LC200N / Caribbean SE torture test gauntlet of death

[Evil D]

I've got a SE Caribbean awaiting your torture test suggestions. Come at me bro.




...within reason. I'm not looking to destroy the knife so no "bend it 90 degrees" suggestions. I already plan on batonning the snot out of it later this week. Tonight I decided that the most logical place to start was cutting some of the double CAT5 cable (EDIT: coax cable) that ruined the edge on my Autonomy. If you missed that thread you can check it out here viewtopic.php?f=2&t=81297

It turned out that I still had a couple feet of that stuff hanging from my bedroom closet (don't even ask me why it's there cause I have no idea) so I figured I'd cut the exact same cable the exact same way I cut it with the Autonomy, so this is as close to an apples to apples hard use test I can do since we don't have two of the same model knife with the same blade grind in both H1 and LC.

The edge was wrecked.

Here's before:




The cut was made with the front half of the blade. Pay close attention to the height of the teeth..

Here's after:






Here's the cut..


Just as with the Autonomy, I couldn't cut clean through this stuff in one swipe, but I do think it took less cutting to get the Caribbean through and it appears to have been a cleaner cut. Some of the teeth chipped while others seemed to have rounded off into oblivion (most likely chipped and then rolled on subsequent cuts). There are rolled spots AND chips in the scallops. However, just so we're all on the same page, H1 had basically the exact same reaction when cutting this cable. If anything else I think H1 rolled a bit less but that could be something due to the thickness/thinness of the edges. Both knives had been sharpened a LOT at the same angle (I have not reprofiled this Caribbean to 30, that was my sheepsfoot Caribbean). So, basically both knives had a very healthy 20 degree not-so-micro micro bevel so again they were about as similar as you can get with two different knives.

I didn't mean to make this into an H1 vs LC thread (and don't plan on it) but I think it's a little bit inevitable that it'll go that direction. But, since I'm only testing/torturing this Caribbean, there probably won't be any other direct comparisons like this one. I'm currently working on fixing the edge, and I plan on fixing/sharpening the edge each time between tests. I also plan on reprofiling this edge down to 15 degrees on the front side, so subsequent damage may actually be worse than this since it'll be a bit thinner...we'll see. The reprofiling is really slow going, my diamond rods are super wore down, I need another set or some CBN rods super bad.

[Sumdumguy]

Cut open more than one bag of concrete, lol.

[crazywednesday]

Interesting stuff, I'll be tagging along.

[Bloke]

Thanks heaps D! :)

Much appreciated that you're prepared to push a blade and risk damage for our enlightenment. :cool:

[Evil D]

Cut open more than one bag of concrete, lol.

Well if I had said bags of concrete lol

[Monty]

Let's see what a motorcycle helmet looks like cut in half.

[vivi]

Are you slicing the cable or push cutting it? Are you using a cutting board or not?

Using a straight push cut on a cutting board you will be able to avoid most, if not all damage.

Here's a few things I don't think twice about using my SE H1 knives for:

- Chop through finger thick branches in one swing
- Cut skateboard griptape
- Baton wrist thick or smaller chunks of fatwood for starting fire
- Trimming CAT5 (I always use a cutting board though)


If I think of anything else I'll edit this post.

edit:

- Slice some beer / pop cans in half

[The Meat man]

Wow this will be an interesting thread. Many thanks David for sacrificing time and blade for the cause of knife knowledge!

How about ordinary copper electric wires?
Drywall?
Car tire?
Cardboard, or some other abrasive media?

[Evil D]

Are you slicing the cable or push cutting it? Are you using a cutting board or not?

Using a straight push cut on a cutting board you will be able to avoid most, if not all damage.

Here's a few things I don't think twice about using my SE H1 knives for:

- Chop through finger thick branches in one swing
- Cut skateboard griptape
- Baton wrist thick or smaller chunks of fatwood for starting fire
- Trimming CAT5 (I always use a cutting board though)


If I think of anything else I'll edit this post.

How is a cutting board helping with SE? How are you making a clean push cut when the teeth keep the whole edge from contacting the board?

[Evil D]

Let's see what a motorcycle helmet looks like cut in half.

Mail me the helmet and we'll see.

[Evil D]

Wow this will be an interesting thread. Many thanks David for sacrificing time and blade for the cause of knife knowledge!

How about ordinary copper electric wires?
Drywall?
Car tire?
Cardboard, or some other abrasive media?

I should have some drywall around here somewhere, I'll see about maybe getting a cheap blown car tire. I've already cut gobs of cardboard but I can always cut more. I think I have some carpet somewhere too, if not I can probably get some from a local carpet place if they're tossing any out.

[vivi]

Are you slicing the cable or push cutting it? Are you using a cutting board or not?

