Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 11

Thread: An interesting evening!

  1. #1

    An interesting evening!

    As some of you may know, I've recently been bothering the fine people at my local university (of which I'm proud alumni!) to use their digital kilns to harden a greater range of knife steels. I've become rather good friends with some of the lecturers there, and already knew some of the other quite well from my own days there. Long story short I got into explaining my slight obsession with knives and my up and coming knife comparison.
    "I just can't tell which of these is sharper to be honest" may have come out of my mouth. The response, "whey lets find out we have the gear here." turned into a day of thoroughly interesting messing about. Under close supervision of one of the real microscopy experts I was shown some of the blades I had with me under their Hitachi S3000N SEM, results below for anyone that's interested! There was a new unused Stanley blade as a control too


    Stanley as a control.

    embarrassed to say looking at the image, my current EDC, a boker techtool 1. And even still that's bloody sharp!


    To the 2 knives in question

    spyderco domino, unsharpened but stropped, straight out of the box, difference is amazing!

    Most amazing my Shirigorov F3 after a fair amount of use and never being sharpened! Always said it was sharp enough to make a scalpel blush.

    Massive thanks to the guys there today obviously for letting me mess about with some amazing tools and for their as always engaging conversation and help. Real stand up chaps, although unfortunately not camping types!

  2. #2
    As for magnification and techy stuff, ill have to get back to you on that, was not my area of expertise and I have only a working knowledge of SE microscopy. Just thought i would share something I found absolutely fascinating! Shame I didn't get sent their test sample of a molecular sapphire knife, because that males the shiri look dull, although it was only the size of a human hair apparently!

  3. #3
    Woodsman Pootle's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Kernow
    Posts
    512
    Wow. What a joy to be able to play with the sem. It would be cool to view the same knife before and after each stage of sharpening and stropping.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Pootle View Post
    Wow. What a joy to be able to play with the sem. It would be cool to view the same knife before and after each stage of sharpening and stropping.
    That's a good point actually! Might even suggest it next time I pop in. I was amazed to be honest that even mid range knives like the spydie where sharper than brand new stanley blades. Shouldn't imagine they would object to it. The metallurgy lecturer there even offered to have his engineering students sharpen something for me. Might take him up on it!

  5. #5
    Woodsman bopdude's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Stockton on Tees
    Posts
    578
    That's amazing Mick, as said and to further, it would be interesting to get the knives sharpened and stropped, compare, do a few tests with each knife, maybe feather stick and batton a bit, compare again, see which blade comes through the best ?

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by bopdude View Post
    That's amazing Mick, as said and to further, it would be interesting to get the knives sharpened and stropped, compare, do a few tests with each knife, maybe feather stick and batton a bit, compare again, see which blade comes through the best ?
    That was my thinking to be honest. The metallurgy lecturer almost made my brain catch fire when I asked him about the best steel for knife blades lol. Very knowledgeable chap. Had some interesting explanations for stainless vs carbon vs nitrogen steels though

  7. #7
    Woodsman bopdude's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Stockton on Tees
    Posts
    578
    I suppose the choice of steel would friend on the use and area of use etc, keep posting up the finds though.

    Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

  8. #8
    Ranger Ehecatl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Somewhere in Kent
    Posts
    2,044
    Fascinating stuff!

    Sadly, the S3000N is too big to fit in a rucksack....


    I suspect too that you'd need a very long extension lead usng it in the woods.

    Loving Alan's suggestion of before and then after use shots.
    "If you were to ask me what I consider to be my finest achievement, I could answer the question without hesitation: teaching." ~ Raymond Blanc.

  9. #9
    Woodsman bopdude's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Stockton on Tees
    Posts
    578
    Quote Originally Posted by Ehecatl View Post
    Loving Alan's suggestion of before and then after use shots.
    Why thank you kind Sir
    Last edited by bopdude; 14-09-2016 at 08:21 PM.

  10. #10
    Oh definitely. Started on about molecule and crystal size and shapes, have to admit some went over my head but it did make vague sense.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •