Where to send sebenza blade for heat treating

Sharpski · Dec 13, 2012

Hey don't roast me for this but I have lots of sebenza's and I was considering sending one somewhere to have it re heat treated so the edge retention is a little better. I am curious to see if it makes a difference in practical use. I love my sebenzas, one of my all-time favorite knives, it really perfect, except the HT is debatable. Not taking sides I just wanted to see what one does with a harder heat treat.

So my question is has anyone experimented with this before?
Where or who can provide me with such services, and what is the price tag?
For those who have, are you glad you did?

Thanks!

BBQ BOY · Dec 13, 2012

Oh Holy Hell. You've started a war. Honestly, I don't care the HT either. There are a few guys on here who have sent it to Bos to have it hardened.

brady.kevin07 · Dec 13, 2012

I wouldn't do that. The finished blade will most likely warp and become unuseable

Sharpski · Dec 13, 2012

BBQ BOY said:
Oh Holy Hell. You've started a war. Honestly, I don't care the HT either. There are a few guys on here who have sent it to Bos to have it hardened.

let me nip that in the bud...those were not fighting words... REPEAT NOT FIGHTING WORDS so any inappropriate comments will be reported from here on out personally by me. Again this is not my intention of the tread, trust me I am not giong to go re heat treat all my sebenza's!

Just looking for information and experience.

Thanks BBQ boy for your tips, I will try to maybe contact Pual Bos...your taking about Paul I am assuming.

Sharpski · Dec 13, 2012

brady.kevin07 said:
I wouldn't do that. The finished blade will most likely warp and become unuseable

Yea I thought of that and is why I wanted to get some feedback from someone who has done it before I even actually even considered it.

tomsch · Dec 13, 2012

There is someone that has sent Sebenza blades to Paul Bos with great results. You do need to remove the stud which can be tricky but the blade does come back with a harder HT.

lambertiana · Dec 13, 2012

Paul Bos did mine, absolutely no blade warping. It did come back with a very pale amber surface hue, most of which has come off with some polishing compound.

Sharpski · Dec 13, 2012

lambertiana said:
Paul Bos did mine, absolutely no blade warping. It did come back with a very pale amber surface hue, most of which has come off with some polishing compound.

Nice! Thanks for commenting. How did you take the thumb stud out? So did it ruin the stone wash of the blade? How do you like the performance now? <- you don't have to answer that hah.

lambertiana · Dec 14, 2012

Mine has a polished blade. The stonewashed flats appear to be almost unchanged.

I couldn't get the thumbstud out (should have sent it to my machinist son, he has the right equipment to press it out properly) so I just had it heat treated with the thumbstud in. Now the thumbstud is golden yellow color. I kind of miss the blue, and I have considered sending it in to CR to have a new thumbstud put in; I asked if they would just sell me a thumbstud and they said I would have to send it in.

Sharpski · Dec 14, 2012

lambertiana said:
Mine has a polished blade. The stonewashed flats appear to be almost unchanged.

I couldn't get the thumbstud out (should have sent it to my machinist son, he has the right equipment to press it out properly) so I just had it heat treated with the thumbstud in. Now the thumbstud is golden yellow color. I kind of miss the blue, and I have considered sending it in to CR to have a new thumbstud put in; I asked if they would just sell me a thumbstud and they said I would have to send it in.

Thanks again for weighing in on this for me. Yea I don't have the machinery to take out the thumb stud out either but mine has the silver studs so I could use the change. CRK is pretty good with turn around when you send stuff in and their prices are ok so it's always an option. Plus I would like to a dual studs at some point for at least one of my CRKs.

Again thanks for posting and the feedback. I totally appreciate it!

TTTis · Dec 14, 2012

I've sent two small seb blades to Bos (now Farner). One in S30 and the other in S35. Both came back dead straight but with a slight cast over the blade (described above). I had my S30 blade rewashed by a friend and then did a hand rub finish on the S35. I had both hardened to 60, Farner can't go higher than that on S30/S35. Just tell him you want 60 and he will get you there.

I'd say both my sebenza blades had to be around 57/58. Both blades before hardening would dull faster than most of my cheap spydies. I also had blunting and inward denting of my edges, which I've actually never seen before. At first I figured it was just the factory edge, but after almost 10 sharpenings on both I decided to go another route. Sent them to Farner, he had them back to me in a week. Much easier to sharpen now! Takes a much crisper edge and retains it for much much longer. If I couldn't get the blades re-hardened, I would've sold my Sebs for sure. These things are users and have to last more than a day, lol.

If you have any questions or concerns let me know.

brady.kevin07 said:
I wouldn't do that. The finished blade will most likely warp and become unuseable

As long as the blade was hardened and finished straight the first time, chances of it warping are extremely slim. That is according to a guy with a lot of experience re-hardening blades of all shapes/sizes/thicknesses.

