Best Way To Sharpen Recurve Blades?

[Razor]

I just have flat spyderco stones. Will they work? Do I need the sharpmaker?

 

[knivesandguns]

I've heard just about everywhere that the sharpmaker does a good job with recurves, dunno about flat stones.

 

[riffraff]

I use a sharpmaker, but never use the flats on recurves. Still works amazingly well. :thumbup:

 

[J_Curd]

Recurves are really impossible to sharpen properly on flat stones.

 

[jonnymac44]

Whether its the sharpmaker or some other product, you really want some type of sharpener that has an edge like the corners of the sharpmaker rods, to do a recurve blade. The Byrd duckfoot, or the Smith's 3 in 1 are examples of products that may work, although the Smith's only has fine grit rods.

The point is, you need something that will sharpen only a VERY short section of blade at a time so that the sharpening medium can follow the line of the recurve. If you try to sharpen a recurve on something wide and flat that engages the length of the blade all at once, you will end up with one heck of an uneven edge, eventually leading to......"loss of recurve"

Good Luck,
Jon

 

[JTR357]

This one's nice & compact & works well on recurves.

 

[orthogonal1]

A wooden dowel with crocus cloth, e.g. 3M wet/dry sanding paper, wrapped or laid on the dowel works well.

I like 1"-1.5" dowels.

 

[richard j]

one thing about the dowels, its hard to sharpen the entire length of blade. i use paper wheels to sharpen recurves and they work very well.

 

[riffraff]

I tried the sandpaper wrap trick on my sharpmaker. Didn't work too well using the corners on recurves (as one might expect, since it tends to crease the paper). Bought a set of the diamond rods for the sharpmaker and re-beveled a speed bump to 30°. :thumbup: :thumbup: