Stuart Ackerman wrote:Nice thoughts there, Bruno...
Soooo...
Wadda ya cut yet? :D
Haha! Thought you might ask me that
The first thing I cut was some paper, mainly to test the out of box sharpness. I was immediately impressed - the blade glided through the paper with shockingly little resistance, especially the belly. I mean, this knife slices as well as my PM2, which is incredible considering the thickness of the stock - just goes to show what good blade geometry and distal tapering will do for you. The secondary bevel on this knife is not unduly wide, which shows how thin the maker managed to get the knife near the edge. Do you have any idea what grit the maker in Taiwan finishes these blades to? I think they got it spot on.
During this process I used my Cold Steel Recon 1 as a sort of control, mainly because a) it was handy, and b) I've done a lot of cutting with this knife so it gives me some basis for comparison. Not scientific by any means but this is much more fun :D
A picture of the two knives, lighting adjusted to show the secondary bevels. The Recon 1 has been reprofiled to the Spyderco standard 15 degrees per side with a 20 degree micro bevel. This particular Recon 1 was ground pretty thick at the factory, which is why the secondary bevel at the belly and tip is so wide!
Both of these knives are shaving sharp - the Serrata has its factory edge, the Recon 1 edge is spyderco white stone + stropping with yellowstone compound.
The next thing I cut was a bunch of cotton fabric - reducing old t-shirts to rags for cleaning my bicycle! Now this is where I found the value of the toothy edge on the cast 440c - it grabs the material and starts chomping through it immediately, unlike the polished edge on the Recon 1 which sort of slides around and then starts to cut.
The last thing was some 550 paracord - this was where the difference in the two edges was most apparent. The polished edge had a hard time getting started on the cord, requiring quite a bit of pressure and/or tension, depending on whether I was cutting chopping board style or pulling the blade against a loop of cord. The cast 440c latched on and went straight through with a very satisfying 'shick' sound, the likes of which I have never quite heard before.
So yeah I've cut a few things
It's interesting that, running my thumb very carefully along the Serrata's edge, I can actually *feel* the micro-serrations, which goes to show just how sensitive the human sense of touch is.
