N5 LW Maxamet, and all Maxamet blades in general.

[Ramonade]

Hello everyone !
I've recently found a good deal on a used Native 5 LW in Maxamet. The blade has a forced patina and the owner didn't manage to sharpen it.

It's exactly what I wanted : a Maxamet blade needing sharpening (even reprofiling here). However, I've notice a couple of things :

-The inserts for the body screws are unset from the FRN (but maybe some epoxy will handle that good enough). Not that much of a problem to me.

- The blade has either a warp/bend in it, or the primary grind is awfully assymmetrical :







Is it going to be a problem ? I don't really think so. But, it's hard for me to tell what has caused this. I don't see someone bend Maxamet using their N5 LW as a crowbar. They'd most likely take the blade right in their face if they tried to do something like that.

I was afraid of it being fake, but I've really never have hear about Native 5 LW fakes. And even with the forced patina, the laser etching seems perfect, and the scales are well defined (even if they lived a little).

This is going to be a beater, I just have issues with a beater that will not perform. If the knife can cut as well as if it was perfectly straigth, I have no issue.
On the other hand, if the grind makes it so that keeping a centered apex is almost impossible on the long term, that would suck.

All inputs are welcomed

[TkoK83Spy]

My PM2 in Maxamet is a factory seconds because of the warp in the blade. It's not severe enough to hit the liners though. I make sure to give it quick and light touchups (thankfully all its needed thus far) because a full sharpening may be interesting with a warp.

[Evil D]

If it'll close without scraping against the handle and it's going to be a beater anyway, it should be fine. It could be warped or could just be an uneven blade grind, I'll look at mine later and see how straight it is.

[Accutron]

It looks like a warping during HT. Sal has stated in the past that QC must accept a small amount of warping to keep Maxamet in production.

[dsvirsky]

My Maxamet Native 5 has a blade with a good, symmetrical grind, but the blade on my Maxamet PM2 most definitely does not, making it appear warped (it is not, you can feel the difference in the grind with your fingers). I mostly sharpen PE blades freehand, so the asymmetry does not cause any problems for me.

[metaphoricalsimile]

Warped blades is a known issue with Maxamet, and the steel is so expensive to grind and process, so Maxamet blades have a bit more leniency for a slight warp in QC. Basically nobody else is making blades in Maxamet so it's something that we just kinda gotta live with.

[Evil D]

I checked mine and it's straight enough I can't tell a difference when laying each side on a flat surface.

[Hopsbreath]

I recently got a Maxamet Native on the secondary market as well so this thread made me check it a bit closer. Despite the blade centering being off a bit, there’s no warp. It sharpened up nicely on a Spyderco medium ceramic bench stone too; time to give it some work.

[Ramonade]

I have a "fresh" Maxamet N5 LW that has perfect grind, no warp and all.
This one was supposed to be a beater, but between the blade warp and the crazy lock stick I just discovered (not everytime, only when slowrolled)... I'm reconsidering it ^^

Since the guy was selling it for the reason that he failed at sharpening it, I'm reprofiling it to 15 dps (since there was a 20, 17, and other attempts ). He offered to take it back, I have until tomorrow to say yay or nay.
I'll try to finish reprofiling it before tomorrow (there's a lot of work), and then I'll see how it cuts.

A knife that doesn't have the ability to cut can't sway me, I need to make it cut before deciding if an almost scale touching blade that points to my left and looks overcooked is a problem to me or not