Ways to use Cardboard to measure durability

In the world of steel things are difficult to measure.  There are many areas from degradation, toughness and hardness to think about when it comes to choosing the correct kind of steel. There are lots of different tools to measure this and some people have chosen to use a household item or an item that is used by knives the majority of the time to create a system for understanding how good a steel is at a certain task. This has helped many people over the years to know what is worth the money or what is purely money spend on looks and brand name. Cardboard and rope have become youtube specialites for knife cutting test and I want to go over how this can help the average person.

 

Now repeatability is very important when it comes to scientific tests. So two Youtubers that run knife channels use two different mediums when it comes to testing edge retention.  One uses rope and the other uses cardboard.  Now to be more specific the cardboard is actually cheap moving boxes which are actually corrugated paper.  THere is a big difference, it is the difference between cheap moving boxes and a cereal box. We all know that is a big difference. These individuals will take a knife and sharpen it to the exact degree and grit and cut the same type of cardboard over and over again until it is dull. 

He then looks at it with a micrometer to make sure it is dull and not just an emotional reaction or a physical reaction to cutting.  Then he records the number of slices it takes to scientifically get dull.  Then that steel has a base number to compare against other steels.  This chart can tell you which steels are better than others and you can take the cost comparison between them to see how much it is worth going from one performance to another and see which is worth the cost and which is not.

 

Another youtube reviewer uses rope instead of cardboard.  This test is done in a similar fashion but the rope tends to be less dense so the cuts tend to be much higher.  Due to this I feel like a more accurate depiction is actually given due to the more refined numbers he is able to acquire on the density and edge retention. So for me I like to use the rope test to see the percentage and price difference in knife steels. 

Can you waterproof your home with cardboard?

This was a question that came to mind when we got our first hole in our roof at the new house," can you waterproof your home with cardboard?"  Well the answer is definitely no, but it is an interesting thought and the fact that thousands of Americans live in cardboard boxes every day on the streets.  So in a way you can waterproof you home with cardboard but it does need some insulation.  The question is what type of cardboard do you need if you are going to end up living in a box and I found there are indeed different kinds.

The first kind of cardboard is the stuff you see in most packaging for products and cereal boxes.  This is actually the technical name for cardboard.  The use of this is astronomical and 80% of all products that are sold on stores are actually packaged in cardboard. This means that tons of it is actually being produced. This is not the stuff you want to build a house from because it will not insulate and not waterproof in any way.  

The old pizza delivery companies found out the hard way that pizza would not last an hour in a cardboard box without getting soggy and sticking to it.  This is where corrugated boxes were invented.  Dominos patented it and had 20 years of pizza delivery success and essentially a monopoly in the industry on the use of this special type of box.

 

This corrugated box is similar to the cheapmoving boxes we are all used to seeing and using.  Cheap moving boxes actually make up a ton of home for Americans living on the street and in areas that do not rain too often are great for keeping out the wind and holding some form of heat in.  It is in a way insulated and yet does allow air to move through it. 

With a liner inside or outside of the corrugated box you are able to build a strong structure that can be taped or stapled together in order to create a larger home.  I know it does sound nuts but this is also a way that many people in the third world live and are able to get out of the elements to be healthier. So cardboard boxes are really important for shipping, and for living and without them many people would not be able to afford a way to get out of the weather.