Can I remove too much metal?

H

HoosierQ

Joined
Feb 9, 2010
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I have a couple of threads going regarding my current project knife, an ESEE-5. Learned a lot about files.

Here's the short version: Goofed up an attempt to convex a new ESEE-5, ended up stripping the coating off of it and I like that part. I am not a fan of convex right now. I'd prefer not to get into that can-o-worms here. So I am trying to flatten it back out so that I can maintain it with a Sharpmaker...touch-up. To do that, I need to get a pretty wide secondary bevel at about 30 degrees so that I can maintain a 40 degree micro-bevel.

Here's the question. Regarding heat treating: Given the expert heat treat that Rowen Mfg puts on ESEE knives, can I take off too much metal? And get beyond the hardened stuff and get into soft? I have heard of cases where taking a little metal off actuall improved an edge because it got into metal at a better edge holding hardness. Can I go too far the other way? Get myself into soft metal? Or would such a knife be more or less hardened the same all the way throught?

Don't get me wrong, I am not turning this thing into a filet knife here. I am just getting back to a flat secondary sufficient to allow the 40 degree Sharpmaker to give me a nice neat microbevel. So far, I have one side just right and the other side is still scratching too far up and I need to get it all just a little bit flatter.
 
I have not had a chance to do rockwell testing on an ESEE knife myself, but I would STRONGLY suspect that they are uniformly hardened. Differential heat treatment seems to be more the hallmark of a custom blade. I say go for it! Good job on removing the coating, though, I suspect you'll see a fairly decent improvement in performance from that alone.
 
Well I sure do like the look of that plain steel. I am not a fan of coating but I am a fan of ESEE...I will probably strip some more of them but for now I've just done the one. I was astonished at how many much more expensive Busse blades are coated.
 
I wouldn't worry about it, I can't imagine that these knives are not through-hardened. Even if they were differentially tempered, you're not moving the edge back more than 1/8" (Right? Because that would be a lot of steel removed) so you'd probably still be in hard steel.

If anything, you will improve the performance by thinning the knife a little behind the edge (I believe the ESEEs are known for being overbuilt). Also its not uncommon for manufacturers to overheat the edges when they do the factory edge, so the steel at the original edge may have actually been softer than the new edge you're uncovering. I've had at least a couple of knives improve in edge stabiliy after several sharpenings.
 
Rob

Yeah, it'll be way less than 1/8"...maybe 1mm at most. The ESEE-5 is seriously overbuilt. This was one of those deals where un-doing something was harding than doing.
 
You could flat grind to a zero edge (scandi grind) and not have a single worry. Even with a diff. Hardened blade the hardened section would be about where the top of the saber grind starts.
 
Thanks Knifenut. I assumed as much but I am happy to hear from you all that I am going down a good path. Gonna work on it this weekend. I may end up with something I really like here. The ESEE-5 is just way to thick to do many things very well. I get that it is a helicopter escape knife and was built and designed as such. Don't get into helicopters much. But it is very cool and I like it a lot so I am going to play with it and get it how I like it.
 
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