I'm new to this forum. I eventually received my Kar-bar 1256 and BM 710HS today after days' waiting. I tried to sharpen both by using the Spyderco 204MF, but it seemed that the edge angle of the 1256 was neither 40 degrees nor 30 degrees. I worked on it long but still couldn't get an reasonably sharp edge. Any suggestion?
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How to sharpen a Kar-bar 1256
- Thread starter yuchang
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- Jun 9, 1999
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I have the same problem with my kabar. You're right, the factory angle is larger than 40. Some suggest reprofiling your edge on a flat aluminum oxide stone first. Or you can try putting flipping your 204 base over and putting the stones in the bottom and using it like a flat stone. I had the best success just holding one of the 204 stones in one hand and the knife in the other and free handing it (being careful of course). I was able to get it reasonably sharp that way. You could just reprofile your kabar using the corners of the medium stones, but it will probably take a long time. Spyderco makes some diamond stones for the 204 for this purpose, but they are kind of pricey and I have read here on the forums that they can wear out quickly if you use too much force. I read a post by Sal Glesser once where he said the corners of the medium stones remove metal almost as fast as the diamond ones, but I haven't had the patience to try it.
p.s. I just checked the kabar web site, and it says the edge angle on the 1256 is 20 degrees (per side I'm assuming, for a total of 40), but it sure wasn't on my 1213 I bought a couple years ago. Maybe they have recently changed this?
p.s. I just checked the kabar web site, and it says the edge angle on the 1256 is 20 degrees (per side I'm assuming, for a total of 40), but it sure wasn't on my 1213 I bought a couple years ago. Maybe they have recently changed this?
- Joined
- Jun 9, 1999
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blur, chances are that the edge on your Ka-bar was ground on with a belt sander in about 20 seconds. They probably just do it by eye. Most mainstream factories don't take much time putting a good edge on their blades, Spyderco and Benchmade being notable exceptions.
I have a Kabar USMC knife. I set the blade angle for twenty degrees on my Lansky. I have the diamond stones, and starting with the extra course stone, it took quite a while to obtain a twenty degree sharp edge. But now that the edge is razor sharp at twenty degrees, it only takes a few minutes to resharpen, when using that setting.
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2002
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- 1,350
here's what happened to me yesterday. I'm not at all skilled in sharpening, and what might have worked last week doesn't necessarily work again today.
A couple of months ago I bought a beat-up Case USMC "kabar style" knife but couldn't get any kind of serious sharp onto it. So yesterday evening I went over to TheMart and bought one of those plastic $5 yellow thingies with the fixed-angle carbide cutters. You've seen the kind, you rest the knife edge-up on the table and draw this sharpener down the blade.
What I did was clamp the thingie in the vise and pulled the Case across the cutters... wow, all kinds of metal came off the blade. It wasn't quite like the amount of chips a lathe will toss, but I was nonetheless quite surprised at the quantity.
So I pulled the Case through about 15 times, each stroke feeling more solid (more "bite") each time, I reckon the edge was really getting re-profiled. The edge seemed kinda rough when I was done but it would cut arm hair.
Then I got out my leather-glued-onto-a-mousepad strop, rubbed in lots of green oxide stuff into the leather, and wailed away for awhile, back and forth.
The "sharp" doesn't necessarily qualify as what I'm guessing the experts would call "scary sharp," but there was no problem harvesting plenty of arm hair.
Thinking I was onto a good thing here, I then grabbed an old near-WWII era Camillus "kabar style" knife from the box of toys and gave it the similar treatment. It too had resisted getting sharp, but once again the technique worked and the arm hair harvesting was very successful.
So I decided this was really working fine so I grabbed my almost new Kabar 1211 and gave it the treatment.... success !!
Then a 6" blade WWII-era Kabar MK I...... success !!
I have no idea what the angles are, but I do know that all those knives now have some very serious "sharp" attached to them, thanks to a $5 sharpener and some green-oxide stropping. Quick and "easy."
Cheers,
Carl
p.s. also of interest is that I have a SOG X-42 Recondo with something of a re-profiled edge to get away from the chisel-style. I've had a perfectly miserable time trying to get that edge arm-hair-cutting sharp. The Recondo has a very very hard BG42 steel and I discovered that the carbide cutters didn't seem to cut the BG42. I put some real pressure on the blade as I drug it through the cutters and it didn't seem to "grab hold" like the 1095 steel of the Kabar's. The BG42 did seem to get a bit sharper, but wow, that is some kinda hard hard steel.
A couple of months ago I bought a beat-up Case USMC "kabar style" knife but couldn't get any kind of serious sharp onto it. So yesterday evening I went over to TheMart and bought one of those plastic $5 yellow thingies with the fixed-angle carbide cutters. You've seen the kind, you rest the knife edge-up on the table and draw this sharpener down the blade.
What I did was clamp the thingie in the vise and pulled the Case across the cutters... wow, all kinds of metal came off the blade. It wasn't quite like the amount of chips a lathe will toss, but I was nonetheless quite surprised at the quantity.
So I pulled the Case through about 15 times, each stroke feeling more solid (more "bite") each time, I reckon the edge was really getting re-profiled. The edge seemed kinda rough when I was done but it would cut arm hair.
Then I got out my leather-glued-onto-a-mousepad strop, rubbed in lots of green oxide stuff into the leather, and wailed away for awhile, back and forth.
The "sharp" doesn't necessarily qualify as what I'm guessing the experts would call "scary sharp," but there was no problem harvesting plenty of arm hair.
Thinking I was onto a good thing here, I then grabbed an old near-WWII era Camillus "kabar style" knife from the box of toys and gave it the similar treatment. It too had resisted getting sharp, but once again the technique worked and the arm hair harvesting was very successful.
So I decided this was really working fine so I grabbed my almost new Kabar 1211 and gave it the treatment.... success !!
Then a 6" blade WWII-era Kabar MK I...... success !!
I have no idea what the angles are, but I do know that all those knives now have some very serious "sharp" attached to them, thanks to a $5 sharpener and some green-oxide stropping. Quick and "easy."
Cheers,
Carl
p.s. also of interest is that I have a SOG X-42 Recondo with something of a re-profiled edge to get away from the chisel-style. I've had a perfectly miserable time trying to get that edge arm-hair-cutting sharp. The Recondo has a very very hard BG42 steel and I discovered that the carbide cutters didn't seem to cut the BG42. I put some real pressure on the blade as I drug it through the cutters and it didn't seem to "grab hold" like the 1095 steel of the Kabar's. The BG42 did seem to get a bit sharper, but wow, that is some kinda hard hard steel.