Toughest Materials That You Cut Through

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buffalo01

Joined
Oct 13, 2016
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Just wandering what some of the toughest stuff you guys cut through, either on a regular basis or just a one time thing. Im not talking cutting drywall but things that are actually practical to use an EDC knife for.
Some of the toughest stuff I have cut by far is some kydex foam a ordered a while back. I had just finished cutting out the out foam which was much easier to cut but did have some glue in it so my ffg manix in s30 wasn't hair popping sharp. But either way, that stuff felt like cutting through a tire. It was so dense and sticky it took a bunch of muscle. I even tried a razor blade but it wasn't any better, and the blade was not long enough.
Another really annoying material I have to cut on a regular basis is leather. JEEZ i would not expect that stuff to be so tough. Im not talking holding the leather up and push cutting it, I mean making controlled cuts when I am making a sheath. I actually modified a blade on one of my case knives just to cut leather before I got a good carpet knife which works much better.
So whats some tough materials you guys have to cut through?
 
Plastic is hard on a blade. Those plastic wire ties can be hard if they are the big ones. I used to have to cut approx. 1" plastic pieces a lot and it would dull a blade quickly.
 
We use cardboard corner guards on some of the pallets we ship out at work, they’re solid layered cardboard at 1/4” thick and usually take some serious leverage to cut to size whenever we need to shorten one.
 
Not "tough" per se, but fiberglass duct board dulls a knife super quick and I'm with y'all on those big ole tie wraps.
Muddy rope occasionally too which is basically dragging your knife through dirt, same goes for bags of concrete.
 
Industrial sander belts. At work there's a sander than sands 4.2 metre by 2.6 metre wood panels at a rate of up 1500 panels in 12 hours.

The worn belts get used by staff for all sorts of things. Those sander belts are tough, not to mention the grit remaining on them, and destroys edges real fast.

Every so often someone at works turns up with a knife:
"Bro, can you sharpen this for me?"
(Hands me knife. Inspect totally and utterly destroyed edge and horrific vertical scratches all over blade)
"You been cutting sander belt mate?"
"Uh, yeah bro."
"Yeah no worries, gunna cost ya 10 bucks though, 'cos it's a mess."
"Sweet as bro."
 
Abrasive sanding discs, sometimes the disc is to large to fit where I need it to go. Out comes the knife. These grinding pads can be tough!
 
kevlar fabric....................eat steel , even HSS :)

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Sounds like you need an Olfa heavy duty blade. I just cut some of that foam the other day. Three passes. Beautiful cut. Was pretty surprised how well it turned out. Best razor I've ever used.
 
Kevlar.

Natlek said:
kevlar fabric....................eat steel , even HSS :)

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Dedicated kevlar scissors is the way ahead.

Anything else amkes kevlar a bXXXh to cut.

Not to speak of when one gets poked by t he fibres sticking out of epoxy infused kevlar.
 
Old dirty leather PTO belts like they used to run farm equipment back in the early 1900s. These belts are between 6"-10" wide 1/4" - 1/2" thick and anywhere from 10'-20' long loops/belts. Some of this leather is 100 years old, dried and encrusted with animal feces but some is smooth and supple like it was brand new makin' awesome backed strops.

The other thing was those big blue poly 55 gal drums, at work I used an Ontario SP8 to pound through the poly and turn them into useful items after we emptied the contents out. Fiberglass insulation dulls any blade in a matter of minutes. Ever cut old dirty carpet up to throw in the garbage? I've seen most super steels effectively dulled by a few yards of wall to wall indoor/outdoor.

Actually last time I had to cut up about 800 sq/ft of indoor outdoor in a house we were leveling, my boss was havin' us cut up the carpet for the local garbage pickup but it had to be no bigger than 2 ft/sqrs and weigh no more than 50#s so seein' as how it wears wintertime and there was no roof or walls, just the floor. We got up early the mornin' after a hard frost and the carpet was frozen from the frost and moisture it absorbed freezin', I took out the circular saw with carbide teeth set the Dept for about a 1/4" and cut it up while frozen. I was able to make near perfect 2'x2' sqrs and it took all of about 2 hours to cut stack and tie 800 sq/ft of wet, frozen indoor/outdoor carpet up for disposal.
 
buffalo01 said:
Im not talking cutting drywall but things that are actually practical to use an EDC knife for.
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My idea of actually practical is very different than yours. I would think nothing of using my EDC to score sheetrock.

Anyways, it is very practical for me to cut off a fitting from a length of hydraulic line. Much easier to pull it through guarded sections of a Hydrasplit without a fitting going backwards and hanging up the line.

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These lines have an inner layer of braided steel. Parts swapping to keep the machines running is one of my duties. With very minimal tools.

I'll replace a line every couple weeks.

I've tried to get my boss to have a Snap On truck stop by and let me go nuts on the company dime. No dice :)
 
.095 weed eater string is the toughest thing I cut with a folder. For carpet, scoring sheet rock and freeing appliances from their cardboard prison, I use a utility knife.
 
I remember taking my micro tanto cold steel recon 1 and stabbing it through a small Goya can, it wasn’t the regular soda can, it was small and EXTRA thick. I scraped the coating and chipped the tip, but it did go through!
Edit: I was able to stand on the can with one foot, I weighed about 180 lbs (81 kg) at the time
 
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Carpet is pretty hard on an edge. Especially if it's dirty. I used to work in a wearhouse and thought that those big industrial zip ties were hard on my knife but carpet is more of an edge killer. The zip ties can chip the edge of your not carefully but the carpet just dulls the edge in no time.
 
Parachute retarded fins off of Mk series bombs.
All sorts of super tough material.

First bomb was ok.
Second set was rough.
On the third bomb. PE section was toast
so I used the serrations and when I was done
cutting.
The blade was destroyed on my
740 Dejavoo.

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The Dejavoo went into Benchmade for a blade swap.
Notice the teeth are almost flat.

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The thing that damaged my knives the most was surprisingly a credit card. I have cut through many card, but this one was beefy. It was one with a chip in it, but did not try to cut near the chip. I thought I'd use a fixed blade instead of scissors. I could not believe the edge damage. INFI, Delta 3V and other 3v HT protocols(low and high temper), Z-Wear, Cru-Wear, PD#1. After that I decided to stop. All had edge damage. I will never do that again. I kept the card just in case I want to abuse a knife, but I doubt I ever will again.
 
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