Got a quote from one lab yesterday. Ouch! I was quoted 400-500$ per blade test. And I was so enthusiastic to test 2-3 different blades. Sucks of course that I do not have unlimited funding. 500$? I can buy real good custom knife for that price. Bess MTI still haven't given me a quote. If it is something normal I'd test quite a few blades, but if the price is in hundreds... My public, non profit site definitely doesn't generate revenue to cover that. Ok, now to mandatory calls and emails with Crucible and Latrobe. Another "fast" moving pair..
Thursday, March 4, 2010 08:17:15
Phil Wilson made yet another high performance cutter for me. This time, this is a CPM M4 tool steel blade, super hard as usual, 65HRC, but tough as well. I have very high expectations for this one.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 21:51:38
And another one for today, Moroha Usuba, also known as Ryoba usuba. Double bevel usuba in short. Quite strange combo for an Usuba type knife. Special thanks to KF's RRLOVER for the photo, and Bishamon for the description and Kanji. And with that we are at 111 entries in the database. Still nowhere near 800+ types Watanabe said exist in Japan, but on its own, it's a really good result.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 18:35:52
Added multiple images support in the viewer. I.e. When you click on the type name, you get individual file for the type and that will contain proper links to the extra images. Also, added extra code to generate correct back link in the viewer. before it was always linking to the full view index file with all 100+ types, even if you went into individual file from the reduced view, like slicers or sushi types. From now, it'll return to correct parent page.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 16:02:28
Kujira - monster knife, 360mm blade, 250mm handle. Used to slice whales. I figure it'll do fine on any other big fish too. Made by Shinichi Watanabe. Photo courtesy of Bishamon, who contributed a lot of really strange knives photos to this Db. On the side-note,I am working on improving the Japanese kitchen knives types and styles database interface and expanding contents as well.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 14:50:51
Well, it's becoming my daily routine now. Get to work, call Crucible Industries, get transferred around few times, end up with a person (different every time) who isn't there, always, leave a message, wait all day, next morning repeat... Latrobe, pretty much the same, except it's emails :) I sure hope this will get resolved somehow.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 08:44:56
As if it wasn't enough that INFI was a secret long time... Then we got one composition from a German lab, now another from Inobond. Well, that was was available for a while, I just dug up it later than the other one. Now I have no idea and there is no consensus on BF either. One has Nitrogen in its composition, another doesn't. But results are from very reliable source.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 22:09:52
For a while I was sure it was published. Then noticed red flag in my task list. Checked again and phew, nothing online. Overhauled the review a bit and it's up. With all the activities with knife steel composition chart and kitchen knives reviews, I lost track of things elsewhere. Well, I'll check the rest to make sure no zombie reviews are running around, but backlog I have is quite big.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 20:08:10
Like I said yesterday, found one lab in bay area doing the steel composition analysis. Cant' call that non-destructive either, leaves about 5-6mm long spark mark on the sample, how deep remains to be seen. And today I've learned they're replacing an optical tube on the spectrograph... Talk about luck. Well, I'll keep looking. As rumors say local colleges should have labs in them, but how good are the spectrographs in there, and how to get around those I have no idea.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 19:05:23
Got response from the Latrobe specialty steel. Basically, I was sent to another person who might have idea about permissions on copyrighted materials. In Crucible, which after their bankruptcy is still in "start-up mode" as they say, is more complicated matter, so far I keep getting transferred from person to person, nobody knows who is in charge of their web published material. Just terrific. And all I need is a few charts form them, which will be properly credited to them! Free advertising basically. And they drag it like this... Sheesh :(
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 16:11:44