"Urban legend?"

bluka94

bluka94

Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
150
Hi, folks!

Listen up...a couple minutes ago, on a swedish forum, a guy has posted a statement where he says that knives with handles where you can see the tang (Busse, Fehrman some of CRK and similar) can froze to your sweaty hands, greasy/wet gloves out on -30 C (don't know how much F is that):eek:

My answer was that you always can put a "rubber tube that shrinks on heat (for instance hair-drier)" (english word?) over the handle in case of a "crysis of that size". :)

What do you say? Is his statement true or false?
 
Well if you are wearing gloves I don't think this will happen. I have used knives with exposed tangs to do some relatively labor intensive tasks in about -15 F which is -26 C.

A friend of mine was in Army Recon and went to a winter survival school in Alaska (I think) and had no such problems using his Brend model 2 to cut out ice blocks to make an Igloo. I don't know what temperature it was but I would guess quite a bit less than I have here in Pittsburgh. His buddy broke the blade off of his Randall #14 doing the same thing.

I bought a similar Brend knife after hearing his stories.
 
Its my understandind that for that to happen, the knife would have to stay frozen.

Most knifes would warm up to the point where your hand could easily 'unstick' just because of the limited amount of metal and your rather intense body heat.

Knives breaking cause their cold is sort of a different issue that I'm not qualified to speak to.
 
If it's -30 C and my hands are sweaty, I'll probably have more to worry about than my knife freezing to anything. As for gloves, a quick twist should break the knife free.
 
bluka94 said:
Hi, folks!

Listen up...a couple minutes ago, on a swedish forum, a guy has posted a statement where he says that knives with handles where you can see the tang (Busse, Fehrman some of CRK and similar) can froze to your sweaty hands, greasy/wet gloves out on -30 C (don't know how much F is that):eek:

My answer was that you always can put a "rubber tube that shrinks on heat (for instance hair-drier)" (english word?) over the handle in case of a "crysis of that size". :)

What do you say? Is his statement true or false?
Click to expand...

His statement is false.
 
shecky said:
Are wet gloves/sweaty hands at -30 C a bigger problem than exposed tang?
Click to expand...

Yeah good point. But if you are chopping some wood for a fire or something like that or even on a long hike with gear you can definitely build up a sweat even in sub-zero weather. But I have never gotten to the point of my clothes / gloves being soaked.
 
If its that cold, you better hope your knife is frozen to your hand, because you wont be able to feel your fingers well enough to keep a good grip :)
 
Of course your skin can stick to metal at -30 if youre skin is wet you're better keep your gloves,mittens on,when you play with metal tools.
Its like the kid who try to put he's tongue on metal fence,this is a lot worse but similar than on a popsicle.
 
If the steel is at 30 below, anything wet will freeze & stick to it quickly. Could be a legit concern for those who work in those temps (along with many steels losing up to 90% of their toughness at that temp).
 
Did any of you touch any metal in -30 C? Try this first and then tell what happen... How many of you even were exposed to this cold? I memorize not to touch any metal parts of our swings without glows from kindergarden years...

I can imagine situation when you need to drop you gloves and operate knife with naked hands, just because it is impossible to do certain operations in gloves. Also I can imagine situation when you operate in wet condition in the water. So yes exposed metal on knife handle is not Russian Winter friendly (I am not sure about Swedish - they have much softer winters there). Now in case of Busse and Fehrman most of them coated and you will not need this rubber thing but I will not touch any metal at -25C.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
achristmasstory.jpg
 
If an emergency situation came about where it was that cold (not overly cold by Minnesota standards) and my knife was hanging out in the cold and not sheathed on my person, and for some reason my hands were wet and bare, it would definitely stick to my hand. But wet hands in that weather would stiffen pretty fast. Maybe having them frozen to the knife would help me keep a grip on it, since they would be practically useless in a few minutes anyway. :D
 
Vassili is right.I've seen -35 F a few times and that's a different world .Cover your hands and any other exposed skin as frostbite can occur quickly !
 
Global warming already touched Russia but most of local guys prefer wood/birch bark handles to rubber/metal anytime (in winter woods, not the city)
 
If your hands are exposed in -30°C weather you won't have hands for very long. That goes double for wet hands, triple or more if there's wind and wet hands.

And if you need to take off your gloves to use the knife, you're carrying the wrong knife for the situation/weather. Look at Puukos and Moras etc. - nice 'huge' handles with smaller blades. And what kind of weather do you think they're used in? ;)
 
If the guy was stupid enough to put bare skin or wet gloves on metal chilled to -30C, the problem isn't the design of the knife, but the stupidity of the user. :(

Of course, if he allowed his gloves to get wet at -30C................:jerkit::jerkit:
 
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