Blade Steel degrading?

B

Bighaze51

Joined
Dec 26, 2012
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I posted this up in the Buck forum but I thought I'd bring it to attention over here as well. I bought a buck 110 25th anniversary that was in poor shape. The ebony scales were about half gone and the blade had some rust on it too. So I figured it would be a good restoration project. I replace the scales with blue cypress, put back together and polished everything up nicely. Then I started to sharpen the blade. The edge up near the point seems almost soft. I'll get it down to a good apex and the it just sort of chips out. This knife was obviously exposed to a lot of moisture because of the scales and rust. Is it possible the steel started to degrade? It looks fine other than the edge. Any ideas?
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I doubt if rust or corrosion would cause that chipping issue, especially on this stainless blade (this is likely 420HC, but maybe 425M stainless, depending on vintage; tang stamp would reveal what year it was made). I'd more likely suspect damaged temper from overheating (grinding/sharpening on powered tools, I assume by previous owner). Looks like a lot of blade loss from sharpening.


David
 
It's an 88 so it's the 425m. I noticed a chip in that area when I got it. This really upsets me because of the time I've got in restoring this knife and now it's pretty much useless. I've got an 89 110 fg but I'm not robbing the blade out of that one. Anyone got a blade for sale? :)
 
Bighaze51 said:
It's an 88 so it's the 425m. I noticed a chip in that area when I got it. This really upsets me because of the time I've got in restoring this knife and now it's pretty much useless. I've got an 89 110 fg but I'm not robbing the blade out of that one. Anyone got a blade for sale? :)
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You might inquire with Buck, to see if they'd be willing to replace the blade (would likely be 420HC). Might charge for it, but they've always seemed to have a very good rep for finding a way to make knives like these 'fresh' again.


David
 
I've been thinking about that. But I've done some customizing to it. I don't know if the lockbar on the old style will match with the new blade. If that is the case then I'm out of luck because I epoxied these scales on. I may get up with them and try to find out. I wouldn't expect them to do it under warranty. Especially since I've done this work to it
 
Well, I spoke to a rep at buck and they said they would replace the blade. And if anyone is interested, they said the lockbar will match up from a 425m steel knife to the 420hc
 
Bighaze51 said:
Well, I spoke to a rep at buck and they said they would replace the blade. And if anyone is interested, they said the lockbar will match up from a 425m steel knife to the 420hc
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Well that's certainly great to hear. It's things like this that make me buy knives from the company.
 
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