Well.... Personally, I consider whacking my blade edges of ANY of my knives against other types of steel as destructive.
I don't do that with ANY of my knives including INFI knives or folders. And so, No, I won't do it with the HCLE or MPLE.

Even though a ball-peen hammer will have softer steel than most knives, most any steel is still hard enough to at least deform if not possibly even chip a thin knive's edge.
It may or may not chip the blade. I don't know. I am not interested in intentionally trying to find out on "MY" knives.

For the record, Ball-peen hammers are more often than not harder than typical hammers. Ball-peen hammers are made for shaping and working with other types of steel. So, they are intentionally hardened more.
Other hammers like claw hammers, framing hammers and such are left a little softer to help prefent metal chips from flying in your face. But, ideally, they are hard enough to not deform like a mushroom with extended use. That is another story.
Hammers range in hardness quite a bit. They can be as soft as 42HC and even as hard as up to 58HC or so. Do you "know" how hard your hammers are?

I would rather chop through "certain" cinder blocks than whack a ball-peen hammer with my knive's edge. Cinder blocks will chew up your blade for sure. Most of the particles that make up a cinder block have a higher hardness than even a knife. But, at least the smaller particals tend to seperate and chip out of the way.... Unless you chop into a cinder block with heavy/large aggregate pieces that don't chip out of the way. A given large partical of rock that is well imbedded into concrete will do some nice damage to most any blade. It might not "break" INFI or SR-77 or SR-101, but can do damage enough to the blade's edge to require a lot of repair to get sharp again.


A ball-peen hammer might not be as hard as certain rocks, but I am fairly confident that any steel including INFI would at least dent or roll if whacked a certain way on most other hardened steels. It has more to do with the thinness of the edge than toughness/hardness at that point.

Yes, I can grind, sand, polish and sharpen out dings, rolls and even chips. But, I don't want to. Sorry.




Afraid.... No. But, I don't consider the associated ding repair hassles worth what I think I can expect without dinging my blades. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />


I can grow back flesh as well, but I don't feel like cutting it off either. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />


I don't consider that type of abuse that I wouldn't do to my knives anyway worth my investment of time or money.

I will have to leave that to you or somebody else. Good luck. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />



This is a reasonable test. But, is ONLY of value if and only if you have "EXACT" or very close edge profiles and sharpness on comparable knives to compare to.

Otherwise, the test is just an opinion.


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