Bush n' Blade (Bushcraft and Knife makeing): March 2013

Monday, March 25, 2013

All on the EDGE! - What is sharpness ?

There are many "sharpness" crazy out there and I do not deny that I am one of them. But what is sharpness? How do you measure it? What is it good for? Why do we care?

While browsing around Bushcraft, survival and knife communities on-line, I often came across the description like "Shaving sharp!", "Scary sharp!" or "Crazy sharp!". All of these statements are some what correct and does describes the "Sharpness" yet it does not describe the sharpness in any measurable way. But still, I think it is totally fine as long as that statement is not attached to the knife's capability or try to state how good the knife is by it. The worst example of that I have seen was "What is the sharpest Knife out there?" or "This knife is the sharpest!".

What is sharpness?
sharpness, in my opinion, is basically "How well that edge can cut in to the object". In other words, "how thin the cutting edge is".

you may have read between the line of these description that the sharpness has nothing to do with the capability of the blade. Well... to be accurate, the quality of the the blade does have tiny part of affecting it but not as much as other factors.

Before continuing farther, please look at very short video clips below.

Sample 1

Sample 2

Sample 3

As you can see from these videos, all three blades can cut paper equally well to others. there are no visible differences of cutting ability between them.

Here are the sharpening method and specs of blades used in videos.

All the blades are sharpened with same equipment and method. The only difference is the cutting edge angle:
step 1 Fallkniven DC4 sharpener Diamond sharpening then ceramic sharpening
step 2 compound loaded strop.

Knives:
sample 1 YP Puukko
sample 2 Billnäs axe
sample 3 Blade made from Tuna can

Any surprise in here? Yes, the Tuna can blade can cut as good as the professionally made knife blade.

How is this possible? It is possible because the quality of the blade has nothing to do with the sharpness of the blade. It's all in "How it has been sharpen", how thin the cutting edge is.

Let's go back a bit and look at that statement, "the quality of the the blade does have tiny part of affecting....".
The "Tiny part" which affects the sharpness of blade is the hardness. Not a necessity, but certainly does have affect on "achieving" the good sharpness.

In theory, as long as one can make the edge very thin, then that edge is a sharp edge. But in practice, achieving that level of thinness is very difficult or in some case, near impossible.
But talking within the knife, made from some kind of metal or alloy, that factor is ignore-able or compensate-able by humanly possible skill of sharpening.

How do you measure it?
Well, to be honest, I am not sure how to measure the sharpness. Theoretically, it is "thinner the sharper" so to measure/compare the sharpness, we probably need to look the edge under microscope to measure the thickness of the very edge.
But that is not convenient method and not available for most of us, so for the moment, I guess we need to stick to "Scary sharp!! it cuts a paper!!!" :)

However, there are many ways to test it and here are some of my favorites.

- Observation test: Simply look at the edge through the reflection of light. This will reveal most of in-perfection of edge/sharpening. When the edge is good, you should not be able to see the ridge line shining!

- Paper cutting test: The most popular test which does not tell to compere one is better than others. But this test can tell generic sharpness by feel of blade cutting through, sound and condition of cut edge of paper. I use this method to check if any in-perfection edge left. if some part is not sharpened enough to cut, smooth cutting will stop on that spot of blade.

- Shaving wood test: This could actually tell how good the blade/edge is as quality of blade point of view, but I mostly use it to find the in-perfection of edge/sharpening. Shave the end grain of wood, if it is sharp enough for me, then the surface of end-grain reflects light. Also if there is any in-perfection on the edge, this will tell exactly where, by leaving not shining surface.

What is it good for?
At first, we are talking about a knife and a knife need to be sharp to do the job intended. If not, then that is not a knife any more. so, it is good to have it sharp.

Secondly, sharp edge will help you do the job faster and possibly safer too!

But we need to keep the usability in our mind as well. Thinner the sharper but thinner means less durable. I will talk about this topic some other time, because it involves edge geometry and other factors.

Why do we care?

or I should probably say "Why do I care" the sharpness?.

I care because there is bit of "My ego is bigger than yours" effect. It just is nice to hear from some one "man,,, your knife is sharp!" :)

OK, OK, talking serious. I think it tells the part of manufacturing quality. Let's say when you got two brand new out of box knives, and one is sharp and other is brunt. Which do you think is better made/quality? I think it tells the manufacturer's dedication and care in some level. In some case even the capability/skill of the maker. So, it is in some way important to check how sharp it is.

On the end, What should we do with sharpness?? Well, the sharpness of the blade is totally up to you! How shitty the condition or made the knife is, sharpening it will make that knife "Crazy sharp".
Even you have got super sharp knife out of the box, it will looses the sharpness soon or later. When that time comes, you need to sharpen it to get it usable again. So, don't get bothered with sharpness of a knife that much!

To be continued.

