Mora 164 crook knife, dark blade?

[lhughes]

Hi all,
I'm new here, is this the right place to ask?
I'm quite inexperienced in the matter but I recently received a new Mora 164 crook knife which I ordered online, and it seems to be a very odd colour.
The blade is a dull brown, almost like copper. I would attach pictures but as a new member I can't.
Is this normal?

Any advice is much appreciated,
Luke.

 

[barkwindjammer]

Its 'Patina' or oxidisation and is quite normal with high carbon steels as used in mora knives, normally a blade would be coated with wax or oil to prevent this before its sold, sounds like your knife has had the blade surface contaminated-the sweat and oils on your hands will do this to HC Steel.

 

[lhughes]

Its 'Patina' or oxidisation and is quite normal with high carbon steels as used in mora knives, normally a blade would be coated with wax or oil to prevent this before its sold, sounds like your knife has had the blade surface contaminated-the sweat and oils on your hands will do this to HC Steel.

Thanks, is this a problem or shall I use it as it is?

 

[Racers]

I would complain, it shouldn't look like that so get on to them.
Get a replacement or get some money off.

Pete

 

[lhughes]

Might be worth a try, I've got an image;
it's the address of imgur + /Kc0V0uV

 

[Richard T]

Hi luke,

Are you sure it's not supposed to be dark? The ones I have searched seem to be darker than you describe.

http://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/13019312 ... ome_active

 

[lhughes]

Hi luke,

Are you sure it's not supposed to be dark? The ones I have searched seem to be darker than you describe.

http://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/13019312 ... ome_active

Ah, that's interesting.

I was going by the amazon listing and a Sean Hellman video on youtube.

This one's much more like mine, but even darker as you said.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mora-164-Cr...=UTF8&qid=1368803700&sr=8-2&keywords=mora+164

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcMMBRh_SzA

 

[lhughes]

Here are the images:
(I hope it's not against the rules to embed them in a quote, sorry if it is)

Next to another Mora for comparison

On this one you can see where my fingers have brushed against it, it seems to mark very easily

 

[Richard T]

Aha. Looks like they vary in their finish.

Does it have/keep a good edge? If so it should be ok.

 

[CHJ]

That looks like the tempering colour to me, having been;-

• Annealed, (red heat)
  Bent,
  Re-hardened, (red heat and quenched)
  Polished
  Tempered (heated to straw/dark straw and quenched)

If it is, it shows a very good control of the process to get such an even spread of the colour bloom.

 

[lhughes]

Aha. Looks like they vary in their finish.

Does it have/keep a good edge? If so it should be ok.

I haven't tried sharpening it yet, but it's come with a decent edge; better than what most of the reviews were describing.

That looks like the tempering colour to me, having been;-

• Annealed, (red heat)
  Bent,
  Re-hardened, (red heat and quenched)
  Polished
  Tempered (heated to straw/dark straw and quenched)

If it is, it shows a very good control of the process to get such an even spread of the colour bloom.

That's good to know, thanks

 

[bugbear]

That looks like the tempering colour to me, having been;-

• Annealed, (red heat)
  Bent,
  Re-hardened, (red heat and quenched)
  Polished
  Tempered (heated to straw/dark straw and quenched)

If it is, it shows a very good control of the process to get such an even spread of the colour bloom.

Back "in the old days", carvings tools were quitre often sold "straw coloured" to show that the tempering had been nicely done.

This involved grinding and polishing the tool before tempering.

Grinding/polishing after tempering would remove this evidence of quality, although If you trusted the maker, you could buy "bright" tools, at an extra cost, which were repolished after tempering.

The cheapest lines were "black", which weren't polished at any stage.

BugBear