Sebenza small steel strength, whittling

B

blakespot

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Sep 8, 2013
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I received my Sebenza 21 small Insingo last night. I got home and to "test it out" I started to whittle a bit on a piece of wood, a section of branch from a tree in the yard. In the process, I realized at times, with occasional digs, a good bit of force / torque is put on the knife. I know the blade is rather strong steel and the handle is titanium, but I wondered if there is a real risk of bending or torquing the blade out of original shape by that action. Should that be a concern, or really not, given this class of knife?

(All looks ok, so far, by the way.)

Thanks.




bp
 
Shouldn't be a concern at all. I know that there are a couple of guys here on the boards that carve a lot with their Sebbies.

My handmade carvers have blades that are very slight. I don't abuse them but I'm not super easy on them either. The only area of concern that I've ever read about on a folder is the pivot loosening, but that is (afaik) only a problem with weak slipjoints.

Some of my carvers-

IMAG0997_zpsc1e4a54d.jpg


My modified Opinel works really well-

IMAG1485_zps7e50cea1.jpg


Your Sebenza should be perfectly fine. :)
 
I wouldn't worry about about the strength of your insingo with whittling.

Put it to Work and see how strong it really is. It's built to take a lot. I don't how you'd bend the blade unless you put the knife in a vise and tried to

bend/break the blade.:D
 
By way of comment, however, I think that is probably why CRK has chosen to run their S30V and S35VN a little softer than some other makers. At some point, under some circumstances, what you're describing could result in edge chipping. It'd be pretty unlikely with a Sebenza or Umnu.
 
Unless you turn green when you get angry I don't think many us normal guys have the hand strength to damage the knife during normal use. :p
 
It should be fine but I wouldn't recommend it.


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not sure if chris reeves considers this abuse and voids any returns etc.
 
I have put my lg insingo through many different types of wood with no problem.
It's not hard to learn the limitations of a blade tip, especially when whittling.
 
I would be *very* disappointed if CRK considered carving abuse.

Unless your wood is exceedingly dirty, carving is one of the lighter uses that a knife could be expected to do.

Here are some tips for carving if you're worried-

Select commonly used wood such as Bass. You can get it at places like Hobby Lobby, or Woodcraft. Ebay is also an option.

Sharpen your edge properly. A fairly acute edge will be fine. We'll call that 30º inclusive on a Sebbie. Make sure it's sharpened by looking at your wood. If your cut leaves a nice burnished surface you're good to go. If it leaves streaks in your wood you need to hone the edge.

Maintain your edge! This is best achieved by frequent stropping. I strop every 20 minutes or so. Do this and you can maintain your edge nearly indefinitely.

Edge rolled? Don't freak out. Usually stropping with compound will fix it. If not try running the edge on your stone like you would when applying a microbevel.

Check my thread on carving knives in the Workshop forum. It's a very long thread but worth looking at if you're interested in carving/whittling.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1046919
 
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"Carving" and the like cover a lot of territory, I think. I know when I do thinks like that I often edge-pry a great deal. Might be my bad technique. ;)
 
JNewell said:
"Carving" and the like cover a lot of territory, I think. I know when I do thinks like that I often edge-pry a great deal. Might be my bad technique. ;)
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Good point.

To clarify my meaning, carving as in ball in cage, figures, spoons etc... I don't edge pry at all, but I could see someone doing it while whittling.

If you are simply making a big stick small, and doing it by slapping the edge against the thing, I don't consider that carving either. :)
 
I have a habit of whittling random sticks in my yard, and have never had a problem at all. As posted above, keep your knives sharp and use away! They are very tough
 
Ernie1980 said:
I have a habit of whittling random sticks in my yard, and have never had a problem at all. As posted above, keep your knives sharp and use away! They are very tough
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Same here. I pick up sticks and whittle in the back yard from time to time with my large Insigno. Never had a problem. I keep it sharp and never expect to have a problem.
 
Use it without worry.
I carried a small insingo for about 2 years before I moved up to my umnumzaan.
I treated it more like a $150 benchmade than a fine CRK and it never missed a beat. Dont get me wrong, i never abuse my blades, but they get very well used!

Once when out hunting I forgot my fixed blade at camp, got turned around in a bad snow storm. I had to hunker down and wait out the storm, I used my small insingo to make a shelter out of a few pine trees. It push cut through limbs up to 3/4 inch with ease and whittled through the larger stuff easily. In helping me quickly make a shelter it helped keep me alive.

I've since moved to the large insingo from almost 3 years with the umnumzaan, I'll never sell either of the insingo's as In my worthless opinion the small and large insingos are some of the best folding knives ever made.
I hope that you get the joy from your knife that mine has given me.
 
Examining extremely closely, I see the smallest of "dents" - just one - near the end of the blade. It is so small I must put the blade against a white surface and look without my distance-glasses to see it. Too small to tell if it's a chip or a dent or whatever the proper terminology. Also there are a few scrape marks along the small, normally polished edge of the blade. This is from my day-1 whittle / carving extravaganza.

So, should I be worried about this?

Guessing normal sharpening will smooth out the little scrapes on the side of the blade edge. What do I want to do, here, as far as my first sharpenings? There's stone and oil, but I hear people speak of certain devices that are more automatic? Can someone recommend something specific? Should I be oiling the blade regularly? With what?

Thanks.



bp
 
If you're using a knife for an extended period it's better to keep stroping the knife back during use than to just let it "run out" and have to sharpen it. Using a fine ceramic rod or stone and a strop should be all you need untill the edge is actually worn out with use and you need to remove material to get an edge back. Little dings, rolls and marks in the edge are totally normal for any knife that is getting used, be it a $10 machete or a $400 Sebenza. :)
 
When you actually need to remove material, sharpen, the Sharpmaker is a good option. Lets see some pics of the project you are making.
 
Haze said:
If you're using a knife for an extended period it's better to keep stroping the knife back during use than to just let it "run out" and have to sharpen it. Using a fine ceramic rod or stone and a strop should be all you need untill the edge is actually worn out with use and you need to remove material to get an edge back. Little dings, rolls and marks in the edge are totally normal for any knife that is getting used, be it a $10 machete or a $400 Sebenza. :)
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Could you recommend a ceramic rod and strop? I am quite new to this. Maybe a link to something specific. Thank you.

Much appreciated.



bp
 
For a strop you can use a pice of leather or even a pice of denim from an old pair of jeans glued to a board with something like green "rouge" to help it cut. As far as ceramic rods I'm not sure how easy it is to but a bad one, really any smooth ceramic will work. A good stone to get is the small Fällkniven ceramic stone with dimond back, that is a good stone for just about any folder sized blade as long as you can free hand sharpen. If that is an issue then something like the Sharpmaker, as mentioned already, would be a good bet. :)

blakespot said:
Could you recommend a ceramic rod and strop? I am quite new to this. Maybe a link to something specific. Thank you.

Much appreciated.



bp
Click to expand...
 
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