My Para Militairy edge

I

itseasyforyou

Joined
Jun 8, 2008
Messages
144
I bought this Para Military a month ago. I was looking for a military and I found this one on ebay. It was second hand but should be still in perfect condition. I paid 70 bucks for it which is 40 less than a new one but since I have to pay a huge amount of tax if I buy something over a several amount of money I ended up with this. It is serrated but I wanted to try that anyway. It is nice to have one who is serrated just for the change.

When I received my knife it looked indeed very nice on the outside but the blade itself had suffered some improper sharpening. I didn’t give the seller a hard time and just took it to the sharper. He said he could sharp it and I have just received it back. It is sharp again (since it was not sharp anymore when I got it) but I still see the damage and it doesn’t really look like the blade is sharp. And I think it’s not so sharp as it could be.
I hope you guys can see it on this picture:

Spyderco%20C81GS%20Para-Military%20Front%20Blade.JPG


Spyderco%20C81GS%20Para-Military%20Front.JPG


Overall I really like this knife, the G-10 and the looks of it are fantastic. I like the serration which are not as handy as a plain blade but they look nice and will do a better job on rope or stuff like that.

Well lets come to the point, I want to ask if you guys think that the damage can be repaired a little better. It is sharp now as I said and it just came from the men who had sharpened it but it still has the damage and a not straight clean edge.

I thought that Spyderco does sharpening for free but I don’t now if they can make this edge nice again with the free sharpening. It looks like you need to polish it a little or whatever but I have absolute no idea what to do.
Maybe this can be fixed on the Spyderco sharpener? But I don’t really have the courage to sharp a knife myself and I don’t have a sharpener.
I’m afraid I will screw it up.

I hope someone can give me some advice on this, I would appreciate that, thanks.
 
You can't screw it up any more than the person who sharpened it :eek:. Spyderco will sharpen it and it should come back OK but that looks like some heavy dammage to the serrations.
 
They person who sharpened it should never touch a blade again IMO. Or first exercise on a steel plate. Thanks for your answer, the most damage can be seen on the plain end of the blade, the serrations look a little better from a close distance.

Maybe someone from Spyderco can tell if they can sharpen it and put it back to normal for shipping costs only.
Or maybe someone else has something else to say on it?

Thanks for looking, I'm going to watch the Godfather part three now.

I will make a new photo myself later to get a clearer few on this.
 
Yes, Spyderco will reprofile and sharpen the edge for free.

You just have to pay postage.

Call them. They are awesome.
 
Maybe I should just send the knife in as said an include a few dollar for the return sending. First class mail is only 5 dollar to the Netherlands so I can include that in the envelope.

I saw this on the Spyderco site:

'Repair Information
Sharpening -- complimentary provided the edge of the knife is not severely damaged -- please include $5.00 for shipping and handling.

For the following repairs, please include $20.00 plus $5.00 shipping and handling:
Blade or Edge -- broken tip from prying or dropping, destroyed edge due to improper sharpening, loose blade from abuse, rust due to neglect or other blade issues. (Spyderco is unable to replace blades in most models) '

I don't now if my knife is a 'pay' case or a free case but maybe they will just fix it for free.

This is what I should do:

'Where to send your knife
When sending your knife in for Warranty or Repair include a description of the problem and how it occurred. Include company name, return address (no PO Boxes) daytime phone number so we may contact you. We recommend shipping UPS or registered mail for tracking purposes should your knife fail to arrive at our offices. For questions please contact your Spyderco Representative.

Spyderco, Inc.
Attn.: Warranty and Repair
820 Spyderco Way,
Golden, CO 80403 USA

Tel: 1-800-525-7770 • 303-279-8383
Fax: 303-278-2229'

Maybe I should just give it a try, or do I need to email them first? Maybe it’s good enough if I just send the knife in with 5 dollar and a letter that explains the problem and that the members from blade forums advised me to send it in.
 
I've just made some extra pictures to show the edge a little better. It's higher quality and I've made these myself instead of the first two pics. They are from the seller, yes I know I should have looked better but I was so glad to see this knife for less money that I didn't thought straight. I hoped my sharpener could fix it but it still doesn't look too well as you can see on this pics. But I hope Spyderco can let the knife shine again.

DSC00839.jpg

DSC00840.jpg

DSC00841.jpg


BTW, the knife lays on the brochure I've got from Spyderco, thanks for sending that for free all the way to the Netherlands.
 
itseasyforyou said:
First class mail is only 5 dollar to the Netherlands so I can include that in the envelope..
Click to expand...

Are you sure about that?
I believe that $5 rate is only within the US.
You better contact Spyderco first.
TazKristi is the right one to ask.
 
