Do you find any of your clip point blades losing their tip a little over time?

[csisland]

I'm not using the clip point for prying or anything like that but does the point sort of mellow out after sharpening so many times?

 

[puukkoman]

It depends a lot on how one sharpens. If you lift the blade as you approach the tip, or let the tip "skip" off the stone, it will become rounded. The best way to preserve your pointy blade tip is to make sure to maintain the angle as best you can all the way to the end of the stroke; and to stop the motion your hand, leaving the tip in contact with the stone, and then lift it vertically off the stone.
Is my explanation making sense?

For example, crock sticks or a sharpmaker-style system will round your tip off more quickly, since you have no alternative but to "skip" the tip off the stone at the end of the stroke.

 

[puukkoman]

Sorry, double-tap.

 

[arizonaranchman]

Over time as the blade is sharpened many times it's going to wear away. You can see the blade gets wider as you go down from the tip. Over many years I don't see how you can avoid it. As said above careful sharpening technique can minimize it and prolong the inevitable, but as you see with 100 yr old knives, eventually the blade is almost gone if used extensively.

 

[csisland]

It depends a lot on how one sharpens. If you lift the blade as you approach the tip, or let the tip "skip" off the stone, it will become rounded. The best way to preserve your pointy blade tip is to make sure to maintain the angle as best you can all the way to the end of the stroke; and to stop the motion your hand, leaving the tip in contact with the stone, and then lift it vertically.
Is my explanation making sense?

Yes it makes sense and I need to concentrate more when I get closer to the point area. Is it common though for a point to not be as fine as when you first got it?

 

[puukkoman]

Yes, it is quite common.

 

[Mink]

It depends a lot on how one sharpens. If you lift the blade as you approach the tip, or let the tip "skip" off the stone, it will become rounded. The best way to preserve your pointy blade tip is to make sure to maintain the angle as best you can all the way to the end of the stroke; and to stop the motion your hand, leaving the tip in contact with the stone, and then lift it vertically off the stone.
Is my explanation making sense?

For example, crock sticks or a sharpmaker-style system will round your tip off more quickly, since you have no alternative but to "skip" the tip off the stone at the end of the stroke.

Exactly right, was getting ready to say the same.

 

[csisland]

Yes, it is quite common.

Thanks. Like you said it depends on how much you use the knife also. I have a clip point Barlow I use often and it's not as pointy as it used to be but nothing stays the same unless you tuck it away in a drawer when you buy it and never use it.

 

[Modoc ED]

It depends a lot on how one sharpens. If you lift the blade as you approach the tip, or let the tip "skip" off the stone, it will become rounded. The best way to preserve your pointy blade tip is to make sure to maintain the angle as best you can all the way to the end of the stroke; and to stop the motion your hand, leaving the tip in contact with the stone, and then lift it vertically off the stone.
Is my explanation making sense?

For example, crock sticks or a sharpmaker-style system will round your tip off more quickly, since you have no alternative but to "skip" the tip off the stone at the end of the stroke.

Exactly right and a good sharp point can be maintained on a Sharpmaker or round crock stick if you are conscious about not sliding the point of the blade off the sharpmaker or crock stick.

 

[csisland]

If the point rounds off a little, is it possible to bring the point back?

 

[Will Power]

Not really noticed this, but that could be evidence of having too many knives.....

As for the Sharpmaker, doesn't it have those grooved rods that you can use as fish-hook sharpeners etc? I put a nice sharp point back on a Pen blade of mine that arrived with a blunt tip.

 

[MarkPinTx]

With a whetstone, you can just do tip sharpening and keep it however you want with a bit of elbow grease. It's a bit easier to maintain angle if you just focus on the tip.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

This is why I've grown to like sharpening with edge-trailing technique on hard-backed sandpaper; it's much more conducive to keeping tips pointy (with 'tip-trailing' strokes, making sure to keep the angle as low as possible). Even then, with either edge-leading or edge-trailing technique, I always make sure to finish all strokes with the tip always trailing (tip pointing in the direction opposite the direction of the stroke).

When or if a tip does get blunted or rounded off, I invert the blade to grind the spine down to meet the cutting edge, keeping the angle as low as possible (keeping the 'hump' of the clip blade's spine just above the stone). Depending on the size of the blade, no matter the steel type, anything from a coarse thru an EF diamond hone is great for this (always finishing with the finer); it works very quickly. I usually do this even on new blades, as almost all of them are a little blunt or round anyway.


David

 

[Gary W. Graley]

I've found that since I started sharpening a different way that I can get a very fine point at the tip of the knife, my method goes basically the opposite of normal, in that I hold the knife in one hand, the stone in the other and start with the tip of the blade and bring the blade backwards against the stone, more like a stropping motion you'd do on a leather strop. This, for me, allows better control of the angle and provides a consistent edge bevel, also allows to get better sharpening near the start of the blade as well. So instead of trying to slice off a piece of the sharpening stone, I'm dragging the blade backwards, also I'll be pressing down on the blade with my index finger so that the pressure is not relayed to the blades pivot, helping to prevent any unwanted blade play.

Now it's just removing metal, backwards or forwards, but since I've started doing this I find it easy to maintain the angle a lot better, instead of pushing the edge into the grit of the stone, there's less resistance and my hand stays a bit steadier.

Depending on the knife's condition, if I need to set the initial bevel, I'll start out with the 120 grit and move up to the 8k and finally a leather strop.

added this shot of a recent sharpening of another blade, slightly thicker grind so the bevel is a little wider, this one is showing the tip section;

G2

Edited to say David and I typed about the same time, sand paper works great too and I've used that more for getting the convex type edges.

Also I'm not one for really wide bevels, as you can see on that Chambriard blade above it's not too wide but then the knife is ground down fairly thin, I try to stay with the initial bevel angle that came with the knife unless it's too obtuse, then I'll reprofile and sometimes even add an additional bevel up above the actual edge bevel to help knock down the shoulders and allow the blade to cut through material easier.

 

[Modoc ED]

Another thing that you don't hear people talking of now-a-days is sharpening a blade in a circular motion. Buck knives recommended sharpening blades in a circular motion up until a few years ago. Using this method, if done correctly, prevents the tip of the blade from being swept off the stone. I still do a lot of my sharpening this way. I even use the round Norton India combination stones sometimes.



The mods should probably move this thread to the Tinkering & Maintenance forum.

 

[monstrum]

Agreed with second poster and azranchman. It can't be avoided. Just prolonged by good tecneq and paying attention to what you r doing

 

[uxo2]

Easy to do on a sharp maker.
Down stroke

 

[Ryan Sumner]

I definately think its technique. If I don't pay attention when sharpening spear points, I'll roll the tip, but my clip-point Charlow's tip is only getting pointier the more I sharpen it.