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High-Performance Blades Sharing ideas for getting the most out of our steel.

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  #1  
Old 12-31-2004, 10:58 AM
Jerry Hossom Jerry Hossom is offline
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Somebody Say Something...

I'm bored.

How about some questions?


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  #2  
Old 12-31-2004, 11:21 AM
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OK Jerry, Here's 2 things I've wondered about for a long time:

1. Has anyone taken an S30V blade to a cutting competition? Or are they ALL forged carbon blades?

2. Why don't people use a hollow grind with a thicker edge and then a convex edge for competition? I heard that the log chopping competitors use that on their axes.

Steve


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  #3  
Old 12-31-2004, 12:07 PM
Coutel Coutel is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveS
OK Jerry, Here's 2 things I've wondered about for a long time:



2. Why don't people use a hollow grind with a thicker edge and then a convex edge for competition? I heard that the log chopping competitors use that on their axes.

Steve

I am about to forge a new competition blade and I was thinking exactly the same .....I will give it a try.


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Old 12-31-2004, 12:22 PM
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i believe Tracy Dotson used a knife with a hollow ground blade at Bowie's hammer-in this fall. and there is still a little question who has the better blade,Tracy or Larry Harley.........
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  #5  
Old 12-31-2004, 02:40 PM
Jerry Hossom Jerry Hossom is offline
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Guess I asked for it, but I'm likely to get in trouble here.

To date most all cutting competitions have involved forged blades. Forged blades are generally flat ground and most such competitions have oriented their tasks to that type of blade. I built a knife a couple year ago to go to one of those competitions, but a couple weeks before the contest, they changed the rules and my blade was excluded.

This is all about to change, since there is now beginning a professional knife cutting competition from which no blades are excluded, so long as they adhere to the dimensional limitations of the contest. I don't have any details on it yet, but I think it started with a fun time contest at the Guild show this year and grew from there. I know Warren Osborne is a serious part of who will be competing. There are a couple categories. One is where the maker does the cutting, but the top prize is for best cutting knife used by whoever the maker picks to use it, or the best cutter using the best knife he can find. It's really a no holds barred cutting contest that hopefully will dispell some of the myths about steels, grinds, edges, etc.


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Old 12-31-2004, 08:27 PM
Coutel Coutel is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jerry Hossom
......

This is all about to change, since there is now beginning a professional knife cutting competition from which no blades are excluded, so long as they adhere to the dimensional limitations of the contest. ......

Hi Jerry....

I am a forger, but I am under no illusion that other knives (production, stockremoval etc) can perform equaly as well.....

..but for me ...my satisfaction lies in the fact that I designed, forged,heat treated and sharpened a knife that will hold up as well as most other knives around......Somehow, entering a competiton as a competitor with a production knife, or one made by someone else just wouldnt be the same to me.....


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Old 12-31-2004, 10:00 PM
Jerry Hossom Jerry Hossom is offline
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I think the point Kevin is that the maker, who may not be physically capable of cutting well, is not himself limiting the performance of a knife he may craft. It's simply separating the measure of the knife from the measure of the man who made it. I seriously doubt anyone who makes knives would want to use a knife other than his own if he entered the competition as a user.


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Old 01-01-2005, 10:51 AM
Coutel Coutel is offline
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Originally Posted by Jerry Hossom
I think the point Kevin is that the maker, who may not be physically capable of cutting well, is not himself limiting the performance of a knife he may craft. It's simply separating the measure of the knife from the measure of the man who made it. .

Yes, your right....I do not see any objections with that.

If cutting competitions truly turn into a professional circuit, then I can see makers (custom and production) hiring the best person for the job......Like Nascar, the cars are tuned to perfection,but its the skill of the driver that usualy wins through.


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Old 01-01-2005, 11:03 AM
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I see the point. But I hope there will always be a catagory for maker/cutter. There's just a certain charm to that.

Steve


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  #10  
Old 01-01-2005, 11:53 AM
Jerry Hossom Jerry Hossom is offline
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My understanding is that both categories are to be included. The nice thing about this approach is that it can include people who don't make knives but want to compete with a special knife they've sharpened just so.

No doubt, driver skill counts for a lot, but there will be intense pressure on makers to produce some pretty special knives. Hopefully, they'll have a factory category as well so companies put more focus on performance. That will open it up to a LOT more people. The NASCAR analogy might be a good one. A lot of that track technology ends up on the highway. Nobody is going to win with an inferior knife, and companies that don't compete are going to get left in the dust.


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Old 03-02-2005, 08:26 AM
peregrine peregrine is offline
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Question On this topic... which is better: polished/ground?

Since the discussion here is on testing sharpness, and again, I am no expert...

Which, in your opinion, makes the sharper blade?
1) A blade with a really fine polished to the edge...giving it a slick, smooth cutting surface or
2) blades with grind/cutting edges (micro serations as opposed to finely polished).

I have been wondering about this since I have read about David Boye's dendretic steel which I'm told is very sharp due to the micro serrations structures (at the edge).

It also seems to me, that someone told me once that damacus style layers in a blade provide micro layers of cutting which makes them really good cutters, after they have been sharpened, of course.

Is there any truth to this.
Roger
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  #12  
Old 03-02-2005, 12:25 PM
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Depends on what you're planning on cutting, some things react better to one or the other. For example, meat and rope do well with the micro serrations, while slicing tomatoes and wood(carving, not sawing) do better with polished edges.

You're right about the damascus having automatic micro serrations, especially ladder and twist patterns.


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Old 03-02-2005, 06:17 PM
Jerry Hossom Jerry Hossom is offline
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Sharp has only one definition. How fine is the edge? The finest possible edge must be polished; anything less than a polish will be comparatively blunt/more dull.

The problem with microserration's is they are fine until they hit something hard, then those tiny little teeth break off and the blade becomes dull.


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