Bad heat treat?

[cjensema]

Last week I got a medium guthook skinner blade from Texas Knifemakers. This blade is 440C, cryo treated. I wasn't too pleased with the quality of the blade because there was a bad grind job on the top of the blade where the gut hook meets the blade spine. However, I figured I could grind out the imperfections.

As soon as I started working I noticed that it seemed soft and I could remove stock quite easily with a file. I compared filing this gut hook with filing an annealed blade I had laying around and found the gut hook was harder, but not much.

Do you agree that the gut hook blade has an unacceptably bad heat treating job? Is there a quick, practical way of judging whether a factory blade has been properly heat treated? I don't think I should be able to easily file a properly treated 440c blade.

In general, do factory blades have high rates of poor heat treating? If they do, I'll stop buying them and just stick with making my own or buying from people who I know have good heat treating.

Thanks for your input.

Carl

 

[T. J.]

I've never recieved a soft or poorly heat treated blade, but most if not all of them are poorly ground in one way or another. That's part of the deal when ordering kit blades.

I have heard of several problems with soft blades here and on other forums though. If you think it's bad, send it back, Jim normally don't have a problem with that.

James

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I love my country! I just don't trust my government!

 

[L6steel]

Cj, if they won't take the blade back because you've altered it by grinding or filing on it, you might want to send it to Rob Simonich for heat treat. His prices are very reasonable, and he includes cryo treatment. I am very happy with his work! Take care! Michael

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"Always think of your fellow knife makers as partners in the search for the perfect blade, not as people trying to compete with you and your work!"