Randall Model 1 Stainless Blade - Corrosion Question

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ricjm

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Jan 19, 2024
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I am looking at buying a model 1 with stainless blade. The blade tip has a very minor amount of greying-corrosion pitting that looks like some work with an abrasive such as fine Emory paper would remove it. If by chance the pitting is deeper and remains or if I do nothing at all how would that have an effect on pricing when the time comes to sell?

I have to add to this, I've been in the rust/corrosion control business for years and application of a high quality rust inhibitor, then wiped clean and Ren wax applied should not allow (should is a big word in this) further degradation of the blade with corrosion. I also think it could be sent back to Randall for remedy.

I find it highly curious that their stainless would rust & pit but I've seen some of their blades where it happens. I am wondering what happens to cause that as high quality stainless is just that...stainless. There are different blends of stainless that use carbon steel so what the rust/corrosion is occurs with the carbon steel in stainless batching/production.

18-8 SS and 316 SS does rust and I've seen both fail spectacularly in some applications. I am in Hawaii and have talked with engineers about this issue. One such example is a piece of 316 stainless steel inserted into sand at intermediate high - low tide zone at Kwajalein atoll, which the Navy had a corrosion testing center there, fail in 6 months. The failure was complete eating into a piece of bar stock, 5/8" diameter that caused a 90% loss of material allowing the bar stock to break in half at the worst point of corrosion.
 
Anything with iron in it will corrode at some point. In cutlery terms, stainless means its just a lot harder to induce said corrosion.
I'm not sure what that blade is made from, but from what I understand Randall used 440B in their stainless blades in the past.
 
Arathol, definitely fact what you state. Concern is it's ability to spread. Once a stainless surface is penetrated and pits appear, that becomes the hot cells for corrosion and electrons flow much more easily to the area. So trying to rid the corrosion pitting becomes paramount to halting the advancement of the pitting. Even scratching the surface without coming back and polishing the scratches out contributes to the corrosion spreading.

Question remains, any idea how a tiny bit of corrosion would effect resale price of one of these?
 
Depends on the buyer - if one really wants that particular knife, a small amount of corrosion may not be a big deal.
Beyond that, at your membership level, asking questions about valuation is not allowed so we cannot respond with details about how much it could impact pricing.

As far as sending it back to Randall, keep in mind that it would not be a warranty matter. You send it in with the request, they will assess the knife & send you a quote. You will have to sign/return the quote and pay before they will work on the knife.
 
440B will rust. Just a guess but you will probably find the tip of the blade was embedded into the sheath and some of the tanning salts have corroded the tip.

So long as the pitting is not too deep Randall will probably be able to sort it out for you without too much fuss. Perhaps you should contact them first for some indication of refurbishment charges.

That said you could order a brand new knife from Nordic Knives or Gary Clinton and have complete peace of mind.
 
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