Wanted: Cutting contest info

pahl

pahl

Joined
Feb 23, 2002
Messages
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What can you knife makers tell me about knife cutting contest.

Do you guys sharpen the knives you use for these contest by hand or with buffing wheels?

Does a person have a chance of winning a cutting contest with a factory knife or are all knives used in cutting contest hand made?

What are some things you look for when using a knife in a cutting contest, blade shape, size, how it's made, etc....?

Can you give me places and dates of cutting contest you know of.

What little info I can find on the internet about knife cutting contest I find very interesting.

Thanks for your help,
pahl
 
All the contests I have been in or seen so far are set up for the makers to use there own hand made knives in.I have never seen a factory knife used in a competition.
You use what you think will cut,no real set style to have everybody make.This is a way to test your design that you are making.They will let you know in advance of the rules concerning the blade length and width,pluss all now require a thong to put over the wrist and at least one visible pin that goes through the tang.As for sharpening,some use stones and others use buffing wheels,Some are very careful about how they handle the knife before the contest and others will just grab a knife out of there bag and use it.The whole idea behind the contest is to have fun and test your knives.
Bruce
 
Pahl
Bruce said a good bit of it.
Right now ABS endorsed cutting competetions are held at Michighan and New York hammer-ins, Batsons hammer-in in Alabama, the two hammer-ins in Arkansas and the Spirit of Steel show. There will also be held some of these competetions in Brazil, South Africa and Germany.

These events are for the makers to hone their skills at design for both the handle and blade performance.
The pin in handle requirement is for saftey as is the thong in back of the handle with lanyard attached.
These contest are really not to out do each others knives but to learn and have some fun with it.
You can get the dates at the americanbladesmith.com web site.

For the first time we recently had a winner of a contest using damascus for the blade. Kevin Cashen won with a damascus blade that contained 80 layers. He wanted folks to know even few layers would cut fine. This was at the Michighan hammer-in.
The normal sizes of the blade is blade length not to exceed 10 inches, with a 15 1/2 inch overall length. Blade width not to exceed 2 inches. These are also the requirements for the abs stamp holding test [js and ms].
There is one open event each year. This is at the ABS fall hammer-in in Washington Arkansas. This event is open to anything you make that does not have a motor on it. We have had sword, battle axes, tomahawks and all sorts of knife designs in this one. All other events are the required size.
Sharpen the knife to how you feel cuts best overall. The folks entering will not know what they are going to cut till they get there. In this way they cannot special sharpen or design. You cannot do this for the client so the knife must be capable of overall chores. Hope this helps a bit.
jf
 
Pahl, you should try and get your hands on the August issue of Blade magazine. It has an excellent article on the cutting contest held at the Batson Bladesmithing Symposium earlier this year.

According to the article, the contest (which changes) consisted of:

(1) Cutting a water-filled soda can lengthwise from top to bottom.

(2) Cutting through a 5/8" hardwood dowel (extra points were given for cutting through at a target point consisting of a 1" wide piece of tape).

(3)Chopping a 2x4 in half (judged by how quickly it was done).

(4)Sticking the blade point first into styrofoam balls floating in a tub of water (judged by depth of penetration).

(5) Cutting a 16" length of 1" thick sisal rope in half that was dangling from two pieces of upholstery thread without breaking the thread. (This contest was apparently the hardest one, only two contestants managed it.)

The cutting tests are set up by Master Smiths Jerry Fisk and Mike Williams. While any one knife might perform one or two of these tasks admirably it is obviously difficult to design a single blade to excel
at all of them. For example, the winner John Fitch didn't manage to cut the "hanging by a thread" sisal rope, but he certainly managed the 2x4 chop in record time with the mighty "Hog Body".
I wish I had been there! Well there is always next year.

Bruce, how did the damascus "Bad Dog" hold up?
 
Very interesting information.

I will have to see if I can find a copy of Blade :)

Thanks,
pahl
 
Thanks for asking Guy..
The blade did really well and held its edge with no problem,it was a little thin for the chopping of the 2X4 in a timed manner but as for the rest I was well pleased.Now to work on my cutting techniques better.
Bruce
 
Is body armor, leather leggings, or personal injury insurance required? :)
I think I would really enjoy a good cutting contest but it makes me cringe just thinking about big razor sharp blades flying thru the air. I know practice and control is most important but even the best of em mess up sometimes and I don't think I could stand watching folks slinging big knives like that. Maybe you have to go to a few contests to get used to it. I'll never forget that picture of a gent in mid swing during the free hanging rope chop where the knife cut the rope less than an inch below the little finger of the hand that was holding the rope. I don't think he meant to get that close.
 
Hey L6..The thong around the wrist is there to keep the knives from being thrown if they slip out of a persons hand.During the cutting competition they have a 12 inch piece of rope tied with carpet sewing thread to a post with a arm off the top with a eye bolt in it and you have to cut the rope clean and not break the string.This can get funny at how many people make the rope go flying around not the knives.These competitions are run very safely and proffesionally,sure accidents can happen but very unlikely.Most of what you might see is a person like me who happens to run his hand on the edge (don't ask why I did that as I don't know) and then gets a warm wet feeling from the blood he just drew.I did this at the last competition and did almost the first half with a napkin squeezed in one hand trying to stop the bleeding.But as far as I know there hasn't been anyone get seriously hurt yet.
You out to try one of these competitions as they are a blast and lets you know how well your blade will hold up.
Bruce
 
Wow, this definitely sounds like a lot of fun. And sounds like a real test/goal. It's great to make knives that look good, and make knives that hold up to one or two tests, but it seems like they do a good jbo of choosing a wide variety of tests, and this definitely gives me a goal for the future.
 
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