>>619503We are producing knives that span a wide range of quality, more than ever, to fill certain price brackets. It will come as no surprise that a $3 pocket knife you pull out a bucket at Lowes will fail in a way a knife 100 years old wouldn't. I've seen knives break when a baton was taken to them, but they are very often the exact opposite of what I consider to be the best of what we have to offer. (In that they are knifes created/priced/marketed towards the casual/average consumer)
Point being is that we have to look at the maximum potential of what we can create, and compare that to what the maximum potential was in the past, if we want a fair comparison.
Stamping/grinding/milling/cutting are methods of manipulating metal through machines that would not be impress the time travelers. They would be more impressed with the purity of our metals, the new alloys/heat treat methods, the control we have the composition of our steels and temperatures during heat treat, the technology that allows us to detect the smallest imperfections in the steel that would go completely undetected otherwise, ect.
The metal we have at our disposal today is simply better.
There was a time, not recently mind you, when blades were so soft or so brittle that they could be damaged through practices you and I wouldn't hesitate to use today. All I'm saying is that there is a potential with modern technology and materials to create a knife that wont break when you strike it with wood. And if it's not possible today it will certainly will in the future. Which is why we should base our practices on the limitations we have today, not the limitations our fathers had, or what we were taught in the 70s and 80s.
