Destructive Knife Steel Testing . . .

dogboye said:
I'm kinda surprised it didn't come out true.
Click to expand...
It's hars to accurately show effort in videos ESPECIALLY fast forwarded with a time allotment as short as shorts and reelz allow but multiple times looking at the bend and the twist I was quite certain we would have tearing.
It's hard to show but in person the twist was really extreme.

Of course in the woods with natural process' I can't do equivalent testing but I can get a feel for things and I think I'll start splitting these maple burls more often, it will really showcase true toughness and elasticity in 3/16" thick knives.

1/4" I think would have barely bent and would be much easier with much less stress on the blade and I'll finish this log with a knife that is .391 thick and .050 bte and I expect with that it will be easy and quick. Right Tool for the job- but the point if buying a super tough awesome blades is for instances where you don't have the right tool for the job and you have to use what you have.
 
Nismo17 said:
Mine did not Bend on much knottier wood

25 yo satin jack 🤷🏼‍♂️

Click to expand...
There aren't any knots in the wood I tested- it's a burl.
Every piece of wood is different but when you have a massive amount of bending and add twisting there is only so much any metal will take.

I baton through knots regularly even with regularly old 1095 or s35vn.
 
beachmaster said:
There aren't any knots in the wood I tested- it's a burl.
Every piece of wood is different but when you have a massive amount of bending and add twisting there is only so much any metal will take.

I baton through knots regularly even with regularly old 1095 or s35vn.
Click to expand...
Ok thanks !
I’ll need to get my hands on some of that stuff
 
Nismo17 said:
Ok thanks !
I’ll need to get my hands on some of that stuff
Click to expand...
Yeah if you can find a burl go for it! Just warm up your shoulder first and have a nice HEAVY baton with a good handle ready!

Finishing this piece even with my super thicc baton boi knife still took another 10 minutes at least, and I am not a small out of shape guy, nor someone unused to batoning. Since I advertise my own brand through doing testing of other brands basically what I do every day is play with knives.

If it helps this particular burl is maple.
 
Knice Job!!! . . . She looks like she's wounded but not dead yet!!!!👍

Burl can be wicked!

Much tougher than knots, unless you find yourself in knotted burl!!! :eek:

Send that bad boy in and we'll get you taken care of ASAP! :cool:

Please put it to my attention:

Busse Knife Co.
Attn. Jerry Busse
11651 County Road 12
Wauseon, OH 43567

Let's Drink! :thumbsup:

Jerry 😁

.
 
beachmaster said:
There aren't any knots in the wood I tested- it's a burl.
Every piece of wood is different but when you have a massive amount of bending and add twisting there is only so much any metal will take.

I baton through knots regularly even with regularly old 1095 or s35vn.
Click to expand...
I agree, but I also think Its hard to tell if that’s a burl in that log or a knot. I’ve cut and sold lots of burl.
Burl grows out like the humpback of notre dame.A burl is a rounded outgrowth on a tree base or trunk that contains dormant buds. It takes a good thirty years for a sellable burl to form. That looks like a branch with a year of growth so I believe it’s the thickness of the knife that caused the problem.
IMG_2489.jpeg
If that is a burl on the outside then it’s less than an inch thick. cutting through a knot in a board can be difficult. Knots have peculiar grain.
Either way Jerry has you covered!!
 
Don't drop it. said:
I agree, but I also think Its hard to tell if that’s a burl in that log or a knot. I’ve cut and sold lots of burl.
Burl grows out like the humpback of notre dame.A burl is a rounded outgrowth on a tree base or trunk that contains dormant buds. It takes a good thirty years for a sellable burl to form. That looks like a branch with a year of growth so I believe it’s the thickness of the knife that caused the problem.
View attachment 2496943
If that is a burl on the outside then it’s less than an inch thick. cutting through a knot in a board can be difficult. Knots have peculiar grain.
Either way Jerry has you covered!!
Click to expand...
Burl might be the wrong term-

This particular piece was the base of a maple and for about 12" of the trunk near the base but above ground that was visually different in the bark, bulging out on the sides, and twisted and absolutely nasty.

So although I am certainly familiar with what a burl is and this isn't exactly that I guess I didn't know what to call it. Maybe the tree when smaller had been broken near the base and it just repaired and grew back all crazy?

Regardless it was some nasty stuff, as I said before this is pretty much literally what I do for a living so I am not knew to knots. (See what I did there?)
 
beachmaster said:
Ok guys, so maybe this will fit in here. I know most if not all of you will think I'm retarded but... you are probably right.

