Condor knive, what steel they use?

I would have to say that my personal experience with stock, unmodified 2011 Bushlores has been vastly different than the quoted Cliff Stamp posting above. I suspect that there's something wrong with that individual knife, and not the line as a whole. As someone who has considerable experience with Condor products (I was a fan for YEARS before I set up shop selling them) the occasional lemon of a heat treatment gets through, but the typical performance is incredibly high. So good, in fact, that my Rodan is my most used woods knife. I carry it in my pack with my ESEE-3, ESEE-6, Mora #760, and a few other blades. The others barely get used these days because the Rodan works so well. Most of the Bushlores that I've received in my stock have been able to cleanly and aggressively slice newsprint out of the box, and many have had shaving sharp edges on them.

I strongly suggest getting touch with Rick Jones at Condor via the phone number listed on their site and address the issue with him. You WILL receive satisfaction.
 
Komitadjie I do believe in what Cliff wrote.....actually 1000 passes on an XC will be NOT ENOUGH in my opinion...BTW Cliff is talking about the fat bushlore.
A comparison pic between 5/32 stock review now & 1/8. Komitadjie, you touched only 1/8 stock.

IMG_5097.jpg

IMG_5100.jpg
 
I've had the same results as 42, honestly, with all but one of my Condors. They would easy slice paper out of the box. Newsprint, I didn't try, but regular paper they sliced effortlessly.
 
kurodrago said:
For a guy who registered in 2010..How can you know why Cliff was bannerd for?
Cliff was banned because he had argument with the ower of this forum..& because that, few Co. & knifemakers who sell shit... been feeling relieved form the dangerous Cliff.
The truth is out there!
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The only truth that is out there is that a thinner knife cuts better than a thicker one, and I think that we all knew that already. I think at this point, all you are doing is trying to stir the pot. You've sent the knife to anyone BUT Condor. I don't understand why, when they (and Joe himself) are more than willing to make it right.

It seems that the latest rage is get on the internet and badmouth a product instead of giving the company a chance to make it right.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
I would have to say that my personal experience with stock, unmodified 2011 Bushlores has been vastly different than the quoted Cliff Stamp posting above. I suspect that there's something wrong with that individual knife, and not the line as a whole. As someone who has considerable experience with Condor products (I was a fan for YEARS before I set up shop selling them) the occasional lemon of a heat treatment gets through, but the typical performance is incredibly high. So good, in fact, that my Rodan is my most used woods knife. I carry it in my pack with my ESEE-3, ESEE-6, Mora #760, and a few other blades. The others barely get used these days because the Rodan works so well. Most of the Bushlores that I've received in my stock have been able to cleanly and aggressively slice newsprint out of the box, and many have had shaving sharp edges on them.

I strongly suggest getting touch with Rick Jones at Condor via the phone number listed on their site and address the issue with him. You WILL receive satisfaction.
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kurodrago, the last line fortytwoblades posted is the best advise you can follow. get the knife back and send it to the manufacturer. cliff is good at stirring up trouble like i told you. there is a reason he was banned from here and this is a good example.
 
demoteamone said:
Do you want to bet money on that quote?
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I don't bet. But if I did, I would. As I personally hand inspect each piece I receive, I stated fact based on experience. You would lose, as the quote stated that more than 50% of the ones I received could slice newsprint cleanly. It's unwise to place bets on things that are quantitative and have already happened. :p
 
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My 2011 Bushlore came with a convex edge. I hadn't had to do it in a while, but I employed the marker trick to understand what was happening with my initial sharpening attempts. I converted it to a scandi grind, and now I've been able to get it really, really sharp.
 
Yeah, they were at least originally supposed to be a true Scandi but I'm not sure what happened to that. I'm fine with the high-height shallow convex that comes on them though. It's more than acceptable in the new 1/8" stock and is shallow enough of a convex that it's easily converted to a true Scandi if you so desire.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
I would have to say that my personal experience with stock, unmodified 2011 Bushlores has been vastly different than the quoted Cliff Stamp posting above. .
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This is the new version 2011, 1/8 take a look closely.

I have the blades hardness tested, as expected they are very hard, it was done with a Brinell tester which is suitable up to about 60 HRC. They maxed out the tester so the blades are 60+ HRC, that is not surprising.


