Spyderco Forums

I was breaking down some boxes this afternoon, so i had a pile of cardboard fragments and my knives, so i figured, why not perform another knife test.....

this time, i took each knife, held it in an "icepick" grip (blade pointing down, edge facing away from my arm) and pushed it through the pile of cardboard pieces, the test stopped when the blade stopped, i then withdrew the blade and counted how many layers of corrugated cardboard it went through

there were 16 pieces of cardboard, and i placed a 1" piece of foam packing material (blue open-cell foam used in Apple parts shipping boxes) underneath the cardboard, just in case any knives made it all the way through all 16 layers

knives tested were;
S30V Millie (SE)
S30V Para(SE)
VG-10 Delica 4 Wave (PE)
H-1 Tasman Salt (SE)
Boker/CLB Wharcom (SE)
Victorinox SwissTool (PE and SE)

the Millie, Para, and Tasman all pierced 12 layers of cardboard
the Para actually pushed through the cardboard a little easier than the Millie, i expected the exact opposite, however, the Millie produced a cleaner cut than the Para
the Tasman had the most resistance and created the most ragged cut

the D4 Wave pierced 15 layers and had the second least amount of resistance of all knives tested

the Wharcom pierced 7 layers, and had the most resistance of the group, however, it produced the cleanest cut

both blades of the Swisstool were very surprising, they pierced *ALL* 16 layers and even pierced the 1" thick foam pad , they were only stopped by the particleboard table

so, to rate their performance, best to worst;
SwissTool
D4 Wave
Paramilitary
Military
Tasman
Wharcom

eliminating the non-Spydies and just focusing on the Spydies, i was amazed at how the D4W outperformed both the Para *AND* the Millie, the D4 just melted through the cardboard like butter, the Para and Millie needed a bit more force to do the same thing

cool tests Mactech....thanx for posting these.....too bad we can run these tests on the same length bladed knives....with different steels....oh wait that's in another thread about "mules"....
Sounds like u and Doc Snubnose need to combine your results...u for the cardboard and Doc for the meat.... :rolleyes: :D

Huh, that's an interesting test. I never would have figured the wave to win it. I wonder how a S30V native would work, that pointy tip and swedge make piercing really easy.

I actually ran this test twice, the results in the OP were the second, more succesful test results, for the sake of completeness, here's the results of the first test;

D4W; 13.5 layers
Millie; 12 layers
Para; 10.5 layers
Tasman; 9.5 layers

the D4 still came out in first place....

[Edit] Just tested my co-worker's SE D3 that i reground the tip on, it penetrated 12 layers

Mactech, thanks for the results!! Very cool..makes me feel good about my D4 for my EDC....every day!! And yes, I use it on boxes! :D


Tim

I wonder how the Para and Mili would compare if they had PEs. And the Swisstool just kicked *** huh? I would've never guessed it. Any guesses on why the Swisstool did so great?

I think it's due to the thinness of the SwissTool's blades, the thinner the blade the better cutter it is (to a certain point)

the D4 definitely surprised me

Just tested my SE Dodo....

Hammer grip; 7 layers
Icepick grip; 10 layers

The Delica cuts better because of its blade grind.

it'd be interesting to know how a Kumo, Centofante2, or Tim Zowada fares in your push tests Machtech... :rolleyes: