Testing for Overheated Edges

[Mark Reich]

I was only resisting the depth of cut study because I didn't understand it initially. If you put it into a surfacing context it does make sense. In honesty, I probably shouldn't have a hard time believing anyone can develop way more heat than what would be normal to us.

I got out the 300°F (149°C) Tempilaq to see if I might be able to lend credence to my theory, and here's what happened...  





I imagine everyone can see how much of the edge I ground away before the Tempilaq melted, compared to how much grinding of the side of the blade it took. Grinding on the edge took about 4 seconds to trigger, grinding the blade took about 2 seconds on the butcher knife and about 1 second on the paring knife.

300°F Tempilaq triggered before the blade turned color at all, which is what we were hoping for.

I found it was very easy to pour a drop of Tempilaq onto the blade, then cover each side of the blade with a single swipe of my finger. It seems to me that a thin coat of Tempilaq works properly. I tried to use the brush on the paring knife, which didn't work very well. 

Tempilaq dries quickly, so you only have a couple seconds to spread it. Mike was pretty close with his estimate of "One bottle is enough to test about 5000 blades", so it's much more important to cover the area quickly than it is to be frugal with the stuff.

[EOU]

So now which is the $2,000.00  knife and which is the $3,000.00? Great demonstration Mark and thank you for sharing it.

[grepper]

Holy smokes Mr. Mark. Um..., were any innocent knifes killed or injured during these tests?

Seriously though, thanks for the work and for sharing the results. A great demonstration of what it takes to get a blade to start to get warm.