I had a bunch of old CAT5 and CAT5-E patch cables lying around the NOC (Network Operations Center) at work, and decided I would be environmentally friendly and cut it up in pieces before trashing it. I heard you aren't supposed to put fishing line in the trash because some stray animal might get caught in it while they're scavenging around the city dump and die. So I figured I should be compassionate to said animals and cut up these patch cables as well. Ok, maybe it's a stretch, but it gave me an excuse to see what 204p is all about.
I should have taken a "before" picture, but I forgot. There were probably 50-60 ~7ft cables in all, maybe more. I didn't count. For those who aren't computer geeks like me, patch cables are made from 4 twisted pairs of copper wire. So 8 small copper wires per cable. I cut them up into 10-12 inch pieces, and tried to alternate using the top, middle, and bottom portions of the blade. I did a little bit of slicing, but found that to be more difficult. So most of the cuts were push cuts. I found it much easier to do at about a 45 degree angle, similar to cardboard. I also found that some of the cables were considerably tougher to cut than others. The knife zipped right through most of them, but I had to really bear down on a few. All in all it took me about 30 minutes or so. Now onto the pics...
I was expecting considerable edge deformation, either chipping or rolling, but I saw very little of either. There were some very minor deformations in certain sections, but very difficult to see. The most obvious is toward the middle of the blade (still difficult to see). Overall the steel held up surprisingly well. I was actually quite shocked. With the way some people talk about high vanadium steels lacking toughness, I half expect the blade to snap after the first cut. :) I jest, but I did expect to see more damage.
The knife would still clean slice copy paper when I was done. I could even rough shave with most of the edge. It snagged a few times when the paper caught on the damaged section of the blade, but it still retained a very nice working edge.
When I got home I thought surely I'd have to at least touch it up on the Sharpmaker browns, if not take it to the diamonds. However, after about 10 passes on black compound and another 10 on white using my leather strop, I was back to easily shaving arm hair. There are still a few deformed places on the edge and it's not hair popping, but it's more than satisfactory for my uses.
Some things I learned:
- 204p is great stuff. Much tougher than I initially thought.
- A 68 degree NOC on a 90 degree Vermont Summer day is a wonderful place to be.
- Being environmentally friendly is fun.
- Not all patch cables are created equal.
- The Military has some hotspots for me when cutting. Mainly at the butt of the handle on my pinky finger.
- I prefer closed back construction for heavy cutting.
- Did I mention how great 204p is?!
- Next time I do something like this I'll wear gloves.
- I have a new appreciation for Ankerson's cardboard tests.
