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How can I test knives in general, to evaluate, to see if I should buy more. I can imagine some approaches like see how it sharpens up, wear it out on field trips, try to use it a lot, see if it breaks off the handle pressing down on it to try to cleave something.
What other tests might one do?
As said, "test knives in general". Now, I might get comments back that say, "Hey, Tamara, you bought a turkey, should have read the comments, buy from this company instead".......but that is not what is being asked here but rather, how to evaluate knives, here let's say land knives, in general?
I forge knives from spring steel, by hand, fit the scales, guards and butts, as well as doing the tempering and finish work.
To test your knife, do a strike test. Try chopping through a piece of wood. Most inferior knives will break with repeated impact. You could also try battoning it through a piece of wood.
I haven't read the specs on your knife, but that doesn't look like a full tang knife, and rubber/plastic handles many times means either a partial tang that doesn't pass through the full length of the handle, or what I call a rat tail that is a very thin tang that won't support the blade under stress.
Stainless steel, depending on the alloy, can be soft and easily take a fine edge, but can't hold it. Try carving a piece of hardwood and see how long your edge holds for fine cuts.
The spine of a camp knife should be square not rounded so you can use a Ferro rod to start a fire. Some powder coatings will interfere with that too.
Most Chinese made knives case harden the blade.
That means using an inferior steel, then baking it with carbon to enable a light layer of harder steel so it can be sold with a good edge, however, subsequent sharpening goes through that microns thick layer of harder steel, and the soft base metal won't hold an edge.
Go ahead and test it, then let us know how it performs for you.
Well, I didn't pay the Amazon price for it but a whole lot less.
It was cheap, it looked interesting, and I thought I would check it out. If it worked out, okay. If not, well there is always use in booby traps.
As said, the question on the table is how to evaluate a knife, any knife. Thank you, MTSilvertip. A lot of your terms are unfamiliar, battoning?, but the Net should be able to define that.....right?
I just tossed that, what knife it was, in because I figured if I stated the question without saying which knife generated the question, people would be asking about it.
Tamara, I would suggest you look in the Russell catalog, a lot of quality knives in there. Case and Buck are old trusted brands, you won't go wrong with them. I have a "piggyback" set of Case sheath knives, a smaller one and a bigger one, I think I paid about $110 for them, probably more money now. Some custom makers like Randall are charging around $500 for a larger fixed blade. You probably want a general purpose knife, but you can get fish knives, bird knives, skinning knives, etc.
Or DM Silvertip and tell him what you want, and go first class.
Knives, like firearms, are lifetime tools and cheaping out on them does not make any sense.
You can read up on various steels, with you being around salt water a lot you may want to stick with stainless, although most quality American made knives are stainless anymore.
Well, Tamara, if I owned such a knife, that I bought for less than $15. I would use it for all the stuff I would never use a good knife for. That is the test.
You can use it to cut baling twine in the barn and then stab it into a post for storage. There's a lot of uses for a good cheap knife. And I wouldn't do that with a good one.
Last edited by Diana Holbrook; 02-26-2024 at 12:20 PM..
Tamara, I would suggest you look in the Russell catalog, a lot of quality knives in there. Case and Buck are old trusted brands, you won't go wrong with them. I have a "piggyback" set of Case sheath knives, a smaller one and a bigger one, I think I paid about $110 for them, probably more money now. Some custom makers like Randall are charging around $500 for a larger fixed blade. You probably want a general purpose knife, but you can get fish knives, bird knives, skinning knives, etc.
Or DM Silvertip and tell him what you want, and go first class.
Knives, like firearms, are lifetime tools and cheaping out on them does not make any sense.
You can read up on various steels, with you being around salt water a lot you may want to stick with stainless, although most quality American made knives are stainless anymore.
I agree. I am still using a really good filet knife I bought in 1980 and it holds an edge well. Ditto on my Buck knives -- some nearly 50 years old now.
If you don't abuse a good knife (like using it for a pry tool or trying to chop through rocks) and are careful not to let it get rusty it can be passed down to the next generation.
Here is that 2-knife set from Case I referred to earlier. Now the price here is probably full retail and maybe you can do better, I want to say I paid $110 or $120 for mine on sale, several years ago.
As Grandpa Tom noted, you have to use some discretion with a good knife, and needless to say you don't ever loan it out. Amongst real outdoorsmen, asking to borrow a knife (or axe) is extremely gauche, like asking to borrow mechanic's tools.
Well, Tamara, if I owned such a knife, that I bought for less than $15. I would use it for all the stuff I would never use a good knife for. That is the test.
You can use it to cut baling twine in the barn and then stab it into a post for storage. There's a lot of uses for a good cheap knife. And I wouldn't do that with a good one.
For that kind of duty I like to use a box cutter. The trouble with a cheap poor quality knife is it won't stay sharp, and as you apply more and more pressure, you get less and less safe. Or the blade might actually break,
That said, for some inexpensive but actually quite good carbon steel kitchen knives, the Old Hickory brand are great and a great value, however you do have to clean them and apply some sort of oil that is compatible with foods to prevent rust.
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