Farm Life

Get this, today I built a 4'X8'X1' deep, landscape box for shrubs. I'm going to plant some flowering shrubs in it to hold the soil
from erosion and for bees. At one end of this was a large bear-grass plant. Which prevented me from maneuvering my wheelbarrow in to dump soil. So, I got out ole Blue and trimmed it back. This plant is tough to cut and hard on a blade and the
man. DM
 
The box is in the fore ground with the top soil in it and goat manure. Which took 4-5 wheelbarrow loads to fill. The blue 110 cut
65 hand fulls of bear grass. I could tell it was struggling after 50 hand fulls. Then I cleaned it and examined it. The part of the edge that wasn't rolled was really worn. It looked like I had taken a file to it. This edge is not going to get fixed with some light steeling strokes on a diamond rod. I'll have to take it to my fine diamond stone for a full sharpening. DM
 
Ok, the edge expressed a definite pattern. In it's front part, from the tip to just after the belly it was rolled badly. The remainder of the edge looked mauled away, I used a 8X headset. Most of the cuts I started at the plunge line and pulled
the blade through the material. When this no longer worked I tried different cutting approaches. i.e. point first and pushing to the belly. Then folding the leaf over the blade and pulling up. By the time I was finished not much was working, the entire blade was that deteriorated.
I have just now finished sharpening it on a 2"X6" fine diamond and removed all burrs on the stone. This took 15-20 mins.. I also used the headset during this sharpening. The most difficult part to remove the burrs was from the belly to the tip. It usually is. I do all my sharpening free-hand. This steel is not difficult to sharpen and burrs remove easier on s90v than s30v. DM
 
That bear-grass plant is some tough stuff!!! Good s90v sharpening info and comparison with s30v. Thanks.
 
Your right. While cutting the long strands I wore gloves and a short sleeve shirt. I wish I had thought to put on a long sleeve shirt. Because the limb edges are sharp and cut me several times while I was working them. Still, glad to give you gents the
data. You're welcome. DM
 
Sir....think the s90v did the best, most cuts and least damage to edge, of all the buck steels you have? meaning for that task. wonder how your own o1 sod selector blade would have done at the task?

it's good info and we appreciate it. I dont know bear grass though. not sure what plant in floriduh would compare here to it. to give me an idea of how it is.
 
Pampas grass grows in the South, it has the familiar white fox tail on it's stem. We think it would be close.
I was needing to trim these strands out of the way and chose that blade for it's edge holding ability. Today's cutting was just
for that knife. No head to head comparison, yet. So, I cannot draw any conclusions. If I have the time to do some more cutting
this weekend I'll pick the Bass Pro 110 w/ cpm154 blade. As you ask about that earlier and that blade is sharp and ready to go. Thank you. DM
 
Interesting blade steel info. Well done.
 
David Martin said:
Pampas grass grows in the South, it has the familiar white fox tail on it's stem. We think it would be close.
I was needing to trim these strands out of the way and chose that blade for it's edge holding ability. Today's cutting was just
for that knife. No head to head comparison, yet. So, I cannot draw any conclusions. If I have the time to do some more cutting
this weekend I'll pick the Bass Pro 110 w/ cpm154 blade. As you ask about that earlier and that blade is sharp and ready to go. Thank you. DM
Click to expand...
hate to have ya do more work just cause.:) would enjoy seeing how the cpm154 does at the same task though Sir.
 
Thank you Mak.
jb, you have bear grass in Florida. http://www.greenislegardens.com/native-grasses--groundcovers.html
It is also known as Squaw grass (as native Americans used it to weave baskets), soap grass (as soap is made from it's roots), ect.. This plant will take over an area where ever it's found. Only it is slow growing, perhaps because of the lack of rainfall. It is a common home for rodents. They will build a nest under it's protective canopy. Because the strands are sharp and will slice who ever tries to dig the nest out. Mammals know this. I can verify this.
Last year while dove hunting I downed a dove and it fell into a large clump of bear-grass. My dog found it and would not go into it and pull the bird out. When I arrived she was standing nearby pointing. I could see the bird and I merely shoved my hand in it and grabbed the dove. I paid for it with some deep cuts in my fingers. I didn't have any tape with me so I hiked to
the truck and patched my fingers up before I could continue the hunt. I wore those marks for the next week. As BuckShack wrote it is some nasty stuff. DM
 
^yes Sir. I see you are correct. did some quick reading it's in scrub dry areas. I'm in the river basin where its wetlands so it's not around me directly. it is near me in nearby counties in the high and dry scrub areas. its listed as endangered I'm guessing due to massive development. next time im in the big scrub areas holopaw, ocala etc......I'm gonna go look for it.
 
Ok, I got the Bass Pro 110 out and checked it. I found a spot or two that needed attention and worked it on my Norton JUM-3
SiC stone with oil on the fine side, at 280 grit. I worked the burrs off on the stone, no strop. It will now cut paper nicely, over come wrinkles and shave arm hair with low pressure. Not bad for this level grit.
Technique plays a role. Ole blue, I'm mostly sure was worked on a medium diamond rod before I began cutting the bear grass. So, some finer than this. (280 vs 400) I don't think this was intentional as this test had not been thought up. It was merely the level I took the s90v steel. Just giving you the parameters before I start cutting. DM
 
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Ok, I got the cutting done. Allow me to trim some goats hooves, worm them and work my dog then I'll post the numbers. DM
 
Ok, this Bass Pro 110 cut nice. I believe the blade coating has a play in making the cuts smoother. I stopped cutting at 70
hand fulls. Not that the last 5 or 10 hand fulls were cut well. I knew there was no need to proceed and say it was still cutting at this number. Because cutting well it was not. Thinking and giving an accurate statement, I think it cut well the same number as s90v and that would be around 55 hand fulls. Starting out cutting well and as you progress one can tell when it is deteriorating. There were little differences with the Way the 2 knives cut. Slight but present. The cpm154 seemed to slide thru the cuts better, once the cut was initiated.
Upon, examining this blade with the 8X headset, I noted of course the edge is all rolled but mostly to the right side not both sides. Then this edge is not as worn down as the s90v blade. I recall reading that Buck targeted this steel to 60RC on heat treat. Where as the s90v was targeted to 58RC. Thinking on it, then the s90v uses it's content of vandium carbides toward edge
retention and the cpm154 uses it's hardness. As the later does not have the carbide content of the first steel. These 2 steels are very close in their edge holding abilities. Not going to inflate one over the other, I'd rather just give you the straight skinny. Especially, when they were this close.
I will say both these knives are very top shelf models. The handles gripped well and were comfortable. The lock held. My Bass Pro has finger grooves. My hand never slipped. An important item because this cutting was not light duty and I kept doing it. So, your grip can get fatigued and a slip would be bad.
The last item is sharpening the blade back to a good edge. I've not done this but still, this will give us information toward all the factors of these knives. So, when I get that done I'll let you know. Thanks, DM
 
good feedback and info Sir. thank you for doing that work with the cpm154 and sharing the results with us.
 
Ok, I just finished sharpening the 110 with cpm154 steel. It took me 10 mins. to produce a good edge on it and remove all
burrs on the stone. My Norton JUM-3 fine side, a 280 grit SiC stone. So, half as much time as it takes me to sharpen the s90v
blade. Thanks, gents. DM
 
Will you give s30v the same test? Just curious.
 
Ok. I have 2. The Cabelas Alaskan Guide and the Club knife with a drop point blade and paperstone. I'll check and see which one is tuned up and ready. DM
 
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