Can or Should I change my RAT to convex

T

T-Dog

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Nov 28, 2009
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I have a few knives that I ordered coming from Bark River, and Fiddleback forge that come with a convex edge on them that I would like to keep that way but it has me scratching my head on what to do with the RAT blades that I ordered with a standard edge. I would really like to become proficent with my stroping technique and get away from my edge pro apex sharpener that puts a standard v grind but I am wondering how well or if the RAT blades can be sharpened in the same way. Thanks for the help
 
Is there a good link to special instructions to change it over or does that just happen as I begin the stropping pcocess to sharpen it?
 
You tube has a few videos. A strop is used to maintain an edge, not produce one" so to speak" Bark river knives has some info also.
 
I watched the Knives ship free series of videos and I assumed that if you took a standard edge over the fine grit sandpaper and a soft backing then that would slowly take off the corner and create a bullet shape convex edge, is this correct.
 
Hey T-Dog....if you're gonna convex that Rat, I hope you strip it of that skinkin black coating too......:D
Seriously, since it's 1095, it's easily doable....just research it well, til you know what you're doing, and WHY.
 
Rayban:that skin kin will come off with some good old use I hope, or not...I can't decide.

WinBag338: Should I just go a little more coarse on the first couple then? He was using 2000 and I could step down from that or should I just research a better way?
 
When I convexed my Izula I started with 400 grit sandpaper. Just keep in mind the importance of using light pressure. Unless you angle it right, using heavy pressure risks rounding your edge.
 
Start with 400 then 800 or 1000, 1500, then 2000. When you have finished and can shave arm hair o.k. get your strop and some black and green polishing compound to finish with.
 
Yeah what winbag and sircantaloupe said

I convexed my rc-5 and it turned out pretty well, it took a lot of tries and experimenting with pressure but I got it
 
No one has mentioned the mouse pad...or something soft, under the sandpaper (?)...and of course, a belt sander works pretty good too.
 
T-Dog said:
I have a few knives that I ordered coming from Bark River, and Fiddleback forge that come with a convex edge on them that I would like to keep that way but it has me scratching my head on what to do with the RAT blades that I ordered with a standard edge. I would really like to become proficent with my stroping technique and get away from my edge pro apex sharpener that puts a standard v grind but I am wondering how well or if the RAT blades can be sharpened in the same way. Thanks for the help
Click to expand...
Convex vs. v-grind has been discussed at length on this forum, wish I had a link to one really great discussion a few months ago (anyone?) Anyway ... in terms of performance there isn't much difference if you're comparing somewhat similar edge and relief angles. Realize, too, it's far more difficult to obtain a consistent edge at known angle(s) when convexing; with the Edge Pro, you have a lot of control, and once you get things the way you like you can easily resharpen to the exact same angles every time.

Since you already have a significant investment in an Edge Pro, and have other convex blades in your growing collection :) I don't see any reason to jump right in and convex your RAT. Give it time, use it, compare it to your convex blades first; take the edge angle down with the Edge Pro if you're not happy with the performance, then see what you think. It's usually much easier to convex a v-grind than it is to restore a blade back to v-grind once it's been convexed.
 
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