Dented Mistress

Send it to Horn Dog - he puts the best edges on knives I have seen. Great guy to work with as well.
 
What a day ! By the time I actually got to work on the Mistress today it was, well, night. Not that I didn get up and check the responses right away....I did, and I thought about it off and on till tonight.
The approach went like this :
First I worked the dents down with a srewdrver shaft, very specific, on what turned out to be about 9 dents. This was ALOT of labor but it worked really well !
Next I worked all the areas with a butchers steel and again alot of labor but it also took me a step further in the right direction.
I now had pushed all the metal enough so that I could not feel any ridges along either edge and in fact the damage on the straight edge was nearly gone !!!
My real problem areas were on the curve where the blade had hit the rocks...these remained as gouges but were half as deep as when I started !!
So with no lateral deviations left to push either direction I went to my third step which was to use a diamond stone to work the edge down a bit so that now I have three very subtle gouges on the curve that I can live with.
I may work it a bit more then polish it but not tonight !
Two months ago, faced with the same dilema ,I would have ground it all down but thanks to everyone on this great forum and all the ideas put forth I have a whole new perspective and appreciation for the steel in these knives.
Thanks everyone, again, for all of the advice !
 
Ankar Sheng said:
I have never had success with this. I've done it lightly, I've done it with a lot of pressure and for a lot of passes but never "realigned" any dents or rolls to the point where they wouldnt still need a proper sharpening.

What am I missing here?
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you're really not missing anything.

since infi tends to roll and dent rather than chip, by steeling it, you are just realigning the edge and not removing metal.

after this, you still will likely need to sharpen it. you can continue to use the steel but ive found once the edge is properly aligned, it is more efficient to then resharpen as i normally would. usually a few minutes on the sharpmaker, or in more extreme cases, the edge pro.

what you end up avoiding is having to reprofile the whole edge by grinding to even it out.

when it dents or rolls, the edge has been effectively pushed to the side(s) at the point of contact. it tends not to tear, even if it appears to have done so. running the steel over the roll pushes the metal back to center, and begins the resharpening process.


but if the edge doesn't appear "straight", keep going. ive spent the equivalent of a couple hours with the steel straightening an edge.
 
peppercorn said:
What a day ! By the time I actually got to work on the Mistress today it was, well, night. Not that I didn get up and check the responses right away....I did, and I thought about it off and on till tonight.
The approach went like this :
First I worked the dents down with a srewdrver shaft, very specific, on what turned out to be about 9 dents. This was ALOT of labor but it worked really well !
Next I worked all the areas with a butchers steel and again alot of labor but it also took me a step further in the right direction.
I now had pushed all the metal enough so that I could not feel any ridges along either edge and in fact the damage on the straight edge was nearly gone !!!
My real problem areas were on the curve where the blade had hit the rocks...these remained as gouges but were half as deep as when I started !!
So with no lateral deviations left to push either direction I went to my third step which was to use a diamond stone to work the edge down a bit so that now I have three very subtle gouges on the curve that I can live with.
I may work it a bit more then polish it but not tonight !
Two months ago, faced with the same dilema ,I would have ground it all down but thanks to everyone on this great forum and all the ideas put forth I have a whole new perspective and appreciation for the steel in these knives.
Thanks everyone, again, for all of the advice !
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:thumbup: Well done peppercorn - sounds like you've got it spot on! :cool: :thumbup:
 
Jerry Busse said:
If all else fails, send it in and I'll have the janitor fix it right up for you!!! :thumbup:

Jerry :D.
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oh yeah, stropped on a whiskey bottle, last time the janitor stropped on of my blades it was a new pristine first edition badger attack, he stropped it on a beer bottle at the fountain o hogs.

morel of this story, send me your infi for stropping... :thumbup:
 
I gave my NMFBM a work out and in low light chopped through a nail.....bit of a dink in the edge.....did a post on the scrapyard forum about it....a couple of passes on the belt sander did the trick.....edges on used choppers will show use....but Infi works by far the best I have tried for chopping .... and that includes some very expensive steels from Japan.... developing a belt sander set of sharpening skills is well recommended as it sorts this type of thing out quick.....I post on that forum as Steel Fan.... and for me Horn Dog is well worth following on how to use a belt sander.
 
I will attempt my first upload of pics here so bear with me if it doesnt work.

I put a polished edge on the FFBM today following last weekends debacle.
I was trying to show the two spots on the curve that are still there , although only about 10% of there original depth.
I would like to again thank all that put forth great ideas and insight !
My only question now is whether or not to use this great knife for more chopping or simply use a 25 dollar axe that I really do not care about .
I mean I got it for chopping but.....
 

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I must say that after having spent so much time working with and ,subsequently ,on this blade I have alot more appreciation for it than if I were just "coddling" it.
Thanks dbltap45acp for the encouragement .
PS: Note in the first pic the rectangular gouges in the finish....those are the outlines of the LARGE staples I chopped through! ........pretty tough !
 
peppercorn said:
I will attempt my first upload of pics here so bear with me if it doesnt work.

I put a polished edge on the FFBM today following last weekends debacle.
I was trying to show the two spots on the curve that are still there , although only about 10% of there original depth.
I would like to again thank all that put forth great ideas and insight !
My only question now is whether or not to use this great knife for more chopping or simply use a 25 dollar axe that I really do not care about .
I mean I got it for chopping but.....
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I can answer that for you, keep using it. You will occasionally mar the edge, but that is the whole point of having a sweet chopper made of infi. The fact that you have a sweet chopper of infi is the point. Sure you can chop stuff with a 25 dollar axe. But it is not as much fun. I still split wood with my Pa's maul when I am over at his house, because the stuff I chop over there for him is much too big and hard to chop with my FBMLE (not that I could not make it though one or two of those beasts with some effort with the FBMLE, but that is what a big splitting maul and wedges).
 
The best part about dinging your edge for the first time, is from now on it won't freak you out. Once you have fixed it a time or two, you kind of relax about it. I had a nice polished edge on mine, then bumped the spine of another knife and shoot, had to fix it. Now, no big deal. Funny thing is Just last night while stopping the edge on my FBMLE I was not paying attention and taped the tip on a heavy glass candle. Dang, had to fix the tip a bit today! I just thought it was funny in light of this thread.
 
You make good points Bigfattyt, I probably am more relaxed about it now and even all the scars in the finish are starting to grow on me ......it gives it character.
 
OK Jerry......I will !!!!

Well there you go ........from the creator (of the FFBM) himself !
I wll go forth and ....chop....alot...with the confidence that I have backup should things go south .

I love this place !!!
 
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