removing pitting

[Ken S]

I recently started a topic suggesting the use of a second leather honing wheel with valve grinding compound as a complement to the standard Tormek Honing Compound.

Recently I found an ancient pocket knife in a tool chest. The blades were stained/ oxidized. I polished the blades with the leather honing wheel of the T4. It quickly removed the oxidation and left only a bit of pitting on the back of the blades. Continuing the honing did not remove the pitting. The knife was much better than before.

This morning I decided to try polishing the pitted backs on my second leather honing wheel, the one with valve grinding compound. The pitting was quickly removed.

The use of Tormek Honing Compound and valve grinding compound is proving to be a useful combination. To be on the safe side, I use separate leather honing wheels, which are easily changed.

Ken

[Herman Trivilino]

You're lucky the pitting wasn't too deep to remove. I have a back saw that was left in the trunk of a friend's car with a wet rag on it. That was about 35 years ago. I've had that saw sharpened once since then and have it all cleaned up except for the very deep pits. It still works well, although it doesn't get much use anymore since I bought a power miter box (chop saw) last summer when I was remodeling my kitchen.

My point is that even if you can't get all the pits out, you can still have a useful tool that will give you years of service.

[Ken S]

Good point, Herman. The pocket knife doesn't work one bit better; it just looks nicer. In a perfect world, the only thing which would matter is sharpness. In this less than ideal world, sometimes shininess counts.

Ken

[Herman Trivilino]

I wouldn't be comfortable using a pitted knife in the kitchen. It would be fine in the shop, though.

[Ken S]

I agree with you both about not being concerned with pitting on shop knives and not having pitted knives in the kitchen.

In this case, the pitting was light. The regular honing compound was not effective in removing it. The valve grinding compound was coarse enough to remove enough steel to eliminate the pitting. The formerly pitted area is now smooth like the rest of the blade. If this knife was a kitchen knife, after completely removing the pitting with the valve grinding compound and giving the entire blade a good polishing with the Tormek Honing Compound (and washing the knife), I would feel comfortable using it in my kitchen.

The valve grinding compound, while not leaving as polished finish as the honing compound, is more effective in cleaning up a weathered knife.

Ken