Why You Should Never Break A Knife....And Probably Can’t
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- čas přidán 14. 06. 2024
- In this video we explore the reasons why knife manufacturers and knife makers may leave their knives softer than we would like.
I am simply testing what happens when knives break (hardened steel) using slow motion. I am not testing knife heat treatment response.
This could apply to more than just knives, such as other hardened steel/ machining applications. This is not meant to be a scientific test with all variables controlled. Only a what happens when, test.
The book I reference in this video can be found here ↓
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Highly recommended reading!
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Chapters
00:00 Are harder steels less safe than softer steel?
00:26 Giant piece of steel flew off and through my photo booth
01:42 What I did to prepare for this test
02:49 A look at the test samples
03:43 Time to break some steel
03:50 No temper 65.5 HRC break slow motion
06:06 Temper @300F 63HRC break slow motion
07:05 Temper @350F 61.8HRC break slow motion
07:50 Temper @375F 61 HRC break slow motion
08:37 Temper @ 400F 60.2HRC break slow motion
08:55 MUST SEE!
09:59 Temper @425 59HRC break slow motion
11:22 Temper @450F 58.5 HRC break slow motion
12:01 Temper @475F 57.5HRC INSANE!
13:31 Thoughts on this testing is it relevant?
About⬇️
Hi, Im Alex, i'm a knife maker and CZcamsr, based out of southern Pennsylvania and my youtube channel is Outdoors55. This channel started as an outdoor backpacking channel, but quickly grew into a knife/ knife making channel. Everything I do on my channel is family friendly. I primarily focus on knife / knife making videos but occasionally throw in something different. Thank you for watching!😀
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For entertainment only. I am not, and will not be held responsible for anyone re-enacting/ duplicating anything seen in these videos. Do so at your own risk. Do not duplicate anything seen in this video. Unless you are an adult responsible for your own decisions. Thanks
All my videos are copyright protected and not for sale.
Everything I say and do on this channel is protected free speech. I am simply exercising my 1st amendment right under the United States constitution. The supreme law of the land. I am exercising my right to protest. As well as my 4th and 5th amendment rights.
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This is not an insult it’s a compliment - u bring a layman approach to knife making but an honest one … u definitely have gotten a good number of views on past videos - b nice to see u make more videos like this one ?
I dont have to read this
Alex, I just got a reply to one of my comments on this. Ideo from the s Amber's trying to look like your account saying I won something. This scam has been rolling through CZcams the last few months. Just thought you might want to know.
@@jeffallen3382 I got the same kind of reply representing to be Alex saying I won a Benchmade mini Crooked River. When they asked for a shipping fee ($60) I stopped texting.
Just got another one trying to scam reply me Alex.
Interesting side note; in the 1970's a piece of hardened high carbon steel jackhammer bit spaulded off & was going just fast enough to hit me inside the elbow of my left arm & enter the basilic vein ( the largest vein in the arm ) but not through it. By the time that I got to the local hospital emergency room & got an initial X-ray, the steel had migrated up into my shoulder. A few minutes later the next X-ray showed the steel bouncing around inside the right atrium of my heart, which is the path that cyanotic blood takes when it is eventually returning to the lungs to drop the carbon dioxide molecule & pick up another oxygen molecule. After having to lay flat on my back for 3 days in ICU to ensure that the steel attached itself to the atrial wall, instead of exiting the heart & lodging in the small venules of the lung & forming a clot which would have to be removed by surgery, a catheterization of the vein in the other arm was performed to attempt to remove the steel. After 4 hours of being strapped on a fluoroscope table, so the surgeon could rotate my body between two axes to see where his catheter was located, he failed to remove that foreign object. I'm 72 years old now & still carry around that piece of shrapnel in my atrium. This story is just a reinforcement of your warning to always wear personal protective equipment when you're working in a potentially hazardous environment, because you never know when a freak event might happen!
Whoa!!! That's crazy! Ive come to the conclusion that hardened steel is not to be messed with in in appropriate ways. I had a piece of a hammer break off and cut my arm. I completely forgot about it until i read another comment where the same thing happened. Your story is scary though! Who would have thought.
That's both terrifying and amazing. I wonder if that piece of high carbon steel has rusted itself to bits after the 40 or 50 years it's been in there.
Dude is hard as hell, takes his iron pill straight to the veins.
@@joshstarkey8883 that's a good point but (just a guess) I imagine it's not really able to rust as there's little to no free oxygen in the blood.. like it's all within red blood cells
@@bourbonated 😂 😂🤣😂🤣☺️
Is this becoming the “project farm” of the knife world?
