The unsharpenable or is it just me? (plus your stories!)

STR said:
Oh I don't think it is just you. I think we all have our night mare knives that just don't want to cooperate when it comes time to sharpen it.

Mine are usually ATS34 or 154CM but I've also got a VG10 and a BG42 blade that are more difficult for some reason than others of the same steel.
Click to expand...

Intresting that you should mention 154CM. I've got a Gerber Covert that's difficult to get a good edge on that won't chip. Outside of cheap kitchen knives, it's the only knife I've got that is this way. Do you think there's something peculiar about 154CM that makes sharpening issues more common with this steel?
 
I have a cheap Sheffield Hawkbill i bought at Home Despot on a whim, i've had *cheese* get sharper than this piece of crap "knife", the only good things i can say about it is it generally has a very solid lockup, and it works *great* as a magnesium fire starter scraper/sparker, it creates such a shower of sparks on the flint rod alone that i almost don't need to shave off magnesium shavings....

it lives in the car in the center console with a magnesium firestarter and one of those little "survival kits" with the Spark-Lite "match", pealess whistle, and emergency flashing mirror

totally worthless as a knife, but a great sparker
 
MacTech said:
totally worthless as a knife, but a great sparker
Click to expand...
LOL! Reminds me of a knife I have in the kitchen .... kind of a boner pattern, stainless, that I think my grandmother had in like the 60's. Since it won't take an edge at all, I use it for things like cutting and crushing pills. A couple weeks ago, I'm bearing down hard on it trying to cut a pill in half for my girlfriend to give to her dog, and it won't cut.... I notice I'm pressing down with the palm of my hand on the edge, the spine on the pill. Didn't cut my hand.

Sometimes a POS knife is the best tool.
 
I had a knife lose it's temper once to over heating it while using a dremel buffing pad to get out some scuffs :rolleyes: . (Yes, I was not wise to do that, and no won't do it again)
Anyway, I told an old friend that after that the blade would just not take an edge.
He told me that an old trick he knew of might work..
He said that the next time my Wife made cornbread, to insert the knife blade into the cornbread as soon as it got out of the oven, and that sometimes would restore the temper.

Sounded hoakey to me, but anyway, the next time my Wife made cornbread, I walked in after she had had it out of the oven for a couple of minutes (and thankfully she had left the room, or I might have been killed) but I did it, and as crazy as it sounds - it really worked.

Must have been the heat and moisture?
I know what you might be thinking, and trust me, it really worked.

The Gentleman that told me that was an amateur knife maker, and has taught me almost everything good that I know about sharpening.

It was ATS34..
 
Barrabas
What you described is a physical impossibility. It would be awful hard to harm the temper with a Dremel and buffing pad, too.
Sorry.
Bill
 
Maybe the guy who recommended the cornbread trick knew that it was all due to the placebo effect.... ;)
 
Barrabas said:
I had a knife lose it's temper once to over heating it while using a dremel buffing pad to get out some scuffs :rolleyes: . (Yes, I was not wise to do that, and no won't do it again)
Anyway, I told an old friend that after that the blade would just not take an edge.
He told me that an old trick he knew of might work..
He said that the next time my Wife made cornbread, to insert the knife blade into the cornbread as soon as it got out of the oven, and that sometimes would restore the temper.

Sounded hoakey to me, but anyway, the next time my Wife made cornbread, I walked in after she had had it out of the oven for a couple of minutes (and thankfully she had left the room, or I might have been killed) but I did it, and as crazy as it sounds - it really worked.

Must have been the heat and moisture?
I know what you might be thinking, and trust me, it really worked.

The Gentleman that told me that was an amateur knife maker, and has taught me almost everything good that I know about sharpening.

It was ATS34..
Click to expand...


Might work. I didn't think ice cubes could make nipples hard until I saw it with my own eyes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top