I'm sure about that Piet, the sending costs for the Delica and Military were $4,60. Sending an item in an envelope is pretty cheap. USPS Priority is the next step and that costs now 30 dollar or so, USPS raised the price last time. But for small items it's 20 bucks. But I don't need to insure it, I never had problems with this sending method.
As long as you send it as a normal letter it won't cost you much.

I just saw that I can contact Spyderco via the website. I will ask them what to do.
If someone has something to say on this photos please let me know, especially if you think that this is a repair instead of a re-sharpening. But I can send money to them anyway if they want to.
I will send a mail now and if I know what they suggest then I will post it here.
 
Nothing to add.

<---- sick feeling in stomach after seen the hachet job on that nice piece of steel.
 
Yes, it makes me sad too when I see this edge. I hope Spyderco can 'save' the blade.
I've just send an email to them, I think I will hear something after the weekend.

When the Spyderco guys see this up close than they can decide what to do.
 
WOW! That's fast, I thought I check my mail and they already answered:

''If your knife just needs a basic sharpening regardless of edge style, the sharpening is free; however, there is a $5 shipping and handling fee.

If your knife needs to be re-serrated, re-tipped or any other repairs then it would be $20. plus the $5.00 for shipping

When you send your knife in please include a check or money order for $5 shipping fee (plus $20 if you are sending it in for re-serration, re-tipping or repairs) a note stating what you need done to your knife along with your name, return address (no P.O. Box please, UPS does not ship to PO Boxes) and daytime phone number that you can be reached at incase we have any questions.

Spyderco is not responsible for knives that do not arrive to us. When mailing your package you should send it insured. We ship UPS; all packages shipped are automatically insured and have a tracking number''


So I think if I'm honest that this is not just a re-sharpen job because the edge is pretty damaged. There is also some red stuff ( maybe a little rust) at the beginning of the blade at the turning point. You can't see this but maybe they should polish that away too. The men who did the sharpening for me said that this is no problem.

But as I said I think that this is a repair because they need to fix the edge cause it's not in the original state anymore and the tip is not perfect. I think I put 20 dollar in the envelope so they can use that if they need to. They will send it back if it wasn't necessary I guess.

Glad they answered so fast.
 
I've send this knife away two weeks ago. And I thought I ask Spyderco about the status, cause I couldn't ensure the envelope and I've put 25 dollar in it and my knife so I was wondering if it arrived. I didn't know how to contact so I replied the email from Spyderco and I've send a mail via the site (warranty issue) the next day. Unfortunately I have no answer jet, it has been over 48 hours so I guess there is something wrong cause last time they answered in three hours.

This was the question:

"Hello,

I've send my knife two weeks ago (Sat, 30 Aug) to you and I was wondering if it arrived. I don't know if this is the right way to ask but maybe you know if Spyderco has the knife.

It's the Para-Military with the damaged serrated edge, and my name is ... from the Netherlands.
I hope it arrived since I could not insure or track the envelope.

Thanks and have a nice day,

William"

Maybe I should not ask this question via customer service at spyderco.com so I think I should give them a call.

I saw this two numbers: Phone: 303-279-8383
Toll-Free: 800-525-7770, I'm calling from the Netherlands of course so I have to draw 001 before the number but which number must I call.

Is that the 303? So that would be 001-303-379-8383? Does anyone know that? I guess toll free is only for the US. And there’s a two hour time difference between CO and NY right?

Thanks in advance,

William
 
Hey guys, I've just heard that the knife will ship today. I will place some pics so we can see if they could repair this terrible damage.

I can't wait till Dec. the first, then we can import items tax free if they are not more expensive than 150 euro. I will buy a new good plain edge Military then. Maybe it was better if I had saved my money until Dec. cause my total spends on this knife are:
Costs: $70 sending costs: 10 dollar first sharpening costs 10, repair @ Spyderco 25 plus 10 sending costs so that is a total of 125 dollar. For 125 I could also buy me self a brand new one, lol. But I don't mind a extra knife of course, the Para-Military serrated rocks even if it&#8217;s repaired but next time I get me self a plain new one.
 
itseasyforyou, it should be easy for you. It is time you learned to sharpen a knife properly. That blade wasn't new but it wasn't damaged, it was just used, it needed a bit of reprofiling but with a little bit of practice, you should have been able to fix that in a few minutes.

The Sharpmaker is as good as you need for maintaining your knives but you should get a good diamond stone for fixing an edge like that. You can get a diamond rod for serrations. Not much in the way of basic equipment and you can keep your knives at their best easily.

Get a Mora and an Opinel to practice on and work your way up through other inexpensive knives to kitchen knives.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top