Cool video!
I just want to mention that the piece you broke at 10:15 in the video was probably one of the most (if not the most) powerful ones until that point. Even though it only "flew at 6mph", the energy was dumped into opening the jaws. Those things are not easy to open, and they were opened halfway in less than a second. Brutal...
I thought that was weird as well. Not sure how that happened lol. Somehow all the energy ended up opening the wrench 🙂
This is why they tell you to be careful not to drop your straight razor onto a hard surface ( such as a ceramic sink or floor.. not to mention if it misses the floor it will probably cut off a toe..) the razor is tempered to such a high degree that the metal is actually brittle. They will break, don’t ask me how I know..lol! Thanks for the video,always entertaining and informative. Cheers from Nova Scotia. M.
Yeah, I've got that t-shirt too ☹️
Nor should you try and catch it XD
I had a teeny piece of a hammer head go about 3/16 of an inch into my hand. I'll never forget how "hot" it felt for a few seconds but all I could do was wait for it to cool. Bled like a stuck pig too.
Yes, i have had this happen to me as well. Had a piece fly off and hit my arm and let a decent cut. I literally forgot about it till reading your comment otherwise I would have mentioned it.
That’s 4.7 millimeters for those who want to know.
@@SpikaLim if it had said 4,7mm in the comment I wouldn't have to read it three times before understanding what it was about. 3/16 of an inch could be the same as from Nordkapp to Lindesnes for what I get of it.
@@OUTDOORS55 I saw that happen to my buddy. A piece of ballpeen hammer went into his finger. It bled alot had to go to the doctor to have it removed
I know a guy that had a piece of sledgehammer head go all of the way to his lung! It can kill if it hits just right!
Lots of years ago, an impact wobbly exploded on me at work one day. Knocked my safety glasses across the bay and gave me a gnarly black eye and a little cut on my cheek. A couple of years later I had a little magnetic pointer and noticed my little scar from that jumped out to stick to it. Wife kinda put her for down and made me go to the doc. Turned out I had been carrying a little chunk of that adapter in my cheek all that time. She insisted I have it removed and I still have it in a little jar in the top of my tool box next to my safety glasses.
Dude, I really really appreciate the hell out of your videos, thank you for the information, I have learned more from your videos than all the other knife guys combined, and you always put the information in verbiage that's easy to understand, thanks again and keep up the good work! 🤘
Same here dude.. I literally learned and studied to be a better sharpener because of this man and now I can put awesome edges on my blades, freehand. I really appreciate you brother !
I do sword fighting and we once had a blade break. Found the pieces stuck in a tree and we were terrified since checking every blade before use. Pretty much reflects your results
I always say "you can use a blade that's too soft, but you can't use a blade that's too hard"
@@jeanladoire4141 Aye. you can keep fighting with a blade that has a kink in it, but one thatcroke off....not so much.
@@lutzderlurch7877 yeah, blades were pretty fuckin soft (close to untempered mild steel) for most of history.
@@jeanladoire4141 Not sure I'd go that far. it is surprising, how much was possible, genrally speaking pretty early on already, and what was actually done, as well. But without electric controlled thermometers and furnaces, modern chemical analysis of the pieces of steel, there was a much higher variability, and a good argument to err somewhat on the safe side. Swords also broke in combat, but it just goes to say, the line to walk for prefect balance is narrow at best, and with a thing as long as a sword and subjected to the forces a sword blade is, one had to be careful not to overdo the hardness.
@@lutzderlurch7877 no i saw studies, on earlier swords (before the proto industrial revolution of the mid 14th century), the steel was rarely even tempered, parts of the blade were wrought iron, and a few centimeters later there would be a patch of tool steel. Average hardness in the 13th century would be around 25 rockwell. And i say average beacause every centimeters of the blades would have different hardnesses. Swords would rarely break on earlier periods, being more prone to bending, as was mentioned by Caesar for Celtic swords, Nordic tumbs found with bent swords, and just metallurgical analysis of the found exemples. So yeah, i'm pretty confident when i say swords were usually pretty damn soft, with harder spots, but it was a nonsense to have a hard sword, beacause a blade doesn't need to be very hard to perform well, contrary to what people say today (and once again i'm a bladesmith, i make swords, tools, whatever, and i have experience working with bronze, and while they need frequent honing, just like a poor quality modern steel blade, they will do what you want them to. I've chopped a deer into pieces for a hunter with a mild steel falchion that was 2mm thick near the optimal striking point, and the edge didn't take a dent even trough the spine and bones).
