I will never buy another recurves blade again.

Y

yepimonfire

Joined
Nov 7, 2013
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After my second round sharpening the kershaw blur, it has still failed to adequately sharpen the recurves part. Even though it's very mild of a recurve. No careful technique has solved this problem. What appears to happen is my coarser stone get the edge but once I hit the 8k (it doesn't wear during use like the rest) it fails to adequately polish it, and then the strop s seem to somewhat clean up what's left behind leaving the recurves slightly less well polished then the rest of the edge. Pita for sure.
 
And I'm sure you've tried just using the sides of the hone for the recurve portion?

Murray Carter says you can just even out the edge over time so that you end up with a straight edge.
 
Rey HRH said:
And I'm sure you've tried just using the sides of the hone for the recurve portion?

Murray Carter says you can just even out the edge over time so that you end up with a straight edge.
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Yeah I figure eventually it will even out. Sides are the same story. The edge is functional since up to the 4000 grit still sort of hits it and then the strops get the coarsih edge and somewhat refines it but the edge looks stupid, 3/5 the blade is mirror polished and the recurve is a rough polished look from the strops shining up a coarse scratch pattern lol.

There's also still this one 1/8" portion of the blade that seems to not get hit at all either. Really sucks because I like this knife. Perhaps some dmt diafold tapered rods (the kind used for sharpening serrated knives) might solve this issue, but that's a whole hundred dollars set of equipment for one knife.
 
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one inch round dowel, and sandpaper. wrap it tight enough, and it will be almost as good as a stone. Cheap, and a wide selection of grits. If you like the knife, don't let a little thing like that get in your way.
 
Alright I actually think I've figured something out by angling the recurve on the corner of the stone. Got it a bit better. Gonna have to seriously resurface my 8k though cause the edges are dinged up.
 
Get a Sharpmaker. Works great on recurves, and is a great all around tool for maintaining your edges.
 
I just thought I would mention that Lansky has curved hones for recurve blades. There made for to use with their clamp system, but you could use them alone if you wanted. You can get them individually or I think the 4 hone set can be bought for about $30.
 
I really don't understand what folks like about recurves (from a performance/use perspective). I would agree, sharpen the recurve out from in front of the ricasso and be done with it ;-)

Depending on your sharpening "kit " you might consider making a slightly contoured backer of wood and wrapping or taping strips with fine sandpaper.

For stropping you can then remove the paper and load the wood with compound. Wooden paint stir sticks are cheap/free and work well for this on Edge Pro Apex, DMT Aligner, etc.

Or, get narrower stones (depending on your kit).
 
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Spey said:
I really don't understand what folks like about recurves (from a performance/use perspective). I would agree, sharpen the recurve out from in front of the ricasso and be done with it ;-)

Depending on your sharpening "kit " you might consider making a slightly contoured backer of wood and wrapping or taping strips with fine sandpaper.

For stepping you can then remove the paper and load the wood with compound. Wooden paint stir sticks are cheap/free and work well for this on Edge Pro Apex, DMT Aligner, etc.

Or, get narrower stones (depending on your kit).
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It's not the recurve I like, it's the blur in general. It's almost a perfect knife IMO
 
On all of may stones that can be shaped, I have rounded off one long corner just for doing recurves - I leave the other outside edge crisp for tools that don't have a sharpening notch. Just have to lower the handle when you get to the recurve portion, the opposite of elevating the handle when working the belly. I am not huge on them myself, but do have a couple of knives that are recurved - was a major goad for getting into waterstones.
 
HeavyHanded said:
On all of may stones that can be shaped, I have rounded off one long corner just for doing recurves - I leave the other outside edge crisp for tools that don't have a sharpening notch. Just have to lower the handle when you get to the recurve portion, the opposite of elevating the handle when working the belly. I am not huge on them myself, but do have a couple of knives that are recurved - was a major goad for getting into waterstones.
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I was actually considering doing this. Any tips? I was just gonna scrub it round with my lapping plate. My stones are double sided so I was just gonna round off one outside edge.
 
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yepimonfire said:
I was actually considering doing this. Any tips? I was just gonna scrub it round with my lapping plate. My stones are double sided so I was just gonna round off one outside edge.
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That's about it. On my India stone I was careful to use a bunch of loose grit mixed with dish soap so the stone didn't glaze. The waterstones can just be rounded over a bit with a lapping plate. The key on those hard vitreous stones is to get the rounded portion as nice as the rest of the stone surface so the resulting finish is as nice as it can be. If its left rough from the lapping/shaping it will grind pretty rough.
 
A very small radius is all that is needed.

I would suspect that your technique needs some work too.

One tip, As you reach the inner part of the curve the handle needs to drop below the stone surface.
 
My first recurve attempt was a zt350, and I was nervous as hell. I know there are a number of narrow stones available for pretty much every sharpening system, but I didn't have the cash at the time, and was/is very impatient. So I just went at it on the EP with wide stones. The thing that that made me most nervous though, was just the simple thought that this was a new knife, and didn't really need sharpening. It was just a little off on the bevel balance, and that was driving me crazy.

Ended up turning out great, and I still have that edge on that specific knife. Now perfectly balanced left/right, front/back, with a slightly taller bevel (shallower angle) than factory edge, and partially polished. I think the thing that saved me was that I really stepped out of character and slowed things down than my normal "blast through, then rant/rave if it didn't turn out perfect." Using the very edge/corner of the stones for most of the blade, but going slow enough and spending the extra time required from missing all the surface contact of the flat stone.

One of the catalysts that allowed me to even start that project, was the realization that you can get a pretty good edge on a blade with the Sharpmaker and only the corners of the triangle stones, if careful attention and time is spent. So if that can happen, why not on any other system?

I don't think I am really afraid of a tight recurve any longer, but still hesitant because it does take more time and attention. For me, I may spend 2-3x (or more) the amount of time a similar blade without recurve may take me. And with the KME system that I'm currently using, I getting much faster than I ever have been, but still a perfectionist to the point I don't think I could ever make any money sharpening.

Oh, and a word on strops. A piece of .5x2 board, and basic leather are really cheap supplies. Make up a bunch of freehand strops and try out different polishing rouges (found most of mine at hardware shops). What actually polishes one blade, may not even touch another. While I do use some of the specialized roo strops with CBN emulsions to fine tune a special blade. Sometimes it's just that old belt glued to a board with hardware store chalk (rouge) that makes that final difference.
 
I don't like recurves at all, neither using nor sharpening. I also do not understand the function really. But then I may be an ignorant anyway a little bit.
 
I prefer traditional curves on my blades to recurves, but I think the recurve exerts great cutting force with a drawing motion. I can see the benefit as a work knife.
 
Grinding a radius into the stones seems to have solved my issue. It's still a pain to have to do all the angling adjustment but it works!
 
yepimonfire said:
Yeah I figure eventually it will even out. Sides are the same story. The edge is functional since up to the 4000 grit still sort of hits it and then the strops get the coarsih edge and somewhat refines it but the edge looks stupid, 3/5 the blade is mirror polished and the recurve is a rough polished look from the strops shining up a coarse scratch pattern lol.

There's also still this one 1/8" portion of the blade that seems to not get hit at all either. Really sucks because I like this knife. Perhaps some dmt diafold tapered rods (the kind used for sharpening serrated knives) might solve this issue, but that's a whole hundred dollars set of equipment for one knife.
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I like my 1" diameter ceramic stone for recurve. I love my Blur too but had the same problem even with a 1" flat stone. The ceramic works really good and was only about $12 on Amazon. I'm looking to strop now. That's why I'm here.
 
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