ESEE 4 Mystery Steel Pass Around----all spots taken

Discussion in 'ESEE® Knives and Gear' started by shaneadams90, Feb 8, 2019.

  1. Jacob Peterson

    Jacob Peterson Member

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    If you're interested, my ig is @thepreppersbunkeroutdoors
     
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  2. Jacob Peterson

    Jacob Peterson Member

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    Alright guys, my testing is done, and the video is up.
    Ill be honest, i didnt get to do as much as i wanted.
    My corrosion tests were inconclusive, and in batoning, feathersticking, and cutting cardboard, only one of the blades even got dull, and that was blade #3
    Blade #3 stropped right back to being sharp however, and blade #1 and 2 stropped from really sharp and taking hair to psycho sharp equally fast.
    The blades will be going out Monday, this was a lot of fun!
    This was actually my first time using the 4, and i felt like the choil on the 4 was more usable than the 3, which i liked.
     
  3. STPNWLF

    STPNWLF Member

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    Current status on the pass around-
    Got the mystery steel 4's from @Jacob Peterson Thursday afternoon and I will be putting them through they're pace's .
    Stay tuned for the results.
    As received from Jacob
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    Knife 2 (middle) and knife 3 (top) did show some minor discoloration/corrosion
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  4. Jacob Peterson

    Jacob Peterson Member

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    Cant wait to see what you do with it! Im pretty sure that knife #2 just had some sap on it... if that actually turned into corrosion, that would be something!
     
  5. STPNWLF

    STPNWLF Member

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    The knives are on their way to @FortyTwoBlades
    Just need to compose my notes and finish editing the 100+ pictures and I'll start posting my time spent with them.
     
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  6. STPNWLF

    STPNWLF Member

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    Alright gang finished my editing/composing so time to post my thoughts. I have around 100 PICS, so this is going to take around 10 post's.
    And I'm working from a retard phone so it'll take me a bit to load the pictures
    SO PLEASE DON'T POST ANY COMMENTS TILL I GIVE THE "THUMBS UP"
    To keep it all together, thanks for your patience.
     
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  7. STPNWLF

    STPNWLF Member

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    As received on Thursday
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    So I started out with collecting some fire wood, this was a dead Red Bay (great for smoking meat) that recently came down that was 20-30' long. I also included my personal carbon steel 4 for comparison reasons.
    Started with knife #1 (you can see it in the top left of the first picture for size reference) batoned off the first piece placed the knife and wood on the cart and grabbed the next knife and repeated the process till the tree was was completely cut up.
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    That's all for day 1, day 2 it rained and I'm still recovering from back surgery and don't need to catch a cold. So I did a "environmental exposure" test, they are stainless aren't they o_O
    So I left them in the garden out in the rain all day.
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    Small orange spot on knife 1 but that could have been residue from batoning
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    On to day 3
     
  8. STPNWLF

    STPNWLF Member

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    Day 3 started with more batoning splitting up the wood collected, following the same procedure.
    Start with #1 split a piece of wood
    Place knife and split wood aside, grab #2 and another piece of wood and repeat and so on till all wood was split.
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    Now that the woods all split time to harvest some swamp cabbage otherwise know as "heart of palm".
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    All the husk and limbs have been cut away and will be used later on.
    At this point I needed something abit bigger to chop off the remaining boots so I brought in this interesting blade to try out
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    It was also used to get to the heart of the matter after the electric chainsaw cut the base.( I'll talk more about it in another thread ;))
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    Now for some "Dirt time" :p
    That's right time to harvest some carrots from my garden, now what I do is dig down into the soil next to them to see if they're big enough to harvest ( this can definitely dull a knife's edge )
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    On to day 4
     
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  9. STPNWLF

    STPNWLF Member

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    Day 4 had to make a grocery run to pick up a few things ;)
    Now the "Kitchen duty tests" :)
    Side note:
    I haven't sharpened/resharpened these in the least bit since receiving them
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    Started with processing the swamp cabbage
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    Again needed some help from that other knife
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    Imprompto slicing test (folks decided to grill a London broil for dinner:p)
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    Now back to business
    We all know how acidic tomatoes, onjuns, lemons, and limes can be ;) stainless steel o_O

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    The dreaded "Tomato slice"
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    IMG_20190508_164121.jpg IMG_20190508_164050.jpg IMG_20190508_164016.jpg IMG_20190508_163950.jpg knife 3 seemed not as smooth, but in fairness it was also the end of the tomato.
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    Time to set the knives aside (unwashed) and start some cooking:p
    Onjuns browned, tomato's and beans in the pot time to add some precooked wild hog sausage:)
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    Almost forgot the most important ingredient before going into the oven for 10 minutes:oops:
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    Once the beans cooled down enough they went into the fridge with the rest of the fixin's.
     
