Blade attacked by steel wool, suggestions ?

Dark Nemesis

Dark Nemesis

Joined
Mar 20, 1999
Messages
7,497
I loaned one of my knives to my nephew. From what I can gather, through the course of working with it the blade became really dirty. Instead of giving the poor thing back to me for a cleaning, he decided to try to keep himself out of trouble. Before giving it back he cleaned the entire blade with a brillo pad(steel wool). From what I can see the blade appears to be fine, but has that steel wool done extreme damage to the blade. It was bead blasted ATS-34. I gave it a good oiling and as I said the blade seems to be fine, but I have never had to deal with this before
smile.gif


Is this knife a lost cause now ? or do you think it will be fine ?

I held off on beating his A** until I received some feedback from someone with more experience. Thanks for your time.



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All of God's Critters may have knives, but most of them are Benchmade Knives
 
" From what I
can see the blade appears to be fine, but has that steel wool done
extreme damage to the blade"

You are talking two different concepts and using the same word: blade. Steel wool won't hurt the blade, it can muck up the finish. Send it back to BM to re-bead blast or live with it. And I wouldn't go smacking a kid for trying to clean up a borrowed tool, especially if I didn't know any better than he did.
 
Just consider the blade "broke-in." And make it known that junior owes you one. hehe.
I did some durability testing to my BM975 a while back (cutting up old coleman white gas cans etc.), needless to say, this didn't help that baby soft bead blasting, or the brittle tip. oh well! I get new boots and I find the nearest mud puddle. I get a new knife and I try to destroy it. I think i used a Scotchbrite pad to clean off the blade, and now it's got a sort of dull polished look, and i kinda like it.

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It is better to have and not need, than to need and not have.
 
Think of this as a character building and bonding exercise and an opportunity to educate your nephew on the finer points of knife handling and care. I doubt that the steel wool will hurt ATS-34. However, if the finish doesn't look quite right to you, do as DC suggested and send it back to BM for treatment.

Kids will be kids. They need all the help we can give them.
smile.gif
 
Hell with it! I say flog the little yard monkey!
biggrin.gif

Seriously though, he didn't know better and thought he was doing you a good turn. Give him a break this time.
If you really don't like the looks of the blade now, you can send it back for refinish, or you may want to go to Wal-mart and buy some 1000 and 2000 grit sandpaper and put a mirror shine on the blade! This looks REALLY neat on a production knife IMHO. It's not a big deal to do, just sit in front of the tube anc polish the blade through ER or X Files, pick your flavor. The sand paper is so fine that you CAN'T mess up!



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I cut it, and I cut it, and it's STILL too short!

 
Thank you all for your responses. DC, the knife is not a benchmade, dont think they would want to receive it
smile.gif
Guess I will just deal with it.

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All of God's Critters may have knives, but most of them are Benchmade Knives
 
yeah, bead blast is extremeley sensitive to scratches, mostly because the scratch turns up as a really shiny streak, which is the metal underneath. You could possibly send it to some custom maker to reblast it for you, or you can polish it to a satin finish. I may have read an above reply incorrectly, but taking 1000 or 2000 grit sandpaper directly to a bead blast won't really work...it would take the bead blast away but then you'd be stuck with the (probably) rough finish underneath, and most likely little spots of bead blast you couldn't smooth out. You'd have to start from a corser grit then gradually work up to your desired grit. (this is a somewhat brief description of the process). remember: bead blast sucks!!!
smile.gif

 
Depending on the grind, and whether you can remove the blade easily, your nephew may have done you a great favor. If the blade is flat ground, it is just a matter of some wet/dry sandpaper in incremental grits and some elbow grease to make your blade more visually appealing and more functional. Get a sanding block and some 120, 200, 300, 400, and 600 grit wet/dry sand paper, go to

http://www.engnath.com/Part2a.html#Hand , and follow the directions.

If you blade is hollow ground, you will have to make a sanding block with the same diameter as the grind.

It is a lot of work to sand the bead blasting off with the 120, but once you get that done, the other grits go pretty fast. The blade will look better, and be much less prone to rust. I have done three Benchmade CQC7s, and the results are well worth the effort.

Harv
 
Steve:

That sounds like a good project for me. I was just a little steamed before. Thanks for the idea, and I hope I can get as good as results that you got with the CQC-7's. DC, I would never really beat him except in my dreams. If this works well, I might have to do it to my CQC-7. Thanks

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All of God's Critters may have knives, but most of them are Benchmade Knives
 
I guess I just figured that the steel wool took the blade down to a smooth but ugly finish. 1000 and 2000 grit are for finishing only, but they will give you a MIRROR finish.

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I cut it, and I cut it, and it's STILL too short!

 
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