AEB-L steel imperfection?

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Michael Black

Michael Black

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Okay so I ran across these little marks during hand sanding an AEB-L chef knife at 400 grit, and they don't want to go away. I don't have much material to work with for removal, and I'm wondering if it could be a steel imperfection from the mill? I've never seen something like this before. Thoughts? They're not deep enough to feel with your finger, and they only showed up as I started hand sanding, so they're not rust.

About to go try to grind through them, but so far the farther I've gone the worst they've gotten...

Link to video: https://i.imgur.com/6mXVr9z.mp4

Tb4wUwi.jpg
 
Crazy, how much grinding did you do after heat treating?

I’ve never seen this in true AEB-L made by Uddeholm, it’s always been very clean for me. I’ve used tons of it, literally.

Hoss
 
Are you sure it's AEB-L? I was sold some steel that was labeled AEB -L. It turned out NOT to be AEB-L. After that I have been very careful to mark on steel where I got it.
 
I have used a good amount of AEB-L and never have come across something like that. Where did you get the steel?
 
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I bought it from Tru Grit in June. I rough ground in some bevels pre heat treat, then had it heat treated by Tru Grit and finish grinded it after that. These marks didn't show until I got to hand sanding.

I tried grinding them back out, and managed to grind out a few of the marks, but the rest didn't quite go away, since I didn't really have any more material to safely remove. I ended up just going with a 220g hand sanded finish so the marks don't show. They're definitely very small, but it's a bit disconcerting.
 
David Mary said:
How did this come to light, and what is it if not AEB-L?
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Yeah I'm interested to know more about this as well. That's my usual provider of it, I only bought from Tru Grit on this batch because it was convenient since I was getting some belts from them too.
 
The AEB-L from Trugrit certainly is AEB-l. I have used a lot from them and it looks just like the AEB-L I have gotten from Alpha Knife Supply.

Is it possible you got something on the blade and it corroded it?
 
AVigil said:
The AEB-L from Trugrit certainly is AEB-l. I have used a lot from them and it looks just like the AEB-L I have gotten from Alpha Knife Supply.

Is it possible you got something on the blade and it corroded it?
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I really don't know how that would have happened. It literally showed up in the middle of grinding the blade. It did not sit for any period of time during the process, and I was simply dunking it into my usual bucket of water to keep the heat down. Additionally, if it was corrosion, I would think it would have quickly ground out and disappeared.
 
Michael Black said:
I really don't know how that would have happened. It literally showed up in the middle of grinding the blade. It did not sit for any period of time during the process, and I was simply dunking it into my usual bucket of water to keep the heat down. Additionally, if it was corrosion, I would think it would have quickly ground out and disappeared.
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Do you have a piece of the original bar? Take a picture of it. AEB-L has that smooth gray finish to it.

Does the bar look like the other AEB-L you have ?

If it is AEB-L it is the first time seeing that.
 
AVigil said:
Do you have a piece of the original bar? Take a picture of it. AEB-L has that smooth gray finish to it.

Does the bar look like the other AEB-L you have ?

If it is AEB-L it is the first time seeing that.
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I do not, unfortunately. It is all knife blanks at this point, and it was the only bar I had. Of the 4 knife blanks I made from it, the first didn't have anything like this, and I haven't finish ground the last 2. But I will keep my fingers crossed that this was the only problem piece...
 
It might just be the picture, but to be they look not like discoloration, but more like divots or pull-outs. Sounds like it is too late, but if you see them again it might be instructive to see if you can probe them with the tip of a pin and see if they are little divots...
 
I too have use A LOT of AEB-L (well not quite as much as Hoss) but lots. I've never seen that either.
 
john april said:
im still stuck on the part where a well known supplier is selling something that is not what it is advertised to be ??
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The difference is in the way they make the steel. Uddeholm strip steel division makes AEB-L by continuous casting and rolling and cold rolling the material into mostly very thin material. A lot of it is rolled down to ~.006 inches for razors. This amount of rolling can’t handle inclusions so they start with cleaner grade iron ore and make sure it has very low impurity.

Some mills duplicate the chemical make up of the steel but use more traditional cast wrought methods. These mills make plate and sheet for the most part. They make pretty good steel but usually allow for higher amounts of impurities. The annealing of the material is also slightly different.

MB has an anomaly here. Not sure how he got so lucky.

Hoss
 
Cushing H. said:
Me too
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I mean, I'm not posting this to try to call out Trugrit or anything. This was mostly to see if you guys agreed with my opinion on what it could be. I will only be concerned if the other two knife blanks have flaws, otherwise I'm just grouping it under the "stuff happens" category and will just change my plans with the blade finish and move on.
 
Michael Black said:
I mean, I'm not posting this to try to call out Trugrit or anything. This was mostly to see if you guys agreed with my opinion on what it could be. I will only be concerned if the other two knife blanks have flaws, otherwise I'm just grouping it under the "stuff happens" category and will just change my plans with the blade finish and move on.
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Trugrit just sells steel, it would be their supplier that is the problem.
Call Jeff Mutz at Trugrit and let him know. He has heat treated thousands of AEB-L and knows it very well and I am pretty sure he has not seen anything like that as well.
 
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