Congratulations Ed

[BrianT]

Ed

I just got the American Bladesmith today. Congratulations on your 1st place in the NW cutting competition! Cutting through 6 water bottles is pretty amazing!

Can you give us some details of your knife? Steel used? Blade length?

Brian

[RogerP]

Yep. I read that article as well. Most impressive.

Roger

[Ed Caffrey]

Thanks Brian & Roger!

The knife I used to win was actually an experimental blade, forged of SUJ-2, wich is the Japaneese version of 52100. I was cooresponding with a Japaneese smith who sent me a couple of bars. I found it to be much "cleaner" than our 52100, with almost no scale present during forging. I used the same heat treating methods that I do with our 52100. The knife itself is a little less than 1/4" thick at the ricasso, with full distal tapers, a full tang, and plain old micarta scales. The difference between this knife, and most of the others in the competition was that my knife was very fast and light by comparison. I was in the middle of the pack with most of the cutting events, and actually Tom Ferry egged me on when the water bottle cut came up. I wasn't really keeping track of points, just having fun. Tom told me to "Go for it!" So I did. Everyone else was calling out 3, 4, etc. bottles, and when my turn came I told them "6!" There was a "AHHHHH!" from the crowd. I had cut 5 pop cans filled with water, with the knife before, and figured the plastic bottles would be a bit less dense. As luck and the good Lord would have it, I cut them all. Jon Christensen has a video of it up on his site at
Winning water bottle cut

You'll need "quicktime" to view it.

[RogerP]

Awesome cut Ed! I'm betting that 6 is some kind of standing record for that event. I saw that done at the SOS show and it aint easy.

Roger

[rhrocker]

That's really cool Ed!

[Tarl_cabot]

Congrats Ed! I couldn't beleive it when I heard about it either! 6 bottles, fantastic!

Everytime I read about something like this in a cutting competition, I get more anxious to try my hand at it myself! I'm setting a goal to get my forging skills up to "snuff" and forge out a "Competition Cutter" so I can join in the fun!

I just started forging, forged my second knife this Tuesday, Larry Kemp has been kind enough to get me started and have me over to forge at his shop! I didn't think I would start forging so soon (I just got started gathering equipment, etc. and attended my first knife event at Bowie's hammerin this fall), but Larry got me going and it is very addictive! I am working with 5160 for my forged knives right now and have two 4" drop point hunters forged, one with a great deal of help from larry and one that was "on my own" with Larry just giving me pointers. I'll post some photos in the Outpost soon, I surprised myself with the second attempt at forging, I was able to move the steel the way I wanted (and Larry coached me to) and really got a feel for how forging works! So if I keep at it, I'll have that competition cutter forged and finished soon!

This was kind of long-winded, but again, congratulations on winning and the 6-bottle cut!

Mike Roesch
Chattanooga, TN

[Frank Niro]

Most impressive that's for sure!!! Frank