Monday, March 18, 2013

オーロラ - Northern light - Revontuli

昨夜、車のブロックヒーターを繋ぎに外に出て、ふと夜空を見上げるとなにやら奇怪な雲のようなものが見えました。はじめは雲に町の光が反射しているのかと思ったのですが、観ているとなにやら動く・・・
そしてだんだんと色、形、大きさを変えてそれは幻想的な天体ショーと変わっていきました。

通常私の住む場所ではオーロラ（フィンランド語でRevontuli）は見ることが出来ないのですが、太陽の活動の兼ね合いで見れることもあります。前回見れたのは５，６年前くらい。あの時はもっと赤い色も入って形も降りそそぐ様な感じでした。

コンデジ撮影なのですばらしさは伝わりきりませんが、写真取れましたのでお楽しみください。

Last night was one of those very rear occasion to be able to see northern light where I live. it was about 22:00, I went out to plug car block heater, then I have noticed some peculiar thin cloud looking thing on the sky.
As time passes, it start to sift its size, shape, color and brightness. I realized I was looking at northern light (Revontuli in Finnish).

Managed to take few pictures with my compact camera, so here you go! Hope you enjoy it!

At first, it was very vague, looked like thin cloud reflecting city light. North-East sky

Then it started to change. North-East sky

East sky

On its peak. at this time it was all over above me. North sky

North sky

Friday, March 15, 2013

晩秋の薪割り - Just splitting log

携帯の中のファイルを整理していたらこんな映像が出てきました。撮ったのすっかり忘れてたｗ

小雨の降る晩秋、ただただ薪用の丸太を割る映像ですが、見てるとなんだか癒されるのでアップしてみました。

作業をしたのは私と義父。私が使ってる斧はKellokoski N:o12.3、約1.5kgの斧。大きな節が入った丸太も楔無しで割ってくれました。

Found this video while reorganizing files on my phone. It is just log split video without comments but I found it somehow relaxing, so uploading it.

Situation: in the late autumn, rain is falling time to time. Good sized birch was fell and hacked for fire wood. So me and my father-in-law picked up axes on hand, splitting logs in half for drying.

the axe I was using is a Kellokoski N:o12.3, 1.5kg head. It worked wonderfully even against large knotted log.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

New Forge

I have been using a forge which I have contracted about 2 years ago. It was working OK till new, but it start to have some issues, so decided to make new one.

The old one was made from large paint can filled with cray. the issues on this one was that it consumes too much char coal and the cray is start to giving up. Also the air hole was easily get blocked with melted cray and was very difficult to clean.

this is the old set up.

So to solve those issues, I decided to use proper fire bricks and cement.
Went to shop and got 2 different sizes of bricks. in total 8 of them. then took some parts from old forge and constructed the new one.

this picture was taken before every thing is cemented.

Last week end, I have got time for forging, I fired up this new forge and made 4 blade blanks.
The forge worked very well. it consumes less charcoal, retains heat well, mobile, blower is in the right place... and so on... the only problem I have now for this new one is storage... now it need larger spot in my garage to stare this.

From top left clock-wise:
Whittling puukko / leather cutter / Makiri neker / Makiri Style Knife.

on the end of the work., my hands and arms so tired. I only managed to forge the bevel out on Makiri style knife. tang on that one is just tapered enough and I could not lift the hammer any more... I guess I am little out of shape:)

Sunday, March 3, 2013

裏山ブッシュクラフト-#18- 冬服 (Winter clothing)

今回は冬の服装についてです。実際の使用経験で、０度前後から－２５度位まではこれらの組み合わせを変えることで快適にアウトドアを楽しめます。

ビデオへの補足としてウールセーターについて少し。
私が気に入って使っているのはノルウェーのセーターで、毛糸が太めで編み目が粗めの物です。
毛糸が太めで編み目が粗めのセーターは、重ね着の一番外側に着ると結構風を通し、あまり暖かくはありません。しかし厚手のコットンシャツなどを、セーターの上に着ることでとても良い保温効果を発揮します。これは、粗い網目のメッシュ間に空気溜りができ、そこに暖かい空気が閉じ込められるためです。また、太めの毛糸はその繊維間に同じように空気を溜め込みます。これは温度調整にも便利で、上に着ているシャツなどを脱ぐと速やかに空気の入れ替えができます。網シャツが暖かいのと同じ仕組みです。

寝袋着について＞
ビデオ中でも紹介していますが、着込みすぎると暖かい空気の層が薄くなり、また断熱層も圧迫されるので断熱効果が薄れます。これは靴を履く時も同じで、靴下を何枚も重ね履きすると逆に寒くなります。靴下の重ね履きは薄手1枚と厚手1枚の2枚重ねが限界だと思います。

今回紹介したアイテムはビデオの下にリストアップしておきます。

ではビデオをお楽しみください。

This time, I am talking about cold weather clothing. According to my experience, with different combinations of this set, I could be comfortable in the temperature between 0 to -25 degrees centigrade.

Little bit of additional information about the wool sweater. the one I like using is a Norwegian sweater, which uses thick yarn and rough weaving. this thick yarn and rough weaving will trap the warm air when used as a middle layer. Also because it is not tight, it releases the air when outer layer of clothing is removed, so this combination of layering makes easier to control the heat trapped in the clothing.

I have listed The items mentioned in the video for your reference.

Hope you enjoy the video!