W. Rose round knife - sharpened by machine.

[SUP]

Last week, my husband bought me a good rose knife. Online. It was not sharpened in the photographs. The well-meaning but clueless seller sharpened it by machine before sending it to me. Can see the sharpening marks which are different from those when sharpened by hand.

Will the knife have been irreversibly damaged? Can I do anything to rescue it?

I get my kitchen knives sharpened by a gentleman who does that, at a local flea market. He insists sharpening knives on that electric circular stone, I do not know what it is called, will not damage the temper. From what I read everywhere else, it does. My kitchen knives are ordinary ones and easily replaceable. My leather knives, not so much.

 

[chuck123wapati]

15 minutes ago, SUP said:

Last week, my husband bought me a good rose knife. Online. It was not sharpened in the photographs. The well-meaning but clueless seller sharpened it by machine before sending it to me. Can see the sharpening marks which are different from those when sharpened by hand.

Will the knife have been irreversibly damaged? Can I do anything to rescue it?

I get my kitchen knives sharpened by a gentleman who does that, at a local flea market. He insists sharpening knives on that electric circular stone, I do not know what it is called, will not damage the temper. From what I read everywhere else, it does. My kitchen knives are ordinary ones and easily replaceable. My leather knives, not so much.

 

it doesn't necessarily mean its ruined because it was sharpened by machine, almost all knives are done by machine when made. I sharpen mine out to 1000 grit on a machine. If it was done wrong however and heated beyond about 400 degrees then it could have lost its temper but  you would see discoloration in the metal of any number of colors. Is it uniformly sharp ? And does it hold an edge?

Usually if a person over heats a blade they burn off the very tip as its the thinnest and most delicate. Are the tips on your knife still nice and sharp? 

Last thing you can easily just hand sharpen it your own way if it hasn't lost its temper. 

[SUP]

@chuck123wapati, that is good to hear. The edge is not discolored or different colors. It looks no different from when I sharpen my other knives by hand, only very uniform all around. It is sharp and cuts okay. The seller had said it needed further sharpening. So it appears he just sharpened it a bit, not sufficient to do any lasting damage.

Yes I will sharpen it by hand. I believe, from reading other threads here, that Rose knives are very hard steel and take longer to sharpen but I have no issue with that. It will be worth it.

Thank you for putting my mind at rest.

[doubleh]

If the metal doesn't have a yellow to blue tint you are probably OK. If it does the temper is compromised from a little to completely gone if it is blue. .

[SUP]

@doubleh luckily, the color has not changed at all. So it seems fine. That is a relief!

If the temper is compromised on a knife, can it maybe be ground out until a section with the temper undamaged is reached? Is it possible? Would be very difficult to do, though.

[dikman]

If only the edge has been overheated then yes, you could possibly take it back to better metal BUT it would require careful grinding, so as not to overheat it further, and it could require quite a bit of metal removal. In your case it sounds like some work on an oilstone/water stone should be all it needs.

[SUP]

Yes. I think so too.

[chuck123wapati]

14 hours ago, SUP said:

@doubleh luckily, the color has not changed at all. So it seems fine. That is a relief!

If the temper is compromised on a knife, can it maybe be ground out until a section with the temper undamaged is reached? Is it possible? Would be very difficult to do, though.

yes and no usually if a knife is over heated it is just in a spot or two not the whole blade so sometimes you can grind a new edge on it  correctly without re-tempering the whole blade. Sometimes not so easy depends on the amount of damage. I find most of the time the damaged knives are usually ground down to much with a really rough type grinding wheel and both the edge and blade are damaged.

[SUP]

Oh. Then it is a good thing my knife is not damaged anywhere. I examined it minutely under a magnifying glass.

[doubleh]

Glad to hear it's Ok. A knife or other tempered tool can be saved by grinding away past the color. If using power tools you do have to be careful and not get in a hurry or you will just make it worse. Go slow and cool a lot. I do it bare handed to feel how hot the metal is getting. Something most people today forget about is this can be done with hand tools. A sharp file will cut most knife steel and there is no danger of overheating. file to shape, then sharpen, and you are good to go.