Don't you love FRN, G10, and Stainless Steel?

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SpyderEdgeForever
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Don't you love FRN, G10, and Stainless Steel?

#1

Post by SpyderEdgeForever »

I am still amazed after all these years that we have materials like FRN (fiberglass reinforced nylon and related materials), G10 glass fiber laminates, and stainless steel alloys. I think back on the past ages of humanity and think "How did they get along with things like wood and bone and plain carbon steel for all those centuries and live without FRN, G10, and stainless steel and super steel?" How boring! Sure, there are great old and ancient knife and cutlery designs but I am sure you all agree.
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Re: Don't you love FRN, G10, and Stainless Steel?

#2

Post by knivesandbooks »

Bruh
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Re: Don't you love FRN, G10, and Stainless Steel?

#3

Post by flasharry »

Many years ago, I made this...

Image
Image

Ended up trading it for a nice vintage Omega watch..
"You never know what lonesome is, 'til you get to herdin' cows"
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Re: Don't you love FRN, G10, and Stainless Steel?

#4

Post by JD Spydo »

As a general rule and up till the past 15 years or so I've tended to gravitate toward mother nature's materials over many of the newer man made marvels. I do believe it was my love of 3 of the big premium commercial knife manufacturers that made me go in the other direction. My first ever Spyderco folder with G-10 was my late 90s RENEGADE model which totally changed the way I look at knife handle material.

Take G-10 for instance>> how could you find a better, more practical material with awesome endurance in harsh conditions to make a better knife handle. G-10 has been at the top of my "user" list for quite some time now. Oh I do like FRN and stainless too but not nearly as much as I do the G-10 materials that have been used as knife handles for the past 15 years or so.

I like G-10 better than I do FRN and stainless handles mainly because of the far better grip/purchase properties. I also love Carbon Fiber and Micarta but both of them are considerably more expensive but yet don't offer any significant advantages over G-10>> so as of this very time G-10 is at the top of my favorite handle material.
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Re: Don't you love FRN, G10, and Stainless Steel?

#5

Post by Bloke »

flasharry wrote:
Sun Jul 14, 2019 2:08 pm
Many years ago, I made this...

Image
Image

Ended up trading it for a nice vintage Omega watch..
Very Cool flash! :)

A true work of Art. :cool:
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Re: Don't you love FRN, G10, and Stainless Steel?

#6

Post by Tims »

flasharry wrote:
Sun Jul 14, 2019 2:08 pm
Many years ago, I made this...

Image
Image

Ended up trading it for a nice vintage Omega watch..
Wicked job mate, did you knapp it yourself?

That knife makes me want to quit my job and disappear half naked and barefoot into the bush.
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Re: Don't you love FRN, G10, and Stainless Steel?

#7

Post by The Deacon »

SpyderEdgeForever wrote:
Sun Jul 14, 2019 7:58 am
I am still amazed after all these years that we have materials like FRN (fiberglass reinforced nylon and related materials), G10 glass fiber laminates, and stainless steel alloys. I think back on the past ages of humanity and think "How did they get along with things like wood and bone and plain carbon steel for all those centuries and live without FRN, G10, and stainless steel and super steel?" How boring! Sure, there are great old and ancient knife and cutlery designs but I am sure you all agree.

You're entitled to your opinion, but if you consider a piece of basically monochromatic metal or plastic less boring than something like this...

Image

...or this...

Image

...or this...

Image

...or either of these...

Image

...then I'll just say we have totally different tastes, and leave it at that.
Paul
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SpyderEdgeForever
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Re: Don't you love FRN, G10, and Stainless Steel?

#8

Post by SpyderEdgeForever »

Deacon, those are beautiful knives with furnishings, no doubt. I definitely consider those to be superb. Its just that I also am very glad and enjoy the fact that we have the synthetic handle scale materials and stainless steel alloys.

Thank you for posting those pictures, very neat.
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Re: Don't you love FRN, G10, and Stainless Steel?

#9

Post by SpyderEdgeForever »

flashharry that is amazing knapping work and the handle furnishings are very good!
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Re: Don't you love FRN, G10, and Stainless Steel?

#10

Post by SpyderEdgeForever »

What would your opinion be of someone who told you they are completely satisfied and content with knives made with Zytel handles and 440-C stainless steel blades, along with the older natural materials and carbon steel, and have no further interest in newer materials that came along later, such as G10, more advanced synthetic handle materials like FRN (I know one can say FRN and Zytel are identical), but especially the newer "super steel" alloys like VG10, S30V, CruWear, LC200N, H1, etc?

Would you consider them to be settling for less or if that makes them happy in their choice of materials, that's fine?

