This knife was donated for an examination of the lock and blade for strength/stability in wood working (specifically batoning and prying), ome cutting work was also performed as the profile looked efficient. The review of the consists of :
Specifics on the Al Mar Sere 2000 can be seen on the Al Mar webpage for the Sere 2000
The SERE 2000 is made from VG-10 stainless, 0.15" thick stock, with a high flat grind which on this one tapers to a very thin (0.012-0.016) and acute edge 16 (2), the tip tapers for 1.8" and is 0.91" wide at the back of the taper. The handle is very thick and filling in the grip with a ultra deep clip which attaches to the very end of the handle.
The Sere 2000 opens very smoothly, 500 (25) g will release the blade from the handle and immediately it is reduced to 200 (25) grams and the blade swings almost effortlessly. The lock is stable under spine impacts both whippy and heavy, however can be released readily under hammer grips and moves readily to disengagement in heavy wrist torques.
On a 50 lbs push into a phonebook it achieved 175 (7) pages, sliced through 3/8" hemp with 13 (1) lbs and made a push with 21 (1) lbs. It cut through the bottom of a 591 ml pepsi bottle with 55 (2) lbs, and through the bottom of a 2L with 75 (2) lbs. Television cable could be push cut with 60 (2) lbs and the knife pointed sections on 1.5x5x5 cm birch flooring with 9.8 (9) slices.
On some small sections of local softwoods, the Sere 2000 outchopped the Mora 2000 by 92 (2)%, the knives were not even in the same class. The SERE was also in general a much better carving knife on both softwoods like Pine and harder woods like birch and oak. However after the short chopping session (54 chops from the shoulder), the liner lock had compressed the tang of the blade and there was visible play.
The lock was still stable under spine impacts after the chopping and didn't seem any less secure in general. It was first was used with wrist impacts (11-13 ft.lbs) to baton a dozen small pieces of various woods :
The splitting was attempted with no hand pressure on the handle but even though the wood was selectively chosen and relatively clear and straight, the small (0.25") knots caused the time to be five times greater without hand stabilization and it only worked to directly split half the wood as the other half the wood would need to be split in sections or by wedges rather than direct batoning which would increase the time even further.
As a result of the wrist impacts the lock compressed into the tang heavily and the blade was moving so much that with some wrist shaking it would click back and forth audibly. The amount of force used as noted was light, all the splitting was done while sitting down, using just wrist motion and would take on average 6-12 hits to split a piece of clear wood which would be readily chop split trivially with a large knife.
As a more demanding task a small piece of wood was chosen which was completely ring knoted, there was no way to split the wood without having to cut through a knot, even a small section could not be side split as the wood was only small diameter, so elbow swings were used to drive the SERE 2000 through a knot (splitting it, not chisel cutting it which is far worse). The knife took about a dozen kits to clear the knots at which point the wood was just cracked by hand as the other end was knotted as well.
These impacts were twice as energetic as the wrist ones, again still done sitting down with a small wooden baton (under 2" thick and a foot long), the liner lock had collapsed into the handle and was recessed down so it could not be released. A screwdriver was used to check if it could be unlocked which it could, however it was so badly warped and twisted that it cracked before it fully released :
The blade was then checked for the ability to dig/pry in wood and basically it had none due to the very thin tip, it could not break out a piece from a clear spruce 2x4" from 1/4" deep, 1/2" deep and at 3/4" deep the tip took a bend of 1/16" to the side thrugh 1/2" back from the tip, 45 (5) lbs was necessary to bring the blade flat to the wood, just wrist torque.
Moving up to a full inch into the wood, the SERE required 70 (5) lbs to crack the blade and it lost 1/2" of tip, the blade was 1/16" thick through the break, and there was a visible bend through the tip. Inserting the knife into a crack to its full thickness, it required 175 (5) lbs to crack it off through the main blade body :
The knife was then subjected to a impact while the blade was locked in place up to the thumb stud and it cracked readily with the same wooden baton.
The Al Mar Sere 2000 showed a very high level of cutting and chopping ability and was ergonomic and secure in hand. However the lock was damaged readily during light chopping and readily broken by batoning.
The critical reason for failure was that the liner on the SERE is that it is skeletonized which made it *much* weaker in terms of twisting and in general resisting the straight compression force of the tang.
It would have been left much stronger if the milling had just been made deeper instead. The tang of the blade is also ground so the liner only makes contact for a small fraction of its height, and the tang is left very rough which accelerates wear.
Comments can be emailed to cliffstamp[REMOVE]@cutleryscience.com or by posting in the following thread :
| Last updated : | 01 : 25 : 2006 |
| Originally written: | 01 : 25 : 2006 |