edge struggles....

D

Drum4fun

Joined
Mar 21, 2018
Messages
371
So I came across this traditional Camillus 18 at a local shop...seemed
worth the $10.00 asking, overall in pretty good nick. Beautiful day today
so thought I would spend a little outdoor time addressing the edge. Man,
this has been a struggle.... down to who's gonna give up first. By now should
be hair shave sharp. Edge is reasonable but not where I want it to be after a
couple hours. Will go back at it after a break. As shown in the last photo,
I do not own high speed / high tech sharpening gear... mostly time and
thousands of passes ... this knife is making me earn that $1.50 / hr. .

Charles
https://imgur.com/a/8tRXNWj
 
Can you break down the details about how you were sharpening the knife? Such as stone used, approximate pressure and angle used? Did you check the edge to see if there's light reflecting from it?
 
Thanks Paul... initial meet and greet with green scotchbrite pad to clean off schmutz...
then standard coarse / fine 10x2x1 sharpening stone with oil, followed by 400 / 1000 / 5000
Zwilling glass sharpening stone (frequent water soaks). As to pressure... if the rating scale was
light/mod/heavy... i would say I use light to mod...mostly light . Vision is not what it
use to be... so, i use a magnifying glass to occas. check on edge condition. Not being
very good at angle geometry I suspect 15- 20 degrees. I attempt to track passes to
keep both sides approx. equal # strokes. Finish with leather strop.

Any insights are appreciated.
Charles
 
Maybe they overheated the blade when it was buffed and ruined the temper.
 
Thanks Blues... I'm guessing that would be pretty rare...but, from what I've read
here not without precedence. I'm going to keep at it and see if I can improve the
sharpness . I think this little serpentine has good bones....should be a worthwhile
effort. BTW...what is the "light reflecting" importance ?...I can see an even edge of
"shinier" steel bilaterally with my magnifying glass. Damn cataracts.

Charles
 
Drum4fun said:
Thanks Paul... initial meet and greet with green scotchbrite pad to clean off schmutz...
then standard coarse / fine 10x2x1 sharpening stone with oil, followed by 400 / 1000 / 5000
Zwilling glass sharpening stone (frequent water soaks). As to pressure... if the rating scale was
light/mod/heavy... i would say I use light to mod...mostly light . Vision is not what it
use to be... so, i use a magnifying glass to occas. check on edge condition. Not being
very good at angle geometry I suspect 15- 20 degrees. I attempt to track passes to
keep both sides approx. equal # strokes. Finish with leather strop.

Any insights are appreciated.
Charles
Click to expand...

It seems like you've been around the block before, so without seeing how you're doing it I'm not sure what to tell you. Some knives can really give you a fit for whatever reason.

One reason could possibly be the edge has been sharpened to a large burr many, many times before you got it and the edge is very weak, making it difficult to get a nice sharpness. Try dragging the edge on a coarse stone a few times to remove any weakened metal to get to fresh steel, and try to minimize the burr when you sharpen. Make sure there is no light reflecting from the edge before you finish with the coarse stone and move on to a finer one.

The reason I mention light reflecting from the edge is because if you see light on the edge that means the apex is flattened, and a flat apex means a dull knife. I'm not referring to the bevels that make up your edge angle, but the very apex of the blade, the actual cutting edge.

Another reason could possibly be that the edge has gotten rather thick as the blade has been sharpened many times and the edge gets thicker each time, which can also make it difficult.
 
Paul,

Really good information. Thank you for sharing . I will make another pass at an attempt
to gain fresh steel. I had not even considered dragging the edge on the coarse stone... makes
sense as a legitimate "start over". The only light reflection I was able to visualize...using a
flashlight was in the proximity of the kick.

Thanks again for all the fine points. Good to know. I'll get back after it. These little pocket
knives remind me of childhood / Scouts. Sure would like to get this Camillus back to carry
worthy status.

Charles
 
Edge bevels look very narrow (looks like factory grind). That suggests the existing edge angle is probably pretty obtuse (wide). I'd bet they're wider than 40° inclusive, which would be very common in factory grinds on older Traditional knives like this. The narrow bevels look cosmetically nice on a new knife, but their geometry never cuts very well, unless the apex is absolutely perfectly crisp. Most every knife I've ever had with bevels looking that narrow ALWAYS needed a sizeable amount of thinning at/behind the edge, to get them cutting well.
 
Last edited:
David ,

Thank you . To an amateur like me that is high level info. I will attempt to address
the narrow bevels. I am getting closer with this one.... thanks to all willing to share
usable information...I know it is basic knife-ology to you but really helps with my
understanding of the art and science that goes in to getting a sharp edge.

Charles
 
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