Did I get ripped off? (Poor Sharpening Job?)

Total bs on angle and scary sharp and other crap. I can shave the hair off my arm after sharpening a blade with a file. Not a japanese waterstone, not after stropping on loaded leather, not after using power equipment like wheels or a belt sander, with a file. Not a fine cut file either, a single cut bastard.
Also, I too get my hatchets/axes to shave arm hair. There is absolutely no reason to not get an edge to, at a minimum, shave the hair from your arm. A little polish is more important for a chopping blade because chopping is not slicing, and there is no value in a rougher edge because there is no draw during a chop.
$9.50 is also pretty expensive. I sharpen knives for free all the time, and I make sure they do better than that. Hell, Jeff Clark sharpens knives for a soup kitchen, he's not getting rich from his skills, and gives better service.
 
a file will only cut a blade thats soft and i wouldnt want to let anyone use a file to sharpen a knife unless its a machete or cheap knife that you dont care about. thats similar to the pull through carbide sharpeners that ruin a knife edge and are useless
 
that's exactly what I sharpen with files, machetes, cheap carbon blades, and axes/hatchets. I can always refine the edge further beyond the file.
 
I used a bastard file when I was a fire fighter, my Pulaski was sharp enough to fell 2.5 inch saplings in a single swing and didn't dull very quickly.

even at a thicker angle the edge of the blade should have been sharp, sharp and angle thickness aren't exactly related, the edge is what matters.
 
Agreed, it should have been sharp.

A wire burr formed on a 40° per side bevel can shave hair too. The burr doesn't hold up to anything much heavier then hair though. Refine it and remove the burr and it don't shave so well. It will hold that edge better though. How sharp is it?
 
ninjarealist said:
I'm going to be camping on the Serengeti for about a month, taking a class on animal behavior. I and my classmates will have some Leathermans and more specific camping tools so I just planned on keeping it on me for use as a Survival Knife just in case and as a last-ditch self defense weapon just for one of those unlikely but still possible scenarios.

And yeah I know that there are big animals in Africa that will just swallow a 5.5 inch Ontario whole and ask for seconds, but something is better than nothing and my school wouldn't let me bring my 12-Gauge.
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Sounds very exciting. Good luck.

Staying in tents? Any hardened enclosure to retreat to like a vehicle? I think I would like the 12 gauge too (or a rifle). Anyone, a guide or someone, going to have a rifle in case the animals start to look on you as food?

I have seen some great pictures on a trip like that. Hope you are taking a fancy camera?

Gary
 
gary jp4 said:
Sounds very exciting. Good luck.

Staying in tents? Any hardened enclosure to retreat to like a vehicle? I think I would like the 12 gauge too (or a rifle). Anyone, a guide or someone, going to have a rifle in case the animals start to look on you as food?

I have seen some great pictures on a trip like that. Hope you are taking a fancy camera?

Gary
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Oh yeah. The local rangers who will are working with my professors will have rifles and know how to use them. Ironically these rangers use their guns less to shoot lions and big game, who mostly know by now not to mess with humans, and more often in pitched gun battles with poachers. I think it is kind of ironic that locals are banned from hunting these game when rich foreigners are able to shoot these animals at tens of thousands of dollars a pop. But it is what it is. I have no desire to kill any of these majestic creatures and look forward to getting a chance to study them.

And yeah definitely bringing a camera.
 
Sorry to revive an old thread but I oiled my knife, put it in the sheath for about five days and pulled it out today and to my horror the blade was half covered in rust. Is there anyway that this could be a result of the sharpening job? Or is it just the 1095's natural propensity to rust?
 
Sharpening isn't going to change a knife's propensity to rust. The only way that would happen is if a protective coating were removed and you'd think that would only happen on the edge face (down close to where the edge is).

I think you just have a high carbon steel (not stainless) and it's going to rust if it's not protected. Did you leave behind a light coating of oil on the blade? I wonder if your sheath is made of chemically treated leather. Leather that's not vegetable tanned can really attack steel; at least in firearms.

I'd wipe the rust off with an oil coated rag. Perhaps you need something like Corrosion X, or Renaissance Wax, or Boeshield.

http://www.knifeart.com/renaissancewax1.html

http://hawg-wash.com/boshield.html

I hear the wax works well, but needs to be wiped off *before* it dries, while boeshield goes on easier and protects really well, but it's rather thick. Corrosion X is just oil, but seems to inhibit corrosion pretty well.

Good luck!

Brian.
 
Hmm, well it is a leather sheath, but it's the one that came with the knife. So I would think it was tanned properly.

Thanks for the advice.
 
Regarding the sheath: Chemical tanning is pretty common and, as I said, it can attack steal pretty aggressively. Vegetable tanned leather is rare; I believe there's only one tannery left in the US that still does it. A holster maker that I know uses them because any other leather will rust a gun shut inside of 2 weeks.

I just asked a friend who's pretty good with this stuff for his opinion. He too thought the sheath is probably chemically tanned is probably the source of the problem. Then he added something insightful (at least to me). The leather inside the sheath is probably unfinished, and easily sucks up any oil that's on the blade, taking away it's protection. You'd probably need to get a good bit of oil sucked up into the leather before it would leave any behind on the blade. Like slathering the blade in oil, sheathing it, and letting it sit for an hour. Then repeating a few times.

This also probably explains why someone I know used to use Renaissance Wax to protect his knives: So he wouldn't have issues with sheaths, or water, or whatever.

Anyway, good luck with your knife and your trip!

Brian.
 
I say you got ripped off, I run a small knife sharpening business and i charge a LOT less that and the knives are done withing a few hours, depending on how busy i am could be 10 minutes.
 
I think some peoples idea of sharp is not the same as in these forums. To the un-informed that knife was probably pretty sharp. These guys have the right idea about cheap sharpeners. I knew nothing about sharpening and bought a lansky and within two days I can get my knives shaving sharp.
 
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