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From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: Knife ads
Message-ID: <2064@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 11-Oct-85 14:26:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.2064
Posted: Fri Oct 11 14:26:25 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 14-Oct-85 03:29:12 EDT
References: <858@cvl.UUCP> <2023@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Reply-To: wmartin@brl-bmd.UUCP
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Organization: USAMC ALMSA, St. Louis, MO
Lines: 41

And yet another point I forgot to include:

The "saw-teeth" on the back of these Taiwanese knives are worthless,
merely "decorative". They have no sharpness at all. (They might work as
fish scalers, though -- just thought of that.) This model knife does,
however, come with a wire saw and two split rings (like keyrings) to use
as handles on the saw. This will work better than the saw teeth on the
back of most "Rambo"-style survival knives, even much more expensive
ones. The problem with sawteeth on a knifeblade back is that the teeth
have no offset, so they can't work like a real wood saw functions, with
the sawblade being narrower than the kerf. These teeth are shaped like:

_____                  _____
     |/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/|/

Most fancier survival knives have square-cut teeth, with the top either
a sharp edge or a flat-cut block, but the cuts are clean and make a
sharp right-angle edge on their sides. These are like:

_____  __  __  __  __  _____
     |_| |_| |_| |_| |_|

The other style of teeth on the back of a survival knife blade are
triangular, like this:
_____                  ______
     \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

(The points should come up to the line of the blade back.) These are
originally designed as aircrew survival knives, and this form of teeth
really does work in cutting through the thin aluminum skin of a
helicopter or light aircraft (so you can hack yourself an escape hatch
before the beast blows up). They're not much good on wood, though.

Yet another kind has alternating right and left-pointing triangular
teeth, cut into the blade from the top. (I don't think I can ASCII-draw
that.) These work better than most others, but are also more expensive to
make, and still clog with cuttings on wood. Some of the old WWI-era
"engineer" bayonets had teeth like that; I have a Swiss 1889 or 1911
model with beautiful teeth -- such work would probably cost $500 nowadays...

Will