Where else would we be able to learn these kinda things if Alex wasn't Sciencing The Sh!t Outta Stuff on our behalf? 🤔
Great work Bud 😁👍
I love the new series of hardness and tensility tests! I have broken knives and I have stood nearby when others broke knives. Absolutely nobody ever does it in a vise! A buddy of mine broke the tip off my knife while trying to pry open the back-cab window of his pickup, for example. I have never heard of anybody getting injured by fragments. I think it is fair to say that, every time I ever witnessed a knife breaking, it was being twisted or used as a side-to-side lever, not an up-and-down or forward-and-backward lever as demonstrated in this video (between the vise and the wrench). I would be interested to see what the high-speed camera picks up in those instances.
I once had a knife shatter while whittling, it was an extremely brittle Ozark trail brand fixed blade.
My goal was to just see what hardened steel does when it breaks. I might test more realistic scenarios 🙂👍
Good to see u back on here - hope to see more videos
Great video! I always wondered why more knife manufacturers didn't want to achieve the highest hrc possible and this video really showed why.
Btw, your sharpening videos are the reason I was able to learn how to correctly sharpen a knife to the desired sharpness I wanted. I struggled for years to sharpen my pocket knives and now I find myself sitting in the garage at night, drinking beer and sharpening knives. Thanks for all your great info!
I have always loved the mix of great knowledge, production quality, and your sense of humor in all your videos. Keep up the great work!
Loved this video man, actually really helped me understand the process of heat treating and how it's results are discussed and applied
It's amazing to see the broken bits are orange hot. Pretty impressive. Thanks for sharing 👍.
Thank-you for doing this, it looked like a lot of work.
Great video. Answered questions running through my mind for a long time.
Just got home for the weekend and see you’ve uploaded today.. a great start to the weekend
Great video, subject, and testing, thank you!
Glad to see you putting out videos. We miss ya!
Lots of hard work! Much Appreciated!
Great experiment. Glad you are back with videos, it was boring without them.
Really glad to have you back brother. I missed all of the shenans.
Absolutely fascinating and very informative video. Top job. Love your videos...
Value here, in my view. Relevant (and of value) to knife breakage for sure. Of course, also makes me think about the sharpened edge apex and potential for chipping; my guess is the findings will be similar and this video also holds value toward that supposition. Just me. Thanks for your good work.
Lots of juicy information and fun footage!
Man I really digged those two last videos. Your channel has come far! Love the curious approach! Greetings from Vienna!
You remind me of the guy on Project Farm , very thorough !
The effort put into this video is awesome
This was great, very informative and your style is as always very entertaining 😀. Thanks for another great video.
It is crazy the amount of time and effort you put into your videos and tests! I love it and thank you! I have learned a lot from you. I do have a knife making tip for you which I will try to find the appropriate video to share it in.
Glad you're back making more videos. I love all the new tech you're bringing to the channel. Hey, can you make more knives again? Like, make a weird design that's also functional and super sharp. Maybe some of that neat heat treating so it has cool coloration?
Dude your videos are always great. I was worried for a while there that you quit but its good to see you back
I'm glad your back too making content i always find that your video content is helpful and always interesting. One thing I wish you would do I just every once in awhile is throw a knife review in there just too mix it up because I know myself i always liked the ones you did in the past like the Spyderco endura tenacious and so on. Anyways glad too see your back Android good luck with future endeavors
Great video! Last week I was using a file as a lever. It broke and a piece came flying to my face.
Very informative! One of your best videos! I'm an intermediate knife maker and I learned a lot from this! Ty!
What an amazing production - thanks a ton!
Very nice video. I have definitely learned something.
Great video! Thanks. Glad to see more content lately.
Great Video! Great work as well, thank you!
Great informative video ! I appreciate your obsessive curiosity. It couldn't have been easy making, breaking and testing all those samples.
I've always liked all of your videos Alex! Thank you!
Great video on a great subject as always Alex 😎👍
Solid, entertaining content. Articulate and humorous. Good to see ya!
Very interesting. Thanks for doing this.
Thanks for the video and for the book! Gonna make my own knife soon!
Fascinating vid man, cheers for the time, expense and effort👍👍
Cannot thank you enough for this video! In so many ways!
Superb! A very nice topic, very informative one! Cheers!
Great video.
Shattered all expectations.
love this video, thanks man!
