My Ti-Lite won't take an edge....

P

PHP87

Joined
May 19, 2013
Messages
69
After polishing out some scratches with "Flitz" Metal Polish, it turned my TL into a butter knife and I can't put an edge back on it.

I don't have nor should I need any expensive equipment to put an edge back on a blade to push cut newsprint, so why can't my Ti Lite take an edge using a Lansky Blade Medic or an Arkansas Stone?

I also tried a Diamond Tapered Rod but still no go. I can't even push cut printing paper while my VG-1 Grande can push cut newsprint, receipts, etc...

And why did it turn into a Butter Knife by polishing out surface scratches?

I'm really starting to sour on Cold Steel and their choice of AUS-8A as their default steel.
I have a $20 knife with 440C and the steel if far superior to AUS-8A

I seriously hope CS upgrades their "Base" steel in 2014 or I will buy elsewhere.

Either way, I won't be buying any more AUS-8A knives from Cold Steel.

They need to switch to A-10, 440C or VG-1 as their default steel.

I carry my CS knives for SD and barely use them to cut open boxes. I can only imagine the edge after cutting wood shaving for a fire or similar usage.

Either way, I was a big supporter of CS, but know, I'm just disappointed and frustrated.

cs+x+5.jpg
 
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I have no problem getting any of my AUS-8 knives sharp...and sorry, but I find it incredibly hard to believe you dulled the knife simply by polishing it.
 
Try it if you don't believe me.

"Flitz" metal poslish and a MicroFiber cloth with elbow grease = butterknife.

I have better things to do than write lies on BF
 
I've polished knives before, including Cold Steel AUS-8 knives. None of them got dull at all. As I said, story sounds hard to believe if all you were really doing was polishing it.
 
OK, have you ever polished out scratches on a 4" Ti-Lite with Flitz Metal Polish and a MicroFiber cloth by hand and had it go from shaving sharp to butter knife dull?

It's not like I used this knife for anything but SD and have only push-cut news print with it a few time.

Shall I make a video for you? I have no reason to lie. I also put a mirror polish on a 4" Vaquero PE with the same result although I was able to get some of the edge back.

I mirror polished a 4" Vaquero Serrated with no issues. The serrations push cut news print.

But the Ti-Lite. Butterknife.
 
The Ti Lite is not meant for anything but SD, it's not a utility knife it's a self defense knife plain and simple. Designed with mostly stabbing in mind, the primary grind is very thick and the angle of the secondary bevel is also very obtuse, the Lansky is probably the worst system for these types of knives, I'm looking at my Ti Lite now and trying to figure how you were able to grab the blade in the clamp.

I touch mine up with an ez lap medium diamond hone free hand and finish it on the Strop, it leaves a shaving edge on it every time.

Keep in mind though that knife for me is a single purpose knife and as such sees little EDC use other than clipped to my pocket for the off chance circumstances might require is use.
 
I'm sorry to hear that you are having difficulty sharpening your knife.
Please send it back to us and we will inspect the knife and check it for any flaws or defects. If it's simply a sharpening issue we will re-sharpen it and send it back to you
Please write a detailed note explaining the situation to our team and send it to:

COLD STEEL, INC.
6060 NICOLLE STREET
VENTURA, CA 93003
UNITED STATES

Make a note saying that you spoke to our rep on Blade Forums
We'll do all that we can to help

thanks
 
T. Erdelyi said:
The Ti Lite is not meant for anything but SD, it's not a utility knife it's a self defense knife plain and simple. Designed with mostly stabbing in mind, the primary grind is very thick and the angle of the secondary bevel is also very obtuse, the Lansky is probably the worst system for these types of knives, I'm looking at my Ti Lite now and trying to figure how you were able to grab the blade in the clamp.

I touch mine up with an ez lap medium diamond hone free hand and finish it on the Strop, it leaves a shaving edge on it every time.

Keep in mind though that knife for me is a single purpose knife and as such sees little EDC use other than clipped to my pocket for the off chance circumstances might require is use.
Click to expand...

+1. I do the same thing and it works well. As stated the blades bevels are up there. As a result I don't use any type of clamp/angle set sharpeners as none of mine are made for the TI-Lite bevels. I do use them for cutting and slicing, especially the 4", and they work well. Sharpening is always done free hand to get the right angle. CS customer service will take care of you.
 
Yep. The Ti's bevels are probably up around 60* included. I'd venture a guess that you're probably sharpening closer to the shoulders of the bevels than you may think. I tried lowering the angles on a previous 6" model, but it didn't look right. I had to make the bevels really wide, due to the aforementioned narrow, thick blade profile. On my newest one I just freehand at the factory angle (which easily gives me a shaving edge). Like T. said, it's an antipersonnel device more than a utility blade, so I can live with the steep angles. I can see how you could have dulled it if you polished right down to the edge. Polishing agents are abrasive, which is why they work. I could see the same happening to any steel also. CS's factories know AUS-8 and how to get good performance out of it. Don't let this frustration turn you off of it. :thumbup:
 
The polishing compound in Flitz is primarily aluminum oxide to the best of my knowledge. Which is more than enough to dull an edge whilst polishing. If you completely knocked the apex off of it then its going to take a little more than that to get it shaving sharp.

Send it up my way and ill throw an edge on it for free. You have my Skype.
 
