keeping the edge centered...

WarrenR

WarrenR

Joined
Dec 27, 2003
Messages
314
Just finished putting a shave-sharp edge on my el-cheapo khukhuri
and took nearly 3 hours w/ my DMT Aligner sharpener. After close examination prior to touching the stones, I noticed the edge and relief angle were no-where near centered along the length of the blade. It seemed to take forever straightening this out, even using the extra-coarse (black) hone. I really didn't want to use any power tools to fix this issue and couldn't imagine how long it would take by hand with a bench stone.

To make a long story short, final result was a edge composed of a 17 degree RA, 20 degree TA, and 25 degree CA. Although not sharpened as a convex, it came out pretty close...

My testing: this worked great on a couple of unseasoned 4" Oak logs I had in the garage. I must say this was the 1st time I put a khukhuri to work and it worked better than my Stihl (Fiskars) kindling axe. I'm now hooked!

I was wondering if anyone has run into this (edge not centered along blade) with any of the HI khukhuri's or if it's a trait of the el-cheapo ones like mine?
-WarrenR
 
Any time you're looking at a hand made blade, good chance this will happen, particularly if forged.

I only do stock removal, so I can always cheat, int hat mine starts out straight, with a set thickness(the joys of precision ground steel).

That being said, the three khuks I've had seemed to have pretty straight edges at quick glance. Never gave them close check. If no one chimes in here(ha, how likely is that here in Cantina :) ) THen I'll dig out the two I still have and check them closely
 
Any time you're looking at a hand made blade, good chance this will happen, particularly if forged.


**********************
Hmmmmm............
Thats news to me. Most of us smiths must have been doing it wrong to get it right all these years. The vast M-A-J-O-R-I-T-Y of blades I have seen for twenty five odd years exhibited at blade shows by experienced smiths are straight.

As with the stock removal grinder-jockys comments?
We also start with a straight bar to forge a blade as well.... we made it!
And then .....................grind it to remove any decarborization and true up the grinds.
Many makers have precision ground tops in their shops to measure off of.
There is NO excuse for sloppy work due to forging VS stock removal.......

None!!



cheers
Dan
 
yes, I suppose that would be understandable w/ hand forging...
This one was really bad though...edge curved to the far left, then to the far right, then back to the far left.
Infact, this was so bad, I think its slicing ability would be be hindered...
-WarrenR
 
Dan - without jumping down your throat, just want to clarify etp777's post. I believe he's referring to khukuris which are completely forged to shape. You'd be hard-pressed to find a smith that doesn't spend at least some time at the belt grinder truing up their forged blades...

The kamis don't have such luxuries and the fact they can turn out such a sweet knife given the circumstances is something special that every khukuri owner holds dear to their heart. It's the spirit of these blades.

Dan
 
What Dan said.

And funny, there are lots of knifemakers that don't go to the shows(I'd possibly argue more), so that's not exactly sampling them all. And I've seen grinds off on anything from a production knife to a hand made one. Don't like it on production, as generally means their machiner is off, so I expect other problems then, on handmade ones I take it as part of the human touch.

Wasn't saying it in a bad way, geeze, no need to be so touchy.
 
In 777's suport, I own an anchient Scaggel that still has hammer marks on the blade. I dont mind it, as it is a hand made knife. I have never tried making a knife, but even on my own personaly hand made wrenches the spine is usualy not in the exact center all the way. In my opinion thats why God invented the file ;~{)
 
Do y'all remember when brand new pocketknives came from the factory with an obtusely ground, dang near blunt edge? The assumption was that the customer would sharpen his knife to an edge of his preference. 'Course that was back when most guys knew how to sharpen a knife unaided by gadgets, gizmos, and a tutorial video.

Sarge
 
Have noticed that with some kamis the edge is almost a trade mark. The khuks I have by Sanu are all a little bit off center near the tip. All in the same way. Does not affect the cutting/chopping ability at all. Kind of like a signature in a way. Guess if you don't like what they did then you can always change it. Have found that the "guided" sharpeners don't really work with these custom knives. Better to do it by feel unless you want to remove quite a bit of metal in some cases. Those guided sharpeners don't always work great with CNC ground blades either unless the angles match pretty well. Best to learn the old way and do it by feel.:)
 
Better to do it by feel unless you want to remove quite a bit of metal in some cases.
Click to expand...

Yes, actually needed to on one side to straighten the edge out...

As for the 'old way', been doing that for 20+ years with Arkansas bench stones. I think I'll stick to that going forward. The guided
(Lansky, DMT aligner, etc.) sharpeners definitely have their application. I've found [in my opinion] they are almost a must when sharpening a decent quality knife where a few blade scratches are not desired. I'll have to try some stropping on this as well; technique seems widely used by HI forumites.
-WarrenR
 
My apoligees if someone had mentioned this before...

I found A cheap and highly effective device for stropping:
While searching through my autobody supplies & tools for some fine grit wet/dry paper, I came across my 9"x3" sanding block. Many of you have probably seen them before in hardware stores like Home Depot. This one is plastic w/ a handle, has a 3/16" foam-rubber pad attached to the base, and has spring clips on either end to secure sanding paper.

I attached a strip of 1500 grit, secured the handle in the vise, and proceeded to do some stropping. Nice...very nice I said to myself as I gleemed over the shaving sharp edge it left w/ minimal effort...
It's cheap (around $5-$8), big (9"x3" surface), works great, and securely holds the wet/dry paper. Nice part about placing in a vice is it allows 1&1/2" to 2" of clearance between the hone (paper) and vice jaws. If you prefer more 'padding' you can place a strip of mosepad between the paper and foam-rubber base.
Anybody ever heard of using this/try this before?
-WarrenR
 
you can place a strip of mosepad
Click to expand...

mosepad'll work, but Mousepad will be more effective...
'guess that's why the preview feature is available.
-WarrenR
 
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