Page 72 - Blade (January 2019)

DAMASCUS STEEL |

Silk is one of nature’s strongest fi-
bers. It’s also smooth. There’s nothing
for the edge to grab. Hanging it of-
fers very little resistance. A blade has
to have everything right to cut hang-
ing silk. We also sliced ahi tuna—you
know, like with a sushi knife—which
requires a sharp edge to cut cleanly.
Practical cutting applications in-
cluded ratchet straps, the ones used
to secure loads on trucks and trail-
ers, straps that get stuck and are very
tough, and seat-belt webbing. Seat belts
get jammed and sometime must be cut
to free a passenger. Finally, since all
the edges stayed sharp through all the
tests, we cut some cardboard since it’s
well known as an edge duller, 20 slash-
es with each blade.

HEFTY, SOLID, STURDY
Our first impression of the Bear & Son
114D butterfly knife is that it’s a hefty
chunk of steel, a solid, sturdy tool. So,
too, were our second and third impres-
sions. The knife gives you the feel-
ing you could stab it into the side of a
speeding car full of bad guys and flip
up on the roof, then use it to peel away
the roof to extract the bad guys—if you
were a superhero. Butterfly Man, may-
be? It’s sharp too, shaving hair without
The four test models, from left: Bear & Son 114D Butterfl y Knife, Boker Plus Urban pulling or tugging.
Trapper Damascus, Santa Fe Stoneworks Damascus Kershaw Leek, and Chris Reeve It thrust through the hanging silk
Knives Damascus Sebenza.
scarf easily, but would not, after many
efforts, cut the hanging silk scarf. It
was a matter of geometry—the knife’s
Cutting the ahi tuna into slices so thin that light blade bevels are not optimized for such
shone though them was no challenge with the Boker
Plus Urban Trapper Damascus. a difficult cut.
There was no problem with the
trapped necktie cut, but the flat-tie
draw cut required a good bit of pres-
sure—again, due to the bevels. Seat-
belt webbing and ratchet straps also
required solid pressure, and a bit of
sawing. When cutting the ahi tuna the
fish compressed and resisted, and so
we could not get thin sushi-like slices.
On the other hand, by cutting thicker
slices the knife did the job. After cut-
ting cardboard it would not shave. The
steel felt fairly soft and the edge came
back after 20 strokes on a Spyderco
Tri-Angle Sharpmaker sharpener.

ALMOST PERFECT
The slender, sleek, smooth edge of the
Boker Plus Urban Trapper designed

72 BLADE JANUARY 2019