- Joined
- Apr 4, 2013
- Messages
- 3,415
Hello BF and merry Christmas!
I have a custom knife from a maker here (not yet willing to name incase its me in the wrong) I purchased in May of 2017. It was his design that he made and sold but in a different steel, I inquired about purchasing the same knife but in Elmax and micarta handle colors of my choice and he said that was no problem (with a premium markup of course). I received the knife in a timely manor, actually about 4 weeks sooner then his time frame which at the time I was ecstatic about however now with all the issues that fact seems to instill more doubt... How did he source the new type of steel in less time then steel he already had would of taken him to make?
So from the get go I noticed it would get light surface rust pretty much every time I used it. I inquired with the maker about that and he told me that 1, Elmax isn't super high on the rust resistance scale and 2, it's likely not the blade rusting but contamination of other metals from the grinding process which are rusting.
That answer satisfied me, even though I have several other Elmax blades which don't rust like this his answers, especially the second point made sense to me. I want to mention specifically I have 2 knives from Gollik knives in Elmax both of which have raw unground flats and have absolutely zero rust issues with either of them without oiling or any special treatment so this knife in question is especially concerning but again I was satisfied by the "contamination from grinding" answer.
I decided at that point just to treat the knife as if it were non stainless and keep it oiled and up till now I didn't think much of it, actually tried to put it out of my mind as the steel did perform well.
Fast forward to this month, I'm butchering up some deer and got the knife in question out to use and after finishing up I scrubbed it and then soaked it overnight (maybe 8 hours) in light bleach water along with another elmax knife from a different maker, and two other custom in 440c and 80crV2. So morning gets here and first thing I do is go get the knives out of the container I soaked them in and rinse them off and immediately I notice some of the worst pitting I've ever seen! I have old carbon steel knives 60 years old that don't have this deep of pitting that this blade has developed in 8 hours of bleach water immersion!
I'm just looking for opinions before I contact the maker again. Is it possible for Elmax to rust/pit like this in such a short time? Is the evidence conclusive enough to say this is infact not Elmax? Is "surface contamination" actually the cause of the damage pictured? Should I chalk it up or ask for something? Should I call the maker out (a BFC paying knife maker) in the gbu and/or this thread?
I'm unable to take the quality of pictures many of you can but I feel these two shots accurately represent the pitting, each spot is deeper than the detent on a folder, the entire tip of a ball point pin easily falls into them, drops of water fall into them. I can get a caliper measurement of 0.057" depth on the largest one however the plunge depth gauge on my caliper has a square end larger than the diameter of the pits so I feel like it's not able to measure depth accurately.
I have a custom knife from a maker here (not yet willing to name incase its me in the wrong) I purchased in May of 2017. It was his design that he made and sold but in a different steel, I inquired about purchasing the same knife but in Elmax and micarta handle colors of my choice and he said that was no problem (with a premium markup of course). I received the knife in a timely manor, actually about 4 weeks sooner then his time frame which at the time I was ecstatic about however now with all the issues that fact seems to instill more doubt... How did he source the new type of steel in less time then steel he already had would of taken him to make?
So from the get go I noticed it would get light surface rust pretty much every time I used it. I inquired with the maker about that and he told me that 1, Elmax isn't super high on the rust resistance scale and 2, it's likely not the blade rusting but contamination of other metals from the grinding process which are rusting.
That answer satisfied me, even though I have several other Elmax blades which don't rust like this his answers, especially the second point made sense to me. I want to mention specifically I have 2 knives from Gollik knives in Elmax both of which have raw unground flats and have absolutely zero rust issues with either of them without oiling or any special treatment so this knife in question is especially concerning but again I was satisfied by the "contamination from grinding" answer.
I decided at that point just to treat the knife as if it were non stainless and keep it oiled and up till now I didn't think much of it, actually tried to put it out of my mind as the steel did perform well.
Fast forward to this month, I'm butchering up some deer and got the knife in question out to use and after finishing up I scrubbed it and then soaked it overnight (maybe 8 hours) in light bleach water along with another elmax knife from a different maker, and two other custom in 440c and 80crV2. So morning gets here and first thing I do is go get the knives out of the container I soaked them in and rinse them off and immediately I notice some of the worst pitting I've ever seen! I have old carbon steel knives 60 years old that don't have this deep of pitting that this blade has developed in 8 hours of bleach water immersion!
I'm just looking for opinions before I contact the maker again. Is it possible for Elmax to rust/pit like this in such a short time? Is the evidence conclusive enough to say this is infact not Elmax? Is "surface contamination" actually the cause of the damage pictured? Should I chalk it up or ask for something? Should I call the maker out (a BFC paying knife maker) in the gbu and/or this thread?
I'm unable to take the quality of pictures many of you can but I feel these two shots accurately represent the pitting, each spot is deeper than the detent on a folder, the entire tip of a ball point pin easily falls into them, drops of water fall into them. I can get a caliper measurement of 0.057" depth on the largest one however the plunge depth gauge on my caliper has a square end larger than the diameter of the pits so I feel like it's not able to measure depth accurately.