That was basically the state of most folding and fixed blades in the late 1980s and early to middle 1990s.
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Re: Don't you love FRN, G10, and Stainless Steel?

#11

Post by flasharry »

SpyderEdgeForever wrote:
Mon Jul 15, 2019 9:43 am
flashharry that is amazing knapping work and the handle furnishings are very good!
Thanks.. the antler was a found cast, no deer were harmed in the making.. The knapped blade took about 5 years to accomplish (5 years of learning, and then about a week of making - I lost count of the failures and bandaids.. ( I did cheat and epoxied the blade into the antler, although I cut the blade slot by hand..) Would I ever knapp again? I doubt, age and arthritis have ganged up on me. Back then I wanted to learn something difficult and different. had some really good teachers, too..
"You never know what lonesome is, 'til you get to herdin' cows"
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Re: Don't you love FRN, G10, and Stainless Steel?

#12

Post by SpyderEdgeForever »

Also, tell me from your perspectives, why it is that the human race has taken so long in our history to develop materials such as stainless steel, polymers, fiberglass, and various other things? Consider this: In a roughly 300 year period (1700 to 2000) we went from animal-drawn vehicles and wooden sailing ships, hand-made metal and cloth, to aerospace rockets, advanced metal alloys and composites, nearly molecular-level circuit boards, and powerful medicines. Why was the development scale in those years so short in comparison to the mass of the rest of history, regardless if you are a young Earth person who believes the earth was created six thousand years ago, or, an old Earth person who believes the Earth has been around for billions of years. Either way, you would think human technology should have advanced much faster than it did. Why did it take so long for people to "catch up" and make these new tools?

Example: Why couldn't they have had the same speed of development between 1200 and 1500 that they did between 1700 and 2000? Why couldn't this have happened in earlier eras?

If you assume the Earth is about five billion or so years old, and man has been on Earth as an upright, tool-using creature for 200 000 or so years, or even 100 000 or so years, it makes no rational sense as to why it took humans so long to go from hand-knapped stone and basic fire making skills, to computers and VG10 steel. Give some reasons why?

I once read an interesting discussion related to this between two people. One made the claim that it took humankind so long to advance because when people were living as hunter-gatherers, they did not have any permanent settlements to store information and perform analysis such as chemistry and metallurgy, that had to wait for villages, towns, cities, and kingdoms. But the other person then added that with civilization and establishment, came new problems that, ironically, helped stall technology: Once you had established cities and groups of people, you had various biases set in; such as people being afraid of new things because new things could lead to dangers that you are unprepared or unable to repel, and so then came traditions to crush and destroy and drive away anyone or anything that appears to bring a new thing and thus a danger to the larger community. There are good and bad traditions in other words. Some are helpful and others are hurtful.

Another problem is this: Before the Protestant Reformation of the late 1400s and 1500s in Europe, most societies were based on kings/monarchs who had real power over the people, and the societies tended to lean towards "collectivism" as opposed to individualism, like the United States of America. Once the idea began to become widespread that individuals could innovate and individual persons have the inalienable right to person and property, this concept led to new technology innovation. A counter to this would be those who say a collectivist society could be more efficient in dedicating resources to certain technological projects.

In ancient times, if you were an engineer or innovator, the ones with the resources were the kings and other monarchs. This meant you had to get them interested in your project, your device, unless you could find a very prosperous and wealthy private patron like a merchant. Also, in places like ancient Greece and Rome, there was, sadly, an abundance of slave labor. Imagine an Archimedes trying to get an emperor or leader of a city-state interested in labor saving devices like steam engines for moving large amounts of goods, when the leader could simply say "Why should I invest time and money and energy into you developing that, when instead I can send my army and go round up a few hundred more slaves to do the same job?"

One last point: Some make the claim that if human beings had not been having so many wars and been so effected by horrible natural disasters, then technology and innovation that did exist would not have been lost. For example, ancient Greek engineers had the basics of steam engines, magnets, and air pumps down. But it never went beyond clever temple gadgets and things. They also had things like the Baghdad Battery and there are some who believe the famous Lighthouse of Alexandria did not use mere burning materials but used a giant ancient electric arc lamp!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lighthouse_of_Alexandria
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Re: Don't you love FRN, G10, and Stainless Steel?

#13

Post by flasharry »

SEF. you might enjoy a series of BBC docs (they are on Youtube, mostly) by James Burke.. Connections (I think there were 2 series) and "The Day the Universe Changed)
"You never know what lonesome is, 'til you get to herdin' cows"
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Re: Don't you love FRN, G10, and Stainless Steel?

#14

Post by SpyderEdgeForever »

Thank you harry.
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