Sharpski said:
Nice! Thanks for commenting. How did you take the thumb stud out? So did it ruin the stone wash of the blade? How do you like the performance now? <- you don't have to answer that hah.

Just take the stud out with a pin punch and a hammer. Comes out pretty easy. If you are going to use the stud again, make sure to use a punch that is just barely smaller than the stud hole. If you use one a bit smaller you'll end up with a crater in the stud. I just drilled a small 1/4" (or so) hole in a block of wood, then taped the blade to it. Then just tapped the stud into the drilled out hole.

Performance is much better now. No chipping, rolling or inward blunting of the edge. It retains the edge much longer now, I'd say probably double the edge hold. I just say this based on the amount of sharpening I had to do before. Before it would dull faster than my VG10 Delica.

JNewell · Dec 14, 2012

The only thing you're going to get roasted for is one awful pun.

Sharpski said:
Hey don't roast me for this but I have lots of sebenza's and I was considering sending one somewhere to have it re –heat treated so the edge retention is a little better. I am curious to see if it makes a difference in practical use. I love my sebenzas, one of my all-time favorite knives, it really perfect, except the HT is debatable. Not taking sides I just wanted to see what one does with a harder heat treat.

So my question is has anyone experimented with this before?
Where or who can provide me with such services, and what is the price tag?
For those who have, are you glad you did?

Thanks!

wolf5391 · Dec 14, 2012

if you search around in this subforum there is a person who posted pictures of a re heat treated blade. It wasnt back at all, but the tricky part is getting the stud out and then back in without cracking the blade. It has happened before and it obviously voids warranty.

just something to think about

TTTis · Dec 15, 2012

wolf5391 said:
if you search around in this subforum there is a person who posted pictures of a re heat treated blade. It wasnt back at all, but the tricky part is getting the stud out and then back in without cracking the blade. It has happened before and it obviously voids warranty.

just something to think about

I believe the cracking of the blade was only an issue with BG42 blades. I've popped out around 10 studs on various Seb blades (friends and mine) and haven't had a problem. Course none of them were BG42 (don't think I'd chance it).

It was probably me who posted the pictures. This was a brand new S35 blade sent to Bos HT. This one had a stonewashed blade. This is how it looks right when you get it back. Just kind of a grayish cast over the blade with a few odd discoloration spots. If there wasn't the random discoloration spot, it would actually look good with a full Ti Seb.

Then after I finished it...

JNewell · Dec 15, 2012

wolf5391 said:
if you search around in this subforum there is a person who posted pictures of a re heat treated blade. It wasnt back at all, but the tricky part is getting the stud out and then back in without cracking the blade. It has happened before and it obviously voids warranty.

just something to think about

The only posts I remember reading here deal with BG-42 blades that cracked on reinserting new studs, not removing (or reinstalling the original) studs.

lemmuhj · Dec 15, 2012

SMI said:
I believe the cracking of the blade was only an issue with BG42 blades. I've popped out around 10 studs on various Seb blades (friends and mine) and haven't had a problem. Course none of them were BG42 (don't think I'd chance it).

It was probably me who posted the pictures. This was a brand new S35 blade sent to Bos HT. This one had a stonewashed blade. This is how it looks right when you get it back. Just kind of a grayish cast over the blade with a few odd discoloration spots. If there wasn't the random discoloration spot, it would actually look good with a full Ti Seb.

Then after I finished it...

Wow, blade came out super nice. What did you do to get that finish?

TTTis · Dec 16, 2012

lemmuhj said:
Wow, blade came out super nice. What did you do to get that finish?

Thanks. It was my first attempt at doing a hand rubbed finish (few practice strokes on a junk gerber).

Basically started at 220 then to 400 and finished with 600. All dry sanding, all from pivot to tip in one stroke. I taped over all the contact points on the blade to not mess with tolerances (washers, detent ball track and lock bar engagement).

I thought about taking it up to 800 to make the scratches just a little finer. You could take it up to 2000 grit and have a really bright satin finish, but for a user that wasn't my preference. At 600, you have a nice dull satin finish. One other thing. Before the last pass of each grit, I clean off the blade and get out a fresh strip of paper.

wolf5391 · Dec 16, 2012

JNewell said:
The only posts I remember reading here deal with BG-42 blades that cracked on reinserting new studs, not removing (or reinstalling the original) studs.

ok I guess I heard incorrectly.

My bad.

Thanks smi for posting the photos from that thread. I searched for a bit and couldn't find it, but I wasn't looking good enough apparently

Sharpski · Dec 16, 2012

JNewell said:
The only thing you're going to get roasted for is one awful pun.

haha I am glad someone got that!

Sharpski · Dec 16, 2012

Thanks for posting SMI, great stuff I really appreciate it! Exactly what I was looking for. I will strongly consider sending one to Bos! Email the best way to contact him? Phone? I see his info on the Buck website.

By the way your finish looks great!! Mind me asking how you accomplished that?