How Low Can You Go?

[EOU]

Apparently our knife sharpening friends in Australia and New Zealand aren't the only ones reaching new lows. The Russians  in Murmansk were as well although, unlike our friends on the far side of the equator, they weren't concerned with BESS scores but rather bore holes. The picture above is the cap for the 9" diameter and 40,230' deep bore hole and it only took the Russians 19 years, 1970-89 to finish the job. While the rest of the world was engaged in traveling to the moon and probing space, the Russians were drilling holes. They were successful in drilling the deepest hole...ever. 

One thing we found interesting about this story; the temperature at the bottom of this hole is 356° F. That's about perfect for tempering high HRC blades. Our knifemakers and bladesmiths are just going to need a real long rope to take advantage of it.