condor tool and knife

[TwinStick]

You need to get yourself a cheap Harbor Freight 1"x30" belt sander when they are on super sale & then also use the 20% off coupon. Mine was like $27 total a few years back. Then go to H-depot & get you some Diablo belts for it, $5 for a set of 3. Then it will take you just minutes to do all that to a knife, axe, machete, etc... . I'm just sayin'. I like to work smarter, not harder, now that i am almost 50.

 

[chuckinohio]

The HF 1X30 is a handy tool to have around.

Practice and learn how to use it before diving right in on a knife that matters.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

yes. most if not all of my machetes came new with a very perfunctory factory bevel that did not even meet at the apex. so they had something like a millimeter (wild guess, havent measured it) of completely rough metal where the edge should be. so they were not even as sharp as a butter knife lol. im no sharpening wizard so it takes a while to file down the edges so both sides meet in the middle. it can take between an hour and several hours but when its done the machete can be re-sharpened with as little as 5-6 passes with a file or one of those 'canoe' stones. with practice this will leave an edge on your machete that will frighten most 'normal' people lol.

Yeah rather than calling the factory bevel as it comes standard from most machete makers an "edge" I like to call it a "courtesy grind" because it saves you time sharpening it yourself as compared to if they didn't grind it at all. So it's there for your convenience and is deliberately done rough because it saves the end consumer (who is typically extremely low income) money on something that they can do themselves. This is also why scales tend to sit proud of the tang. The finishing work is left to the consumer to keep cost of the tool at a minimum. They'd rather do that stuff themselves if it saves them a little money. We take our discretionary spending budgets for granted. We can buy these things because we LIKE them. For many agricultural field laborers it's because they NEED them.