for some reason, a large knife just gets in the way, and we already have a crapload of stuff to carry. So a smaller knife that is able to do large tasks is what I was shooting for.

Thanks, I will have to check out noss's videos.
 
Trust me... i know your audience well. most people don't realize just the cleverly idiotic ways most military guys will find to abuse a knife and i also realize no matter how much you overbuild em, some guy will amaze you with a new way to torture the poor thing. Im in the same boat as well with smaller knives. a lot of guys buy these huge blades and just dont carry them once they start adding up all the weight on their gear, its just not worth it to most.
 
knife to a gunfight said:
I usually test my edge by cutting through some 12-15 AWG stranded copper wire. After a few cuts I test of chips and rolls.
Click to expand...

I went out and tried this right after I read it. I had some 12-2 and just laid it on the table, all 3 wires still in the insulation and cut all three wires at the same time, 3 times. Edge is fine. I will be adding this to future torture tests. Thanks.
 
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