Unorthodox knife strength testing.

[JohnKSa]

Most of the time, the hydraulic press channel is primarily for entertainment purposes, but once in awhile there is some content that is somewhat educational.

Here's a test where they destroyed a number Morakniv knives with different steel composition and different blade profiles.



I don't know if there's a huge amount of useful information provided by the testing, but I would say that one lesson that stands out is the very different failure mode between the stainless and the high carbon steel blades.

If you're going to do horrible things to a knife and expect that one day it will fail catastrophically, choosing a stainless steel blade might make it a little less likely that the failure mode will include high-speed flying bits of blade.

 

[hso]

one lesson that stands out

I wonder is the lesson isn't that thinner blades bend easier than thicker ones.

 

[JohnKSa]

That's true too. That presents something of a quandary. A thicker blade is less likely to bend or break, but if it does, the stored energy is likely to make the result a lot more dangerous and there seems to be a better chance of getting chips and flakes coming off the blade at a good clip.

Of course, there were only a couple of different types of steel "tested" so the actual value of the results is pretty limited. I found it interesting--it would be more interesting and more informative if they could run the same "test" on a much larger variety of knives.

 

[Slamfire]

The video sure shows that high carbon steels fail

I wonder is the lesson isn't that thinner blades bend easier than thicker ones.

You want to slice or bludgeon? Splitting wedges are at the hardware store but they don't slice well. Or do you want a crow bar instead of a knife?

I could find a larger hydraulic machine that could turn the one in the video into a compressed pile of steel. What would that prove? I would not be able to carry either in my pocket or on my belt.

Destructive tests are interesting, what this one showed is that there is a lot of energy stored in spring steel right before failure. And that was interesting. But you know, anything made by man, can be unmade by man. Leave the swords that could cut through granite and still slice a handkerchief in the air, back in the land of myths and legends.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

I figure all one gets from these types of tests is relative *merits* in unrealistic scenarios.

I've always said and always will...... Wanna have realistic testing, give them to Marines, 3 knives per Marine so they know they already have a fallback.


Todd.

 

[JohnKSa]

Yup. It's not about if they are going to fail, it's about how they fail. I thought it was interesting how different the failures were.