Weird streaks/scratch in DLC?

[Rzu]

Sent off my Shaman to get sharpened and it came back with this weird scuff on it. I've tried a few remedies such as magic eraser, rust eraser( feel like it made it worse) buffing with ballistol with no avail.
Only thing I haven't tried is fritz but at this point I'm wondering is this even fixable or should I just live with it?

[Michael Janich]

Dear Rzu:

Welcome to the Spyderco Forum.

Just to be clear, you returned the knife to Spyderco for sharpening?

Stay safe,

Mike

[kennethsime]

Yeesh.

DLC is some tough stuff, but you can still grind it off. It looks like your sharpener laid it down on a belt sander or buffing wheel and started taking the dlc off.

Can’t put it back on easily.

[Ferruginous]

That won't "buff out", will only get worse the more you mess with it. Sometimes metal gets embedded in the DLC finish, but that looks like the DLC finish itself was ground/sanded off.

I honestly think it looks good, and vote that you just use it as it is. S30V doesn't need the coating to resist rust, it was always cosmetic in my opinion. I prefer bare stainless steel so that I can see if rust begins to form, but I live and play near (and sometimes in) saltwater.

It is worth the investment in tools and effort to learn to sharpen your own knives. Whoever did that should at least refund whatever you paid in shipping and for the sharpening. Use the money to buy a Sharpmaker and tape up your knife before sharpening to avoid damage like this.

[weeping minora]

That won't "buff out", will only get worse the more you mess with it. Sometimes metal gets embedded in the DLC finish, but that looks like the DLC finish itself was ground/sanded off.

I honestly think it looks good, and vote that you just use it as it is. S30V doesn't need the coating to resist rust, it was always cosmetic in my opinion. I prefer bare stainless steel so that I can see if rust begins to form, but I live and play near (and sometimes in) saltwater.

It is worth the investment in tools and effort to learn to sharpen your own knives. Whoever did that should at least refund whatever you paid in shipping and for the sharpening. Use the money to buy a Sharpmaker and tape up your knife before sharpening to avoid damage like this.

Agreed that S30V doesn't necessarily benefit from a coating for corrosion resistance (although some users do benefit from the coating on S30V), but that blade is CPM CRUWEAR .

[vivi]

I honestly think it looks good, and vote that you just use it as it is. S30V doesn't need the coating to resist rust, it was always cosmetic in my opinion.

My testing has shown the opposite. On a satin finished S30V knife with bare liners I can get rust to form in an afternoon of working outside in the summer. On a DLC S30V knife with coated liners I have difficulty getting rust to form at all.

viewtopic.php?t=87786 - I can say with full confidence DLC is not purely cosmetic for me.

[dsvirsky]

DLC may not be purely cosmetic but, for many of us, S30V is sufficiently rust resistant without any coating. I have a neck knife (HAK) in S30V that I wore under my shirt every workday for 12½ years, from the time I got out of bed in the morning until I got home from work in the evening. Office work, sure, but we're talking 25,000+ hours of exposure to my skin, with no effort to wipe the knife off or otherwise protect it. Zero rust.

[RustyIron]

Sent off my Shaman to get sharpened and it came back with this weird scuff on it. I've tried a few remedies such as magic eraser, rust eraser( feel like it made it worse) buffing with ballistol with no avail.
Only thing I haven't tried is fritz but at this point I'm wondering is this even fixable or should I just live with it?

Which "weird scuff"are you talking about? The longitudinal one half way up the blade? The vertical one at the end of the longitudinal one? The crustiness around the hole? The banged up area at the ricasso?

Magic erasers, rust erasers, and Flitz are all abrasives, and will only make the finish thinner than it already is. My suggestion is just to keep using the knife as it was intended, and get yourself a Sharpmaker so you don't have to send your knives out to be handled by strangers.

[vivi]

DLC may not be purely cosmetic but, for many of us, S30V is sufficiently rust resistant without any coating.

Oh I don't second guess that at all. I'd imagine most people never have corrosion issues with the stuff.

[cabfrank]

I'm guessing it wasn't sent to Spyderco, but I hope OP lets us know.

[Jesla]

Looks like it was pulled through a power sharpener without taping the blade. This happens on non-coated blades as well if not taped.

[Bill1170]

It is Cruwear, an excellent user steel. I’d just use it and relax in the knowledge that it’s not perfect and new anymore, which frees the mind to simply enjoy using the thing as the tool it is.

[ejames13]

Oof. And they didn't even do a good job on the sharpening.

[Manifestgtr]

I recognize this…

This is almost certainly from abrasive particles working their way onto a jig or angle guide. This happened to me early on when I was using an angle guide to examine the factory bevel on a DLC shaman. It bothered me so I did two things…stopped using an angle guide with diamond stones, regardless of the application and I spent a couple nights removing the DLC altogether with 400 grit diamond compound…I managed to polish it up, stonewash it and it looks pretty sweet now.

[Ferruginous]

I honestly think it looks good, and vote that you just use it as it is. S30V doesn't need the coating to resist rust, it was always cosmetic in my opinion.

My testing has shown the opposite. On a satin finished S30V knife with bare liners I can get rust to form in an afternoon of working outside in the summer. On a DLC S30V knife with coated liners I have difficulty getting rust to form at all.

viewtopic.php?t=87786 - I can say with full confidence DLC is not purely cosmetic for me.

I shouldn't have been so absolute with my earlier post, some people have more caustic sweat than others.

Is the rust not forming on the coated blade, or is it just that you can't see it through the coating? In the past I've treated PVD like parkerizing or phosphate - a way to hold oil to the surface, because I don't trust it completely to prevent rust, only hide it.

What I should have said is that I prefer uncoated knives so that I know when rust begins to form so I can treat it. Also, that even though I believe I have more caustic sweat than most (I've had rust issues with every 3V knife I've ever owned) I have not had any issue with S30V, even on the Gulf Coast.

[Ferruginous]

Agreed that S30V doesn't necessarily benefit from a coating for corrosion resistance (although some users do benefit from the coating on S30V), but that blade is CPM CRUWEAR .

That changes everything. I wouldn't own uncoated cruwear, 3V, or any of the other not-quite-stainless steels.

Edited to add - I used to love uncoated simple carbon steels for EDC, when I lived in the midwest. Now that I'm near the ocean even 'stainless' knives require attention to prevent serious rust.

[Notsurewhy]

You may want to have a word with whomever did the sharpening. DLC is pretty tough, it's unlikely they didn't notice they did that.