Tonight at work I was just cutting up some carboard with my newest knife, and got to thinking about how it is as a true test of a knife.
I haven't really seen any knife that would slice cardboard easier than a cheap box cutter. Lets face it, a box cutter has a super thin blade that has to push next to no material out of its way to make a cut. Even a blade made of thinner stock has a much more wedge shape to it. Thus cutting into the carboard forces the carboard to pinch in around the edge, making it more difficult. The box cutter is exposing the same edge thickness, or close to it anyway, thorughout the material making it easier to slice thorugh. So even the cheapest of box cutters, with a new blade, will have an edge over almost any knife here.
Cardboard is rather abrasive on an edge, and will dull it pretty quickly. I don't care what the steel is or how well it is heat treated cardboard will dull an edge fairly quickly. The knife I happened to be using was a small custom fixed blade made of 52100 from a maker on the forums. Now after enough cuts the edge started dragging just a bit, and not cutting as cleanly. The same thing happens when I use a RRF from Combat Elite, that has an S30V blade. It might take a bit longer to get dulled to that point, but it still will pretty quickly. This is to be expected though, I mean no knife will stay sharp forever it is just not possible. So I guess you could say that cutting up cardboard is useful for comparing edge holding ability.
So now we have a knife with an edge that has been dulled rather quickly, what is the first thing that we do? We go to bring that edge back to our own standard of sharpness, whatever that may be. So maybe cardboard cutting is useful here, to judge how easy it is to bring an edge back to sharp. I guess that might be a fair statement, but there are many other ways to test this too.
One thing that I never really understood here is the constant use of cardoard cuts as a promotional tool in the Cold Steel DVD'd. I mean any knife will continue to cut through cardboard without much trouble, even if the edge has become sull, if the rest of the geometry is right. Honestly if the knife is made of fairly thin stock, and ground say to a full flat grind, like say a Spyderco Millie, then it will continue to cut way past the point of being dulled to the point where I would want to sharpen it. Try taking that knife that has made 100 or whatever number of cuts in cardboard and cut a tomato, or shave or whatever other more demanding task. I bet you will soon see that what seemes sharp isn't sharp at all but just has a profile that allows it to keep on "cutting". Just think of what you would find in just about any kitchen. My parents kitchen knives are a great example of this, I couldn't cut myself with those if I tried, yet they will still "cut" most food stuff needed.
Ok, I guess I am rambling on now. Anyway just some random thoughts I had while enjoying my new knife, which BTW performed great so I am not complaining about that at all. Anyone else have any thoughts/feelings on this subject?
I haven't really seen any knife that would slice cardboard easier than a cheap box cutter. Lets face it, a box cutter has a super thin blade that has to push next to no material out of its way to make a cut. Even a blade made of thinner stock has a much more wedge shape to it. Thus cutting into the carboard forces the carboard to pinch in around the edge, making it more difficult. The box cutter is exposing the same edge thickness, or close to it anyway, thorughout the material making it easier to slice thorugh. So even the cheapest of box cutters, with a new blade, will have an edge over almost any knife here.
Cardboard is rather abrasive on an edge, and will dull it pretty quickly. I don't care what the steel is or how well it is heat treated cardboard will dull an edge fairly quickly. The knife I happened to be using was a small custom fixed blade made of 52100 from a maker on the forums. Now after enough cuts the edge started dragging just a bit, and not cutting as cleanly. The same thing happens when I use a RRF from Combat Elite, that has an S30V blade. It might take a bit longer to get dulled to that point, but it still will pretty quickly. This is to be expected though, I mean no knife will stay sharp forever it is just not possible. So I guess you could say that cutting up cardboard is useful for comparing edge holding ability.
So now we have a knife with an edge that has been dulled rather quickly, what is the first thing that we do? We go to bring that edge back to our own standard of sharpness, whatever that may be. So maybe cardboard cutting is useful here, to judge how easy it is to bring an edge back to sharp. I guess that might be a fair statement, but there are many other ways to test this too.
One thing that I never really understood here is the constant use of cardoard cuts as a promotional tool in the Cold Steel DVD'd. I mean any knife will continue to cut through cardboard without much trouble, even if the edge has become sull, if the rest of the geometry is right. Honestly if the knife is made of fairly thin stock, and ground say to a full flat grind, like say a Spyderco Millie, then it will continue to cut way past the point of being dulled to the point where I would want to sharpen it. Try taking that knife that has made 100 or whatever number of cuts in cardboard and cut a tomato, or shave or whatever other more demanding task. I bet you will soon see that what seemes sharp isn't sharp at all but just has a profile that allows it to keep on "cutting". Just think of what you would find in just about any kitchen. My parents kitchen knives are a great example of this, I couldn't cut myself with those if I tried, yet they will still "cut" most food stuff needed.
Ok, I guess I am rambling on now. Anyway just some random thoughts I had while enjoying my new knife, which BTW performed great so I am not complaining about that at all. Anyone else have any thoughts/feelings on this subject?
I might have to go look for that # to see how strong my card board is. 