Hi Alex, I remember you having a video on breaking knives a while back. This video provided lots of information on what happens when a knife breaks or any harden metal that breaks.
Interesting testing. Keep it up? Thanks.
awesome video. no idea why but it fired me up. HELL YEAH
This was one of the best 👍🏼
Thank you for making this video
Amazing. Kudos for the effort and scientific approach. Peace
I can certainly say that chipping a knife, regardless of the steel, is the easiest thing in the world for me. Slashing vines, weeds, or small saplings will always find a rock beneath the soil that will always chip. One exception so far is my AG Russell Sandbox.
I just read about those in their catalog, YOU HAVE ONE??!?¿,¡?!?!?!, DUDE, not gonna lie I'm jealous as heck, they even made their own steel for the sandbox series
@@bladetherapy3797 I was traveling through NW Arkansas. The store is visible from the freeway, so I stopped in. I got the Bowie. it is incredibly lightweight, and I love the handle. This is the only blade that has not chipped. I am not saying it will not, but it hasn't yet. I have had 8670, 5160. 52100 etc., and they all chip. I fixed 3 today. I should just use my machete, but a knife is what I carry. I am very impressed with the Sandbox series. I will probably get one of his utility knives in the series next.
Super cool 😎 video. Great work!
I had no idea. Great content.
don't forget you go through more sanding belts on harder knives compared to softer ones when grinding
As a product developer, engineer/inventor, I think it is more complex than warranty vs safety. While those are certainly important considerations, they are far from the only ones, and not even the top consideration for me, even though my products have a lifetime warranty.
For my designs, the most important consideration is the “best tool for the job”. A knife with the best possible edge retention is not the best knife, but is actually a poor one. If you maximize one attribute at the expense of others, it is a poor design, outside of very specialized applications.
General durability (as opposed to just the edge) is very important in tools, knives included, and not just for safety, or for warranty, but continued use.
As a general rule, the harder a steel is, the less tough it will be, and almost all untempered or “maximum hardness” steel is very brittle, easy to break. You can resharpen, or even straighten a softer blade, but you cannot just weld a too hard blade back together.
All of this is much, much more true when considering certain fields where that tool may be important in a life and death scenario. My field is defense, and defensive tools/blades must never break. A survival blade would need the same attributes.
Thank you so much for these tests, they are massively appreciated, and I understand how intensive product testing can be. Cheers 🤙
Thanks for the comment, found it interesting
I agree "best tool for the job". I personally dont think the general public thinks that way though. I think as makers we over analyze every detail. Maybe those details make a difference, maybe they don't. This was just a simple look a one aspect to see if there's more to the story. Thanks for the comment 👍
@@OUTDOORS55 Totally. Wasn’t meant as a criticism, but as I start the comment, from the makers perspective. Really love what you are doing, and excited to see where it goes!
@@heni63 haha thanks for reading my essay! Just saw how long it is 😂
Great work!
Nice test!
To be fair, your everyday wear and tear is breaking knives on CZcams.
Lol just having fun with you buddy. I love what you do and always get excited when I see a new video pop up from you. Your channel has helped me understand the process of knife making more than any other as I am a visual learner. Still haven't had the opportunity to make my own knife yet but I hope to one day.
Lol I know😂🤦♂️ 👍 Thanks for comment, really appreciate it!
Thank you another great action video with super explanation and presentation. I watched this video last night really very interesting and informative, as always you put a lot effort and thought into your videos and it shows.
It is fantastic to see you back on CZcams, I have just completed one your leather strops, I had made one of yours a few years ago and after watching the video again, I realised that I had been using the wrong polishing compound and my technique was not great anyway the, new strop seems to be working well and thanks to your video my technique is progressing.
Thanks again
Take care
Sam
Nice to see what happens when I test a knife sometimes I don't find the pieces
Sometimes you may want to have softer steel. Victorianox uses soft steel purposefully to make it easier to sharpen. Its increadible easy to sharpen in a short amount of time instead of needing a special diamond file or something. Also like a razor blade, having a little bit of flex helps a thin knife in many ways.
Great videography!
That was very interesting, thanks.
Another great video!
Chapeau, a good choice of interesting subject.
The higher the degree of hardness the blade will not be flexible, and it will be more prone to breakage and its maintenance will be more challenging both in the sharpening means required and in the technical challenge in sharpening it.
Good work!!
