Fixing a blemish...advice

B

BKT

Joined
Feb 15, 2016
Messages
167
I have a small blemish on my knife from what is a deep hammer mark. I should have fixed it sooner but I didnt want to grind any more material away and affect the fit of the guard. My question is what would you guys do to attempt to fix this or at least make it a little less noticeable? If I could just get the scale out of there I am wondering if it would look a little bit better.

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You didn't say if it has been hardened yet, but I will assume it is.

If the knife handle is already assembled, just leave it as-is.

If the handle is only sitting in place for the photo, take the handle off, tape the blade off right up to the ricasso ( several layers), and use a carbide 3mm ball burr to "carve" the whole ricasso in a peened or stippled look. Take your time and cover the area slowly, making divots all over the surface randomly, and slowly filling the space between them with new divots until it covers the surface in a pattern density you like. Don't start on one end and try to make the final pattern as you go ... it won't end as it started unless you are very skilled.
 
Yeah, I'd just leave it alone and try and do better on the next one. Sometimes, if a blemish is bad enough, it's a lot easier to start over rather than mess around with fixing it.

It looks like the blade and ricasso were hand sanded, but there's some pretty deep scratches in the ricasso too. If you were going to fix the hammer mark, you might as well fix the scratches too. Then you're pretty much redoing the whole thing. This is probably one of those cases to move on and focus on that area more on the next one.
 
On a related note, I had one much worse than this and sold it here at discount. The customer loved it and actually 4 other buyers made inquires to purchase it.


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I don't mind forge scale on a user.

I prefer to have more of it on a knife, rather than a small spot like that.

I don't mind a few little random spots on the main blade either.

If it is a knife for sale, note the forge scale, and price accordingly. Some one will make it a great user.


I just bought two knives second hand from some one on here. I bought them with forge scale/hammer marks in a few spots. No problem. (edge is crooked/bowed, and grind lines off kilter did matter, but could not tell that from the photo's, and no description).

As long as the buyer knows what they are getting, its fine.
 
The forged look is big with some folks so no worries there. As an aside, I'd pay more attention to getting out those deep grinding scratches and getting a better guard fit.
 
Thanks all. I love a forge finish knife but this just looked out of place.

I didnt bother with the scratches because if I couldnt get the scale off I wasnt going to move any further with the finish. This was my first bowie so I learned a lot but fitting the guard was....time consuming.
 
Some customers like various imperfections as they take it as evidence that the knife truly is hand made. More than one of my customers have said exactly that. That said, I try to eliminate as many issues as I can before selling a knife.
 
I can't imagine leaving an obvious flaw in/on a blade or intentionally putting them on the blade to satisfy that particular customer request.

If I got a request to leave some flaws in the blade, I'd politely tell them to commission another maker.
 
J. Doyle said:
I can't imagine leaving an obvious flaw in/on a blade or intentionally putting them on the blade to satisfy that particular customer request.

If I got a request to leave some flaws in the blade, I'd politely tell them to commission another maker.
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Either I was unclear or you misunderstood me. I have never done either of those. Especially not the intentional flaw - never. But early in my knife making days I did have a customer find some imperfection on a knife he bought from me and his comment was that he liked the slight flaw because it showed the knife was truly hand made and not the product of a machine. IMO there are very few handmade knives from any maker on which I could not find some slight irregularity.
 
Col Defender said:
Either I was unclear or you misunderstood me. I have never done either of those. Especially not the intentional flaw - never. But early in my knife making days I did have a customer find some imperfection on a knife he bought from me and his comment was that he liked the slight flaw because it showed the knife was truly hand made and not the product of a machine. IMO there are very few handmade knives from any maker on which I could not find some slight irregularity.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I misunderstood you. Sorry....my bad. I understand what you're saying now. My knives are still far from perfect.
 
Aside from the finish on the blade and the blemish, I thought it turned out pretty good for my first bowie. Looks like this one will just belong on my belt, which I dont mind of course.

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