01-24-2018, 04:50 PM
Well we warned you that we wouldn't suffer through this development effort alone so here's the report. Plan "A" using the end of the 5/16" rod for a contactor has it's issues. The end of the contactor must be square to the edge at inception and remain square throughout the test if repeatable tests are to be made. Using our low-cost test stand and vise approach, this turns out to be not so simple.
It is particularly difficult when attempting to test knives, like our chef's knife, where the edge is not parallel to the spine. This device has to be simple to use and inexpensive to reproduce so we're going to shift gears and change the contactor to a design where alignment/square is not as critical. Perhaps it will allow us to use weights less than the 10 pounds we currently use as well. A lower amount of weight would lower the stress to other elements of the test stand.
The contactor will now simply be a piece of 1.0" round bar. The radius of the bar will impinge on the edge. We'll mark the centerline with a very slight groove. We're going to build on a suggestion made by Me2 earlier in this thread and simply use cold rolled steel for a starting place. We don't doubt that 6061 aluminum would do the trick but we'll see. We'll first see if it works and then if it causes us issues in some other arena. We know now that we can move the edge a significant amount and then restore the edge so this is going to work. We just need to hammer out the kinks in our process.
It is particularly difficult when attempting to test knives, like our chef's knife, where the edge is not parallel to the spine. This device has to be simple to use and inexpensive to reproduce so we're going to shift gears and change the contactor to a design where alignment/square is not as critical. Perhaps it will allow us to use weights less than the 10 pounds we currently use as well. A lower amount of weight would lower the stress to other elements of the test stand.
The contactor will now simply be a piece of 1.0" round bar. The radius of the bar will impinge on the edge. We'll mark the centerline with a very slight groove. We're going to build on a suggestion made by Me2 earlier in this thread and simply use cold rolled steel for a starting place. We don't doubt that 6061 aluminum would do the trick but we'll see. We'll first see if it works and then if it causes us issues in some other arena. We know now that we can move the edge a significant amount and then restore the edge so this is going to work. We just need to hammer out the kinks in our process.