Damaged Tip :( :(

Z

Zerileous

Joined
Dec 30, 2004
Messages
267
Well, as a dumbass 17 year old new to knives, I ended up breaking a mm or two of the tip of my new Leek being careless and accidentally hitting concrete with way too much force. I think the only way to fix it is grinding. I can get pix if you guys need em. How would you recomend I get it ground, what I have come up with is ship it to Kershaw and beg/pay for a fix, take it to someplace in the mall (do they exist), run it through my mothers hoaky diamond cutting tripple bevel electric kitchen knife sharpener, or try taking my dremel to it (considering what that did to a cheepo i tried to re-grind, i am pretty sure that I would rather live with it as is than try this).

Im looking for the most cost-effective way to restore my knife, i dont mind altering the geomentry to bring the tip up or anything, it might just improve stabbing a little bit.

P.S. do they make left-handed knives readily available (eg if/when i go to wally to grab a knife, should i ask for/expect them to have a left handed version...if not should I treck out to Cabellas to get one?) The Leek is right handed and carried in my left pocket, it works fine with my left hand, just have to turn it over, only problem would be with slippery/cold fingers.

Thanks.
 
If it's just a millimeter or two, you should be able to get a decent point back on the knife with a bit of aggressive sharpening. I'm blessed with a great knife store in my local mall, but I've heard mainly bad things about back-room sharpening operations. If you can't/won't do it yourself, I'm pretty sure Kershaw will fix the tip for you. Their customer service has a stellar reputation. They'd be justified in charging you a small fee, but knowing them, they're likely to do it for the return shipping. Just call them and see.

PS - DO NOT USE an electric sharpener - at best you'll take off too much metal, at worst you'll burn the temper off the blade. Either way, you'll be crying afterwards.
 
PS - DO NOT USE an electric sharpener ... at worst you'll burn the temper off the blade.
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To "burn the temper" off of a blade, you must heat the metal above the final heat treatment temperature. The lowest final temp in common use is 350F. Water boils at about 212F. So, as long as the blade stays cool enough that a drop of tempid water dripped onto it doesn't sizzle, you're fine temper-wise by about 140F.

I have yet to see one of these electric sharpeners that will heat a blade up to the point of boiling water. If there is such a product, my guess is that UL would like to see it.
 
"being careless and accidentally hitting concrete with way too much force"

I don't think you should be hitting concrete at all with you knives. :D


I agree that asking Kershaw is the best thing to do at the moment. If you regrind it with the dremel, try grinding it down from the spine, that way you won't mess with the edge you already have.


Mmmm. A fellow lefty!? No usually there will not be lefty versions of knives and you will normally see them in LE, higher end, and custom knives. You can however look for ambidextrous knives, which are much more common in production models.

Look for:

A "reversible" or "moveable" clip (assuming you're looking for a folder and want a clip). Thumbstuds (or other opening "device") that can be moved to corresponding side, or is placed on either side of the blade.

If you carry a righty knife lefty, and you get a knife that you have the clip set up for lefty carry, you will swear you will never buy a knife with a righty only clip. :)




One more thing, get yourself a Spyderco, model 204, Sharpmaker. :cool:
 
Uhh, electric grinding wheels HAVE and WILL exceed boiling temps and those electric sharpeners are of that type I think. (please correct me) Don't try with a carbide sharpener, either, it'll just strip metal off. And isn't the leek drilled for a clip on both sides?
 
Yeah, it was carelessness that lead to me hitting concrete, not intent.
No, the Leek is not lefty drilled.
I dont really want to use the elec sharpener either.
For sharpening, instead of the Spyderco Sharpmaker, how would a pull through Smith's do (CCKS, under carbides)? what aobut one of their $20 sets that has the triangle for cerrations and setable angles (under precision kits)? (here is a link) (i am on a tight budget, and a more expensive sharpener means its another knife that i cant get, but I dont want to compromise too much when it comes to maintainace.)

I also think Kershaw is my best bet.

Here is a pic for reference:
broken%20tip.JPG
 
Welcome to Bladeforums, o 17 year old new to knives! :)

That's a great picture of really minor damage. I can understand limited funds not wanting to go for a $50 sharpening system, but the Sharpmaker is really an investment in future maintenance of many more knives. You KNOW there will be many more knives!

However. You can do this one on the cheap, and with a useful tool as well, inexpensive and well worth keeping around:

DMT® Fine/Coarse Double-sided Diafold® Diamond Whetstone™.

$30. A two sided diamond stone set in a butterfly handle that folds closed around it. Use the coarse side to reprofile a dull or defective edge and the fine side to smooth the finish.

If you feel this is a bit too much to spend, you can pick up their credit card sized sharpeners for now, and they will do the job you need -- for now:

DMT® Extra-fine 1200-Mesh 3.25"x2"x.05" Dia-Sharp™ with Pouch
DMT® Fine 600-Mesh 3.25"x2"x.05" Dia-Sharp™ with Pouch
DMT® Coarse 325-Mesh 3.25"x2"x.05" Dia-Sharp™ with Pouch

$8 apiece. You only need the fine and the coarse really.

