Post by Shorttime on Mar 29, 2015 13:14:56 GMT -8
Corrugated cardboard is tough and fibrous to begin with, and sometimes clay is added as a binder.
You can strop the burr off a newly sharpened knife on it.
So it's easy to see why cardboard cutting is one of the informal performance tests for knives.
This stack has accumulated,
So I grabbed a couple knives for a little comparison test.
Starting at the top, we have a Boker Nano. Clockwise around from that is my TOPS Knives ALRT, a kiridashi pattern that you've seen before. Next, at about 3 o'clock, is a Benchmade D2 Mini-Grip, then both sizes of the original CRKT Ripple, which also gets special mention for being an excellent flipper at it's price point.
Continuing around is a little bare-handled Mtech knife. This was part of a set that I bought years ago, before I knew any better.
Next is my RSK Mk5, and a Cold Steel Micro Recon.
Finally, essential supplies.
I'm going to skip the pictures of me reducing cardboard, because that's boring.
I started with the little Mtech knife, which surprised me with it's comfort and control. The long handle, relative to the blade, makes it easy to guide the knife.
It did start to give me trouble when I tried to cut two layers of cardboard. Obviously, you can't push real hard on something that small.
The RSK 5 was disappointing. It's short handle makes it very hard to get enough leverage. At least a three-finger grip is the minimum, here.
Once I got it sharpened right, the Micro-Recon did well for it's size, although it's still not very wide, and feels like it wants to rotate against my palm. AUS-8 is not a wear-resistant steel, either, so this one needed a couple trips to the stone. I put it down pretty quickly.
The Nano lived up to my expectations, offering enough handle length and width to make controlling the cut and getting leverage easy. For a small knife, it does a good job with bigger jobs.
I really like my little TOPS kiridashi, and it's performance was so abysmal that I went back to it to make sure I really didn't like what I really didn't like. Hard to admit, but it's true. The TOPS ALRT is hell on wheels for cutting tape, but it's very short blade and straight-ahead orientation make it a bad choice for cutting cardboard. Perhaps if I had not tried to push-cut, but I had better tools on hand, that I switched to.
The Mini-Grip did every bit as well as it should have done. A long enough blade, with a wear-resistant steel and a quality heat treat made it zip through nothing else except the Ripples and the Nano.
What really made the Benchmade shine was the subtle swell in the handle slabs. The right combination of flat and rounded on the sides makes it easy to make straight push-cuts, even in something as stubborn as corrugated.
The smaller Ripple cut well, but it's pocket clip has some sharp spots that got into my palm. Believe it or not, the flat slabs actually make it harder to control this one, so it gets stuck and a deep cut.
The bigger Ripple is last, and it has the same problems as the small Ripple, just not as bad.
You can strop the burr off a newly sharpened knife on it.
So it's easy to see why cardboard cutting is one of the informal performance tests for knives.
This stack has accumulated,
So I grabbed a couple knives for a little comparison test.
Starting at the top, we have a Boker Nano. Clockwise around from that is my TOPS Knives ALRT, a kiridashi pattern that you've seen before. Next, at about 3 o'clock, is a Benchmade D2 Mini-Grip, then both sizes of the original CRKT Ripple, which also gets special mention for being an excellent flipper at it's price point.
Continuing around is a little bare-handled Mtech knife. This was part of a set that I bought years ago, before I knew any better.
Next is my RSK Mk5, and a Cold Steel Micro Recon.
Finally, essential supplies.
I'm going to skip the pictures of me reducing cardboard, because that's boring.
I started with the little Mtech knife, which surprised me with it's comfort and control. The long handle, relative to the blade, makes it easy to guide the knife.
It did start to give me trouble when I tried to cut two layers of cardboard. Obviously, you can't push real hard on something that small.
The RSK 5 was disappointing. It's short handle makes it very hard to get enough leverage. At least a three-finger grip is the minimum, here.
Once I got it sharpened right, the Micro-Recon did well for it's size, although it's still not very wide, and feels like it wants to rotate against my palm. AUS-8 is not a wear-resistant steel, either, so this one needed a couple trips to the stone. I put it down pretty quickly.
The Nano lived up to my expectations, offering enough handle length and width to make controlling the cut and getting leverage easy. For a small knife, it does a good job with bigger jobs.
I really like my little TOPS kiridashi, and it's performance was so abysmal that I went back to it to make sure I really didn't like what I really didn't like. Hard to admit, but it's true. The TOPS ALRT is hell on wheels for cutting tape, but it's very short blade and straight-ahead orientation make it a bad choice for cutting cardboard. Perhaps if I had not tried to push-cut, but I had better tools on hand, that I switched to.
The Mini-Grip did every bit as well as it should have done. A long enough blade, with a wear-resistant steel and a quality heat treat made it zip through nothing else except the Ripples and the Nano.
What really made the Benchmade shine was the subtle swell in the handle slabs. The right combination of flat and rounded on the sides makes it easy to make straight push-cuts, even in something as stubborn as corrugated.
The smaller Ripple cut well, but it's pocket clip has some sharp spots that got into my palm. Believe it or not, the flat slabs actually make it harder to control this one, so it gets stuck and a deep cut.
The bigger Ripple is last, and it has the same problems as the small Ripple, just not as bad.
