Necker Destruction Test. Need more ideas

[Jason Wilder]

Necker Destruction Test. Round Two

I just heat treated a batch of neckers and didn't like the grind on one so I decided to test it to destruction.

Blade steel is 3/32 O1 heat treated in my oven, quenched in peanut oil, and tempered three times at 400

Here is what the knife looks like all finished.

And here is the test knife. I had put a swedge on it but didn't like the way it came out and now that I've tested it, I really don't like it as it cuts into your thumb when you use it for leverage on push cuts. It has a quick pine handle with screws. I didn't want to spend too much time on the handle since it would be destroyed anyways

After sharpening, I decided to cut corrugated cardboard. I was able to get 50 cuts at a time before it needed light stropping. But after stropping it would easily shave again. This is after 200 cuts and would still shave after stropping.

My next test was to push cut this piece of seasoned pine. It handled fine, even when I would pry the blade sideways to pop the new cut off. I expected it to fail here but it performed great. My hand gave out after a while. It would still shave without stropping

So now I decided to batton through the piece with this mesquite stump

And as you can see it is still shaving sharp after going through it - no stropping

Now I decided to carve some antler. This is a skull a buddy gave me that he found on his ranch down here in West Central Texas

It carved quite nicely and needed no stropping after cutting to shave

I also decided to hack at the antler and got some very fine micro chipping but didn't take pictures of it as my camera couldn't zoom that close. It was barely noticable.

Finally I decided to stab the same piece of pine and dig out the wood to see if there would be any tip damage. I expected it to snap here but was surprised when it didn't.

Although there was no tip damage, I did notice that the blade bent slightly, which wasn't a total shock due to the massive swedge I ground in the already thin blade. Here you can see that the tip slightly bends toward the left.

I'm not really worried about this bend as a knife, especially a thin necker, shouldn't be used to pry anyways and wouldn't be covered under my warrenty.

I'm looking for more test ideas before I snap the blade to look at the grain. Any suggestions? What do you think so far?

 

[Shane Wink]

I think it would be a good test to send it to me Bro! LOL Jason I am impressed man. When you told me you were doing some neck knives I did not know you were putting such nice handles on them! Cool brother

As for a task you know I am a woodsman so I suggest you make a one stick fire.

 

[Jason Wilder]

Shane, I had to youtube a "one stick fire" to see what you're talking about. Its a good idea and I'll give it a shot.

 

[Shane Wink]

Or you could have called or texted me !

 

[Josh Dabney]

Looks like you've tested that sucker pretty dang good for any legitimate usage. :35:

Thinking about some abusive things you can use a knife for before breaking it ?

Hmmmm. how about...

Tip first drop on concrete. Accidents do happen after all.
Whittling at some mild steel
deburring a hole in metal of random sorts
cutting electrical wire
Open a can of soup
Split the pelvic bone of a deer. If you happen to have a fresh one laying around Some folk do use their knife for this purpose... just ask my Dad
Of course the ultimate bonehead test... Use it as a screwdriver !

If you really wanna get rude with it just keep it around for opening packages and toys at Christmas or use it on letters and stuff

Seriously you're doing a great job with your testing !!!! Kudos for that

-Josh

 

[Jason Wilder]

Thanks for the ideas Josh. I am curious to see what happens after dropping on concrete. I think I'll also take the rest of your suggestions as they are real world applications.

 

[Josh Dabney]

The type of stuff that "SHOULD'NT" happen to a knife but occasionally does.

Warning.... Drop the knife in an inconspicous area as it'll probably chip the crete some

-Josh

 

[Jason Wilder]

Let the testing continue:

I took three suggestions (so far) and want to show the results of this "little knife that could"

First, we have the "one stick fire"
Ok, so when Shane suggested this, I had to look it up on youtube and found out that it is a challenge to make a fire using nothing but a knife, firesteel, and one stick batoned into several smaller pieces, and then fuzz shaved off for the tender.

Since I didn't have the time to go out to the deer lease, and didn't want to disturb my future dinner, I decided to do this in my back yard with the wood I had on hand that I use for smoking
First up is this piece of Pecan

But I took too big of a bite in the wood and had no room to baton, so I chose a smaller piece of Mesquite

The thin knife went through with no problems. Who said you need a camp knife to do camp chores?

I had the wood split in no time. Here I am poking the tip into the small pieces and prying sideways to split. Even though the Mesquite was super tough, it gave little resistance

I don't guess I took any pictures of the fuzz sticks but here I have scraped piees of fuzz of for tender and have the firesteel ready

I felt like Tom Hanks "FIRE"

OK, so I call BS on my own thread. The Mesquite shavings would catch but not spread around. Either the wood wasn't dry enough yet or my skills just suck, so I had to use shavings off a piece of "fatwood" - pine stump... OK, so it was a two stick fire, but who's counting. The knife did fine even though the user didn't.

I suppose I could have made this test easy on myself and used pine or other soft wood, but there's more hardwood where I live and Mesquite is tough as nails so I really wanted to put the knife through it's paces.

 

[Jason Wilder]

Second
It was suggested that I do the much dreaded drop test on concrete floor. So I measured a distance of 48" and let her fall.

I suppose this is to make sure the tip is tough enough to take a fall and the HT is spot on so that the blade doesn't bend too much or break.

Here are the results: I'm not going to say that it was unharmed b/c there was a tiny bend in the tip, but it didn't break

It looks worse here than it actually is. Remembe the bent blade is from prying on the pine. This is just to show the tip.

 

[Jason Wilder]

Third (and I've always wanted to do this)

It was suggested that I try to shave mild steel, but I took it a step further...

I can't tell you the number of times I've heard, "Why should I pay more for your knives when I can run down to the gas station and buy a $10 knife". I decided to baton through "440 surgical stainless" or whatever they call it.

This is a knife that I got a long time ago from who knows where. All I know that it says "Stainless China" and is going down

After I tightened the chinese knife in the vise, I put mine on top and have it a few good licks with a 3 pound hammer.

The results?

Sure, mine has a nick in the blade, which I was expecteing, but not nearly as bad as the other one. I imagine I could have gone all the way through it if I really wanted to.

More to come as I find time.

 

[Shane Wink]

Great job bro! When choosing the stick for a one stick fire I always choose fatwood! The stuff is everywhere here , like it grows on trees or something!

Use your blade like a cabinet scraper to make a very large pile of fine shavings s the base and you will do much better. I find the harder the wood the easier it is to get the fine scrapings. Work the stick like its an octagon or a hexagon. This will leave pointed ridges that are easier slabbed off or for feather sticks. Like I said bro good job and a +1 on being honest about it!

shane