This review consists of :
| Knives :
This review consists of : |
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Mike Gavac (gavko) mainly operates out of his Youtube Channel, though he also maintains a store on Gearbastion.com. Basic specifications :
A few of the key/unique/rare design aspects :
Mike focuses on performance first as his perspective has always been on building functional cutting tools however he has also been steadily moving forward and improving the finish as time and equipment allows. The finish on this one is very high and there are only a few and minor issues :
Again none of these are functional, but anyone looking at presentation grade knives would likely pick them up quickly. However it needs to be considered that eliminating these issues is time wise comparable to the actual work shaping the knife itself and Mike's prices still clearly reflect his focus on performance over aesthetics/finish.
On 3/8" hemp :
On carving wood compared to the #1260 Mora on some 1.5x0.75" pine making 2" points with light force (10-30 lbs) :
The difference is very small as would be expected as in light cutting it is mainly about :
and the edge angles are similar in both knives and both of them have the same leverage disadvantage which is very small to non-existent in both.
However on the same wood making 2" points but using heavy force (50-70 lbs) the performance difference is very dramatic
The difference comes from the fact that with very high primary grind on Mike's EDC allows it to basically almost be pushed right through the wood so it makes the point in at most two cuts. However the shallow wedge cut on the Mora means that in comparison it has to whittle the point down slowly.
On :
The cutting ability is very high :
There is some slight chipping, likely from the metal, but note the picture at the right is at 50X magnification and thus that damage is only about 10 to 20 microns thick which is the same size as the carbide aggregates in the steel and thus it is likely those chips (which are in frequent) :
are simply cracks either through or around the large primary carbide aggregates.
As a very basic check on edge retention :
It performs well, no issues as expected considering the :
Should combine for the necessary durability, strength and wear to resist any significant blunting or damage.
The S125V EDC has :
In these respects it is actually on par with the better kitchen knives and thus on shallow cuts it does very well, high control with low force.
However there are a few issues and they are mainly with grip. A traditional grip for chopping and dicing isn't functional because the blade does not have enough of a drop to clear the cutting board and this is a fairly large drawback for a lot of use. But to be clear this isn't designed as a kitchen knife it is more of an every day carry / utility knife.
A couple of the grips that are very functional in kitchen work are shown in the images at the right. The one on top is a side pinch grip and works very well for :
and in general all fine point work.
The second image with the thumb on spine grip is generally functional for work on a cutting board which is very light and doesn't require much force:
In short, in the kitchen it works well as a mini-chef's knife.
The EDC works very well in general for wood working and general brush work as :
There are some complaints about full height grinds not being as capable as the low single bevel grinds as they tend to bite in too deep however that is just a matter of control. As noted in the stock cutting this knife has the ability to cut very deep because of the high grind which produces a very thin edge but at the same time it can easily do shallow cutting such as shown in the image at the right where it was used to cut the bark off of a piece of birch.
Now the potential for over cuts is there but all that has to be done is :
This keeps the knife cutting under the bark and pops it off rather than keep cutting into the wood itself which will end up causing more force to be used than necessary as the wood itself is being shaved down.
Birch is one of the harder local woods and pieces like the one on the right can be carved into small rough mallets which are in general pretty useful though to get maximum utility out of them they should be properly dried and even fire hardened in the impact region. Note the one shown also has a nice ring of knots at the end which will allow it to take heavier impacts for a longer period of time without breaking apart.
With a decent knife this handle can be carved out very quickly and the initial starting cuts can be chopped out with an axe or larger knife. In this case a Spartan was used.
For general wood working, the steel is a little less than optimal as the grindability is fairly low and knives used on natural wood tend to dull from dirt on the wood and the ability to retain a very high push cutting edge is desired.
Ergonomics : the grip is heavily contoured and in general such grips are prone to poor ergonomics and can be very restricted outside of a few specific positions usually :
other grips tend to be uncomfortable because of the secondary point of the index finger notch which can be a high pressure point. However this grip is heavily contoured in all orientations and thus there are no high pressure points even when the knife is turned in reverse grips and the index finger cutout is turned into the palm.
