Bent tip

C

CDH

Joined
Jun 8, 2007
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283
I just noticed (after the 600 grit step of hand finishing:mad:) that I have a slight bend in the tip of a blade. It is about 3/8" of the tip and the bend is slight but noticeable if you are looking for it. It is a personal blade, so I can live with it I guess, though it will haunt me forever!

This is an O1 blade that I did HT with a torch and ATF with a 450 degree temper (oven thermostat picked a crappy time to stick...whole 'nuther story). It is about .035" thick at the bend point. My best estimate of the bend point is about .20" back from the tip. The offset is about .02".

If I were to guess at the quality of my home HT, I would guess slightly under heated during the hardening stage. It took me 3 tries (heating a little more each time then dunking) before I got a file to skate, and my soak time would be maybe 2 minutes.

What do you think my chances are of straightening it without breaking it off?

It is dang hard to just chalk a blade up to learning when you have so many hours into one and so few under your belt as I do...:o
 
Sounds like what happened with my first damascus blade. In my case i had just enough thickness that with a whole lot of hand sanding i was able to straighten out the bend by just sanding down the side that it bent away from at the tip and sanding thinner the whole other side at the back to bring it back to the center.

I'm in the same boat as you with blades currently, having made few enough that I'm very reluctant to not do everything I possibly can to fix something I've found to be wrong.

That being said, if youv'e already hardened and tempered the blade, it's too late to straighten out the blade by force, if it was tempered properly it will just spring right back to where it was if you hit it with something, and if you take it far enough to stay there after it springs back, you've probably taken the blade to a failure point.
 
If the blade is long enough, you could just reprofile it and grind the offending section off. If you just grind the edges it probably won't screw up the finishing work you've done on the flats.
 
Do you have scales attached? If not just go re-HT it! You could have been done several times by now. Certainly no need to settle fo something that will forever haunt you when the solution is so simple. If you DO have it handled already, put it in the oven at 350 degrees and let it sit for half an hour. Your epoxy can't take that kind of temp but your handle material USUSALLY can. Take it apart and redo it. Most you'll be out is a set of scales.
Matt
 
I thought if redoing the HT (no, the scales are not yet attached), and I guess it would be good practice, but I have a bad feeling I'll screw it up and seriously ruin the thing! My luck (skills) is not particularly good, so I take forever to get a project done.

Also, this is destined to be carried in a few weeks on a desert mule deer hunt, so there is no time for starting over.

I think I can sand down the high side and live with the result. My clip point is starting to look more like a drop point every day, but it'll still work.

I guess this means the consensus is against trying to bend the tip back straight.

Thanks for the suggestions!
 
CDH
If you were using PBC antiscale powder you would still have your 600 finish when you were done. Whiteout, while not even close to as good as PBC, will help out considerably as well.
NO! Do not try to bend the tip back straight. There is only one outcome to that process and you would not be pleased with it.
Matt
 
My only anti scaling technique is a rich flame. Okay, short soak time too. :D I know, it is a tradeoff, but the HT recommendations on the package only mention 'heated through' which for a 1/8" blade should only be a few seconds...

I think the risk of screwing up on another round of HT is too high and I don't have time to complete another blade before my mulie hunt. That is the goal of this exercise...having my first sole source (barstock2complete blade) to carry on that trip. I think I can live with the results of sanding down the high side. It will blunt the tip a bit more, but I think it will leave me enough point to be functional.

I am really liking this design, and if I don't find any major defects I may have the first design I'm willing to throw on the market and see what happens.
 
I think you should soak 01 for a good 5 minutes at 1/8" thick. You could technically heat it up red again and straighten it, quench and then re temper it.

I'm guessing with a torch, the Heat treatment isn't exact everywhere (unless you had several torches or some weird jig to heat treat alot of the blade all at once.

Or like someone else said, just grind off the bent part (and no one will ever know!) :D
 
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