Common QC issues???

T

TheEdge01

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Apr 3, 2015
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I have been buying and trading knives for several years and have seen several QC issues such as uncentered blades and blade play. However, the most common QC issue I have encountered is flat spots on the edge. I have seen this issue with expensive as well as budget knives. A dull blade doesn’t bother me because I usually sharpen it regardless of the factory edge, but flat spots are a pain to deal with especially trying to sharpen them out using the Sharpmaker. Most of the flat spots I have seen are about a half of an inch long and are usually towards the tip of the blade.
What are most common QC issues you have encountered?
 
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From my personal experience dullness and bad blade centering have been common issues with budget knives I’ve purchased in the past. Now that my threshold is much higher machining marks and uneven fitment are more common to me now. But I usually stick to brands that don’t normally have these issues.
 
Rarely encounter such problems these days (CS, Spyderco, BM. Buck). Quality control has improved significantly in the last few years, maybe due to CNC machining, at least with higher-end knives.
 
115Italian said:
Uneven edge grinds. Uneven blade bevels and uneven top swedges.
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^yep this. see other minor cosmetic stuff from many to all production brands. dont care about those cosmetics. as an example of cosmetic....off center blade when closed. uneven bevels are a major pain and requires a proper reprofiling and that takes a lot of time. highly dislike that.
 
TheEdge01 said:
I have been buying and trading knives for several years and have seen several QC issues such as uncentered blades and blade play. However, the most common QC issue I have encountered is flat spots on the edge. I have seen this issue with expensive as well as budget knives. A dull blade doesn’t bother me because I usually sharpen it regardless of the factory edge, but flat spots are a pain to deal with especially trying to sharpen them out using the Sharpmaker. Most of the flat spots I have seen are about a half of an inch long and are usually towards the tip of the blade.
What are most common QC issues you have encountered?
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Honestly imho the Sharpmaker is only really a good system for restoring an already fairly sharp edge. Bringing an edge back from truly dull is a freakin’ nightmare especially on the high end steels we often see these days.

Also if your edge bevel is wider than 20 degrees per side well guess what? The widest setting on the sharpmaker is 40 degrees, that means you won’t be hitting the apex with the sharpmaker.
 
TheEdge01 said:
What are most common QC issues you have encountered?
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Mostly with traditional (non locking) folders. The scales you get look VASTLY different color than the catalog photo; even the photos on the manufacture's web site.
Order dark blue get medium to lighter blue.
Order deep maroon red get pinkish red with white streaks.
 
Lapedog said:
Honestly imho the Sharpmaker is only really a good system for restoring an already fairly sharp edge. Bringing an edge back from truly dull is a freakin’ nightmare especially on the high end steels we often see these days.

Also if your edge bevel is wider than 20 degrees per side well guess what? The widest setting on the sharpmaker is 40 degrees, that means you won’t be hitting the apex with the sharpmaker.
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The Ruby triangular 0.5" x 6" stones are cheap and with them (particularly the lower grits, they carry from 320 down to 60 grit) you can pretty easily re-profile even the sexy modern wear resistant super-steels on a Sharpmaker. The lower grits are ~$5 each, and the 320 grit ones I use most are ~$7, IIRC, from Congress Tools.

I bought a couple of pairs of these years ago and they're still cranking along.

I own multiple guided sharpening systems, including an Apex EP, but out of laziness I mostly use my favorite bench stone or the Sharpmaker. I like the Sharpmaker because it's so compact so I can get away with having it wherever I'm whittling without adding a bunch of clutter. I keep the original grey stones and the Ruby 320s in it, usually, and only dig out the 80 grit stones when I have some major re-profiling work to do in a hurry.
 
Dirt, Rust, and Corrosion are the most common problems I have found with knives. All these problems are pretty easy to avoid. Other than cheap materials on real cheap knives, counterfeits, etc. I have not found QC problems on the knives I have seen. I don't buy junk so don't have to worry about these issues.

I don't care about scratches and blade shape changes because an EDC knife has had a lot of sharpening. I don't care about uneven bevels on an EDC that gets used daily. I don't care about blade tightness and centering because that is just a matter of getting out the hex wrench, etc. and doing a little adjusting.

 
In my admittedly limited experience so far... A badly off-center blade and an uneven grind are the two QC problems I’ve seen on current production folders.
 
Wowbagger said:
Mostly with traditional (non locking) folders. The scales you get look VASTLY different color than the catalog photo; even the photos on the manufacture's web site.
Order dark blue get medium to lighter blue.
Order deep maroon red get pinkish red with white streaks.
Click to expand...
Maybe look at the pictures with another screen, may be that your Display isn't properly configured or just bad at representing colour
 
evilgreg said:
The Ruby triangular 0.5" x 6" stones are cheap and with them (particularly the lower grits, they carry from 320 down to 60 grit) you can pretty easily re-profile even the sexy modern wear resistant super-steels on a Sharpmaker. The lower grits are ~$5 each, and the 320 grit ones I use most are ~$7, IIRC, from Congress Tools.

I bought a couple of pairs of these years ago and they're still cranking along.

I own multiple guided sharpening systems, including an Apex EP, but out of laziness I mostly use my favorite bench stone or the Sharpmaker. I like the Sharpmaker because it's so compact so I can get away with having it wherever I'm whittling without adding a bunch of clutter. I keep the original grey stones and the Ruby 320s in it, usually, and only dig out the 80 grit stones when I have some major re-profiling work to do in a hurry.
Click to expand...

For some reason all I have ever been able to do with diamond stones is destroy an edge.
 
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