[video=youtube;b8ejsQ1Rj8M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8ejsQ1Rj8M&feature=feedu[/video]





This one is 2010 made fat one. 5/32



DSC00393.jpg


if you look closely you can see the crack from the edge to the middle of the blade. Five times magnification :

PICT0004-1.jpg


and again :

PICT0003.jpg


These are very hard, which itself is not a bad thing, but extremely brittle.
 
Komitadjie said:
Well, I wasn't talking using the spine to actually remove metal, but more as a butcher's steel for maintenance between sharpenings. When you're steeling a blade, you're not removing metal, you're just re-shaping it to put the edge back in line.
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My mum does that all the time, she's South African and it was fairly common practice out there.
 
I actually gave it a try a month or so, and it seemed to work fairly well. Used the rounded spine on a chef's knife to steel the edge of the carving knife in the set, it did pretty much as well as a smooth steel, although I had to use much lighter pressure for the smaller area. It continually amazes me the SIMPLE things people come up with that have you going "Now why didn't I think of that?" Only downside is that you have to turn the knife for each swipe on the steel, and you have to be careful not to damage the point of the blade you're using as the steel.

What happened to the edge there, Kuro? Is that just a lighting effect, or is actually dinged pretty good?
 
kurodrago said:
This is the new version 2011, 1/8 take a look closely.

I have the blades hardness tested, as expected they are very hard, it was done with a Brinell tester which is suitable up to about 60 HRC. They maxed out the tester so the blades are 60+ HRC, that is not surprising.




[video=youtube;b8ejsQ1Rj8M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8ejsQ1Rj8M&feature=feedu[/video]





This one is 2010 made fat one. 5/32



DSC00393.jpg


if you look closely you can see the crack from the edge to the middle of the blade. Five times magnification :

PICT0004-1.jpg


and again :

PICT0003.jpg


These are very hard, which itself is not a bad thing, but extremely brittle.
Click to expand...

Well, hard to argue that those particular pieces aren't like that. Like I said, my experience with them has been different, and I suspect that they suffer from a botched heat treatment. Specified RC range is 56-58, so if it was 60+ it was off-spec. Either way, you can send those two back to Condor and they'll gladly replace them. Be sure to let us know what you think of the replacements! Batoning was part of their expected/intended function, so that's something completely under warranty.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Well, hard to argue that those particular pieces aren't like that. Like I said, my experience with them has been different, and I suspect that they suffer from a botched heat treatment. Specified RC range is 56-58, so if it was 60+ it was off-spec. Either way, you can send those two back to Condor and they'll gladly replace them. Be sure to let us know what you think of the replacements! Batoning was part of their expected/intended function, so that's something completely under warranty.
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I don't know about that....Cliff is waiting for quite some time.....nobody responds to Cliff e-mail's still!!!
Olso I like how the way you bolded "unmodified", implying that the modifications could be responsible. !?
"The edge Mod has no side effects on the knife as whole X strength." The bushlore need a Mod on the edge..its a must!
The saddest thing that you & Joezilla seeking to help...but ,becomes even more sad considering Joezilla is a Member of Knifetest.forum...
...and nothing has not been done to fix this YET.
 
I bolded it to make it clear that my experience was only with unmodified examples--just trying to be clear, that's all. And thinning an edge WILL make it more prone towards chipping. ;) It still shouldn't have snapped like that though, so that--combined with the chipping--clearly indicates a flaw in the heat treatment to me.

As far as getting through to Condor, my advice is calling. Rick Jones is one busy dude, so sometimes emails fall through the cracks, but I have yet to ever not get through to him with a quick phone call, and if I ever got his voice mail he has ALWAYS called back same day. The man is customer service exemplified. :thumbup:

I don't think that Joe and I trying to help is sad at all. We just happen to both be very familiar with the brand--me because of my general enthusiasm for them (and being a retailer of their product means I've played around with more than the average fellow) and Joe is a designer for them. I don't mind admitting the flaws that Condor is presently struggling with, though. They're working on improving quality control, and have met with a lot of success in several key areas, but a higher number of lemons than North American, European, or most Asian makers. This is partly due to how many hand operations are used to manufacture their products. I find them to be a lot of knife for the money, but there's a reason why I inspect every Condor I sell. I had to send half of my opening order with them back for replacement. Best to get the exchange for product that meets standards done before it makes it to the customer. They're striving to make it to that point on their own, they just aren't there yet. :o
 
I haven't been able to respond. I'm in El Salvador making sure this isn't an issue right now.
 
hey kuro...have YOU tried to contact me yet? Cause I've tried to contact you? per favore!
 
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