Using a straight push cut on a cutting board you will be able to avoid most, if not all damage.

Here's a few things I don't think twice about using my SE H1 knives for:

- Chop through finger thick branches in one swing
- Cut skateboard griptape
- Baton wrist thick or smaller chunks of fatwood for starting fire
- Trimming CAT5 (I always use a cutting board though)


If I think of anything else I'll edit this post.

How is a cutting board helping with SE? How are you making a clean push cut when the teeth keep the whole edge from contacting the board?

With the PE tip.

Cutting a free hanging cable is, IMO, intentional abuse. You can destroy an edge doing that. Or you could cut it with a straight push cut over firm backing and more than likely not damage the edge at all.

I've done it numerous times with a variety of steels with zero damage, even knives reprofiled very thin. It's all about technique.

[spoonrobot]

See if you can get some larger brass staples 1-1/2" or 1", like the kind used on large cardboard boxes. I accidentally cut into and through them often with my H1 knives and the steel's performance is not consistent in either SE or PE. Sometimes it chips, sometimes it rolls and sometimes it goes right through. Seems to depend as much on the angle and speed of the knife as anything else.

The bags of concrete suggestion is a good one too. Cutting lengths of sod or trimming rings in the bark of a walking stick, especially green wood. Cutting thin aluminum stock 1/8 or 1/16. Use your knife to cut a cat hole, works especially well if it hasn't rained in a while.

[Bloke]

Hey D, are those strands of stainless in that cable?

[VooDooChild]

Ive got a longterm torture test that I want to do for some lc200n blades starting next year. They revolve around neglect and not cutting so this probably doesnt add anything to your post. However I cant wait to experiment and see what happens.
Lc200n definitely needs to get beat on by us spyderco users now that its on the market through spyderco. Keep up the good work.

[awa54]

That twinned RG-6 is mostly used for sattelite TV receivers, it's usually stainless or sometimes aluminum braid, over mylar/aluminum sheathing (sometimes just aluminum), then a fairly hard PE insulator and a copper coated steel center conductor.

Suffice it to say that cable shears are the best tool for cutting that stuff. The more expensive, all copper conductor RG-6 is much easier to cut.

Having cut *tons* of cable over the years, I can say that any good knife that isn't ground below 30dps ought to go through even fairly thick stranded copper wire and take minimal (or no) damage, but with solid core wire, anything past about 16AWG should be done with wire cutters or cable shears.

[Bloke]

That twinned RG-6 is mostly used for sattelite TV receivers, it's usually stainless or sometimes aluminum braid ...

Interesting David, I know next to nothing of electrickery or cables.

Anyhow, can’t help thinking stainless braid would likely leave most edges, at least a little worse for wear. :)

[Evil D]

Are you slicing the cable or push cutting it? Are you using a cutting board or not?

Using a straight push cut on a cutting board you will be able to avoid most, if not all damage.

Here's a few things I don't think twice about using my SE H1 knives for:

- Chop through finger thick branches in one swing
- Cut skateboard griptape
- Baton wrist thick or smaller chunks of fatwood for starting fire
- Trimming CAT5 (I always use a cutting board though)


If I think of anything else I'll edit this post.

How is a cutting board helping with SE? How are you making a clean push cut when the teeth keep the whole edge from contacting the board?

With the PE tip.

Cutting a free hanging cable is, IMO, intentional abuse. You can destroy an edge doing that. Or you could cut it with a straight push cut over firm backing and more than likely not damage the edge at all.

I've done it numerous times with a variety of steels with zero damage, even knives reprofiled very thin. It's all about technique.

Hey D, are those strands of stainless in that cable?

That twinned RG-6 is mostly used for sattelite TV receivers, it's usually stainless or sometimes aluminum braid, over mylar/aluminum sheathing (sometimes just aluminum), then a fairly hard PE insulator and a copper coated steel center conductor.

Suffice it to say that cable shears are the best tool for cutting that stuff. The more expensive, all copper conductor RG-6 is much easier to cut.

Having cut *tons* of cable over the years, I can say that any good knife that isn't ground below 30dps ought to go through even fairly thick stranded copper wire and take minimal (or no) damage, but with solid core wire, anything past about 16AWG should be done with wire cutters or cable shears.

I realized this morning that I've been calling this CAT5 when it's actually coax cable (I guess RG-6 is the proper name?). CAT5 is absolutely much easier to cut, I'm pretty sure I have some of that too so I'll get some out today and see how it goes.

[curlyhairedboy]

I'll be watching this, I do need another Caribbean...

[Sumdumguy]

Cut open more than one bag of concrete, lol.

Well if I had said bags of concrete lol

Luckily you only need one, you probably won't make it all the way through that one.

Go ahead, ask me how I know!