There are only two minor ergonomic issues :
Durability : the handle is made from carbon fibre with G10 liners and thus is fairly resistant to :
Security : with the :
The security is fairly high the only two issues are :
thus there could be some issues with extreme stabs or a compromised grip :
S125 was introduced in 2004 :
Developed stainless tool steel CPM� S125V� for improved corrosion and wear resistance.
In regards to corrosion resistance, the following knives :
Were subjected to the following :
As noted in the images on the right :
In short :
In regards to grinding/sharpening, even though this is a very hard and high carbide steel :
It can still be worked on basic coarse stones as the abrasive is much larger than the carbides in the steel and thus the abrasive just ploughs through the steel and in doing so scoops out the carbides with the steel. It takes longer to work the steel of course but still edges can be formed with basic stones.
The image at the right shows the edge formed from the fine side of the cheap benchstone. This leaves a finish comparable to a 600 DMT (25 micron) however it will not cut nearly as easily and thus there will also be some burnishing (which will look dark under magnification). The main things to consider when sharpening such a steel with a less than ideal stone is to minimize the pressure which can damage the edge and thus use :
As the pressure is increased, as the stone doesn't cut well, the edge can fracture rather than be cut and this will reduce both the sharpness and the edge retention significantly.
The next image at the right shows the edge after some work on a 1000 grit king. Now this isn't a high end waterstone but it is a huge improvement over the cheap benchstone. Even though it is slightly finer (15 microns) it cuts much faster because :
The finish is also higher than the grit because of the polishing that happens through the slurry which consists of abrasive which has broken down into smaller pieces and thus the stone will cut much finer than the abrasive it is made from.
It also can respond well to stropping on softer abrasives as is shown in the image on the right which is after extended work on leather loaded with chromium oxide. This particular compound comes from Lee Valley and is a mix of chromium and aluminum oxide. Note the dark color of the bevel shows the polish is starting to approach a mirror type finish. As with all stropping it is very critical to :
This still of course only improves push cutting sharpness and is very likely to degrade slicing aggression especially as the stropping continues.
Comparing the S125V EDC to a Kershaw Junyard Dog in 13C26 (55 - 57 HRC) :
| Knife | Finish | Sharpness | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thread | 3/8" Hemp | ||||
| Push | Slice | ||||
| Junkyard Dog | MXF-DMT | 0.1-0.15 | 37 | 11 | |
| CrO | 5 pps | 0.3-0.35 | 34 | 15 | |
| 10 pps | 0.1-0.15 | 30 | 13 | ||
| 20 pps | 0.1-0.15 | 19 | 12 | ||
| 40 pps | 0.1-0.15 | 25 | 15 | ||
| 100 pps | 0.1-0.15 | 24 | 19 | ||
| EDC | MXF-DMT | 0.1-0.15 | 38 | 14 | |
| CrO | 5 pps | 0.3-0.35 | 34 | 15 | |
| 10 pps | 0.1-0.15 | 29 | 15 | ||
| 20 pps | 0.1-0.15 | 24 | 15 | ||
| 40 pps | 0.1-0.15 | 30 | 15 | ||
| 100 pps | 0.1-0.15 | 24 | 14 | ||
In short, at a similar edge angle :
Note the force in the cutting with the EDC is lightly higher as the
edge on the Junkyward Dog has been regound to a true-zero.
Of course the low grindability of the steel means that in general sharpening time will be increased unless specialized sharpening equipment is used. As an example, the graph at the right shows the required sharpening time (number of passes) after doing some very harsh cutting (sods) with a number of knives 2 .
The S125V knife has a significantly higher amount of time required to sharpen after the cutting, so large that it takes multiple times the passes on the stone compared to similar steels such as O1 and AUS-8.
This low grindability can be offset somewhat by using abrasives designed to cut very high carbide steels such as the SPS-II series of waterstones, diamond/CBN plates and proper use of micro-bevels.
Edge retention slicing cardboard produced performance a little lower than expected. It might have passed the point where the carbide volume is too high to retain a fine cutting edge 1 .
Overview :
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Most of the pictures in the above are in the PhotoBucket album.
1 : Edge retention slicing cardboard, various steels
2
: Sharpening after cutting sods, various steels
| Last updated : | |
| Originally written: | 29/06/2013 |