warranty/blade chip question

J

Jebadiah_Smith

Joined
Jul 28, 2004
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878
Does the HI warranty apply only to the first owner?

I just got a used villager sirupati today and a chip fell out of the sweet spot. Its not quite big enough to make me want to send back, but its big enough where I cant sharpen it out, and its right where you do all of the cutting. Its really put me into quite a pickle.

Its about 1/4 wide and a little less than 1/8 deep at its deepest point. I had just sharpened it and used it on some green wood. It broke my heart because this is such a nice knife.

What would you do if you were in my shoes? Would grinding it out remove too much of the hardened portion?
 
Jebadiah_Smith said:
What would you do if you were in my shoes? Would grinding it out remove too much of the hardened portion?
Click to expand...

I'd cover it with tape.

You could perhaps etch the blade and see how far the hardened zone goes. Or ask Uncle Bill about it.

I do think that the warrantee extends only to the first owner though.
 
I was in your shoes last year, I ground out and reprofiled my 18" AK when it chipped in a similar fashion. It's had no problems since.
 
Same as raghorn.

I chipped out my GRS big-time.....here's a pic:

http://www.pendentive.biz/blades/taped-up-r.jpg

I just ran it on the belt grinder, cleaned up the edge, and put a new bevel on it. I gave it a full test and had no problems with it. Passed file test for hardness.

On your sirupati, since it's a smaller blade, I wouldn't be worried if the chip is less than 1/8" deep.

You could always etch it overnight in vinegar to see the temper line - just don't go past that and you'll be ok.

I'm guessing since it was a villager, the hardening probably wasn't controlled as well, so who knows....maybe the khuk is doing you a favor by alerting you to a bad area. Once you get rid of it, you'll get what you had hoped for in the first place.


The warranty applies to the first owner only.
 
But use your bare fingers to tell you when the blade starts overheating. Keep a bucket of water handy and cool it ( at least ) twice as often as it needs it.
 
Hmmm...an HI Himalayan Icepick? I'm seeing real possibilities here. There would definitely be a market, and I'm sure DIJ won't mind my suggestion that we rush them into production ahead of the manjushree swords. I mean, most of us have those peky blocks of ice to take care of--priorities, you know!
 
Daniel, wth did you cut with that blade ? I chopped 7mm nails with mine once, and the blade shipped - but it was my fault, the wooden block where I was chopping was to soft, which caused the nails to bend and 'trap' the blade. Else than a little chip, it was fine. I had it reprofiled, and etching tells me there's still enough hard area left.
 
I had an 18" AK chip in exactly the same manner.

My guess was a forging flaw. I had to take a lot of steel off but got the edge back on.
 
Like almost anything, there is a value to being the original owner...but as I said, I wouldn't hesitate to grind it down...properly cooled as Rusty said.
 
Well, the grinders fired up. Ill see if i cant put a full convex of this one. I hope I dont end up with an ice pick...

Thanks for removing all of my fear for grinding this thing. You guys are such enablers.
 
I chipped out my GRS big-time

Dan, It looks like you were trying to invent the world's first serrated khukuri.
;)

n2s
 
Dan, that's the worse I ever saw. Did you just keep chopping? It does look like a saw tooth khuk.



munk
 
Grind that lil ole nick out. A couple of my favorite khuks got chipped out or had a crack that needed removing out of the sweet spot. I bought a khuk from UB just because it had a 1/4 crack going up into the sweet spots edge.It was a great deal and a chance to grind on a khuk and sort of become one with it.
I would suggest that you use some layout blue or even a magic marker to darken an area down the full blade. Then using a scribe, layout the blades new shape. That way you can blend it out from the chip into a nice new shape that you like without removing more steel than needed.
I did this with the 21" Chit that I chipped out a 1/4" deep X 3/4" long chunk out of the sweet spot. The repair turned out great, and one would never know what happened to the blade from looking at it. It has a much smaller waist than before, so it's kind of cool looking.
I hope your repair comes out great! :) Since the edge chipped out there, it was most likely a little too hard there. When you grind up from the edge you may get into slightly softer steel that will be hard but not brittle.
Have fun!
 
As Dan said, the GR had a slight hollow ground edge which probably contributed to the chip. If the Kamis wish to make edges like that on large choppers, they should expect failure.

That said, the early khuks I fretted over much more than today. My 25" AK can roll the edge in the 4" towards the tip on any significant contact with wood. But why worry? Yvsa reground the thin edge of the khuk for me and today I cut with confidence with it. I don't cut trees with the tip and outside of sometimes stoning it back I don't worry.

The sirupate with a chip is an excellent candidate for a regrind. If a regrind is even neccesary.

The only problem with leaving a chip hollow is the stress is places on the edge near it.

munk
 
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