Cliff Stamp
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 5, 1998
- Messages
- 17,562
Refering the following thread :
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001759.html
Ed, you state (CS vs MD) :
While I agree with some of the things you comment on regarding MD's (grips) some of its aspects are not flat out advantages, they make a knife perform better in some respects but with the trade off of losing performance in others.
Referencing the recent testing :
http://www.physics.mun.ca:80/~sstamp/knives/face_off.html
The TUSK has a full flat grind which gives it excellent penetration almost double the depth of the heavier Ang Khola. This combined with the much more neutral balance makes it excellent for light work. Out of the dozen or so people who did the testing with me, all of them chose the TUSK as the favorite for all light work. The balance, edge holding and of course the great grip giving excellent performance.
However there are problems with the flat grind. On heavier work the flat ground TUSK easily lodges in wood whereas the much thicker khukuris do not. And you can of course increase your power and drive the khukuri deeper approaching the depth penetration of the TUSK and it still will not get stuck. As well the flat grind is much lighter than a sabre or convex grind which while making the balance good for lighter work does reduce performace considerably on heavier work where you want a good blade heavy balance. And of course the more metal removed the lower the lateral toughness.
On another aspect the very hard edge of the MD's also has its pro's and con's. On soft materials it gives performance that must be seen to be believed. It is very hard to dull cutting wood, rope and similar. It will far outlast the much softer 5160 in the khukuris (55-58 RC). However once you go to harder materials the edge on the TUSK starts to impact quite readily compared to the khukuris and of course since it is much harder than the 5160 any indentation is much harder to work out.
Back to CS vs MD, while the Trailmaster has a different geometry than the TUSK I would be not be quick to say one knife is better, but only to say each is better in certain areas. Each individual may value these areas differently.
-Cliff
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001759.html
Ed, you state (CS vs MD) :
The key to selecting between them IMHO is whether the user will want/need the extra benefit of the hand-crafted work of a MD or will settle for the mass-produced design of the CS.
While I agree with some of the things you comment on regarding MD's (grips) some of its aspects are not flat out advantages, they make a knife perform better in some respects but with the trade off of losing performance in others.
Referencing the recent testing :
http://www.physics.mun.ca:80/~sstamp/knives/face_off.html
The TUSK has a full flat grind which gives it excellent penetration almost double the depth of the heavier Ang Khola. This combined with the much more neutral balance makes it excellent for light work. Out of the dozen or so people who did the testing with me, all of them chose the TUSK as the favorite for all light work. The balance, edge holding and of course the great grip giving excellent performance.
However there are problems with the flat grind. On heavier work the flat ground TUSK easily lodges in wood whereas the much thicker khukuris do not. And you can of course increase your power and drive the khukuri deeper approaching the depth penetration of the TUSK and it still will not get stuck. As well the flat grind is much lighter than a sabre or convex grind which while making the balance good for lighter work does reduce performace considerably on heavier work where you want a good blade heavy balance. And of course the more metal removed the lower the lateral toughness.
On another aspect the very hard edge of the MD's also has its pro's and con's. On soft materials it gives performance that must be seen to be believed. It is very hard to dull cutting wood, rope and similar. It will far outlast the much softer 5160 in the khukuris (55-58 RC). However once you go to harder materials the edge on the TUSK starts to impact quite readily compared to the khukuris and of course since it is much harder than the 5160 any indentation is much harder to work out.
Back to CS vs MD, while the Trailmaster has a different geometry than the TUSK I would be not be quick to say one knife is better, but only to say each is better in certain areas. Each individual may value these areas differently.
-Cliff