What you need to do is take your wounded blade and rub it gently at an appropriate and consistent angle against the stone, to bring the edge up a little bit. Work the blade against the stone as if you were trying to shave the top of the stone away. It will probably only take a few minutes. Be gentle. That knife has a relatively soft steel and diamonds hone very quickly.
 
shouldn't be too hard to fix--heck if you want to send it to me and i can make it look almost like new again--no charge
 
thanks for the offer yiterp, i would appreciate it if Kershaw doesn't want to do it, I am also intregued by Esav's explanation of how to do it myself, i would really like to fix it myself if possible...i know more that way and such. I would also like to sharpen serrations, as 3 of my knives have em (Ka-Bar, Leek, and a SAK that I just found burried in my room and like alot...good for EDC and more sheeple friendly). What do you guys think of the precision Smith's setups? i can get one for $20 at Walmart.
 
RE electric sharpeners - I had an old Black and Decker that would routinely get blades hot enough to cause droplets of cold water to boil instantly. This was on thin blades, with very little metal to retain heat. I've (on occasions involving stupidity and/or a misguided empiricism) managed to scorch blades rather badly along their edges, using that same Black and Decker model. Perhaps newer sharpeners have features that prevent this? On a thicker blade, like on a production folder, my concerns would be heat retention and the amount of actual grinding necessary to re-form a tip. So depending on a variety of factors - such as length of exposure to the wheel, heat buildup in the relevant sections of the blade, and the amount of friction created by the wheel-blade interaction, I might still claim that de-tempering is a possibility - the worst case scenario, certainly, but still something to keep in mind.
 
thanks saber, I am definately not interested in the electric, that was simply mentioned as a last resort.
 
Zerileous said:
thanks for the offer yiterp, i would appreciate it if Kershaw doesn't want to do it, I am also intregued by Esav's explanation of how to do it myself, i would really like to fix it myself if possible...i know more that way and such. I would also like to sharpen serrations, as 3 of my knives have em (Ka-Bar, Leek, and a SAK that I just found burried in my room and like alot...good for EDC and more sheeple friendly). What do you guys think of the precision Smith's setups? i can get one for $20 at Walmart.
Click to expand...


If you're talking about the ones that look like this:

dpsk.gif



I think it may be ok. It resembles the Lansky(?), clamp and guide bar stone systems. I have never used one of these types of systems, but they are fairly popular around here.

Go ahead and get it, but get a quality sharpener ASAP (if you learn to freehand, you can get a cheap stone and work some real magic), unless you acheive results that you are happy with.

It seems like you have a few knives to get you by for a while. Remember the accessories! Invest in good oils (militec), maybe a case to put them in, some clothes to match you knives, shades to match your clothes, car to match you shades, ect. :p ;)
 
That damage isn't too bad. You won't have the needle point tip anymore, but the blade is certainly servicable and still has plenty of life left. Hell, my Leek's tip is pretty rounded, and that's just from sharpening it (improperly).

I don't think Gollnick is talking about wheel grinders, but rather just the electric sharpeners that are made for sharpening knives. A wheel grinder is a completely different beast, and those can easily ruin the temper on a blade...if you don't accidentally grind way too much off in the first place. Going very slowly on one is probably OK, but is still much less precise than doing it by hand.

I say send the knife back to Kershaw first. Word is their customer service is excellent (they give away replacement torsion bars for the SpeedSafe), and they might just simply give you a new knife. At the very least, they could regrind it professionally.
 
hi!, i'm the new kid on the block and fairly new to the world of quality knives. i started with cheapies and then to red class BMs and now blue box #555. i use a smiths set up and get a very nice edge on it. Granted, i'm working with 440c or n690,etc... But it works for me. (i do have a extra step in my process if anyone is curious)
 
yiterp said:
not familar with the smiths set-up--tell me more about it
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strange...i could have sworn that I posted links in that post last nite, and i also could have sworn that this post was not there when i posted under it...i guess i was too tired to be posting.


Anyhow...I think the Smith's set is my best bet for the bang for the buck, but how would I use this to fix my knife?
Also, I know nothing aobut oils, I have assumed that they were only needed for "real stones" and ignored them thusfar. Could anyone say something really quickily about them?
Thanks.

EDIT: Wells, what do you do differently? Planterz, what did you do wrong?
 
Zerileous said:
EDIT: Wells, what do you do differently? Planterz, what did you do wrong?
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i'll go out on a limb and say that Planterz probably used a Sharpmaker. the Sharpmaker works a treat, but can round the tip, if you're moving fast on the stones, and pulling the knife all the way off of them as you sharpen (mostly on the corners of the stones, rather than the flats).

as you get more adept with the Sharpmaker, this problem more or less goes away.

abe m.
 
The smiths uses diamonds? You'll need oil or water for stones (not diamond/ceramic). Waterstones use water, everything else gets oil. Carbides don't do anything at best and will chip an edge. Good luck! My AIM is roofdweller00 feel free to IM
 
Zerieous, i have both the reg. smith's and the diamond verision. i use the diamond set up and on good quality blades cut the bevel at 20 deg. when sharp, make 3 or 4 light passes with the fine stone at 25 deg. (light!). i'm not saying this works on s30v or the like, but on 440c from BM it works great for me. try it. aslo the diamond set came with water based cutting fluid, i don't use it, insted i use reg. oil. i also stop the clamp at the flat of the blade, right at the start of the grind.
 
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