First shot at reprofiling...

N

newbie_nick

Joined
Dec 2, 2008
Messages
83
Hey gang,

I've always wanted to try to reprofile a blade with a convex edge instead of the "standard" V edge, but I've always been too chicken. I finally gathered some supplies and decided that it was time to give it a shot. Digging through my hunting gear, I came across and old Schrade lockback knife that I found when I was hunting several years ago. The knife never seemed to be able to get very sharp, so I've never had any real use for the knife. Anyhow...it became my first victim.

Here is what I did...be gentle!

Step 1: I couldn't find a good mousepad, so I found a phonebook that seemed to have a decent amount of "squish" to it. I went to an auto parts store and bought some Wet/dry sandpaper at 120, 320, 400, 600, and 1500 grit.

Step 2: I used a Sharpie marker to blacken the edge of the knife and the bottom 1/4" of the blade to see where I was actually removing material from the blade.

Step 3: Using the 120grit, I started to actually reprofile the blade. It's not a huge blade, but I went through most of a sheet just to get most of the marker off.

Step 4: After setting the profile with 120, I progressively moved up in grit until I had polished it decently well with 1500.

Step 5: The magazine cutting test. The blade did surprisingly well considering that I had NEVER been able to get a decent edge with a bench stone in the past. It's not great, but it was a good blade to learn on.

Like I said, this was a good learning experience, and I'm looking to buy some better supplies (i.e. more sandpaper, a strop, and compound for it) before doing my next blade. I have a Scrapyard Son of the Dogfather that I would like to reprofile, but I'm a bit intimidated by it!!!

Thanks for reading...
Nick

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Looks like you're on your way. Nice going! :thumbup:

I just recently started 'experimenting' with convexing, using sandpaper on top of my strop. Like you, I was pleasantly surprised at how relatively easy it is to put a good edge on it quickly. I used 220, 320, 400 grit, then made a few very light passes on a ceramic stone to clean up the burr a bit. Then finished by stropping with green compound on leather, then on bare leather. My most recent 'experiment' with this method was on an older Buck 112 (2 dot) with 440C blade. Like your knife, it was one I'd acquired many years ago, and was never happy with the edge on it. I used this knife to cut up some cardboard boxes the other day, and the edge handled it beautifully. Some light stropping afterwards had it back to shaving sharp almost immediately.

The nice thing about convexing is, it lends itself perfectly to stropping afterwards. It's the exact same motion, and the leather will 'glide' beautifully across that convex bevel. Makes for some very sharp, and very easy edges.

By the way, that Old Timer lockback is a great old knife. Good steel (yours looks like carbon steel), which should respond beautifully to some more gentle polishing & stropping. It's a wonderful thing, to take an old 'beater' that was 'never good enough' and, all-of-a-sudden, transform it into one that you'll LOVE to use. You've made it your own now. Nice work!
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
Looks like you're on your way. Nice going! :thumbup:

I just recently started 'experimenting' with convexing, using sandpaper on top of my strop. Like you, I was pleasantly surprised at how relatively easy it is to put a good edge on it quickly. I used 220, 320, 400 grit, then made a few very light passes on a ceramic stone to clean up the burr a bit. Then finished by stropping with green compound on leather, then on bare leather. My most recent 'experiment' with this method was on an older Buck 112 (2 dot) with 440C blade. Like your knife, it was one I'd acquired many years ago, and was never happy with the edge on it. I used this knife to cut up some cardboard boxes the other day, and the edge handled it beautifully. Some light stropping afterwards had it back to shaving sharp almost immediately.

The nice thing about convexing is, it lends itself perfectly to stropping afterwards. It's the exact same motion, and the leather will 'glide' beautifully across that convex bevel. Makes for some very sharp, and very easy edges.

By the way, that Old Timer lockback is a great old knife. Good steel (yours looks like carbon steel), which should respond beautifully to some more gentle polishing & stropping. It's a wonderful thing, to take an old 'beater' that was 'never good enough' and, all-of-a-sudden, transform it into one that you'll LOVE to use. You've made it your own now. Nice work!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments!! Now that I've done the first one, I want to do more. In fact, I wouldn't mind working more on this blade, too.

Funny that you mention this knife.... My wife got a package in the mail today and needed a knife to open it. She saw that Old Timer laying on the counter and used it to open the box, and she said "Wow...that's sharp!". Amazing...

Thanks for the comments!

Nick
 
Not to bad :thumbup:

You can see from your pictures though that you still have some chips and roughness to the edge where it was not brought fully together. A little more work with the coarse grits and you might be surprised just how sharp it will get yet.
 
knifenut1013 said:
Not to bad :thumbup:

You can see from your pictures though that you still have some chips and roughness to the edge where it was not brought fully together. A little more work with the coarse grits and you might be surprised just how sharp it will get yet.
Click to expand...

Knifenut,

You're probably right. After I posted the pics, I could see the rough spots on the blade and thought the same thing. Should I go back to ~400 to do work like this?

Thanks for the comments!

Nick
 
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