Poor heat treat

chalby said:
I think you missed the joke. Maybe lost in translation?
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Could be just my rusted english or my cables are bit on the long side. ;)

Whenever I'm down there in 'the land of macaroni' and I eat 'al dente' pasta seems to me like there are bones in there.
Just kidding.
Usually I cook italian made spaghetti (Barilla for example) 3 or 4 minutes longer as it says on the box to be more to my leaking.
So; for me 'al dente' is more on the 'hard side' and how I cook them is more on the 'softer but not overcooked' side.
 
TheOne45 said:
My PF949 hit 60.9HRc on our lab device but it's just K110, not some modern steel.
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Hi!
I'm looking at exactly the same knife now, my only concern is the steel - I really don't like rust and stains. Can you tell a few fords regarding this in your experience? Does it go stained easily?
 
Skogsnatt said:
Does it go stained easily?
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K110 is D2 steel made by Bohler. It suppose to be quality D2 steel compare to some other options out there. Still, I also have PF838... also D2 steel but China made but so far no problems regarding edge retention or stains. I would say it performs the same as K110.
Regarding stains....
K110 is not stainless but so far I had no problems with stains. PF949 has some sort of coating on most the blade but it's hard to tell how much this helps to prevent oxidation. If I cut something aggresive (lemons and similar) or the blade is wet I wipe it dry. Otherwise I don't put oil on the blade or wipe it whenever I touch it. No stains so far.
I could also say that after heat threatment D2 steel there is about 4 to 6 percent of crome left in the solution so it's not as prone to rust as ordinary carbon steel.
 
There's a good chance that the steel feels gummy due to a poor heat treatment protocol, but isn't actually softer than the stated hardness range. A lackluster heat treatment can result in steel hitting the desired hardness range but also having excessive retained austenite and a poor microstructure, resulting in difficult deburring and poor performance overall.

Many people, myself included, have had subpar experiences with Italian M390 knives, and there has also been testing performed that indicated that the M390 is often within hardness spec.
 
About year ago I bought extrema ratio neck knife second hand and I was surprised how easily it sharpened/regrinded. Makes sense now. I sold it because it felt too gimmicky / ferrari knife.
 
Bob Denman said:
I wonder if they "burned" the steel when sharpening it at the factory?
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When I complained about how soft the VG-10 steel was on my Spyderco Delica, someone pointed out that it's possible they messed up the tempering (heat treatment) just at the edge when they sharpened it, and that if I sharpen it some more, it will probably hold up better. (a robot does the sharpening at Spyderco in just a second or two, so that is completely possible)

They were right. I did touch up the sharpening, just with the Sharpmaker, and it's holding up more like it should now.
 
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Skogsnatt said:
Hi!
I'm looking at exactly the same knife now, my only concern is the steel - I really don't like rust and stains. Can you tell a few fords regarding this in your experience? Does it go stained easily?
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I've had a Petrified Fish 818 for about a year now and have used it a lot. In fact it's been my certified chore knife for yard work, mechanical work, just anything that I don't mind being pretty rough and tough. It's surprised the hell out of me. The edge holds up really well on this thing. I thought that maybe I was trippin, but looked around and found others praising the heat treatment on PF's D2. Very impressive for a $27 knife from a Chinese company. Chinese companies have come up in the fit and finish game and can do the external finishing on knives as good as anyone else now days, however as kind of a general rule they don't put as much energy into pushing the limits on heat treatments.
 
M390 is one of my favorite steels and I have several knives in that steel. It is my favorite because my first one was/is great. For my uses it had great edge retention, relatively easy to sharpen, and completely stainless. Then the second one in that steel, from a different maker was very similar, then I got a third one and I could have sworn I was sharpening a completely different steel. I echo that it felt gummy on the Spyderco Sharpmaker I use for all my sharpening. I ended up giving that knife away. I'm not interested in telling what company or model, because I have multiple knives from many companies and all of them are more than capable of shipping the occasional dud. I have no idea what the actual rockwell hardness was, and I never got very far using it after the ordeal just trying to get it sharp that first time left me with a with a negative impression of that particular knife. It got used for a bit, sharpened one time, and then sat in the drawer for about a year, and then it got gifted.

I think the only company that has never let me down is Spyderco.

Grizz
 
I'd always put a new edge, with the "appropriate" angle and than judge the steel or manufacturer.
With this said in general, I also find italian knives to be on the "softer" side than 58 number of hardness...
When get a new knife, I usually run it till I figure out the factory angle (if no such info), and how would this
particular blade will perform with it it... I think there are better angles to use with particular steels,
also HT is important of course. I am partial to "higher" HRC for what I do but again - we're all different
and we all do different things with our knives. As most members chimed in - sharpening skills will speak for the result too... 😉
 
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SharpNP23 said:
Have any of you ever used fat carbon scales from one knife and reshaped them to fit another? Maybe a dumb question but I hate to waste them. The knife I'm just going to scrap, I've messed with it too much to return it. Never buying a Maniago knife again. Looks pretty, but it's crap.
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Sorry I know this thread's a little old but maybe you can sell the scales on Knafsale, can't hurt to try, it's worth trying to get a few dollars for them rather then having them just sitting there going to waste
 
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