SK-5 flaking and breaking off while sharpening?

I'm willing to accept certain flaws in a knife, but if the blade is crumbling and cannot be sharpened, then it isn't useable as a knife. I would consider that unacceptable at any price.

And for some people, $40 is a lot of money. Especially if it's $40 completely wasted.
Price of SK5 Recon Tanto here is 60€, and 60€ is a lot in my country.

I'm willing to bet that this thing would shatter or become confetti if he swung it into hard piece of wood or a bone.
 
If this was happening to me I would grind the edge off on a course stone till I got a consistent flat across it.
Then sharpen normally.

It is possible that the edge was over heated and he needs to get to the good steel.
Or it could be a botched HT.
In that case I would try to return it.
 
If this was happening to me I would grind the edge off on a course stone till I got a consistent flat across it.
Then sharpen normally.

It is possible that the edge was over heated and he needs to get to the good steel.
Or it could be a botched HT.
In that case I would try to return it.

OP said: "the pieces of edge literally break off as he is trying to sharpen it"

Very possible. But knives I have sharpened/repaired for that reason and corrected by getting past the edge never "chipped while sharpening". That's why I suspect it's a pretty serious HT issue.
Definitely should return if at all possible. But if unable, I suppose can't hurt to sharpen past that edge and see.
 
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if returning it isn't an option - what I would do personally - is take off the handle, and put it in the oven at 350F for an hour ...
basically re-temper

it sounds like it might have missed that part of heat treatment... at least that is my best guess
(either that, or he got unlucky with a fake that uses real pot metal instead of sk5)

let us know the result :)
 
I would ask him what did he cut with it.

My guess would be: This is either a bad heat treat or chemicals.
I think there could be chemicals that can penetrate deep into steel without dissolving it completely, but rather ruining it's structure.
 
I didn't see this mentioned, but where was the knife purchased? Do you have a decent picture of the entire knife, or can you get one? There have been plenty of CS fakes being sold online right from China recently.....and some sellers don't even try to hide the fact that they are fakes.....
 
if returning it isn't an option - what I would do personally - is take off the handle, and put it in the oven at 350F for an hour ...
basically re-temper

it sounds like it might have missed that part of heat treatment... at least that is my best guess
(either that, or he got unlucky with a fake that uses real pot metal instead of sk5)

let us know the result :)

Usually "take off the handle" with a Cold Steel knife means "destroy the handle".
 
yeah, sorry, I forgot that wasn't a practical option with the recon tanto... I personally only buy fixed blades with removable slabs, with 1 exception being mora

maybe a torch temper?? but that requires much more finesse
... if it's not the temper that is messed up... could it just be a really bad batch of steel?
that usually would never make it past qc
 
I would just reprofile the edge with a coarse stone, polish it up and see how it holds. If it can't sharpen up, then it's a warranty issue.
 
I didn't see this mentioned, but where was the knife purchased? Do you have a decent picture of the entire knife, or can you get one? There have been plenty of CS fakes being sold online right from China recently.....and some sellers don't even try to hide the fact that they are fakes.....
That dude doesn't order anything online, so if it's a fake then hunting store is selling fake crap.

Brands that you can get from the store here are:
Fallkniven
Mora
Cold Steel
Opinel

More rare are:
Spyderco
Kershaw
Real Steel
Condor

I'll ask for more pics just in case....
 
Update: He just told me he contacted the store, and as he still has the receipt they will replace his knife.
 
And for some people, $40 is a lot of money. Especially if it's $40 completely wasted.

Well said.
That $40.00........isn’t just “$40.00”.
Somebody had to trade their time and energy to get it.
That time spent earning that money is gone.

Glad to hear the store will replace.
 
My take on it would also be to try and claim the warranty, but I don't know how's that going to work with GSM...

This was all foretold in a couple-hundred-page-thread about CS new ownership not long ago.

You know.... "Quality is gonna vanish, along with the warranty" and such.

Kinda kidding. But keeping your receipt and contacting the seller is a just course of action for anyone. And looks like it worked out.
 
I would ask him what did he cut with it.

My guess would be: This is either a bad heat treat or chemicals.
I think there could be chemicals that can penetrate deep into steel without dissolving it completely, but rather ruining it's structure.

do you know of these chemicals or is this just wild speculation? Wouldn’t they destroy the rubber handle first?
 
do you know of these chemicals or is this just wild speculation? Wouldn’t they destroy the rubber handle first?

Now now... to be fair, he did simply say "I think there could be chemicals....." and so on.

Me, I think there could be Sasquatches up here in my neck of the Pacific Northwest.

Soooo, do I know of these big footed beasts, or is it just wild speculation?

Yeah, I call BS on the chemical thing too. :cool:
 
Now now... to be fair, he did simply say "I think there could be chemicals....." and so on.

Me, I think there could be Sasquatches up here in my neck of the Pacific Northwest.

Soooo, do I know of these big footed beasts, or is it just wild speculation?

Yeah, I call BS on the chemical thing too. :cool:
There's plenty of acids that can completely dissolve steel, but then steel would be discolored, so chemical thing is unlikely.

But, chemical composition of this steel could be another thing, if they got a bad batch that had lots of impurities, that could be the cause.
Bad heat treat is most likely to blame, but I wouldn't exclude other possibilities like combination of impurities in steel and bad heat treat...
 
Update: He took the knife, box and receipt to store and they gave him a new replacement knife free of charge.

It can't hurt to keep the box and receipt, as contacting the seller might be more likely to solve your problem than contacting manufacturer in some cases.
 
do you know of these chemicals or is this just wild speculation? Wouldn’t they destroy the rubber handle first?
There is plenty of acids that would do absolutely nothing to rubber and coating, while completely dissolving the steel.
Even stainless steel will disappear in Nitric acid as it attacks both, Iron and Chromium and both of these salts are soluble in water.
Now, nitric acid is very good at attacking metals, and would be my first choice to dissolve metal as it's also an oxidant.
Lotd of metal oxides are made by dissolving metals in nitric acid and then heating the salts until they decompose to metal oxide and gasses.
Now, I doubt he exposed the knife to such chemicals, but you never know.
Nothing is indestructible, and as plain carbon steel is almost pure Iron - it's fairly reactive, and we all know corrosion is one of weak sides of plain carbon steels.
 
There is plenty of acids that would do absolutely nothing to rubber and coating, while completely dissolving the steel.
Even stainless steel will disappear in Nitric acid as it attacks both, Iron and Chromium and both of these salts are soluble in water.
Now, nitric acid is very good at attacking metals, and would be my first choice to dissolve metal as it's also an oxidant.
Lotd of metal oxides are made by dissolving metals in nitric acid and then heating the salts until they decompose to metal oxide and gasses.
Now, I doubt he exposed the knife to such chemicals, but you never know.
Nothing is indestructible, and as plain carbon steel is almost pure Iron - it's fairly reactive, and we all know corrosion is one of weak sides of plain carbon steels.
You'll take chemistry as subject of choice next semester too, won't you? :D
 
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