So I did it again. I batoned something I shouldn't have and I didn't quite when I should have.


I am absolutely stoked to say the knife came out unbroken!!!!!!!!!


It is bent, but unbroken. That is HUGE for a survival knife and the esee's edge would have ripped out. (Ask me how I know)

Idk why I am so stubborn that I do things like this- I really didn't actually think it would be this hard to split as maple is relatively soft and there are no "knots" but I guess a burl is a lot more brutal than knots.

Also, in my defense, this is a little bit of what goes through my head. "If it breaks everyone will hate me... but what if it DOESNT!? It'll prove so much more than normal testing and it will be good!"

So anyways, I have a bent hells razor. I'll keep on testing and I'll likely attempt to test to failure in an at least semi practical way.
Click to expand...
That should have been straight imo
 
beachmaster said:
"If it breaks everyone will hate me.
Click to expand...

This is probably one of the biggest misconceptions about Busse folk. We know sometimes :poop: happens as with any tool.The laws of reality in this world is nothing lasts forever. Nothing is indestructible. We can only hope to get closer and closer but it is still and always will be an illusion.

The best part is that when sh*t happens, it’s covered.

This thread and the Joe X stuff made me want to settle an internal debate for myself. Since 2015 I’ve seen the Gerber Strongarm as the toughest most versatile knife in its league and I CANT WAIT for Busse to come out with something similar.
I own 5 strong arms. Now 4.8…
Took a Strongarm and my P&L statement and decided to wrench on them in the ol’ testing stump.

To be fair I have done horrid things to my Strongarm, though I’ve always done it with common sense(hammer it up to the flat portion before prying). This time I decided to do something I wouldn’t normally do and pry at the tip in wood.

I cannot stress how little force it took to snap this blade.. I still love the Strongarm and it’s a staple in my kit. The worst feeling is looking at a broken knife and knowing the company will probably do f*** all to repair my faith in the product plus $89.99 down the drain..

The P&L statement took it like a champ. I wrenched on it WAY harder along with my Esee cm6. The esee cm6 bent very noticeably. The P&L bent maybe a half degree but only noticeable if you look down the spine and it was moreso misaligned than “bent”. I just wrenched it back true. Did the strong arm and *pop* ..“f**k….”
IMG_5885.jpegIMG_5886.jpegIMG_5888.jpeg
The discoloration is from chucking it a tree after it broke out of bitterness. Lol.
 
Just want to make it clear I did not expect for any of the blades to pop the wood out unfazed as I hammered them in just enough to make it impossible to come out without bending or snapping, but not too much as to only use the tip.
It was a destructive test not a performance test and not something I would ever normally do unless I was mentally impaired.
 
Cobalt said:
It is amazing the force that a tree can exert on a piece of steel. You would think it would not be possible to bend and twist a thick piece of steel.
Click to expand...
Nice observation!

Quantity has a word to say, sometimes heavier than the material itself. It is the same with rock impacts: if you make a thin section out of a rock and impact it against a thicker steel edge, the rock may loose and the knife may be intact. The problem with knives getting damage from rocks is mostly caused by having a thin structure like an edge vs a flat or round surface of a rock. A tsunami can bent steel poles, and that is just water.

In this particular case, I think if the log segment was thinner, it would have splitted far easier. If it was just as thick but shorter, it would have splitted far easier. I think the length of the log had a significant impact here, combined with the essence of wood and the knots. When I split for firewood, I use to give up sooner when I feel it gets stuck and restart splitting attempt closer to a margin, so that it has less wood material on one of the sides. It takes more movement to split the entire log into pieces, but it usually saves energy, effort, and makes less pain in the hand from impacts.

However, for me watching this was a great thing seeing an INFI blade pushed at its maximum. Thanks to the beachmaster for sharing this experience!
 
Last edited:
beachmaster said:
Burl might be the wrong term-

This particular piece was the base of a maple and for about 12" of the trunk near the base but above ground that was visually different in the bark, bulging out on the sides, and twisted and absolutely nasty.

So although I am certainly familiar with what a burl is and this isn't exactly that I guess I didn't know what to call it. Maybe the tree when smaller had been broken near the base and it just repaired and grew back all crazy?

Regardless it was some nasty stuff, as I said before this is pretty much literally what I do for a living so I am not knew to knots. (See what I did there?)
Click to expand...
I agree , that was some very tough and difficult to baton wood.. no disrespect, I love your videos. I’m sorry for being so Anal about things.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top