I have several Italian switchblades with that bayonet type Blade . I have never found 1 that could be sharpened . I have owned many since the 1950's and all like the ones I have in my collection Don't attack butter unless been in micro wave . Then pour butter and spread with the blade.

This one reason I have stayed a way . I thought if it ever got dull never get sharp again. Might look at them again if can be sharpened
 
Just curious,
Why would one polish something used only for sd?
IMO it makes more sense to leave it as is so the opponent doesn't see it..
Either way it doesn't make sense to blame the manufacturer for something that was done trying to modify it.
I have a lot of ti lites of various sizes and steels and have never had a problem sharpening them nor keeping them sharp.
Good luck with yours.
 
Knifenutty said:
Just curious,
Why would one polish something used only for sd?
IMO it makes more sense to leave it as is so the opponent doesn't see it..
Either way it doesn't make sense to blame the manufacturer for something that was done trying to modify it.
I have a lot of ti lites of various sizes and steels and have never had a problem sharpening them nor keeping them sharp.
Good luck with yours.
Click to expand...

A knife should be able to keep an edge just by hand polishing a scratch out out of it, especially a Ti-Lite, which already has a mirror-like finish and looks like crap with a scratch on the blade. It took little effort and product to remove the scratch.

The only products used were a tube of "Flitz" metal polish and micro-fiber clothes and good old elbow grease.

OTOH, I mirror polished the 4" Vaquero PE because I don't care for the sheet metal, stone wash look and gave it a beautiful mirror polish to see how it would look and I think it looks great, although this also dulled the edge but nearly as much and I was able to get a decent edge back on it even though this knife got a lot more polishing than the Ti-Lite as I was just removing a scratch on the TL while I was mirror polishing the Vaquero, taking it from "stone wash" to "mirror finish":

E1220D3140EE44B0B17C97B468BA98F4.jpg


So why can't AUS-8A, a steel I have defended on this forum, go dull by merely polishing out a scratch and why won't it take an edge with basic sharpening hardware? Or do I need to invest hundreds of dollars to put an edge back on my knives or send them to Cold Steel for resharpening?

BTW, I also polished out a blade on an inexpensive Chinese folder claiming 440C stamped on the base of the blade, something CS should do.

This knife didn't lose any edge and still push cuts newsprint and is shaving sharp.

I'm losing a lot of confidence in AUS-8A and would like to see CS change their default steel to a better quality steel. Even 440C, AUS-10 or VG-1
 
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As I said before I'm very surprised to hear that you had problems.
Please send it back to us and we will inspect the knife and check it for any flaws or defects.
If it's simply a sharpening issue we will re-sharpen it and send it back to you
All the contact info is above.
We'll take a look and we'll do all that we can to help you out
 
I'd encourage you to give Cold Steel the opportunity to inspect your knife. The blade might have a defect in which case I'm sure they'll take care of you. AUS-8A certainly isn't a high-end steel, but the blade shouldn't have turned into a "butter knife" when you polished out the scratch either.

However, like others have said, Flitz does have the potential to dull an edge if you aren't careful. My understanding is that by industry standards it doesn't technically qualify as an abrasive, which is why it's marketed the way that it is; however, practically speaking, it does have the ability to remove material. This is why some gunsmiths discourage the use of it on metal gun parts that have critical clearances which could be altered through regular polishing. It's also why you'll never see me use it to clean my glasses!!
 
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Wait, you polished the knife with a soft cloth and polishing compound and now you are angry the edge is not sharp?


In 20 years as a CS owner, I have never had any of their steels that gave me any trouble sharpening, let alone Aus8a.

Sharpens up lickety split.
 
I've found that stropping with a high quality strop loaded with green compound gets edges wicked sharp. Whether it's Aus8 or s30v.
 
[/QUOTE]So why can't AUS-8A, a steel I have defended on this forum, go dull by merely polishing out a scratch and why won't it take an edge with basic sharpening hardware? Or do I need to invest hundreds of dollars to put an edge back on my knives or send them to Cold Steel for resharpening?

BTW, I also polished out a blade on an inexpensive Chinese folder claiming 440C stamped on the base of the blade, something CS should do.

This knife didn't lose any edge and still push cuts newsprint and is shaving sharp.

I'm losing a lot of confidence in AUS-8A and would like to see CS change their default steel to a better quality steel. Even 440C, AUS-10 or VG-1[/QUOTE]

It's not getting sharp because you are probably not getting the right angle on the blade when re-sharpening.
 
I'm sorry, but I have to call BS on this one. I have never had a problem with my Ti-Lite, let alone the quality of AUS8 steel. There has to be some underlying detail that wasn't mentioned, if the blade couldn't/ can't take an edge again.

For what it's worth, I also use the basic Lansky sharpening system, and old cotton belt, and a piece of leather, and I can most always put a perfectly sharp and fine edge on all my knives. I fail to see where the problem lies on your end.
 
The metal is immaterial, if you're hitting the angle right you can get a razor sharp edge on a random bit of steel pulled out of a bin. It might not hold that edge for very long, but getting it sharp should be no issue at all.

Grab a cheap double sided sharpening stone 400/800 or something like that, sit the knife on it flat then rotate until you can feel the bevel sitting flush with the stone. Give it a few strokes on one side, then a few strokes on the other. You should start to feel the edge come back.

Polishing with an abrasive runs the risk of taking the edge off. I've done it myself with an AlOx strop done improperly, a fact that's left me reluctant to use strops on my knives. Just put it down to a learning experience.
 
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