Help old case knife will not sharpen

T

The Shatz

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Oct 1, 2017
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Hello wondering if anyone have had this happen before? Picked up a case xx USA 65-69 barlow and it will not hold a edge at all lol. Iv always had great luck with the old case cv steel!!
This is a first for me knife looks legit great snap tight blades but it's pretty useless if I can't sharpen it. Didn't know if this is a common thing with the knives 65-69 ? I normally go for the xx knives 40 -65 and a few tested knives that I can always get screaming sharp.
 
Only about a 1/2 inch section will even take a edge the rest won't even hold a apex after closer inspection
What I thought was patina maybe where some one heated the blade and ruined the heat treat the small pen blade sharpened up great.
 
I dont have any from that era, but I wonder if at some point in the past it had something happen that caused it to loose its tempering? Maybe been hot and been buffed to remove the color change?
 
Don't give up on it yet. If it's heat-damaged from buffing or grinding, it may just need a few more sharpenings before the damaged steel finally is removed. Sometimes that heat damage doesn't extend too far into the blade, behind the edge. It's usually the thinnest steel nearest the edge that's prone to overheating too quickly, and the thicker steel behind that is better able to dissipate that heat, with less risk of permanent damage.

I have a few knives that've behaved like that for a while. When I've encountered the problem, I've often just put it away for a while and then revisited it later with another sharpening. So, over the course of several sharpenings spanning some time, the edges have eventually started behaving normally, in terms of edge-retention. There's a temptation to call the knife 'ruined' in the near-term, but don't toss it out yet. I resisted that urge and instead just allowed myself to put it aside a time or three and not let it bother me. I'm now glad I took that approach, because all of the 'bad examples' eventually came around and turned out to be fixable after all.

I wouldn't worry too much about the quality of the '65-'69 'CV' steel in these knives. I have an old 6265 SAB Folding Hunter of that vintage, and it's blades have sharpened up nicely and held the edges as I would expect of Case's good CV steel.
 
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I would try de-stressing the edge. Drag the edge lightly across a coarse stone (like you are trying to cut the stone in half), if there is weakened steel on the edge that should cut it off. If it's heavily damaged you may have to try this in multiple sessions, dulling then sharpening. When sharpening don't raise a burr at all if you can help it, any amount of burr hurts edge retention, so minimizing a burr is important.
 
I like chunkys idea but after that I would use a guided rod system (like lansky or gatco, wicked edge etc if you have access to one) and reprofile it. If possible, it’ll get past and into good steel.

Are you sure you are getting a good edge? Is it raising a burr, or using a marker to make sure you are sharpening all the way up to the apex? I had several that I never could get sharp. After I put them in my gatco, and got a good apex, they get and stay screaming sharp now.
 
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