Need a knife?

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So were these knives straight out of the box, or did anyone check to see if they needed sharpening?

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The blades were out of the box, and all were "sharp". Sharpening is a subject open to human error and adds an element of doubt into the test. We are impartial and don't add factors that could sway the performance of the products we test. As others have suggested, the leatherman blades are sharp out of the box, there was no reason to doubt that any of the others weren't

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I wouldn't use a new knife without sharpening it first, just the same as a wood chisel or any other edge tool. How did you measure the sharpness?

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Sharpness was measured by cutting the three different ropes, 3 plat, matt braid, and dyneema, all were tested on a flat surface like a chopping board and in a loop. The same person tested all of the blades in a random order.

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Why did you test the blades with teeth, as they obviously are not meant to cut ropes?

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By teeth, if you meant serrated "obviously" you've never heard of the Gerber E-Z out Rescue knife, a serrated blade that was designed with the jagged angles to cut through ropes and fibres, consequently it would cut through rope like a hot knife through butter. Where the multi tools had two blades (serrated and flat) they were both tested, and the faster attempt kept for the video. Non of the blades had "teeth" like a directional wood saw blade they were all either serrated or flat, or a combination of the two. Some had large serrated blades, others were less pronounced as can be see by the article in YM.

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A bit of a pointless test if you ask me, except it underlined the need to have a decent chopping board on the boat.

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Sorry to hear you though it was a pointless test...but seeing the knives were for use on a yacht, and the most likely thing you'd need to cut with a multi tool on a yacht is rope, the test team at YM thought it was a fair test...So how would you have tested the knives?

The video was filmed to accompany the article in this months YM, not as a standalone feature in it's own right. While the video was just showing the cutting quality of the blades, there was far more to the majority of multitools than just a knife.

I hope that explains things a in a bit more detail
 
I wouldn't use a multitool as the ships emergency cutting knife.

I use a proper Gerber knife for that, something man enough to cut plastic net, rope or whatever else that may decide to wrap around my prop.

For multitool I've got a Leatherman Wave that I bought years ago and it's been great, well worth the money.

I also make sure my crew carry a multitool or other small knife with them when onboard, you never know when they may need it.
 
getting a net off the prop (melted up the tunnel as well) called for the ubiquitous kitchen devil instead of the offered divers knife. So that's the choice of breadknife sorted. As to the original topic, my Leatherman, several seasons old, still lethal, would have done the job, but the longer stroke of the devil made the job easier. (that's a hint as to why the wee blades were poor in the video, not pressure)
 
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Sharpening is a subject open to human error and adds an element of doubt into the test. We are impartial and don't add factors that could sway the performance of the products we test. As others have suggested, the leatherman blades are sharp out of the box, there was no reason to doubt that any of the others weren't

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I'm not sure I agree with that - I can sharpen and hone a cutting edge with a Tormek consistently, having had a few years practice. As I mentioned, not all manufacturers of edge tools actually sharpen them - they are ground and polished as part of the manufacturing process, but the edge isn't actually sharpened. The Leatherman is obviously an exception, as are many replaceable blade tools (Stanley knives and all their clones). If you had got someone to sharpen them all first you'd have taken away an unknown, you would then be testing the ergonomic factors, and to some extent the quality of the steel. As it is there are too many factors you left in - you're basically saying you don't know how sharp any of them are.

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Sharpness was measured by cutting the three different ropes, 3 plat, matt braid, and dyneema, all were tested on a flat surface like a chopping board and in a loop. The same person tested all of the blades in a random order.

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Did you measure the sharpness? If you did, what were the units of measurement? Surely what you did was a subjective test?

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By teeth, if you meant serrated "obviously" you've never heard of the Gerber E-Z out Rescue knife, a serrated blade that was designed with the jagged angles to cut through ropes and fibres, consequently it would cut through rope like a hot knife through butter. Where the multi tools had two blades (serrated and flat) they were both tested, and the faster attempt kept for the video. Non of the blades had "teeth" like a directional wood saw blade they were all either serrated or flat, or a combination of the two. Some had large serrated blades, others were less pronounced as can be see by the article in YM.

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It may be the low resolution of the video on Youtube, but they looked like teeth to me. It looked (on some of the samples) as though the teeth were snagging and fraying the fibres of the rope and actually preventing the blade from cutting cleanly.

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Sorry to hear you though it was a pointless test...but seeing the knives were for use on a yacht, and the most likely thing you'd need to cut with a multi tool on a yacht is rope, the test team at YM thought it was a fair test...So how would you have tested the knives?

