Fixing a broken point

N

naagren

Joined
Feb 6, 2008
Messages
7
I have an Opinel that has a broken point and am thinking of trying to file the back of the blade down so that it meets the edge and forms a new point.

Being a cheap knive I thought this would be a good opportunity to practice re shaping/repairing a blade. My question is; if I put the knive in the vice and file it down with a hand file, will this affect the tempering of the blade edge?
 
No. As long as you don't get the steel hot it won't affect temper. Basically, if it's not too hot to touch you don't have a problem.
Bob
 
as rdg said, it is very close to impossible to heat a blade enough to ruin the temper when filing. power grinding/sanding is where the troubles come in...

if you have to file alot, you might notice the steel gets a little bit warm, but don't worry about that...think about how much warmer it gets in your pocket on a hot day...
 
I've done it using course and medium to fine diamond sharpeners also. Only if its really bad to I touch a machine driven belt to one.

STR
 
The Opinel is of course a really thin blade , I would not use any powered tool on it. It is going to heat up in an instant.


It would not take much time at all to put a new point on it using stones.
 
Thanks for advice. I used a hand file with knife in vice which worked great, then finished off with a fine diamond stone and abrasive paper. It was a small job but non the less satisfying as I hadn't used a file on a knife before.

It is my wife's "picnic" knife, she kept using it with the broken point but she's really happy with the point back on.
 
Take a surface grinder and add a variable rheostat to the circuit. Turning it down to 100 RPM of so will save much manual labor..
 
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