The "Ask Nathan a question" thread

ferider said:
Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist - forgive the maybe silly question, but I wondered:

In your videos (e.g., on the BFK) you use a hammer to drive knives into nails, concrete, etc. What kind of hammer is that and how do the knife spines look like afterwards ?

Roland.
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I believe that’s Mjolnir. If I’m not mistaken Nathan has some contracts with the Asgardian military. Thor leaves Mjolnir once in a while for Nathan to clean it up and Nathan usually shoots his videos that week. Some or all of this may be incorrect.

#notnathan
 
Cap’n Smudge said:
I believe that’s Mjolnir. If I’m not mistaken Nathan has some contracts with the Asgardian military. Thor leaves Mjolnir once in a while for Nathan to clean it up and Nathan usually shoots his videos that week. Some or all of this may be incorrect.

#notnathan
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Not talking about the testing of Hofund .... :)

... Just the BFK. How did the spine look afterwards ?

i-FwXQ7bQ-X2.jpg
 
Nathan, I have been interested in the double edge knives you have made. Especially the UF with double edge. I look at the Dek3 as my chance to have a double edge dek1. I am planning on getting the Dek3 with the back of tip sharpened as well as the swedge. My only concern is tip strength. Do you recommend this grind?
Would it be wise to only sharpen the swedge? Do you have a rendering of what the full dagger grind would look like?
Thanks for all the amazing options!!!!
 
Cap’n Smudge said:
I treat all rust on blades with this method. Especially, for under the scales.
A rag and mineral oil. It will remove all the loose red rust, and change the red rust to black rust. Black rust is extremely slow moving compared to red rust.
For cleaning anything and everything from my blades I use hot water and dish soap followed by mineral oil on a rag.
I usually keep a mineral oil soaked rag in a ziplock at work and when hiking.

#notnathan
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I've bought 5 CPK knives so far and have not seen any rust on any of them - not one speck. I use Renaissance wax under the scales and Break Free CLP on the rest of the blade.
Well, six knives, but I haven't received my grandsons UF2 yet.
 
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000Robert said:
I've bought 5 CPK knives so far and have not seen any rust on any of them - not one speck. I use Renaissance wax under the scales and Break Free CLP on the rest of the blade.
Well, six knives, but I haven't received my grandsons UF2 yet.
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Yeah.

For knives that I know will be exposed to moisture/the elements with minimal maintenance (like my MC), just for my own piece of mind, I removed the scales when I first received it, coated the handle with a wax type protectant and allowed it to fully dry before replacing the Terotuf scales.

If I do something like this on any CPKs in the future, I'm going to spray the bare tang with Plasticoat and let that dry before replacing the scales til the end of time (Personally, I'm not one to continually/periodically change handle scales. The only times I've had more than one set of scales for a CPK, was to decide which I preferred. Once that's done, it's done).
 
Ghost coyote said:
Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist

I removed the scales of my dek and found rust, I used barkeeper friend to remove it but it stained the blade, do you know how could clean it up?
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G Ghost coyote

Question:
When you used the Barkeeper's Friend, did you use it just in the tang to remove the surface rust you found under the scales, or did you wind up using it on the whole knife?

Wasn't 100% sure which, when you mentioned, "it stained the blade". If it's just stains on the tang, they won't be visible once the scales are back on (with my OCD, I'd just coat the tang with some type of protectant while the scales are off, then slap the scales back on).

If you used the BFr on the whole knife when the only surface rust was under the scales, well... I guess I'm curious to see pics of what the staining looks like. Only thing I've ever used BFr for is on porcelain sinks and to clean ceramic and diamond sharpening hones/plates.
 
jus_gus said:
Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist

Hi Nathan,

I have a couple of questions for whenever you have time to answer them. On the DEK3 the description states,“The swedge does not come all the way to the point to prevent the tip from being overly fragile,” would you recommend not adding the sharpened tip for the same reason?