[/ QUOTE ] I'm at a disadvantage here as I have only responded to the video clip, and not read the article, but a series of magnified photos of the edge - at say 100x - would have given a better idea of the state of the edge 'as supplied'. I would also have sharpened and honed them all - I use a 1000g water wheel followed by a rubber wheel dressed with polishing compound. Your use of rope as the testing medium is obviously appropriate. Sharpening on its' own is a worthy subject to accompany the magazine write-up - maybe you've done this but not having read the article I don't know. I do know that a blunt knife (or chisel, plane etc etc) is more dangerous than a sharp one.

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The video was filmed to accompany the article in this months YM, not as a standalone feature in it's own right. While the video was just showing the cutting quality of the blades, there was far more to the majority of multitools than just a knife.

I hope that explains things a in a bit more detail

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Maybe I was a bit harsh about the usefulness of the test. I was actually serious when I said it highlighted the value of a chopping board on a boat. A second look at the video shows that the short blades were pretty much a waste of time, and a blade that frays the cut ends is also not much use.
I've sometimes been tempted to buy a multi-tool, but always there is the thought that they are just a collection of tools that don't work as well as their properly designed standalone equivalents. Maybe for your next test you could compare multi-tools with real ones? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
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By teeth, if you meant serrated "obviously" you've never heard of the Gerber E-Z out Rescue knife, a serrated blade that was designed with the jagged angles to cut through ropes and fibres, consequently it would cut through rope like a hot knife through butter.

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Couldn't agree more, I am always borrowing Mrs Dogwatch's EZ, I want a multi-tool with the EZ blade, can you ask them for me?

As an aside, I have found many multi-tools when folded out to use the pliers have the blade storage pointing outward. This means if you are holding onto something tight with the pliers the thin sides of the handles cut into fingers and palms. A bad design fault even by some of the leading manufacturers. You should also be able to slip a finger in to open and close the pliers without getting blood-blisters.

I bet you got pen jockeys to test man tools again didn't you lol. (leave it!)

I hope this too was noted along with dagger characteristics of blades.
 
Thanks Dan for posting this extra info to the article that will be published in the magazine.

I echo others comments about leatherman wave. I had an early one and never managed to use it for about the 1st 5x without cutting myself - very sharp!

The later ones are easier to open and use but make sure you buy one in a fabric case and velcro flap as the leather and brass popper catch is useless in a sailing environment.

If you go on US websites you can order them for $62 (£79 in UK) or at least you could last year when I bought 2!

I do not envy either your or Snooks job as while I am sure you would welcome constructive criticism it appears to me that a number just want to rubbish whatever you do and thanks Snooks for bothering to come on here to answer various criticism and explain the rationale but I suspect with some you are just wasting your time!

I buy a knife/multitool that is quality and sharp not one I have to take my Miller (US) blade sharpening tool to before I can use it.

One word of warning to everyone. IIRC A senior manager of the Institution Of Civil Engineers (a respectable retired army Brigadier) was stopped boarding the channel tunnel train in a security check for carrying a leatherman multitool in his briefcase. When he argued that this was stupid he got carted off to the cells. He decided to make a stand on the issue and again IIRC he finally got a letter of apology for the Police's overreaction. We all accept that these multi tools would not be allowed on planes but the Police could also view the possession of one even in a briefcase as an offensive weapon in these days of targets and absense of common sense!
 
Prolly worth mentioning that Leatherman offers a lifetime guarantee that works - well, so far.

I broke the tip off the knife blade on my LM original, and eventually got around to sending it back to the UK agents. Came back a few days later with a new blade, and a general wash and brush up.
 
SRP, I suspect you are a knife anorak, one of that type that derive more pleasure out of sharpening tools than with any extra utility to be gained from the exercise.

Did you think this was a TUV laboratory?

You have missed the point, the test was usability. And for most people that is "out-of the box" usability. Not "oohh if he'd hollow hand ground his own lambsfoot blade from a '52 land rover leaf-spring and tempered it in goat urine it would cut green european hardwood SO much better"
 
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Sorry. I thought that as some others had voiced their opinion I was allowed to do the same. My mistake. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

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No apology necessary (in my opinion) /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif opinion is the only reason this forum continues to exist.
I gave my opinion on the OP
You gave your opinion on the OP
I gave my opinion on your opinion of the OP.
You gave your opinion of my opinion of your opinion of the OP.
Now I'm giving my opinion on the whole thing - As I said at the start, I don't intend to make it my lifes work, its not important.
Feel free to give your opinion of my opinion of the whole thing. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
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The later ones are easier to open and use but make sure you buy one in a fabric case and velcro flap as the leather and brass popper catch is useless in a sailing environment.

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I've had the leather case since day one of ownership and it's been rock solid never had a problem with it popping open unexpectedly.
 
But if you use it and get salty water on it the brass popper corrodes and breaks off!!

You do have to use them though to get the problem /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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