Outside the Box

I am constantly playing with new ideas, hoping to stumble onto something that makes sense. This design was a real reach, and wouldn't have happened but for the fact that I had a piece of steel left over when doing a batch of blades.

The pic is from the present owner.



The 154CM blade here is 12", with an OAL somewhere around 18". The handle is green & black linen Micarta with a checkered hammer surface on the back. Total weight on this knife is aboutn 13 oz., due in part to the fact that the steel is just 0.140". In most instances that would be considered much too thin for a knife this size, but that was the challenge here. Make it light and strong at the same time.

The fully sharpened swedge was ground with a 2" contact wheel, allowing a good cutting edge to be developed in a narrow space. That narrow swedge is necessary to the whole design. The primary edge was ground with an 8" wheel, leaving a narrow strip of full thickness steel to run to within 1-1/2" of the point. Had a larger wheel been used for the swedge, it would have been impossible to get it to a fine cutting edge or would have required more width in the swedge and would have ground away the middle of the blade, weaking it.

Does the knife have a purpose? I think it does. At 12", the blade is large enough and has an adequate primary cutting edge to be used for clearing trail or most anything else you might ask of a large blade (except chopping firewood maybe). Beyond that it is fast enough and has enough cutting options to deal with any bad guy lurking along the way. The cutting edge is a convex, grain of wheat shape, making it efficient for removing "limbs" of all kinds.

This one began as a lark, but looks like it might live on as an eagle.

Jerry, that is one beautiful piece of work! I also like your thinking behind it too. This should be an extemely efficient cutter with very little drag.

At .140" will 154CM have enough strength to withstand the potential flexing the may occur while in rigorous use? What Rc did you take the blade to 58 or so?

By the way, are you getting S30V yet? Haven't seen any around these parts yet.

If it's heat treated right (Paul Bos does mine, though Rob does excellent heat treating too.), 154CM is not a problem in a blade this size. Yes, the Rc is 58. One often neglected attribute of hollow ground blades is that they resist flexing, due to the fact that curved surfaces just don't like to flex. That's why arches work in architecture. Further, 0.140" hardened steel isn't exactly whippy in any case, and that's the thickness of the blade over more than 80% of its length.

S30V is supposed to be available by the 20th. If not I'll personally nukem!!

Thanks for the nice comments.

I had the privilege of getting to handle this knife at the Spirit of Steel Show last month. The knife achieves the the very rare objective of feeling very light in the hand due to it's outstanding balance, yet it still feels like a very substantial cutting machine. The way Jerry ground the top swage with the 2" wheel maintained the integrity of the spine at 100% of the blade material thickness to within about 1.5 inches of the tip.
The feel of Jerry's knives never ceases to amaze me, but this one is truly special. I learn just a little more about the geometry and performance of high performance blades every time I get the opportunity to talk with him, and look at some of his knives.
Mike

Everyone knows I'm the type to jump in with my two cents.