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Cutting Rope
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Get a blade with some teeth in it.
By Capt. Vincent Daniello
Cutting a line in an emergency has to be quick, and there's nothing quicker than a sharp, serrated blade. "We realized that a coarse edge cuts more aggressively, but a polished edge lasts longer," says Sal Glesser, president of knife manufacturer Spyderco. For the best of both, he ground large arches into his blades, and the serrated blade on pocketknives came of age. "The center of effort changes as the serration passes through the material," Glesser says. "You get a 180-degree change in the angle of attack with each tooth. The serrations are climbing their way through the material." Serrations also create more linear inches of cutting length and protect the inside of the arches from hard material. "It isn't the food we cut that dulls the knife," Glesser says. "It's the hard surface we're cutting on." He points out that only the tips of a serrated blade touch the cutting board.
Knife makers also see the quality of the steel as paramount. "You're talking about an apex you want to be as fine as possible," Glesser says. "You have to have material that will support that on a molecular level." The traditional tradeoff is adding carbon for harder blades and sharper edges, but that carbon also makes blades prone to rust. New materials, like Spyderco's H-1 steel, are both hard and completely rustproof. (I've tried; I simply can't get a sample to rust.) "It's the combination," Glesser says. "If you have the wrong material, it isn't going to support the edge. But if you have the wrong geometry, it's like pushing a brick through something."
Other Boatkeeper tips featured this month:
- More Electronics from past issues.
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