Thank you for this informative video! I understand the point you were trying to make. I typically only use my blades for cutting tasks. I like SAK knives for this. I heard that the other tools on a SAK are tempered lower than the blades for example the large cap lifter and screw driver they recommend for light prying tasks. I typically don't carry a knife with that feature. I carry a single bladed number 1. Since retiring I'm usually always close to the proper tool for the job. I bought a small tinker I really like, but love the Alox handles on my number 1. Everyone is different and needs to find what works for them and their personal use. Thanks again for doing the video! Jeff
Great video and test! Makes sense, lower HRC steel takes more pressure to break but when it does finally break, all that energy has to go somewhere. Versus the 65 HRC that takes much less pressure to break and in turn much less energy but it also appeared to break cleaner along with much smaller projectile pieces, definitely still dangerous to something like an eye though. This video made me wonder how a steel like 1084 with no temper will act compared to a stainless steel with no temper. Really enjoying the content and I appreciate the time and resources put into making it!
Yes ! I enjoy all your videos
Awesome content...! Thank you for sharing
Great video mate such a detailed break down, thanks for taking the time... I only use 1084 👍
Great video as usual! How's your house coming along by the way?
Good info. Thanks.
I’m a mechanic who also does welding and fabrication work.. Makes complete sense to me.. The hotter you get the piece you’re welding or bending will lead to breaking more easily and being brittle. Great stuff man!
Awesome video! Mad scientist with the experiments lol
Good job man! 😊
great content- bluntcut on BF does some good knife testing on various at crazy rockwells ,so my hats off to all you knife knerds who are always pushing the boundaries
Great content!
Great video!
Good stuff. Would using some form of a torque wrench in the leveraging allow you to record force applied? Interesting video.
That is a brilliant idea. Would just need accurate spacing between the vice and wrench to get a clear result.
Was driving D9 caterpillar track pins out in the 90s when a piece the size of a 22 bullet spaulded and went across a 80' foot shop , into a mechanics chin , along his jawbone and lodged adjacent to his juglar , all while knocking him completely out !! Scary stuff ! Preciate ya Sir .
Very good video!
love the videos. As far as I know a big part of why knife makers don't run their production knives at high hardness is ease of machinability. If a blade if heat treated too high it is much harder to sharpen and past a certain point it isn't going to make sense for a mass produced knife to push the hardness.
Good video and experiment , thanks for sharing , God bless !
I'll take the right steel, geometry and heat treatment for the specified task. Ie m390 at 64hrc with thin geometry with the proper protocol for slicing. Ill take 1095 and chopping geometry with 57hrc for chopping. This is what manufacturers need to realize. Instead they don't do this. They screw the end user over and give you burnt edge low hrc junk and any popular steel to make sales.
thank you. That is what I've been saying and I get ALOT of hate on other knifebros CZcams channels. I got into a debate about hinderer knives and how the secondary price market for them is unwarranted because the materials are not special in anyway and they aren't THAT good,the heat treats are just ok, nothing special, same goes for fit and finish. And everyone jumped on me when I said that.
My thoughts exactly. I only use pocket knives for slicing and I do not abuse them for prying. I carried Kershaw Leeks for over a decade with never a broken tip or anything as I only used the knife as intended and still only use my pocket knives in that manner. I tried buying many Kershaw knives with super steels and had a M390 Link tested that showed 57 HRC. I returned the knife back to Amazon and was done with Kershaw as a brand from then on. I was brand loyal until that day. I heard that Spyderco does a better job with heat treats than most, so I have moved on to that brand for now at least. I would love to see a list of which pocket knife manufacturers do a good job of heat treating their high end steels properly and which don't.
@@MisterDeets outpost76
@@tacticalcenter8658 Many thanks. Will check them out.
Thank you
Nice video! Would have been cool to see those shards going into clay or maybe some ballistics gel! Keep up the good work!
Nice video! Would have been cool to see those shards going into clay or maybe some ballistic gel! Keep up the good work!
I wanna see a video of you doing all the things I shouldn't do with my knife haha. cool video!
Great video sir...very interesting and practical, for me as a hobby knife maker. Thank you sir.
Too hard a Rockwell hardness is just too "hard" to sharpen and much too "hard" when it comes time to reprofile the edge after years of use...there's a reason that the companies give us 57-59 Rockwell, it works. Thanks again.
THIS. This was a really good video. It may be way too expensive, but I'd love to see this done with some actual knives, even just a bunch of cheap ones.
This is a great video
That was pretty interesting. I'm not sure I learned anything, except I will continue to not use my knives as crowbars. Still fun to watch, though.