First complaint in a looong time

G

godogs57

Joined
Apr 16, 2004
Messages
782
Got a call yesterday from a friend out west that has several of my knives. As you’ll see, he has trouble sharpening. He said, “what the hell is wrong with this knife? It won’t even slice a tomato anymore!”

It was a beautiful filet knife I made using CPM154. 60.5-61.0 Rockwell if I remember correctly. Shaving sharp when I delivered it to him prior to an antelope hunt. It came time to resharpen and he brought out a Work Sharp knife sharpener. At that point in the conversation I cringed. His belts were “about half worn” when he started . Long story short, he told me he ground on the blade for 15 minutes straight with the half worn belt! Not 15 seconds….minutes. I’ve always warned folks to stay away from a Work Sharp if you don’t know how to correctly use this machine…..now this blade is a beautiful purple and straw colored mess. All kind of beautiful colors along the cutting edge.

“Well what can we (me) do to fix it? Can you re heat treat it and keep those handles on it?”

He‘s a great friend though…. I’ll be nice.
 
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To reheat treat you will have to remove the handles. I suspect you can anneal the blade similar to AEB-L. Hold in oven for 12 hrs at 1350°F, then slow cool, even 4 hrs works pretty good. I will put in oven at end of day, set timer for 4 hrs then next morning the blade is cool and ready for drilling 'n grinding. I wrap blade in SS foil even for this step, not really needed but just to be safe.

After annealing do any grinding required, wrap in SS foil and do the usual HT.
 
Ken H> said:
To reheat treat you will have to remove the handles. I suspect you can anneal the blade similar to AEB-L. Hold in oven for 12 hrs at 1350°F, then slow cool, even 4 hrs works pretty good. I will put in oven at end of day, set timer for 4 hrs then next morning the blade is cool and ready for drilling 'n grinding. I wrap blade in SS foil even for this step, not really needed but just to be safe.

After annealing do any grinding required, wrap in SS foil and do the usual HT.
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Noooo. Not going to all that trouble.
 
A filet knife would be ground pretty thin, wouldn't it? Could steel that thin survive another heat treat?

I'd just make another one.
 
Richard338 said:
The fact that he's a great friend makes it easier. You can politely tell him "You idiot, I make you a beautiful knife and you go and ruin it?". Much more awkward if it was a customer...
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I wouldn't use "idiot", but I would explain diplomatically that he really made an oopsie.
 
Diplomatic is the best course of action. In situations such as this the owner of this fine blade, thru their lack of knowledge has destroyed what you worked so hard to create. He must understand his lack of knowledge is what caused the failure, not your workmanship. This may just be the time where the owner of the knife can acquire knowledge and so the next time he goes to sharpen a knife, he paid good money to purchase, is handled properly, the result being a well sharpened blade.
Think back to when you first started making knives and all the dumb stuff you did for the same reason your friend did what he did, lack of knowledge.
Good luck with this, Fred
 
If the knife is truly straw and purple, it would now be between 55 and 60. Maybe that's not considered ideal by some, but it's not unusuable either. My Victorinox boning knife is 58HRC. Personally, I would hand sand the discoloration and blend whatever ugly bevels the Work Sharp created. Then, I would sharpen it properly and call it a day.
 
SirSpice said:
If the knife is truly straw and purple, it would now be between 55 and 60. Maybe that's not considered ideal by some, but it's not unusuable either. My Victorinox boning knife is 58HRC. Personally, I would hand sand the discoloration and blend whatever ugly bevels the Work Sharp created. Then, I would sharpen it properly and call it a day.
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The very thin edge got way way hotter than that.

German metallurgist did a paper on that.
His name and the paper name ???
 
Roman Landes?
 
If he is a good friend of yours I'd first explain that he messed up big time, but replace the knife because he is a friend.
Make it look different so he clearly sees that it is a new knife
 
Hengelo_77 said:
If he is a good friend of yours I'd first explain that he messed up big time, but replace the knife because he is a friend.
Make it look different so he clearly sees that it is a new knife
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Oh he’s a great friend. First thing he asked was “I screwed up big time didn’t I?” All I could say at that point was “Damn! Damn, damn, damn!” We laughed and he’s sending it to me to determine if it’s DOA. Or fixable.
 
Are you sure he is still a friend? ;) That is Bad enough to make a person think hard about how many they really need.

Just kidding friends are not something that you find laying around. I would probably be a little pissed and they would have to sit through some metalurgy and sharpening theory.
 
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