The computer rendering of what the DEK2 “won’t look like” has a Tanto like blade shape, will the DEK2 have a similar shape with an extremely strong Tanto point?

Thanks for all the wonderful options!
:thumbsup::)
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Count me in on an answer to this question.

At the moment, I've got mine listed with the sharpened swedge and tip, SOLELY because it looks like my ONLY chance at a ~4" double edged CPK, after swinging and missing twice at the BD 😫.

That said, the question is pertinent to my order. For me, if the tip integrity is compromised by sharpening the back edge (and swedge), then I'd switch the order to just the standard DEK3 blade profile, as I personally wouldn't see a use for a sharpened swedge/back edge that doesn't go all the way to the tip, so I'm in for an answer before finalizing my preorder.
 
if you're worried about the strength of the tip, I recommend avoiding adding an edge to the flat area between the tip and and the top edge. That flat area is there for reasons, beyond just supporting the point of the knife, and shouldn't compromise any of the cutting functions designed into the blade.
 
murat1983 said:
Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist Congratulations on putting out the pre-order. It is a nice one and offers plenty of options for people to choose from. The amount of time, effort and planning that has gone to it is obvious. And of course, credits to Lorien for his contributions to the design. I have a few questions (if I may :) ).

1-) Is your HT protocol ready for MagnaCut of will it get evolve until you start production? Your initial impression does not align with the data we see from others (i.e. MagnaCut being stainless 4V) which is not a problem. That is what we need to really understand something. But how far is MagnaCut from 4V as it is, and how much improvement can we expect in the coming 18 months (or whenever you start MagnaCut production)?

2-) Do you have D3V vs MagnaCut like by like comparison? When I say like by like I mean both at the same hardness, preferably harder than 62. The current understanding of 3V is toughness gets reduced disproportionately when the hardness pass 60, so I am wondering in terms of edge stability (I see that combination of hardness and impact toughness), what will be the difference between the two steels if hardness set to 62 for both?

3-) What would be the behind edge thickness of DEK2 and DEK3?

4-) Is ordering without a sheat an option?

5-) Shall we expect to see drops and Friday sales of DEK2/3 for the next 18 months or are these patterns exclusive to the pre-order?
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Edit: I think that it is better to compare two steels in their optimal condition rather than force them into being the same specific hardness.

I know that a lot of people want to know what's up with this cool new material. The answer, from me, is I don't know yet.
 
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bluemax_1 said:
Yeah.

For knives that I know will be exposed to moisture/the elements with minimal maintenance (like my MC), just for my own piece of mind, I removed the scales when I first received it, coated the handle with a wax type protectant and allowed it to fully dry before replacing the Terotuf scales.

If I do something like this on any CPKs in the future, I'm going to spray the bare tang with Plasticoat and let that dry before replacing the scales til the end of time (Personally, I'm not one to continually/periodically change handle scales. The only times I've had more than one set of scales for a CPK, was to decide which I preferred. Once that's done, it's done).
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I've been using Renaissance wax under the scales lately. I try to make sure mine don't stay exposed to moisture much. And if they get wet I dry them off and oil them pronto. Even though I wrap the knives up good with Cling Plus, or aluminum foil if I'm out of plastic wrap, when I wet mold a sheath I still wipe the blade down and oil it again. I'm kinda OCD about that.
 
Thanks for going into so much details. I really appreciate the time you put into this answer, especially considering your busy schedule.

I got the 90 % of the answers I was looking for and for the remaining 10 %, it seems we need some more time. It would be nice to have a side by side comparison of two DEK3 when they are done, one with 3V and one with magnacut. I guess that would be 61.5 3V vs 63.5 magnacut if we assume their respective optimum hardness (from edge stability perspective) levels are 60.5 and 62.5 respectively.

I will need a few more read through of this post perhaps in the future when I have a better understanding about the subject. So I think this post might a good reference point for people in my position.

Your optimism about the future potential of magnacut is encouraging, so I think I made a right decision about choosing magnacut my DEK3.

Again thanks you the thoro answer.
 
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