Could a cheap Asian made knife with mediocre steel be saved?

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T. Erdelyi

T. Erdelyi

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Could a cheap knife with average steel be reheat treated to a higher quality makin' a better knife outta a junky one.

I have bought cheap knives in the past and added bushings, hand fit the scales, redrilled and tapped holes even some lite grindin' to get a better fit.

I've rescued a few POS knives to make 'em decent tool box knives, how about you guys, anybody ever rebuild/inprove on a made in China/Pakistan knife?
 
:o
I do that with my Kershaw and Spyderco folders.

My best project thus far has got to be the Buck Bravo. Factory ergonomics were terrible.
I love the end result though.

Unfortunately the design if this liner lock is still terrible. They ground off 1/4 of the lock face on the blade to make it unlock more easily.:confused:
Out of the box the liner moved all the way across the tang, it took a bit of fiddling to get it to seat where it is.
Why in the world they would slap in a .05" liner to use as the lock when the handle already has two .075" liners is beyond me. Well, I know they did it because that's how they make all their locks but good grief if any knife could have used a thicker lock bar it's this one.
I guess scrapping the factory lock bar and fitting the handle liner as the locking liner would be next on the to do list for this knife.
Not forgetting to re-grind the lock face.
And replace the stop pin. Looks like there's room to fit a bolt in the blade and replace the thumbstuds and stop pin at the same time.

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i got a friend who got a m2 sawblade from me and ground it to fit his china folder. he was very happy with it and said theres nothing that cuts like it.
 
Danbo said:
Where's the rest of that blade?
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I don't know if your joking but that is how that knife is actually made. That would be a Buck Bravo and that missing tip is called a besh wedge. Haven't tried it, don't plan to and I don't find it aesthetically pleasing by a country mile. To each their own though.
 
T. Erdelyi said:
Could a cheap knife with average steel be reheat treated to a higher quality makin' a better knife outta a junky one.

I have bought cheap knives in the past and added bushings, hand fit the scales, redrilled and tapped holes even some lite grindin' to get a better fit.

I've rescued a few POS knives to make 'em decent tool box knives, how about you guys, anybody ever rebuild/inprove on a made in China/Pakistan knife?
Click to expand...

You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
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Your plan assumes that only the heat treat is lacking. A low carbon alloy is not going to be hot stuff no matter how you heat treat it.


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knarfeng said:
Your plan assumes that only the heat treat is lacking. A low carbon alloy is not going to be hot stuff no matter how you heat treat it.


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I agree, unless you do what my friend did and replace the entire blade.
 
knarfeng said:
Your plan assumes that only the heat treat is lacking. A low carbon alloy is not going to be hot stuff no matter how you heat treat it.


.
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Your assuming that the blanks are all crap steel, AUS-8 and some of the cheaper Stainless Steels that have been around long enough to obtain them cheap enough.

2 kinds of knives used to come outta Japan, back in the day, crap and some decent made production knives.

Now with cnc mills and older/"cheaper steel" Taiwan is producing anything from POS to well made knives wouldn't a good assumption be that the longer they use the equipment and with "cheap"/older steels the better the odds are that the knives albeit ill fit could be improved by more hand work and redoin' the heat treat.

It's my understanding that heat treating is akin to cooking and minor variations could make the difference between a great cutting blade and a mediocre one?
 
You did say Pakistan and China as the country of origin in your original post.

Knives made in Mainland China are unlikely to have Japanese steel in them. The Mainland Chinese make their own steel.

A cheap knife is more likely to have low carbon steel to begin with than high carbon steel with a bad heat treat. Any more than about 0.5% carbon and you cannot fine blank the knives, you have to machine or laser cut. Even in China, that will add cost and now you don't have such a "cheap" knife.

This is not to say that all Chinese knives have low carbon steel. But you did say "cheap Chinese knife."

Howsoever, it's all theoretical, so you can hypothesize any steel you wish.
 
knarfeng said:
You did say Pakistan and China as the country of origin in your original post.

Knives made in Mainland China are unlikely to have Japanese steel in them. The Mainland Chinese make their own steel.

A cheap knife is more likely to have low carbon steel to begin with than high carbon steel with a bad heat treat. Any more than about 0.5% carbon and you cannot fine blank the knives, you have to machine or laser cut. Even in China, that will add cost and now you don't have such a "cheap" knife.

This is not to say that all Chinese knives have low carbon steel. But you did say "cheap Chinese knife."

Howsoever, it's all theoretical, so you can hypothesize any steel you wish.
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I guess I like to tune and tinker, 30 + years as a mechanic/machinist I tend to want all things better than they are, very few things seem perfect to me.

I guess the answer to my question really is, anything you do that improves a knife is good but when it comes to steel it's the flip of a coin that determines whether a better heat treat will benifit a POS knife.
 
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T. Erdelyi said:
I guess I like to tune and tinker, 30 + years as a mechanic/machinist I tend to want all things better than they are, very few things seem perfect to me.

I guess the answer to my question really is, anything you do that improves a knife is good but when it comes to steel it's the flip of a coin that determines whether a better heat treat will benifit a POS knife.
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"flip of a coin" sounds about right. It might work. It might not.
 
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