I just bought a Boker Congress off of (that auction sight that I cant say) with the tips broken off of the sheepsfoot blades. And by tips, I means TIPS. What would be the best way to get these down? This is going to be a user knife and a whittler. Should I just sharpen it down, or is a grinder in order? Ill get pictures when it arrives.
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Congress Restoration.
- Thread starter BenHarris
- Start date
Campbellclanman
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Hi there, we have all at one point ( pardon the pun ) re-tipped an older knife - its easy if you start off in the right direction...
First of all - when it comes to knives - ALWAYS leave the Grinder under the bench - there is NO place for use of a Grinder on a knife in any time of its life!
I use a Stone ( Sharpening stone ) and work my blade on the stone - check out my drawings and they show where to take your blade back - leave the actual blade edge alone - work the curve of the Sheeps-foot back to the new tip point - do this by holding your blade upside down and taking it one stroke at a time with your stone on the bench, take it easy and slowly blend in your new shape back into the ending of the curve/ spine of the blade.
Use a vivid marker to mark out the new line on the blade as a guide when using the stone - you can finish with fine wet and dry papers say 320g 400g 600g as a finisher after the stone work - then simply put a new edge on the knife - without a grinder :-0
Use masking tape to wrap your blade up just over half way - this is so you can grip the blade - remember you are working the top of the blade soif you are pressing the back of the blade-it will want to close of course - just a quick mention of that for safety.
Please see my very poor but hopefully clear diagrams below......
First of all - when it comes to knives - ALWAYS leave the Grinder under the bench - there is NO place for use of a Grinder on a knife in any time of its life!
I use a Stone ( Sharpening stone ) and work my blade on the stone - check out my drawings and they show where to take your blade back - leave the actual blade edge alone - work the curve of the Sheeps-foot back to the new tip point - do this by holding your blade upside down and taking it one stroke at a time with your stone on the bench, take it easy and slowly blend in your new shape back into the ending of the curve/ spine of the blade.
Use a vivid marker to mark out the new line on the blade as a guide when using the stone - you can finish with fine wet and dry papers say 320g 400g 600g as a finisher after the stone work - then simply put a new edge on the knife - without a grinder :-0
Use masking tape to wrap your blade up just over half way - this is so you can grip the blade - remember you are working the top of the blade soif you are pressing the back of the blade-it will want to close of course - just a quick mention of that for safety.
Please see my very poor but hopefully clear diagrams below......
Oh, so shorten the blade. That's great, because I REALLY did not want to put this knife to a grinder. Carbon blades and nice wood handles are too pretty to damage! 
The funny thing is that that actually looks like the break on one of the blades. The other will take some more time. Thanks! I will show te process when it gets here.
The funny thing is that that actually looks like the break on one of the blades. The other will take some more time. Thanks! I will show te process when it gets here.
Campbellclanman
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No not really shortening it- to a very small degree, but you dont have any choice but to take the blade back to the clean edge of the tip-as shown in diagram - in a way you are just re-profiling the curve of the Sheeps-foot.
Campbellclanman
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No problem Brett - lets hope its not on one of your beautiful SFO's of Charlies - like I had to do once - it was one of my HJ6's - oh man! heartbreak city I tell you!!! - still - you would never know now!
Campbellclanman
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Perfect my friend
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Some solid useful advice here. Thank you.
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Good advice Duncan :thumbup:
I reshape pocket knife blades all the time and find that a 4x36 bench mounted belt sander works well.
I agree with the advice to AVOID the grinder! Using one, anyone who isn't a total expert, will wreck the knife for sure! The experts don't need my advice, but I bet that they have burnt some steel in learning.
Anyway, the belt sander with a fresh 80 grit belt will do the job. Use finer grits to refine, and regular stones and strops to finish.
Practice a bit first. It is possible to burn steel on the belt sander too, but if you use a light touch and cool things down when the steel gets uncomfortable to touch with the fingers (not sizzling!), you'll be ok. With the grinder, it will go from cool to burnt so fast that there will be no time to react.
Bench grinders are to be avoided at all times with knives.
I agree with the advice to AVOID the grinder! Using one, anyone who isn't a total expert, will wreck the knife for sure! The experts don't need my advice, but I bet that they have burnt some steel in learning.
Anyway, the belt sander with a fresh 80 grit belt will do the job. Use finer grits to refine, and regular stones and strops to finish.
Practice a bit first. It is possible to burn steel on the belt sander too, but if you use a light touch and cool things down when the steel gets uncomfortable to touch with the fingers (not sizzling!), you'll be ok. With the grinder, it will go from cool to burnt so fast that there will be no time to react.
Bench grinders are to be avoided at all times with knives.
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"Why does a bench grinder ruin a knife?" someone may ask. Besides the great chance of removing too much material, it'll have no problem introducing a great amount of heat and ruin the heat treat of the steel. Unless you have a heat treat oven and the know how to fix.... best to leave it alone.