If you have been following us, you have probably noticed that we like to put our OTF knives through “Torture Tests”. For the most part, the torture tests we put our knives through are far more extreme than anything the average person is going to do to their knife. These tests were designed to show how our OTF knives will perform when put through extreme conditions.

We get quite a bit of email / feedback about these videos, sometimes the feedback is that they don’t believe we actually did these tests. They are certain that we did some sort of camera magic to make these look legit. Now these people aren’t meaning to imply that we lie about our tests, they just don’t believe that our OTF knives are strong enough to perform these tests. They are expecting that our OTF knives were designed for novelty or not for actual use.

Fact: Every Raven Crest Tactical OTF knife was built and designed for hard, everyday use.

Video 1 Stabbing a Washing Machine :

This was our first time torture testing our knives, so for this set of torture tests we went out to a metal scrap yard and just started stabbing stuff. Note, we did not bring 20 knives with us for this shoot. We brought 4 knives total. Two were used in filming, one we lost within the first 10 mins because we were trying to throw it into a piece of metal and it got lost in the pile of scrap, and the other one be brought back with us unused.

The first thing we went to was this old washing machine. This was not metal that was giving in easy to our stabbing, it was thick and sturdy. We had to put our full force into each stab to get maximum penetration. Sure enough, as we got more comfortable the stabs got deeper. We used the same knife for the entire filming of this segment.

Video 2 Stabbing a Water Heater :

For this video we attacked a water heater. Now I am not sure if you are familiar with how strong a water heater is, but let me tell you this, this water heater test was the most difficult test to date. I would suggest you go our into your garage and just tap your finger against your water heater to see just how thick that metal is. It is solid and does not want to budge. As you can see in this video co-owner Nate Mirand used his 250 lbs of body weight to penetrate the steel of this water heater. The knife used for this test was the same knife used for the washer test.

Video 3 Cutting Through Metal :

Next we set to cut through a metal door that we saw laying on the ground. Once again, we are using the same knife that we used in the Washer Test and the Water Heater Test. This test was a little awkward because it was hard to get leverage on that door. Even so, the knife sliced through that metal with no problem.

Videos #4 Breaking Glass :

The last part of this day was finding some glass to test out our ball bearing glass breaker. Our ball bearing glass breaker is designed to smash through even tempered glass. Now we were very excited to get this opportunity to head to a scrap yard and destroy some stuff. So excited, that we did not bring gloves. You will see that the reason why the glass doesn’t break on the first strike is because we are purposefully not following through on our strike. Following through would have most definitely broken all that glass on first strike, but it would have also been extremely dangerous to do without gloves. If you do not have gloves, and you need to break glass, it is ok to take a few careful strikes until you get the correct power to break the glass.

As you can see from these videos, it doesn’t take much force for the breaker to break glass. You will also see that there are 3 different pieces of glass, here is what was happening with those pieces.

Glass Piece #1 : This was just a simple, single pain piece of glass. Our breaker went through this like butter.

Glass Piece #2: This was a more heavy duty piece of glass. This honestly felt more like auto glass than just simple fragile glass. It took 2 strikes to break this, but again that was due to us protecting our hands.

Glass Piece #3: This was the most heavy duty piece of glass we could find at this yard. It was very resistant to small strikes. When we tapped this glass like we did with glass piece #1, our knife bounced off instead of breaking the glass. We knew we would need to really put force behind our strike to get this to break. For this test we also show how to “score” glass which in turn will make it easier to break the glass out when struck. Scoring glass works best on large, tempered pieces of glass. Basically all you are doing is scratching an “X” into the glass, which creates a weak point in the middle. Once you have that “X”, aim your strike for the middle of the “X”. We didn’t have to do this for this test to succeed, we just wanted to show the technique.

Glass Breaking Fail : Hammer vs. Car Glass

Here is a very funny video that will show what will happen to heavy duty glass if you do not score it correctly, or have the correct tool. Most people do not know just how difficult auto glass is to break. This reporter learned the hard way and probably had to have some stitches because of it.

Video #5 Hanging Weights on Fully Extended Knife Blade :

This test was done on a different day than the scrap yard day. This knife isn’t a new knife, it was one that was being used as a utility knife for our warehouse manager Steve.

We did this test because we get asked a lot how much weight it takes to make our blade snap at it’s weak point. We know the answer is “a lot”, but we don’t have the actual #. We only had 80 lbs of weight available to us that day, and our blade handled it with no issues. 80 lbs may not seem like a lot, but when you are at the gym next time go pick up an 80 lb dumbbell and see what it feels like in your hand. I am confident that our blade could have held much more weight.

Video #6 Cutting a Work Boot in Half :

These next set of tests were done on a different day and with a different set of knives. These next tests highlight the extreme sharpness of our knives. For this test we started with a brand new freshly sharpened knife. Not too much explanation needed for this video, we stabbed a shoe and cut it in half.

Video #7 Slicing 2 Liter Bottles :

These last 2 videos were done on the same day as the boot cut video. We are using the same knife in these videos as we did for the boot cut. You can see just how effortlessly our knives slice through these bottles. For every strike it felt like we completely missed our target because we didn’t even feel the contact. Then we examined the bottle and saw it sliced apart.

Final Thoughts :

What makes us different than ANY other OTF knife company is that even if you did take a Raven Crest Tactical OTF knife out to a scrap yard and beat the life out of it past the point of proper functioning, we would fix or replace that knife for free. We wouldn’t get mad at you for using it, or blame you for damaging it. We would simply replace or repair it, no questions asked. We make our OTF knives for use and our warranty backs that up 100%.

We put our OTF knives through these extreme tests to show that they are real tools not toys. Do we recommend you go out there and doing what we do? No, we don’t; not because we don’t think our knives will perform, but we just don’t want people getting hurt. Please do not attempt any of these tests unless it is a matter of life or death. Our knives are scarey sharp and one wrong move can easily give you some stitches or maybe worse.

Knife Used in Videos :

Nemesis Serrated OTF Knife