robin_foster1•6d agoProlific Poster

Had a big crack show up in a custom knife blade after heat treat last week. Do you try to salvage it or just scrap the piece?

3 comments

3 Comments

Man that's the worst feeling in the world. Had a beautiful chef's knife crack right along the tang after quenching, felt like I got punched. Honestly I'd just scrap it, trying to save it usually ends in more heartbreak later. The stress is already in the steel and it'll probably just fail somewhere else.

-3

sam_rivera6d ago

I get that feeling, but I've saved a few blades with similar cracks. My old 1084 camp knife had a small quench crack near the handle. I ground it out completely, re-tempered the whole blade, and it's been my main bushcraft knife for three years now. Sometimes the stress isn't as deep as it looks. It's worth a quick grind test to see how far it goes before you toss all that work.

sage522d ago

Grind it down a quarter inch past where the crack ends and see if it's still there. If it's just surface level you can re-profile the edge and keep it as a shorter blade. I've got a skinner that started as a bowie before the quench went wrong. Sometimes you just end up with a different knife than you planned.