question for jerry - can mod-infi have dimples?

[Josh Muller]

i have in my posesion a smooth coat basic 3, that has an interesting ricasso area. on one side, its perfectly smooth, but on the other its dimpled similar to what a lot of people relate to infi. but ive also read several accounts of dimpled a2, wich was before the age of infi (hehe... i like the sound of that...).

so i was wondering, is it possible that any of the basics were made of infi? or is this just an oddball of the bunch, perhaps the dimpling being a result of the heat treat process?

thanks for any responses

smooth:

dimpled:

 

[MikeH]

I recently obtained a Swamp Rat Battle Rat which had the coating removed.
The grinds had been polished but the flats and handle area left as it appeared when stripped. It has a somewhat dimpled effect like your pictures. I also have a stripped Steel Heart E, and the INFI dimples on it have a distinctly different appearance than on the Battle Rat and in your pictures. I suspect that the dimples on our non-INFI blades are simply due to the lower refinement of finish required on a coated blade.

I personally like the visual effect of the dimples on the flats.

 

[Josh Muller]

the infi that ive seen without coating did seem to had more of a craterous dimpling then a mottled appearence...

always worth asking though

 

[Andrew Lynch]

mmmm....infi dimples....mmmmmm

 

[Josh Muller]

there is one more thing thats interesting about this basic 3...

ive seen this on more then 1 busse combat knife that had the asymetrical grind, as well as a few that had symetrical grinds. the tip is ground heavyl to the left, meaning that the side that has the really high steep grind looks like someone pushed the tip area of the edge into the grinder harder then the rest, actaully making the edge curve to the left when it gets to the tip. this one is pretty extreme, almost incurring a tanto style corner on the edge flats.

wich is fine, but...

the tip has heat discoloration... it goes from purple, to orangeish brown to yellow, and then disappears into the normal metal silver. im sure the majority of you have seen this on something, you can see it on nicholson files at the tang where the heat treatment stops (softer tang). its light enough that you cant see it dead on, but you can see it at an angle in the light

im wondering if this was just a place that wasnt polished, or if the grinder actually got it hot enough to discolor?

 

[X-Head]

I think whether or not your knife surface has dimples is more a factor of whether or not the knife has been surface ground on some type of steel planer rather than an indication of what type of steel it is. I would guess most, if not all, steel alloys have dimples on their surfaces in their raw billet form. If I'm wrong Jerry will set it straight. I'm just throwing out my W.A.G. in the meantime.

 

[Gossman Knives]

The D2 and 154CM that I use is blanchard grind. It has the dimples you are talking about. Blanchard is the way it comes from the mill. I have to surface grind the blade in order to remove these dimples. You need good lighting in order to see that they are gone. Presision and flat ground steel is free of this. The Busse 5160 blanks that I got were the same way, blanchard ground, had to be surface ground to remove dimples. Hope that helps.
Scott

 

[wetdog1911]

I don't see why the M-INFI can't have dimples, but only on one side is a bit odd. As far as the A2 having dimples I've gotten conflicting answers and the knives to match the answers. I have 3 SHBA's. 2 Fatties and 1, 1/4". The 1/4" is Infi and the 2 fatties are supposedly A2. They both have the A2 grind, but while one is smooth, the other is dimpled just like the INFI, not 'mottled'. The only way to be sure I guess is to send it back and have the 'spark' test done to it. I also have the same situation with a fatty SHSH that was sold to me as A2, but has those dimples. Could be that both are very early INFI before the newer grinding equipment was used. The difference is intriguing as to how could the same steel look so different.

Rob