Polishing decreases temper

S

SkipJunkie

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Jul 16, 2018
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I recently purchased a Service No. 1 as an intended user . The blade is polished , I later was told that this process cause the blade to lose it's temper to some degree . How much if any effect does this really have ? I've seen highly polished knives chop through nail with no seemingly I'll affect . Is it simply just a crap shoot ?
I ordered from a reputable company that I've had great success with 3 times in the past but never ordered a polished version
 
Planterz said:
I have no idea what a Service No. 1 is. But it takes hundreds of degrees to alter the temper of a knife blade.
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I think he might be referring to a Kukri? I'm wondering if he's maybe somehow worried he bought a fake because it's not hardened properly?
 
Oh my concern isn't that if it's fake I was reading up on this particular model of Kukri . And saw that some models are not polished at all in order to maintain the temper . And was curious as to what degree the temper could be affected by polishing ?
 
SkipJunkie said:
...I was reading ... saw that some models are not polished at all in order to maintain the temper ...
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Imo, the jungle kukri is an unpolished service no. 1. It is unpolished for several reasons, one of them is that an unpolished blade is thought to be less shiny and sought for tactical reasons.? It may well seem that an unpolished blade surface is merely one step less in the product stage and thus cost is lowered by ommitting the mirror finish. It may be noted that regular use of sand paper and light oiling is required to keep whatever developing rust spots at bay. As for loss of temper during the polishing process, i think one would find that it would hardly be a matter of concern for most run of the mill kukris...depending largely on the methods used to fashioned the blades.
 
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GIRLYmann said:
Imo, the jungle kukri is an unpolished service no. 1. It is unpolished for several reasons, one of them is that an unpolished blade is thought to be less shiny and sought for tactical reasons.? It may well seem that an unpolished blade surface is merely one step less in the product stage and thus cost is lowered by ommitting the mirror finish. It may be noted that regular use of sand paper and light oiling is required to keep whatever developing rust spots at bay. As for loss of temper during the polishing process, i think one would find that it would hardly be a matter of concern for most run of the mill kukris...depending largely on the methods used to fashioned the blades.
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I thought ad much . In the back of my mind I couldn't see how skilled Craftsman with a lifetime of training could make such a mistake with any kind of regularity and stay in good standing . But I have come to believe that the source you purchase through increases the likely hood that you could get an bad or even an imitation Kukri . I've read on several occasions where they were purchased from other than the actual makers web site and ended up being of lesser quality than those generally even sold as blems . Even though they were sold under the actual vendors name online .
 
Although there is a lot of variation based on steel and desired outcomes, steels are pretty much always tempered well above 300F. Imagine pulling a pan out of the oven seeing how long you can hold onto it! I think these occurrences are much rarer than the internet wants us to believe.
 
GIRLYmann said:
It may well seem that an unpolished blade surface is merely one step less in the product stage and thus cost is lowered by ommitting the mirror finish.
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It is a good several steps less. A good polishing job takes an alarmingly long time. I used to polish marine stainless parts for a custom yacht company, and getting a high polish on stuff is a painstaking process.
 
I did some research and if I'm understanding correctly the machine that is used by the Kami's is not a high speed deal I'm assuming that this means that you get less heat build up or ample time from enough to too much ? I'm assuming the polishing is more dependent on the media used ?
 
You have to use multiple grits before going to buffing or else it's a pointless endeavor. And the higher speed the buffer, the better the resulting polish.
 
Mine is more of a satin finish I suppose as opposed to highly polished after reviewing low resolution pic's on line .
 
Most people buying polished blades are not going to use them. Due to scratching them up in use. They are also more expensive due to the time it takes to polish them. Hence why they ideally wouldn't use them.

If done right, the temper won't be affected by the polishing and it also depends if it was hand polished or machine polished in that respect.

I would think that it likely wouldn't make a noticeable difference if it did affect it. But that's subject to variables.

But a polished blade is not something I would consider to loose its temper if done correctly. I'm not sure where this blanket statement is applicable to all polished blades.

As such a cheap blade is likely not good to begin with.
 
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Had a few minutes to do a little more use out of the Kukri last evening . I actually can't foresee any way possible that this thing could be damaged by using it sensibly against wood . At this point It has pretty much laid to rest any doubts I initially had about the rat tail tang .
 
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