The White Shadow Dojo is a Martial Arts school run by Gwynne and David in western New York. This blog features information on our book "The Rhythm of One", our class offerings, a calendar of events, an edged weapons forum, articles on knife design, and a community space for the research and dissemination of Martial Arts. "Sometimes irreverant, often opinionated, always brutally honest."

Thursday, September 08, 2011

A Magnificent Cutter


Reading the book in the previous post gave me the urge to do some test cutting. The other night when I went to the dojo to practice Iaido I decided to take along the BIG Bowie that Matt Lamey forged for me. When I went to my gear closet the only thing left were three pool noodles! It would have been silly to cut just one noodle with a knife this size so I decided to splurge and taped all three together. As you can see in the first photo they would barely stay in my test cutting stand. The results speak for themself. Cutting through all three was effortless and all I had to do was make sure my angle was correct and let the blade sweep through the noodles. It was way too easy so I repeated it and decided I needed about six noodles or a real goza tatami mat to practice on. This was no test for this fine Bowie. The cutting power of a full sized Bowie knife like this is simply incredible.


3 comments:

Dan said...

Incredible! That is a pretty thick target - the knife is certainly capable but it had to have been a well placed cut too!

Jeff Snyder said...

Dave, you should earn a commission from Mr. Lamey! Impressive! I want one! When last I checked, Mr. Lamey's knives cost about $750 and up. This is the only thing that restrains me.

I second Dan's sentiments. You must know well how to cut.

knife-fighter said...

thanks guys for your comments, the right tools make the job easy. Mr. Lamey's work is not getting any cheaper but it is worth every penny. For those who wonder why I use pool noodles: they will not damage or scuff up a blade. The resistance is similar to cutting meat. If your technique is not right the noodle will either wad up, bend over, or go flying without being cut. This knife made it like just cutting air.

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