  10. STPNWLF

    STPNWLF Member

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    Day 5
    FIRE :D
    Remember I saved the husk and the fronds from the swamp cabbage, time to put them to use with the processed wood from day 1.
    So I made three bird's nests from the palm husks to see how well each threw a spark.
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    Yep all 3 threw sparks enough to get the tinder started, now that the fires going - time to get back to the kitchen ;)
    Now for this part I used my personal 4 for sanitary reasons,since the mystery steel 4's have canvas micarta scales (I suspect this is due to the fact that if they'd had the orange G10 I wouldn't have anything to do with them and if they'd had BLACK G10 I may not have passed them on :rolleyes:
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    Now time to get back to the fire, got a little busy here so pictures are limited.
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    Back to the kitchen for homemade BBQ sauce and 5 1/2 hours @200°
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    5 n 1/2 hours later time for the
    "Taste test" :p
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    Tasted pretty darn good:D
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    So how'd they hold up?
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    Surprisingly well considering what they been through. Now they were hair shaving sharp when I received them, what's it gonna take to get them back to that?o_O
    9 laps per side on my fine India stone and 6 laps per side on my super fine Norton stone and all 3 knives were back to hair shaving sharpness.
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  11. STPNWLF

    STPNWLF Member

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    All in all I'd be hard pressed to say which one performed the best or worst, thank you ESEE for giving me the opportunity to put these wonderful knives through they're pace's.
     
  12. STPNWLF

    STPNWLF Member

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    Almost forgot the "Tip strength test":eek:
    No not like that jack@$$ on YouTube,
    I'm talking about the real tip test :cool:
    Do not attempt this test yourself without proper training , I've had years of training.
    Attempting to replicate the following test may result in You stabbing yourself and spill a beer and that would be considered alcohol abuse as well as a party foul :eek:

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    Yep they'll hold up and I'm abit tippsy:confused:
    I'd like to thank the following sponsors for they're help in conducting these tests:p
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    If y'all want to know my BBQ sauce recipe I'd be more than happy to tell you, just before I cut your tongue out and feed you to the Izula's :eek:
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    I'll give all 3 knives a bloody THUMBS UP:p
    Cheers to y'all ESEE
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    Last edited: May 12, 2019
  13. Andy the Aussie

    Andy the Aussie Administrator of the Century Staff Member

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    Great write up and pics thank mate !!!!
     
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  14. STPNWLF

    STPNWLF Member

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    Thanks @Andy the Aussie
    This also gave me the most experience utilizing the ESEE 4 design, for such a compact knife it's surprisingly capable.
     
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  15. FortyTwoBlades

    FortyTwoBlades Moderator Staff Member

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    They landed earlier today (technically yesterday since it's past midnight now.)

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    Gonna' need to sharpen them up before taking them for a spin, so I'll need to be careful to make sure I maintain the 20° rather than producing my usual 12-15° edge.

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    It'll be raining the next few days but I'll see what sort of work I can put them through regardless.
     
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  16. STPNWLF

    STPNWLF Member

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    Glad they made it to you safely @FortyTwoBlades
    I didn't really do a full on resharpening test, figured you'd do a more thorough job of that.
     
  17. FortyTwoBlades

    FortyTwoBlades Moderator Staff Member

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    Yeah, I totally expected them to arrive in need of a touch up. :)
     
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  18. RocketmanDane

    RocketmanDane Member

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    @STPNWLF
    Ive been sitting on my hands waiting to see if you were done posting your review..
    All I can say is H0ly $hikktyytsssss!! You def put them through the paces. Kinda glad I went early on could have never compared to your review :)
     
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  19. Bushcraft_Dave

    Bushcraft_Dave Member

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    Wow you guys have been really working out these knives! I can't wait until it's my turn
     
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  20. FortyTwoBlades

    FortyTwoBlades Moderator Staff Member

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    Got the edges fully reground, precisely to 20°. My muscle memory is to hold a lower angle so to keep it correct I set my belt grinder at a precise tilt so I could just hold the knife vertical. Photos of the knives themselves will be taken tomorrow.

    [​IMG]
     

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