fixing the looks on a bevel - sheepsfoot schrade

J

jacktrades_nbk

Joined
Feb 7, 2007
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Hey guys, tried to re profile this one on about 30 degrees, using a sharpmaker, and free hand, but i think because of some things like crinked blade, and a bit of waving in the blade thickness, i can't seem to make the apex look clean enough. It always gets waved on one side of the blade, on the apex inside line. I can make it cut, but it looks weird.
So is this fixable with stones, or sand paper convexing sounds right for this blade ? Or am I doing something wrong ?







 
This has come up several times lately. You definitely have some warp in the blade there. Sliding the blade off the edge of the stone with each pass has worked for me. You can also take a SiC stone and round over one corner. Unfortunately, production sheepsfoot blades are usually less than straight, so just moving up and back on the stone, as you would with a chisel, just tends to accentuate any warp or curve in the blade.
 
My thoughts are it is going to require more than a sharp maker. It was never meant for re profiling. Perhaps an edge pro or the like will get the job done with a lot of patience. It will be difficult if the blade is warped as mentioned.
 
Welcome to the 'real world' of Traditional sheepsfoot blades. ;)

You can 'cheat' the looks of the bevel's shoulders a bit, by adding a very subtle & shallow convex after refining the edge. An aggressive strop of hard-backed denim with white rouge, Flitz, Simichrome, Mother's Mag Polish can do that very quickly on a thin blade such as this. Convexing the shoulders of the bevels will sort of blur the lines enough that the wavy appearance isn't so obvious. And per your question in your original post, sandpaper could also be used similarly; you can add individual thicknesses of plain paper or a piece of fabric under the sandpaper to give it a little cushion and make it conform a bit to the irregularities in the blade's grind. Either this, or you might just decide that a sharp edge is more attractive in itself, and the appearance of the bevels isn't such a big deal anymore. I think that's almost inevitable with sheepsfoot blades on Traditional pocket knives; they'll seldom ever look perfect, due to the built-in crinking and/or warp & wavy grinds.


David
 
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Thanks guys,
I've noticed that in general, Case made slipjoints, with their thin hollow grind, they do work on the sharpmaker stone corners, for a 40 degrees micro bevel, but on full flat traditionals, as i've seen before on some other models, the sharpmaker will sometimes work or it just wont, depending on the blade thickness, grind angles, and original bevel angle.
But going freehand, even with Case, i could go under the 40, and it will look better, considering the patina. Yeah, carbon steel preference :D
Yeah, traditional knives are supposed to be freehand sharpened and maintained, as David and Tinydog say.
Thanks for all the advice.
 
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