Fun days for airport security :) How do they handle people bringing caramic knifes today? Would wooden knives display clearly on their scanners?
Is airport security not totally overblown theater already? Why encourage it?
Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel
51–60 of 168 posts
Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Getting knives past airport security seems not particularly difficult from the experience of my circle and other anecdotal sources. I've had friends and family accidentally get knives through security on many occasions, and I have also accidentally done it myself. To my knowledge none of them has ever been caught in the converse situation and had to give up a knife. I imagine if one were resourceful and deliberate ab…
> Getting knives past airport security seems not particularly difficult from the experience of my circle and other anecdotal sources. I've had friends and family accidentally get knives through security on many occasions, and I have also accidentally done it myself. To my knowledge none of them has ever been caught in the converse situation and had to give up a knife. May I ask what your race, and the race of your ci…
Are you suggesting that metal detectors are racially biased?
Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel
#53Fun days for airport security :) How do they handle people bringing caramic knifes today? Would wooden knives display clearly on their scanners?
Getting knives past airport security seems not particularly difficult from the experience of my circle and other anecdotal sources. I've had friends and family accidentally get knives through security on many occasions, and I have also accidentally done it myself. To my knowledge none of them has ever been caught in the converse situation and had to give up a knife. I imagine if one were resourceful and deliberate ab…
Ceramic knives sold to the general public are supposed to have a metal core to make them detectable.
All ceramics are available for people (police, military) who need a hard to detect self-defence knife, eg:
Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel
#54Fun days for airport security :) How do they handle people bringing caramic knifes today? Would wooden knives display clearly on their scanners?
I think it would be interesting to use the process for the extremely high tolerance-cut-metal blocks, where the items in the block are such tight tolerances that when inserted, you cant see them. Then - cut all the items you want into the hunk/hunks of metal such that you can pop them out in-flight and assemble your mechanisms of chaos... You can just have non-descript blocks in a case and say they are for scientific…
Please don't give them ideas. It's hard enough getting one's hands on scientific materials as is.
Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel
#55> WATCH A wooden nail is hammered through three boards.
Having just spent the morning driving nails with a 10-year-old, it pained me to watch this adult use a hammer.
Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Getting knives past airport security seems not particularly difficult from the experience of my circle and other anecdotal sources. I've had friends and family accidentally get knives through security on many occasions, and I have also accidentally done it myself. To my knowledge none of them has ever been caught in the converse situation and had to give up a knife. I imagine if one were resourceful and deliberate ab…
> Getting knives past airport security seems not particularly difficult from the experience of my circle and other anecdotal sources. I've had friends and family accidentally get knives through security on many occasions, and I have also accidentally done it myself. To my knowledge none of them has ever been caught in the converse situation and had to give up a knife. May I ask what your race, and the race of your ci…
I've accidentally gotten multi-tools through the body scanner before. I just forgot I had it in my pocket.
Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel
#57Fun days for airport security :) How do they handle people bringing caramic knifes today? Would wooden knives display clearly on their scanners?
They don't usually catch metal knives, much less ceramic ones.
I used to (post-9/11, pre-pandemic) frequently fly with bags that get used daily, and I often forgot about fairly large flip-blades rolling around in the bottom.
Several times, I had to surrender them to the TSA before a return flight, but usually I'd find them when I got back, and they never caught one on the first try IME.
So your odds of getting a big metal knife through are likely better than 50/50, and there didn't seem to be any penalty for getting caught. Why bother with fancy materials?
Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Getting knives past airport security seems not particularly difficult from the experience of my circle and other anecdotal sources. I've had friends and family accidentally get knives through security on many occasions, and I have also accidentally done it myself. To my knowledge none of them has ever been caught in the converse situation and had to give up a knife. May I ask what your race, and the race of your ci…
Are you suggesting that metal detectors are racially biased?
No. I am suggesting that the discretion of airport security staff about whom to pay closer attention to is. And my suggestion is known as 'profiling'.
Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel
#59I've noticed that steel in knives can easily be described as a waste. Cutting into food and opening packages doesn't generally need to require steel, for one. There is always going to be the emergency/contingency psychology calling for quality steel in every knife to "save your life someday" but TBH it's a relief that customers themselves get to decide exactly what that could mean to them...otherwise the raging debat…
I'm no fan of prepper content, but as an engineer, this criticism seems really weird and misguided to me. There's a reason we use steel in tools and knives. It's very difficult to find a material that can match the properties of steel. Having good edge-keeping while still maintaining toughness and avoiding brittle failure is REALLY hard.
Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel
#60Lovely idea. I would like to see a comparison of the energy requirement for hardening wood this way vs. making steel. Would give a better sense of whether this is a technology worth pursuing as one path toward decarbonising the future.
I'd like to see specific comparisons in physical properties versus steel and specifically which steel they are comparing to. Including in physical dimensions since their nail seems fairly thick. Steel is, as I understand it, hundreds of different variants each with their own physical properties. For example, they say 23 times harder in the article than regular wood. Wood has a Brinell scale of up to 7 although most i…
It's safe to assume that they're comparing to mild steel, which nails and table knives are made from. That said, I'm amused by the thought of a hardened tool steel nail... make sure you wear safety glasses and gloves, because when that shatters, the shards will be sharp and speedy. Here's hoping it's the nail, and not your hammer.