Back From Spa--With a Question for Joe Houser

BG42EDGE

BG42EDGE

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Beautiful, but there are some strange pits on one that I don't understand. I wonder if the buffing could have uncovered some flaws in the brass? Can you tell me, Joe? I'm pretty sure these were not there before the Spa, or if they were, maybe they were not as deep and not obvious to the eye.

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I don't know.

I know I have old pics of that knife, but I usually tend to take pictures of the left side of a knife to get the stamp, so I may not have anything of the right side.

I'll do some looking.
 
That one has some really handsome Macassar...and a nice Full blade...
there seems to be some directionality to those divots...I have a theory...
 
Maybe there were hidden if the corrosion was bad on them. Or, there was an issue with the "polishing" wheel having stuff lodged in it which dinged the crap out of it. I would be pretty bummed if I paid to get it dinged up! I know stuff happens, but ouch!
 
I know I have opened up small cavities in the bolsters on couple of the many knives I've restored. They weren't as bad as yours. I was able to sand most of them away, but that did take away some brass.

Maybe it's in the casting process??
 
Seems like I read a post from Joe or maybe another Buck employee where they talked about buffing out dings and dents and how if you went deep enough voids in the brass casting could be exposed.
 
I'm puzzled. I think this knife was actually in pretty good shape to start with.

But I was thinking the only way they'd send it back to me like that would be if the buffing was just exposing more voids and they thought things would get worse if they went farther.

I PMd Joe to take a look at a couple threads here, but he hasn't posted for a couple of months. Maybe he's just too busy to visit us. I have a feeling they've been playing catch up at Buck (based on the scarcity of many models for many months).

Oh well.......we shall see.
 
The older brass used had some problems with porosity, It could be that. I see that happen on older 110's I've buffed.
 
Yes.......that's my guess, Jerad. It's rare, but I remember hearing of it before. Just too bad it turned up on a special knife like this one.

Would love to hear from Joe on it this week but I see he just responded to Plumberdv's questions about the Vet's program from......must be almost two weeks ago, so I'm thinking it may take a while. I think they are just very, very busy at Buck these days.
 
BG42EDGE said:
Yes.......that's my guess, Jerad. It's rare, but I remember hearing of it before. Just too bad it turned up on a special knife like this one.

Would love to hear from Joe on it this week but I see he just responded to Plumberdv's questions about the Vet's program from......must be almost two weeks ago, so I'm thinking it may take a while. I think they are just very, very busy at Buck these days.
Click to expand...

Without seeing the knife in the before state, I can only speculate as to what would cause those pits. Usually if they are left in, it means my rework guy felt that chasing after them might only make the problem worse. Its rare to see them that bad though.
I'm also sure you would remember if the knife had pits like that when it was sent in so I just dont know.
To clarify...did you recieve BOTH knives back in the same box? I studied your close up pictures and got a sick feeling that maybe the dings in the one, were caused by the other knife hitting it during shipment? Were they both in the same foam envelop? I know they do that often but they fold it over so they wont hit. Maybe those knives had a rough ride back to you. The pits look like something hit the brass.
If you want, send it to my attention and if it looks like we can remove the pits without ruining the knife, we'll do it. I'll cover the shipping both ways.
 
Well, they did come together in one envelope and it was folded over.

Yes, the knife was somewhat polished up when I sent it in and the pits definitely were not there unless they were almost undetectable and really only opened up when your guys started buffing.

Well, I really have no choice.

I really have to send it back to you because I got everybody curious now and the only way we get an answer is if you get it in your hands so you can figure it out.

I'll get it shipped out tomorrow.

Thanks much, Joe.
 
Well, it's in Joe's hands now.

I'm sure we will soon have an answer to the mystery of the pits.
 
I have also encountered some "porosity" in the older brass bolstered Bucks while doing engraving on them.

It seems that the pits were from the casting process and can be hiding below the smooth outer surface?

Peter
 
Yeah........well, I SURE do hope they can do something to fix it.

If not......it's another rare factory-modified one of a kind Pitted FG 112 Three-Dotter.

I suppose I should get a COA on that.

:)
 
For what it's worth, years ago we used to get cast brass plumbing fixtures and fittings fairly often with casting defects in them. Many times you couldn't see them with the naked eye but they would start weeping water when they were pressurized. I'm sure that if we'd ground into those areas, we would have found pits or voids in the brass from casting.
 
Well i dont know if you got your 112 back yet but it was dinged up, not pitted. It seemed odd that the dings were on both front and back bolster. I figured that the other 112 hit this one to cause the dings but it would only have dinged one end of the knife. Who knows...
Anyway, the knife was taken care of and dropped back in the mail. Sorry for the extra trip!
 
Well, hallelujah......the knife is back and it's perfect.

Amazing, because those pits were deep (as you can see in the pics above).

The note said nothing about pits or porousity, just that the knife had been damaged in shipping, so unless Joe stops back here with some details, I guess that's the last word.

There is not a trace of those pits......not even a hint of an imperfection (the knife looked so good I had to check the slab patterns to verify that it was indeed the same knife).

They got it back to me in less than a week, so once again the Buck magic has been worked upon brass, wood and steel.

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