A2 Bark River Gunny Hunter chipping problem

J

jaxelk

Joined
Oct 4, 2015
Messages
5
My Gunny Hunter in A2 is chipping a lot more than it should. It chips in one or two places whenever I whittle hardwood with it. I got the current edge using 100, 1500, and 2000 grit sandpaper followed by leather stropping with black and green compound. Am I doing something to the edge that makes it chip prone or could I possibly have a knife with weaker steel?
 
I have a lot of woodworking tools in A2 with a hard heat treat. They will chip on even soft wood at angles of ~30 degrees or less inclusive. I sharpen or at least micro bevel them at 35 and they hold up great. Could be the same with BR's A2
 
Couple of my BR knives have lost the tips and needed re-pointing, seems some are brittle? I don't pry!
 
jaxelk said:
My Gunny Hunter in A2 is chipping a lot more than it should. It chips in one or two places whenever I whittle hardwood with it. I got the current edge using 100, 1500, and 2000 grit sandpaper followed by leather stropping with black and green compound. Am I doing something to the edge that makes it chip prone or could I possibly have a knife with weaker steel?
Click to expand...

At what angle are you sharpening?
Any steel will fail if sharpened at too acute an angle for what is being cut.
Knew one fella who sharpened at 8° per side... for a knife he used for slicing tomatoes. He used a less acute angle for knives he used to cut other things.
 
Frank, is there not a "horses for courses" element in this discussion. My sense is that Bark River uses A2 for the same reason that Buck used first 440C and now S30V, namely that carbides are useful for processing game. But, other than scraping bone, there's generally not much lateral pressure on the edge when cleaning game.

In contrast, when working with wood, there's s lot of lateral pressure on the edge, so for that, a fine carbide steel could be taken to a keener edge for woodworking with less chance of chipping.

Not saying that one better than the other, only that each steel has its trade offs.
 
I'm not arguing how much lateral pressure there is in cleaning game. I'm asking at what angle is he sharpening. He did not say.
 
Frank, i'm not looking to argue anything either. The OP mentioned whittling a particularly hard wood and I wonder if this steel is better suited for hunting than wood working. Or perhaps better to say that I wonder if he could use a thinner angle for hunting but that wood working with that hard wood might require a higher angle than he might need for a finer carbide steel.

Again, not arguing and sorry if i cam off that way.
 
So that kind of gets back to the question, "what angle is he using?"
 
jaxelk said:
My Gunny Hunter in A2 is chipping a lot more than it should. It chips in one or two places whenever I whittle hardwood with it. I got the current edge using 100, 1500, and 2000 grit sandpaper followed by leather stropping with black and green compound. Am I doing something to the edge that makes it chip prone or could I possibly have a knife with weaker steel?
Click to expand...

I'm having the exact same problem with my Bark River Bravo EDC in A2.
 
Last edited:
Guys, A2 works fine for wood. But, if it's chipping with lateral pressure, there's only one way to fix it: more obtuse main edge. Try running 20-25 dps and I'll bet the chipping will resolve.
 
"For A2 the low edge stability could not be due to carbide issues as both the carbide size and volume in A2 are very low"*. Source: Z. Zurecki,*Cryogenic quenching of steel revisited, Air Products and Chemicals Inc., 2005

Edge chipping in your A2 blade is likely caused by a high hardness blade with too acute of an edge angle for the task at hand.

Chipping gets discussed all the time in the Makers Subforum. The common solution is to sharpen, test, then adjust the angle if it chips.
 
I have a Bark River Gunny in A2 and have done a fair bit of whittling and chopping on hard wood limbs and haven't had a chip yet, with the factory angle.

I will watch it closely though.
 
Brian.Evans said:
"For A2 the low edge stability could not be due to carbide issues as both the carbide size and volume in A2 are very low"*. Source: Z. Zurecki,*Cryogenic quenching of steel revisited, Air Products and Chemicals Inc., 2005
Click to expand...


Just to seek clarification and to back-track on what I wrote above....

Am I correct in understanding that A2 doesn't have large or large numbers of carbides so long as it is cyrongenically tempered, otherwise it can grow austenite carbides, correct? Discussion of that here:
https://books.google.com/books?id=L...iQeCh3GYApt#v=onepage&q=a2 cryogenic &f=false

To add to this, we know that Bark River cyrongenically treats their blades and has a very good reputation for that, so please disregard my pondering about carbides being an issue here. It shouldn't be.

Edge chipping in your A2 blade is likely caused by a high hardness blade with too acute of an edge angle for the task at hand.

Chipping gets discussed all the time in the Makers Subforum. The common solution is to sharpen, test, then adjust the angle if it chips.
Click to expand...

Raging agreement.
 
The knife was sharpened at an angle of around 13 degrees. I intend to use it as my deer knife this year. However, while taking a break during muzzleloader season I began to whittle a small piece of oak and when I looked at the blade I noticed two chips. This surprised me. But maybe the angle is too acute for anything other than processing game.
 
Degrees per side or inclusive?

Either way, increase it to 20 per side and see if it gets better.
 
jaxelk said:
The knife was sharpened at an angle of around 13 degrees. I intend to use it as my deer knife this year. However, while taking a break during muzzleloader season I began to whittle a small piece of oak and when I looked at the blade I noticed two chips. This surprised me. But maybe the angle is too acute for anything other than processing game.
Click to expand...

I agree with Evan. I would consider 13° too acute for hard wood. Something like 20° per side would likewise be my recommendation.
 
As was mentioned already - try microbevel. I would suggest asymmetrical one (on one side at about 40 - 45deg) - I have kitchen knivfe with high HRC A2 and microbevel does not influence the cutting abilities, but greatly reduces (micro)chipping (the knife is used for chopping and so the edge sees a rather hard use)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top