BM Mini Rukus - is the steel soft ?

Rosh

Rosh

Joined
Jan 23, 2002
Messages
220
Hello

Just a couple days ago; I received my new BM Mini Rukus PE... I must say, for a "mini" folder is such a beast !... and out of the box come scary sharp... But my concern is with the steel... Here is the story:

I noticed the point was not really pointed; tip was sharpened, but somehow the bevels doesn't form a real point (I'm a bit picky), so carefully I use one of the rods in my Spyderco Sharpmaker to try to put a point on it.

And accidentally, I hit the plastic base;... I must say not hard at all, but merely it was a tap... next thing I notice the edge was bend at the hit point and formed a "bur"... what the he** ? :eek:

So, I tried to remediate it... I took a small steel (one of those for Vic. SAKs) and start steeling... I must say that with 3 soft passes the edge was rolled the opposite way !... so I ended up reprofiling the entire edge, one stroke on each side at a time....

This thing is made of S30V (stated on the Blade)... I have another blade with same steel (Buck/Mayo TNT)... and edge on it is the thoughter I have see... when I need to touch it up (very seldom).. it makes a nice singing sound, proving its temple. :thumbup:

What's wrong with BM Mini Rukus... why this steel seems so soft ?... anybody have experienced this ? :(

Any comments welcomed...

Regards
 
You may be describing S30v's infamous chipping problem. Essentially from some companies S30v has bad chipping problems. benchmade, unforetunately seems to have this problem. If you are at all unhappy I bet they will make it right by replacing the knife or blade. Try emailing customer service and see what they can do.
 
It may be burnt edge from sharpening (edge is rather thin and can overheat (=lose the temper) easily when sharpening), if you like the knife, try resharpening it
 
Although we haven't entirely nailed down the issue with S30V steel, it seems to relate to the heat built up from power grinding. The edge heats up to the point to disturb the heat treament. Often a good hand sharpening seems to take care of the problem. Take some steel off the edge by hand and it seems to fix it. At least it did for me. I can chop, cut, and scrape oak wood with my Benchmade and Camillus knives without any chipping now.

However, I don't think the spyderco sharpmaker will really take off enough steel. You need a good course stone to take off enough steel and reshape the edge to get it where you want it.
 
MicroAlign said:
Although we haven't entirely nailed down the issue with S30V steel, it seems to relate to the heat built up from power grinding. The edge heats up to the point to disturb the heat treament. Often a good hand sharpening seems to take care of the problem. Take some steel off the edge by hand and it seems to fix it. At least it did for me. I can chop, cut, and scrape oak wood with my Benchmade and Camillus knives without any chipping now.

However, I don't think the spyderco sharpmaker will really take off enough steel. You need a good course stone to take off enough steel and reshape the edge to get it where you want it.
Click to expand...

Seems a reasonable cause to me (although I'm a bit disapointed of BM's QC now)... and also a good advice... I'll try a good resharpening this weeked when I have some spare time...

Thanks for the advice.
 
If the factory edge grinding, or whatever, is ruining the temper, can't they do something to fix that problem? Like blast water on the knife, grind slower, etc?
 
Can you send it back to Benchmade? Let them know whats up, have them look at it and they can either re-sharpen it for your or send you a new one if its a heat treat prob. I am all for reprofiling/grinding a blade on your own but this seems like one you might want to send back if its soft.
 
No problems at all with my Mini-Rukus. The S30V is superb, IMHO - no problems with chipping. Sharpens easily and holds an edge as well or better than any other stainless blade I have used including ATS-34, VG-10.
 
Rosh said:
(although I'm a bit disapointed of BM's QC now)
Click to expand...

Well do we know, what the problem is?

How can you tell a thing about QC by just one knife?

Other part is: As the question about the hardness of BM AUS8a came up, some ppl., like me, were wishing a blade hardness check, like PUMA was doing in the past. Serious ppl. were saying, if you got a close tolerance heat treatment and everything, what do you expect to find with a hardness check? Surprises? The result of that question was, that BM keeps in there promised range more often a bit higher than lower.

Consider the thing that the edge can be burnt by factory sharpening,

ever thought this is a simple factory edge? Simply a burr remaining?

A Vickers hardness check on that blade would be interesting, to see, if there are hardness differences from edge to spine or not. I guess, with a good resharpening you´ll be fine. Otherwise contact BM and send it back for warranty.

Without proof i don´t think there is a ruined blade, simply the edge must be deburred.
 
I wonder if the Sharpmaker with the diamond rods would remove enough steel to "fix" the blade?
 
I like my Mini-Rukus a lot. Like yours, mine came crazy sharp right out of the box. Even sharper than a brand new X-acto blade. No problems at all so far.
 
If you just bought it take it back for replacement, try another one.

Or contact Benchmade directly to fix the situation or replace.

Doesn't sound good to me, better off doings something about it before U do to much that will remove any chance of warranty from BM.
 
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