Man -- Xiom's QA processes are really heading down the toilet 🙄 My sincere condolences on being sold a lemon -- never a pleasant prospect.
In further news, it's interesting to me that Xiom (according to what they told you) are apparently embracing / using / trialling / shifting to cold press layups.... I wonder why that is? 🤔🤔 Given the volumes they do, I would have assumed they would be using a hot press to shorten the drying time.
In even further news, W.T. ACTUAL F. was that Xiom rep thinking???
Did they really just tell a customer exactly what press method and drying temp they using to make that particular blade????
Not only that, did they also just openly admit that their chosen manufacturing process actually makes their products more prone to defects / delamination when using water based sealant?????
That is either some really potentially internally sensitive manufacturing IP they are giving away for free, as well as a major manufacturing defect they are openly admitting to.... Or else they're just feeding you baseless bullshit*t to try and placate you.
Personally I don't buy that explanation they gave you for the wood swelling up. In my opinion,
@hipnotic was spot on with his rationale for the failure. The fibers became saturated with the sealant base (most likely it was a water base sealant giving the amount of swelling present), and the expanding wood fibers exposed poor & uneven adhesion between veneer layers -- basically that blade just has a really bloody shitty glue line between its outers and medials --- end of story.
My point here is, a shitty glue line is ALWAYS a shitty glue line, and the type of lay-up and press temp you use to is irrelevant. Hot press, cold press, wet lay-up, dry lay up ... Frankly it shouldn't matter either way, it's still just a layer of wood, and all wood veneers expand in the presence of excess moisture, unless there's sufficient adhesive underneath the veneer to prevent it.
I can't speak for any other blade maker here, but I honestly can't think of any cold-press-specific production variable that would make a blade more prone to failure in the presence of sealant.
The issue is with their glue application, or their glue dosage, or the glue type, or glue viscosity, or their surface prep, or their drying times, or their psi settings, or the ambient temp and humidity in the factory during manufacture, or their veneer manufacturing processes itself... The fact they (apparently) use a cold press to make the blade, at (apparently) 36.5 degrees celsius really shouldn't matter 🤨🤨🤨 Nothing about using a cold press should make a blade panel inherently prone to failure in the presence of sealant.... To my mind at least, the entire notion is just complete codswallop.
Please pardon my venom here folks, but if there's one thing I can't stomach it's the idea of people being lied to over product features. Large manufacturers ALREADY like to use complete codswallop to sell their blades... Seems they also like to do the same to defend a low quality product, and again I'm sorry, but that really just shits me.
