Convex success!

A

alamborn

Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
71
A lesson learned for those attempting to convex by hand:

After using my first Khuk enough that the chakma wouldn't bring back the field sharp edge, I broke out the sandpaper I had gotten for testing out this "convex" edge thing. No dice, I only succeeded in making it duller.

So I went to some pocket knives for practice and got good results. Moved up to some kitchen knives and even a cleaver with hair shaving success! So with new found confidence I faced off with the CAK once again.

Failure thwarted my feeble attempts. It was dull enough that I could hear the Harbor freight hatchet snickering all the way from the garage. So I slipped this fine piece of craftmanship from Kami Bahdur back in its sheath so it wouldn't have to be embarressed while I figured things out. Unfortunately the hatchet had a few more chances to laugh as I tried again over a couple of days.

Realization:
In all the years that I've been sharpening knives with water/oil stones, diamond hones, and files I had always held the items in my lap while sitting. Duh!, my lap isn't big enough for a 20" CAK. :rolleyes:

Once I relocated to the kitchen counter where a full range of motion was available things came out mighty different! So different in fact, that the khuk did a cleaner job slicing bread than the dedicated bread knife! :)

Disclaimer:
All kitchen use was done during the absence of the Mrs. The area was cleaned and sanitized, with all evidence either being sheathed or eaten.
 
Glad to see ya got the technique working. It really bugs me for my kuk's to be dull. Hope your missus understands cause believe me she probably knows.
 
I thought I'd die of old age before convexing this one really hard edge khuk with sandpaper... enter Mr. Belt Sander. You get one of those, you'll be sharpening everything in sight. I sharpened my car's windshield wipers with it.


Mike
 
Ad Astra said:
enter Mr. Belt Sander. You get one of those, you'll be sharpening everything in sight.
Click to expand...

:thumbup:
Yep, a belt sander and sharpening belts save so much time, and a cheap one costs less than some hand-sharpening rigs. I don't know what shape most of my big blades would be in without one.
 
Just be careful not to draw the temper from the blade with a belt sander.

Yeah, like a lot of folks, I had a LOT of unsuccess the first, oh, 10 times I tried to convex-sharpen a khukuri. Then, finally, it kind of came, and now I'm convex-sharpening all of my family's khukuris. One trick that helped a bit was using a marker on the edge; after a few strokes (on a long paint-stirring stick with mouse-pad strips and wet/dry sandpaper rubber-cemented to it), I'd check to see where the ink was removed, and where it wasn't, and that gave me an idea of where the metal was being removed. That helped me correct how I was holding it.

Another thing: sandpaper has only a limited useful life, so part of the problem can be that the paper has been worn down too far.

Good luck! It's kind of like learning to read ancient Greek: almost NOBODY succeeds on the first try, and if you see someone who's mastered it, it's usually because he beat his head against the project for a very long time, unsuccessfully at first.
 
Once you get convex sharpening down, go up to a high grit so you can get a high polished edge....then you can just touch it up with a strop mostly to maintain a razor edge. I keep an edge like that on all my choppers, makes maintenence easy and wear minimal.
 
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