- Joined
- Jun 9, 1999
- Messages
- 4,729
Since I received Pendentive's excellent sharpening CD and ruined the edge of my 18" Ang Khola while testing it, I've been on a bit of a sharpening binge. I found the CD to be extremely informative and helpful, but unfortunately I don't have any of the tools Pen used, nor do I have the space for them. I worked my way around it with a little extra elbow grease and creativity, so I thought I would share with my fellow knuts the tools and methods I found useful. It probably won't make much sense if you haven't seen the CD, so if you don't have it I suggest you try to get your hands on one. I can make a few copies for any folks that are interested, just send me an e-mail with your address.
My primary khukuri sharpening tool has become a rubber sanding block. I've tried many different sizes, shapes and types of sharpening stones, and sandpaper on various mediums, but I've found the rubber sanding block to be the most effective by far. I picked mine up at Home Depot, they should be very easy to find as well as cheap. For heavy stock removal I used 3M's Sandblaster paper, as recommended by Pen in the sharpening CD. I used the 60 grit, it removed metal very fast, although not nearly as fast as a good grinder would. I used this method to repair the edge of the Ang Khola I used in my 'Extreme Testing' review, so it should be sufficient for all but the worst chips.
I used the rubber block in the same manner as Pen used his wood-and-foam block in the CD, I just started with a coarser grit. I went all the way up to 2500 grit and got a very nicely polished convex edge. The rubber is just the right consistency to produce a good convex bevel. I also devised an alternate method for stropping the edge, again using the rubber block. In place of sandpaper, I attached a piece of coarse cloth I found in a craft store. Denim will work too, but I found that I couldn't stretch it out tight enough. It's slightly elastic, so it would move around on the block and was just generally annoying. It will do in a pinch though. Anyway, once I had attached the cloth, I charged it with polishing compound which I picked up at Lowes. They had several varieties, so I got four different ones to experiment with. The brand name is MIBRO, and they have six grades of polish, with #1 being the coarsest and #6 being the finest. They're sold as sticks; to apply the polish to the cloth you just have to rub it on like a crayon. The #1 will actually raise a burr if the bevels have already met, I've actually found it to be useful for touch-up sharpening. The #6 produced a scary sharp edge, especially on my Marbles trail knife. It's one of the old ones, made of 52100. It's now officially the sharpest knife I own, I could use it as a straight razor if I had the guts to.
Another method I've adapted is the sandpaper and mousepad trick. Those of you unfamiliar with it should check out Buzzbait's Convex Grind FAQ. I found the mousepad to be too soft, it wasn't good for shaping the bevel because I couldn't press down as hard. I tried substituting a piece of cork, which I found at the same craft store as the cloth for the rubber block. The cork has a higher density than the mousepad, yet it still has enough 'give' to produce a convex bevel. Using a cork backing along with myHandAmerican ProComboDeluxe system , I convexed the edge on my Camillus D2 Arclite with excellent results. The ProCombo system is nice, but not really necessary for the same results.
That's all I have for now, maybe some of our more experienced sharpeners can chime in with a few good tips as well. These are the ones that have worked well for me, hopefully some of you will find them useful. Thanks for looking.
My primary khukuri sharpening tool has become a rubber sanding block. I've tried many different sizes, shapes and types of sharpening stones, and sandpaper on various mediums, but I've found the rubber sanding block to be the most effective by far. I picked mine up at Home Depot, they should be very easy to find as well as cheap. For heavy stock removal I used 3M's Sandblaster paper, as recommended by Pen in the sharpening CD. I used the 60 grit, it removed metal very fast, although not nearly as fast as a good grinder would. I used this method to repair the edge of the Ang Khola I used in my 'Extreme Testing' review, so it should be sufficient for all but the worst chips.
I used the rubber block in the same manner as Pen used his wood-and-foam block in the CD, I just started with a coarser grit. I went all the way up to 2500 grit and got a very nicely polished convex edge. The rubber is just the right consistency to produce a good convex bevel. I also devised an alternate method for stropping the edge, again using the rubber block. In place of sandpaper, I attached a piece of coarse cloth I found in a craft store. Denim will work too, but I found that I couldn't stretch it out tight enough. It's slightly elastic, so it would move around on the block and was just generally annoying. It will do in a pinch though. Anyway, once I had attached the cloth, I charged it with polishing compound which I picked up at Lowes. They had several varieties, so I got four different ones to experiment with. The brand name is MIBRO, and they have six grades of polish, with #1 being the coarsest and #6 being the finest. They're sold as sticks; to apply the polish to the cloth you just have to rub it on like a crayon. The #1 will actually raise a burr if the bevels have already met, I've actually found it to be useful for touch-up sharpening. The #6 produced a scary sharp edge, especially on my Marbles trail knife. It's one of the old ones, made of 52100. It's now officially the sharpest knife I own, I could use it as a straight razor if I had the guts to.
Another method I've adapted is the sandpaper and mousepad trick. Those of you unfamiliar with it should check out Buzzbait's Convex Grind FAQ. I found the mousepad to be too soft, it wasn't good for shaping the bevel because I couldn't press down as hard. I tried substituting a piece of cork, which I found at the same craft store as the cloth for the rubber block. The cork has a higher density than the mousepad, yet it still has enough 'give' to produce a convex bevel. Using a cork backing along with myHandAmerican ProComboDeluxe system , I convexed the edge on my Camillus D2 Arclite with excellent results. The ProCombo system is nice, but not really necessary for the same results.
That's all I have for now, maybe some of our more experienced sharpeners can chime in with a few good tips as well. These are the ones that have worked well for me, hopefully some of you will find them useful. Thanks for looking.
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