Quick way to ruin a 154CM blade :(

G

gadgetophile

Joined
Jan 16, 2006
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4
I have a Leatherman Charge XTI and was using it to cut a plug connector off a lithium-polymer radio control plane battery. The wire gauge is tiny, and the connectors were too close together to get them into the wire cutter without shorting the two wires, so I decide to use the tip of the main blade to sever the first wire so I could then use the wire cutter on the second. I've done this in the past with no problems.

All was going well until the very tip of the blade penetrated the insulation on the other wire, resulting in a nice bright spark before I whipped the blade away. Thankfully the battery was only warm, and didn't explode or flame out like some have reported to do on overcharging. I was also glad I didn't fry the battery as they cost nearly $50 (special high-discharge rate li-po's for powerful electric R/C planes).

Anyway, I inspected the knife and was dismayed to find that the spark had blackened the tip and blown/melted a chip out of the edge of the knife. Sorry for the crappy cameraphone pic, but you get the idea:
leatherman_blade.jpg


Now I have zero experience with sharpening (beyond using a steel on my kitchen knives). Do you guys reckon I can re-edge this blade to recover the profile? Or is it a gonner?
 
The easiest way to fix a tip like this is to grind the spine, rather than the edge. You'd need a good coarse stone and some patience, but you should be able to get a decent point on it again, without altering the tip shape too much.
 
Welcome to the forums!

Wow. That reminds me of a time I was in a junior high home economics class. I was working on a sewing machine and for some reason that I was never able to fathom, another student cut the machine's power cord with a pair of scissors. There was a flash and a bang. When the smoke cleared, the scissors had a big notch burned out of each side. Fortuneately, the scissors had plastic handles. No one was hurt.

Don't despair. I recently fixed a broken tip on a paring knife by doing just what Gryffin said, grinding the spine on a coarse flat stone.
 
So by 'spine' you mean the back of the knife!? As in grind it back to form a shorter point? Or am I missing the point, so to speak :D
 
Nope, you've got it right. Grind down the back of the knife, so that it meets the edge further back, forming a new (non-charred) point.
 
I almost can't help but laugh, I'm an electrician and have blown up so many tools on hot wires! Hope you can fix that sucker, as I have lost quite a few tools that way, and it annoys me more every time!
 
I remember my father drilling a hole in a wall to mount something, can't remember what. Big 8mm (about 3/8") drill bit though.

BANG! Big spark and the electric drill stops. We thought the drill had broken in some way, but then realised the power circuit breaker had tripped. Pulled the drill out and found it had only half a drill bit :o

We had to cut away a section of drywall to repair the fried mains cable and retrieve the other half of the drillbit from inside the stud. Amazingly he'd drilled right into where a wire was passing through the stud, and juuust skimmed the wire enough to take the insulation off both conductors :D
 
Wow... a $100 "blade" to protect a $50 battery...






























OK






I know that not what happend, but I couldn't resist...






(pun intended)
 
gadgetophile said:
I remember my father drilling a hole in a wall to mount something, can't remember what. Big 8mm (about 3/8") drill bit though.

BANG! Big spark and the electric drill stops. We thought the drill had broken in some way, but then realised the power circuit breaker had tripped. Pulled the drill out and found it had only half a drill bit :o

We had to cut away a section of drywall to repair the fried mains cable and retrieve the other half of the drillbit from inside the stud. Amazingly he'd drilled right into where a wire was passing through the stud, and juuust skimmed the wire enough to take the insulation off both conductors :D
Click to expand...
Have either you or your father been told not to get around electricity with metal objects...? ;) Thank goodness that you haven't combined standing in water puddles with your shared "hobby." :)

GeoThorn
 
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