Bad steel

[Shawn Pixley]

So my neighbor came over to give me a chef's knife he found in his garden. It was pretty rusty. Well a little phosphoric acid and a scotch bright and the rust was gone. A few pits were left. So I thought I'd be a good neighbor and sharpen it for them. There were quite a few nicks on the edge so I started with a coarse oil stone (the one I use to sharpen my fillet knife). Well I could get these nicks out but new ones would appear. The steel was very brittle and probably had large grains or slag imperfections in it. With a lack of success with the oilstones, I tried my coarse waterstone, no difference. Didn't really want to use my better waterstones. Then I tried an electric sharpener we have lying around. Still, getting chip-out on the edge. Eventually, I gave up trying to get the chips out and just sharpened it well. I returned it to my neighbor who was pleased as punch that it was saved. I didclosed the chips, but they didn't seem unhappy at all. It may be sharper than their other knives. It would drive me nuts.

If I had bothered to test the rusty knife first, I probably wouldn't bothered to clean and de-rust it. I note that after taking up woodworking my sharpness standards have risen substantially.

[george wilson]

That is extremely unusual. I have never had a knife that chips kept falling off of.

[David Weaver]

No clue what caused the problem, but coticules are the go to for a knife that chips if the problem is minor enough that the knife can still be used (they're the go to anti-microchipper in the razor world, also).

I've only run across two microchippers, both razors, but sure as anything, they chipped. I honed one blunt on a pasted strop until it drove me nuts and the next person who got it said after a while they got to good steel.

The other a japanese razor marked "best silver steel". It should've said "crappy export razor for stupid americans. Extra hard and chippy". Retempering it helped a little bit but it's just poor steel.

Generally, even in bad steel, there should be an angle blunt enough (usually it's just another 5 degrees or so from what you're used to) for whatever is being sharpened to not chip. Then it's a matter of whether or not you can tolerate the sharpened item at that angle.

[Shawn Pixley]

Maybe I'll get the knife back and try a little steeper angle. There were dents on the back where somebody used it to smack something. The steel didn't seem particularly hard which surprised me that it kept chipping out.

When I returned it, they mentioned that it might be a particularly cheap knife. It certainly wasn't as nice as my Messermeister Meridian Elites.

[Winton Applegate]

Shawn,

Of course you realize this is the murder weapon that we have been searching for . . .
you recall that "incident" last year over in the other block near you ?
The one that was suddenly hushed up and nobody would talk about?
Yah . . .
I'll send one of the boys from the bureau over to pick it up.
Shame you wiped the finger prints. Might still be some "material" in and around the handle.

Shawn your nation thanks you.

PS: in case you are curious the break down in the material was caused by the . . . well . . . "rays" is the best way to describe it but it isn't exactly rays . . . we haven't came up with a word for that yet . . . but any way when we turn it on the victim there is an awful lot of . . .

. . . never mind.
Bill just told me that has just been classified.
Just try to stay as far away from it as you can. The guy I am sending over will have a double lead lined box to put it in.
NOT THAT IT IS DANGEROUS or anything. It's just that it is a little . . .
well I can't talk about that either.

[Shawn Pixley]

Shawn,

Of course you realize this is the murder weapon that we have been searching for . . .
you recall that "incident" last year over in the other block near you ?
The one that was suddenly hushed up and nobody would talk about?
Yah . . .
I'll send one of the boys from the bureau over to pick it up.
Shame you wiped the finger prints. Might still be some "material" in and around the handle.

Shawn your nation thanks you.

PS: in case you are curious the break down in the material was caused by the . . . well . . . "rays" is the best way to describe it but it isn't exactly rays . . . we haven't came up with a word for that yet . . . but any way when we turn it on the victim there is an awful lot of . . .

. . . never mind.
Bill just told me that has just been classified.
Just try to stay as far away from it as you can. The guy I am sending over will have a double lead lined box to put it in.
NOT THAT IT IS DANGEROUS or anything. It's just that it is a little . . .
well I can't talk about that either.

That explains the black helicopters that we keep seeing glimpses of....that and the strange clicks we hear of the phone....

[Mike Olson]

I had a set of REALLY cheap palm chisels that my dad got me as a kid. they worked fine back then when I would sharpen them with a file. I dug them out a couple years ago when I started the scary sharp method and the edges would chip off when I would get close to done. I finally just tossed the set.

[Jim Matthews]

....that and the strange clicks we hear of the phone....

It's a well known fact that RFID transmitters implanted during surgery interfere with cell phone reception.
When you became a rebroadcast antenna for HARP thought control, didn't they mention this?

291676

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Well this thread escalated quickly, ay?

[Winton Applegate]

ay ya

the message I posted was toooooo short. Who makes up these rules anyway ? What if it was a yes or no question ? I suppose the person would have to do what I am doing and waste a bunch of 1s and 0s to say . . .

Yes
or
No

anyway Malcom . . . I must say you are entirely too positive and up beat

escalated

see now . . . I would have said descended (or deteriorated) quickly.
You are a good influence.

There. I hope that was enough additional . . . we will call it "length" . . . some may want to insert their own colorful and descriptive ________ what ever it is called in cool guy english terms (I slept through most of my english classes)(or read books on stuff that might actually benefit me when I got out). Sounds like I was in prison doesn't it. Felt like it. They called it "High School". There were those who where high while they were there. I wasn't. Not by a long jot . . .
surely now this is quite enough to allow me to post.
I hope it was all worth it and I wish everyone the best . . . and their brothers the best too and their brother's dogs too.