Knife blades penetrating car doors: Reasonable Strength Test or Not?

[SpyderEdgeForever]

I will not drop the name but a well-known knife company that manufactures very good quality blades is known to use their knives to pierce the steel of car doors, to show how strong and sharp and resilient they are. I'm asking all of you fellow knife enthusiasts here: Is this test a true measure of how good a knife is, or not? Someone replied to me on this elsewhere, and said "Any cheapo knife can do that" and yet those who do this test clearly show the blade undamaged afterwards (this particular company I am speaking of), and servicable.

Also: Would Spyderco blades of various models be able to do this, too?

:)

[chukar8]

I can puncture a door with a piece of rebar, does that make it a good knife? Seems stupid to me but thats JMO.

[phaust]

to show how strong and sharp and resilient they are

It definitely does not show how sharp they are. If you can tell the difference between usable edge and super sharp edge by how well the knife pierces a car door, I might have to call you a liar :p

Is this test a true measure of how good a knife is

No, because the primary purpose of a knife does not have much overlap with piercing through metal. This question of yours is trying to answer a general question with a test that addresses only a specific trait of a knife and one that doesn't come into play a lot of the time. If you want a test that "measure how good a knife is", you're going to need it to actually address what knives in general are meant to do. Put another way, stabbing through metal does show you something about a knife, but applied as a test to every knife, it does not rank them by how good they are as a cutting tool. (I doubt any one test could be applied to any knife to measure how good it is.)

[spyderHS08]

Strider!

But I don't think I would want to try this with my spydercos, my Striders however, possibly. Spydercos are made for different purposes and aren't quite as beefy however I'm sure there are some models out there that could do it too like the tuff or lionspy etc. however I wouldn't recommend it lol

[spyderHS08]

And btw absolutely not any cheapo knife could do this......

[Blerv]

First of all videos are NOT absolute truth. They often test one product in one or two tests and then stop the test which is hardly quantified data. They also completely rely on the editor's morality to present fact from fiction. Michael Moore anyone?

Second all qualities knives (or as mentioned probably rebar) will go through a car door. Hoods are a bit thicker but still shouldn't be a problem in many situations. You stab a Delica through the hood and it might break it's tip off, especially if done violently. Use a thicker overall grind and you shouldn't have a problem. The downfall of course is the second knife will take longer to sharpen and generally won't perform in the same way for normal tasks. On this basis a screwdriver is the best knife you can buy and they only cost like $2 apiece!!

Only about 5% of your ability to defend yourself is based on the tool. The rest is a combination of training, tenacity, who has the advantage, and plain dumb luck of execution and grey factors such as anatomical reaction. I personally wouldn't buy a knife from a company that shanks an attack robot on film because:

1.) I don't get attacked by many killer robots on a daily basis (or car hoods)
2.) It says (to/for me) that the maker has their marketing and design teams has the wrong priorities

[Clip]

I've never seen anyone get stabbed through a car door, but I suppose that's possible.

[deep6]

I have some CS stuff, the Triad's are very strong as I have "tested" them myself. I don't see the point of the car hood thing, it's not a accurate display of quality IMO. With enough force a Manix would do the same thing.

[defenestrate]

I've put a serrated Dragonfly through the door and hood of a 60s American musclecar. It kept cutting though it did roll a nick in the tip.

Car doors are not conducive to maintaining a useful edge on any steel bladed implement, so I am not advising this, simply reporting experiences from my younger and (hopefully) dumber days.

[Holland]

its about as reasonable as batoning, chopping, and prying up a manhole cover with a folding knife

[The Deacon]

Depends what you want to do with your knife, or think you might want to do with it. There are plenty of knife features and tests I find idiotic, simply because in 60 years of owning, carrying, and using pocket and sheath knives, I've never had the need for them or the desire to impress the type people who'd be impressed by them but, as with most things in life, YMMV.

[tobii3]

Damnedest thing...maybe it's just me, but why would I stab my knife through the door when I can just shatter the window with the pommel and open the door from the inside?

[spyderHS08]

Damnedest thing...maybe it's just me, but why would I stab my knife through the door when I can just shatter the window with the pommel and open the door from the inside?

C'mon bro everyone likes a challenge!! :D

[me2]

Try shattering door window glass in a car with a knfe pimmel not specifically made for it. Let us know how long it takes.

The car part stab was intended to look impressive, which it does until you try it with any knife over 3/32" thick. It probably says more about handle design than the blade. Im not doung it with any knife without a guard.

[Cliff Stamp]

Also: Would Spyderco blades of various models be able to do this, too?

Yes as it is mild steel.

Like many of the "tests" used to promote/prove/show that a knife/design is superior/better/of quality it only looks impressive because there is no benchmark/standard to reference.

Cougar Allen was one of the first people to mythbust this promotion showing that very inexpensive and rather thin/pointy knives could easily do this without damage of any kind as again it is mild steel.

If you have a very small/thin knife like a paring knife, fillet blade etc. then it is likely to flex under the impact and may snap/warp the blade, but other than that it isn't impressive, especially when the knives are 1/4" thick, large cross sections etc. .

[Pockets]

It may be a good test for a pickaxe :D

[Comeuppance]

It speaks well for the lock strength, which, in CSs case, is certainly not in question...

...However, knives that will do that without chipping are made with softer steels. Are you looking to chop down a tree or cut some rope? I have a large voyager that I have absolute faith in its ability to punch through a car door, but I never carry it because AUS8 loses an edge so quickly I'd have to carry an extra knife or a sharpener at work. I'd take the voyager (and a sharpener) with me into a forest, but I'll take VG10 and S30V to work and around town.

I've started to see AUS8 as a trash steel, and I wish CS would start making knives with harder, more wear-resistant stainless steels... But then they couldn't show a guy stabbing it through doors or smacking it against a steel pipe. I wonder if their marketing has pigeonholed them.

[Cliff Stamp]

I have a large voyager that I have absolute faith in its ability to punch through a car door, but I never carry it because AUS8 loses an edge so quickly I'd have to carry an extra knife or a sharpener at work.

What are you cutting?

[Comeuppance]

What are you cutting?

Rope, tape, cardboard, straps, paper, and plastic. I tend to delegate tape-cutting to my utility knife, though.

[Cliff Stamp]

Roughly how long does the AUS-8A blade last compared to the S30V one, just roughly as in half day vs a day ...