Vanadis 4E as first build advice?

[Kevin McGovern]

I think it should be pointed out that Unger's "win" was a win* with an asterisk attached to it. There was an unprecedented judging error that gave him that win that the governing body did not want to change after-the-fact (like a baseball game) but the reality is his real position wasn't first or even second place. Dan Keffeler properly won the 2018 world championship. This is common knowledge among the BladeSports people but maybe not common knowledge among the knife community.

Dan's knife is pretty thick at the spine, but not 3/8". He selected V4E for it.

The chopper he built with Scott Gossman is M4. I'm pretty sure it's 3/8" thick. The spine is rounded, so it may appear slimmer.

 

[Kevin McGovern]

just messaged Dwayne, it's .380" M4

 

[Bigfattyt]

I think it should be pointed out that Unger's "win" was a win* with an asterisk attached to it. There was an unprecedented judging error that gave him that win that the governing body did not want to change after-the-fact (like a baseball game) but the reality is his real position wasn't first or even second place. Dan Keffeler properly won the 2018 world championship. This is common knowledge among the BladeSports people but maybe not common knowledge among the knife community.

Dan's knife is pretty thick at the spine, but not 3/8". He selected V4E for it.

That is disheartening. One would hope the governing body would issue "co-champion" or fix this some other way. For knife makers, that win is not a small deal, as far as sales/customer draw go!!!

 

[Willie71]

With z-wear being a bit tougher, I wonder how it would stack up at Rc63, with a thinner edge than V4e? The steels are quite similar. I’ve got my first two V4e blades heat treated and rough ground. I wish it was more readily available under 1/8” thick though.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

That is disheartening. One would hope the governing body would issue "co-champion" or fix this some other way. For knife makers, that win is not a small deal, as far as sales/customer draw go!!!

For sure, I was the guy that made it. I would have loved the press from the Blade Magazine article. We would be the only manufacturer to ever produce a championship knife like that. And even if we win in 2019 we won't be able to say we did it on our first try. But we did. We did the work and we earned it. It was a significant undertaking.

I talked to the governing body. They apologized and promised to implement changes to prevent a repeat, but there is no going back and changing the outcome after it is finished.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

This is what happened in the 2018 world championship in Atlanta.

Unger won* by a fraction of a point (a fraction of a second). But there were two cuts that were judged wrong.

One was a foam pool noodle. The competitors were supposed to make three cuts. Due to the heat the noodle was soft and falling off the post and people weren't able to get three cuts. But the rules stipulate that if you don't get your cuts you still have to make three air cuts, otherwise you're penalized for passing the obstacle. Dan knew this from experience because he had lost a big race once due to it so he cut the air like they were supposed to. Unger claimed he thought he did too, but you can see in the video he didn't. The judges decided to let it slide due to the heat, but had Dan not paused and taken the cuts he'd have won on time alone right there. So he lost there because he followed the rules. The judges made an error there but the other error is larger:

The other judging error was in a rope slice and chop. This obstacle is worth 15 points (which is probably about the spread from 1st to 3rd). The cutter makes once slice on a horizontal rope, then another which frees it. This is difficult to do without knocking the rope off. Then, if the rope is still sitting on the board and wasn't knocked off on the last slice the cutter can then chop the center of the rope. That chop is easy but setting up for it where the rope is still sitting there and wasn't knocked off during the slice is very difficult. A common mistake is to slice, slice and not realize one of the slices was incomplete and then chop a rope that wasn't cut free yet. This is very common and you can see in the video that this is what happened to Unger. It was plain to see. But, after his chop cut he went back and finished the slice. Neither that chop nor that slice should count, you can't go back and make that cut after-the-fact but he did. Folks chalked it up to a harmless heat-of-the-moment brain fart and assumed he wouldn't get those points, but the judge either didn't see what happened clearly or perhaps was concerned he misremembered and asked Unger what happened. And Unger apparently misremembered too because they gave it to him which gave him the race. People saw this and it's pretty clear to me and most everyone else what happened by viewing the different videos. But they don't view video evidence and they don't change the outcome. So, an inexperienced judge and some fuzzy heads screwed this up and Dan didn't get the win he earned. They're implementing changes going forward but there is no do-over here.



^ An example of the sort of cut in question

You can't go back and free the attached end after-the-fact.

 

[ShannonSteelLabs]

With z-wear being a bit tougher, I wonder how it would stack up at Rc63, with a thinner edge than V4e? The steels are quite similar. I’ve got my first two V4e blades heat treated and rough ground. I wish it was more readily available under 1/8” thick though.

That's actually my plan for this season. I just need to get certified and train...and build it.
I can get it at 0.290. And if you go to Zapp you can get bigger plates too.
http://www.simplytoolsteel.com/STS-Knife-Steel-Store-Z-Wear-PM.html