Hawkbill sharpening, I'm stumped

[abiggs]

How in the world do you sharpen this blade shape? The only thing that I can think of is to use the edge of the stone. I know a Sharpmaker will work, but I need to reprofile the edge and that will take forever on a sharpmaker, even with the diamond rods. Any suggestions?

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

What's the blade made out of? I suggest the sharpmaker, use some sandpaper around the stones to create a harder cut into the steel. Is it soft steel? I wouldn't use the edge of the stone.

 

[knarfeng]

How in the world do you sharpen this blade shape? The only thing that I can think of is to use the edge of the stone. I know a Sharpmaker will work, but I need to reprofile the edge and that will take forever on a sharpmaker, even with the diamond rods. Any suggestions?

You can wrap sandpaper around the sharpmaker stones to get a coarser surface. Get some wet/dry in ~320 grit.

 

[JD Spydo]

How in the world do you sharpen this blade shape? The only thing that I can think of is to use the edge of the stone. I know a Sharpmaker will work, but I need to reprofile the edge and that will take forever on a sharpmaker, even with the diamond rods. Any suggestions?

Reprofiling your Hawkbill edge on the Spyderco 204 Sharpmaker is not hard. You do need to get a set of the diamond stones you can buy extra for the 204 kit to speed up the process a bit. Also there is a company that makes diamond impregnated sharpening steels known as "Ultimate Edge". They have sharpening steels that are oval shaped that are diamond grit that will reprofile rapidly. It's not very often that a Spyderco Hawkbill as good as steel as they use get's too terribly dull. Even the older GIN-1 versions always held up well for me.

Now Ultimate Edge is not the only company that makes those oval shaped, diamond grit sharpening steels. The F. Dick company from Germany makes them but they are very pricey. I've heard that DMT now has those as well. But it's a slow process and you want to be careful not to round off or damage the point/tip of the blade. A Hawkbills best feature is in it's tip.

Then view the video/DVD that comes with the 204 Sharpmaker because Sal shows you how to get a truly wicked edge by using the corners of the stones. I sharpen my tips separately with my Spyderco 701 Profiles and I don't try to do anything to the tip with the 204 unit. And every one of my Hawkbills are razor sharp and ready for duty.

I'm fully confident you can do it. Also try to get a clamp to secure the 204 unit to the table or workbench and that frees both your hands so you can steady the blade better.

 

[abiggs]

Thanks guys. I think the sandpaper over the sharpmaker rods will work the best. I have the diamond rods for the sharpmaker, but they don't impress me. The steel is a mystery, it's on a Klein TL-29, carbon steel. It was pretty easy to reprofile the main blade so the steel isn't that hard. I have just not ever had any luck with the sharpmaker other than taking a pretty sharp knife to shaving sharp.

 

[Jeff Clark]

If the Sharpmaker rods are too acute for your edge angle it needs to be reprofiled (it hardly qualifies as an edge at all if it is over 20 degrees per side). I would wrap Wet or Dry sandpaper over a piece of copper pipe for the coarse reprofiling work on the edge.

 

[G. Scott H.]

Lay a piece of sandpaper over leather (just like for convexing), set it right at the edge of your table/counter, and just lean the knife slightly toward you so that the tip is maybe 1/8" or so off the sandpaper and use an edge trailing, base to tip motion. Works like a charm for me. :thumbup:

 

[RobbW]

Lansky Crock Sticks work really well for that blade profile. More agressive than the Sharpmaker, which I also like. I have both.