Advice for rolled bowie.

jobasha11

jobasha11

Joined
Oct 9, 2013
Messages
1,509
Sigh... I'm so mad at myself right now.


Let me start by saying it's 52100 heat treated to 59 by Peters and it was ground to around .015 behind the edge

I put an edge on this bowie for testing like I always do with any other knife before completely finishing. Chopped a 2x2" in half and the edge is rolled bad. There was a knot but that shouldn't have caused this.
Im guessing I accidentally overheated the edge by trying to get the most out of belts and rushing because I was especially excited about this build. Ive never overheated an edge before, guess it doesnt take much.










So my question is,
Do you guys think it would be worthwhile to try and grind(carefully) the edge back like this? Or should I just hang it up on the wall to remind me of my ****up?




Note: I did do most of the secondary edge with a little worn out 320 belt on my 1x30. maybe it happened when I was doing this.
 
I would grind the edge back to the pre-HT level, and do another Heat treatment. I think that's the only way to save that blade. Others may differ... As it is, the edge appears to be very soft.
 
did you actuly turn the edge blue when you sharpened it?

also the proper tool for chopping 2x2's I have one it works great ;0)

001160321.jpg
 
No color changing at all. Could it have be too thin? That doesnt make sense either. Ive seen comp cutters pushed much harder than this.

It 1.5" at widest. 3/16" thick.
 
David Stifle said:
I would grind the edge back to the pre-HT level, and do another Heat treatment. I think that's the only way to save that blade. Others may differ... As it is, the edge appears to be very soft.
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If I do grind it back and still have problems I might do that.
 
I know, sin... but could Peters have messed up? The other other 5 knives ive finished from that batch were perfect though.
 
I have an old bowie from solungen germany, that my youngest son has put through its paces on camping trips and such, and the edge has held up fine, its .035 behind the primary edge, you may have gotten your knife a little to thin
 
jobasha11 said:
I know, sin... but could Peters have messed up? The other other 5 knives ive finished from that batch were perfect though.
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That's a good point, and it passed through my mind too. That's some pretty extreme damage even if you did overheat it in a few spots. That damage goes along the entire length of the blade. I've used Peters and they have never screwed up, but there's a first time for everything. They put the blades in in bulk, it may have gotten uneven heat, or...well, whatever. Anyway, why not give Brad a call and discuss this with him, he may tell you to take the edge back and send it in for a free HT, who knows?

The second choice is to take it back, re-sharpen and test it again. There is nothing wrong in testing your bowie on 2x4's, although I'd choose pine rather than a hardwood:):) I know a lot of guys will disagree here however.
 
I don't know David. Structural pine is pretty tough stuff. Not maple tough, but definitely tough.

Jobasha, I bet you got your edge a bit thin for the purpose.
 
Brian.Evans said:
I don't know David. Structural pine is pretty tough stuff. Not maple tough, but definitely tough.

Jobasha, I bet you got your edge a bit thin for the purpose.
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Maybe. But aren't 52100 comp cutters ground even wider and thinner than this? I should probably retest it before calling just to make sure.

Sorry im all over the place guys, really lost.
 
Brian.Evans said:
I don't know David. Structural pine is pretty tough stuff. Not maple tough, but definitely tough.

Jobasha, I bet you got your edge a bit thin for the purpose.
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It is, Brian. But if you are out in the woods and you need to build a shelter, and all you have is your bowie, you should expect it to live up to the challenge. I wouldn't test a kitchen knife like that, but a bowie knife should be able to handle saplings, or 2x4's:) As I said, others don't share this philosophy and that's cool.
 
At this point any salvage made is just to keep it useable to yourself. With the full flat grind you did, there will be a noticeable change in thickness after taking the edge back ~1/4" and then regrinding. That's if that solves your problem. Then your talking even more steel coming off and at that point it's mutated pretty bad. But that makes the best knives right? Maybe itll be cool, dont lose your hopes but decide if its worth a few more hours or days. The deformations makes me really lost....
 
jobasha11 said:
Maybe. But aren't 52100 comp cutters ground even wider and thinner than this? I should probably retest it before calling just to make sure.

Sorry im all over the place guys, really lost.
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If it had been too thin, I would assume Peters would have refused to HT it. Unless you ground the edge as thin as a kitchen knife, I wouldn't think that's the issue. I do believe you got a bad Ht. That just should not have happened, even if the edge was thin. I can see a pine knot causing some damage, but not that much and not like that. I'd be interested in what Stacy thinks. Why not take it off line and PM him if he doesn't chime in?
 
David Stifle said:
If it had been too thin, I would assume Peters would have refused to HT it. Unless you ground the edge as thin as a kitchen knife, I wouldn't think that's the issue. I do believe you got a bad Ht. That just should not have happened, even if the edge was thin. I can see a pine knot causing some damage, but not that much and not like that. I'd be interested in what Stacy thinks. Why not take it off line and PM him if he doesn't chime in?
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I agree, ive done the same thing with the same steel at the same thickness without any damage before plus more.

It was actually fairly thick when I sent it out (probably ~.045) just to make sure it wouldn't warp. This was the longest blade ive ever done so I was a little wary. I did a bit of post grinding to get it where it is now.

Im sure he'll be along soon...
 
How did you end up with 5 huge divots? One ding was enough to tell you there was a problem. That looks more like banging annealed steal on the edge of harder steel. Fix it. Grind off the handle, grind back the edge and re grind the main bevel. Then send out for heat treat. Just my 2 cents tho.
 
I have to say that the first thought I had was that you were trying to chop nails in half. If that was caused by a knot, it was a pretty tiny...and extremely hard....knot. Could it have been a nail in the board?

Grind the edge back to the roll and then re-sharpen it. I bet it will be fine. Sounds like the edge was a bit thin for a bowie.
 
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