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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Limited Edition Bolo Picture
- Thread starter Jerry Busse
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 2, 1999
- Messages
- 2,805
I am so sorry that my friends and customers have had to resort to posting here about there knives because I have not returned e-mails promptly. YES, I have received everyone's note and am trying to play catch up.
As of the latest report, the Bolo's are en route to me right now and I expect them this Thursday....the day they hit, they start going back out the door. I will post status here for everyone's benefit.
Thanks.
Andy
As of the latest report, the Bolo's are en route to me right now and I expect them this Thursday....the day they hit, they start going back out the door. I will post status here for everyone's benefit.
Thanks.
Andy
Brian Jones
Moderator
- Joined
- Jan 17, 1999
- Messages
- 7,560
Beautiful work, Jerry!
~Brian.
~Brian.
Cliff Stamp
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 5, 1998
- Messages
- 17,562
First of all, there is a wealth of information on how to sharpen convex grinds on the HI forum, they have even been collected in a well organized FAQ. So you might want to take some time and look that up and scan through it.
Anyway, basically you have a couple of choices, the easiest way is to put a v-grind right on top of the existing bevel and then sharpen as you normally would. The great thing about this is that it reduces the problem to something you are already familiar with. The con is that you lose a lot of performance because you have replaced the convex bevel with a much weaker flat grind one, as well you have created a very high drag point as the position where the flat edge bevel runs into the primary convex bevel.
Now the traditional way to sharpen fully convex bevels with hand stones is to hold the blade fixed and take the stone and grind from spine to edge arcing the stone along the curvature of the blade. This preserves the blade geometry. The downside is that it takes a fair amount of skill as well as time. As well consider all the steel you are removing, you are basically thinning the stock every time you are sharpening. Traditional forged blades that are sharpened in this manner don't last more than a few years before they have to be retired to lighter work becuase of the signficant change in cross section.
Now if you don't want to do this then you have to create a secondary edge bevel. To keep the geometry as close as possible to the NIB state, you just grind an edge with a slightly higher curvature than the primary grind and when you are finished polish the place where they meet so as to "blur" the grinds together and restore the geometry to one smooth grind.
Now how do you sharpen a convex bevel? The easiest way is to use a slack belt sander and some very fine belts (there are micron and sub micron belts available as well as leather belts for power stropping). You have to be careful here though not to use excessive force, or worn belts as both tend to overheat the edge and leave a large burr of weak steel. Keep the worn belts for steels that are much easier to work like low alloy steels. It is also not trivial to follow the edge curvature nor keep the point, nor get the curvature right over the entire edge. I am not saying it is impossible, but I would not pick this blade to be my first test.
A much less prone to error method is to use a high quality of sandpaper on a soft backing to allow the blade to sink in and match the curvature. It might seem difficult to get the right curvature, but that actually happens without much difficulty. Again I would experiment on a cheap blade or two, but you should not have much trouble. The quality of the sandpaper is very important. You want it to cut quickly and evenly so as to make you life easier. Lee Valley sells SiC and CrO sandpaper in 15, 5 and 0.5 Micron (roughly 1000,2500,9000 grit) on Mylar backing (to increase cutting ability and finish). These cut very quickly even at such fine grits and the last one leaves a mirror finish.
A couple of notes, if you have a buffer, you can use this to sharpen a blade that is just slightly dulled by working again just at the edge. Or use it as the final step in the above methods. You can tape up the main body of the blade as well to prevent scratches - however if you are using it enough to get it dulled, odds are it is going to be scratched anyway,my Battle Mistress is just a mess of scratches.
-Cliff
[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 03-23-2001).]
Anyway, basically you have a couple of choices, the easiest way is to put a v-grind right on top of the existing bevel and then sharpen as you normally would. The great thing about this is that it reduces the problem to something you are already familiar with. The con is that you lose a lot of performance because you have replaced the convex bevel with a much weaker flat grind one, as well you have created a very high drag point as the position where the flat edge bevel runs into the primary convex bevel.
Now the traditional way to sharpen fully convex bevels with hand stones is to hold the blade fixed and take the stone and grind from spine to edge arcing the stone along the curvature of the blade. This preserves the blade geometry. The downside is that it takes a fair amount of skill as well as time. As well consider all the steel you are removing, you are basically thinning the stock every time you are sharpening. Traditional forged blades that are sharpened in this manner don't last more than a few years before they have to be retired to lighter work becuase of the signficant change in cross section.
Now if you don't want to do this then you have to create a secondary edge bevel. To keep the geometry as close as possible to the NIB state, you just grind an edge with a slightly higher curvature than the primary grind and when you are finished polish the place where they meet so as to "blur" the grinds together and restore the geometry to one smooth grind.
Now how do you sharpen a convex bevel? The easiest way is to use a slack belt sander and some very fine belts (there are micron and sub micron belts available as well as leather belts for power stropping). You have to be careful here though not to use excessive force, or worn belts as both tend to overheat the edge and leave a large burr of weak steel. Keep the worn belts for steels that are much easier to work like low alloy steels. It is also not trivial to follow the edge curvature nor keep the point, nor get the curvature right over the entire edge. I am not saying it is impossible, but I would not pick this blade to be my first test.
A much less prone to error method is to use a high quality of sandpaper on a soft backing to allow the blade to sink in and match the curvature. It might seem difficult to get the right curvature, but that actually happens without much difficulty. Again I would experiment on a cheap blade or two, but you should not have much trouble. The quality of the sandpaper is very important. You want it to cut quickly and evenly so as to make you life easier. Lee Valley sells SiC and CrO sandpaper in 15, 5 and 0.5 Micron (roughly 1000,2500,9000 grit) on Mylar backing (to increase cutting ability and finish). These cut very quickly even at such fine grits and the last one leaves a mirror finish.
A couple of notes, if you have a buffer, you can use this to sharpen a blade that is just slightly dulled by working again just at the edge. Or use it as the final step in the above methods. You can tape up the main body of the blade as well to prevent scratches - however if you are using it enough to get it dulled, odds are it is going to be scratched anyway,my Battle Mistress is just a mess of scratches.
-Cliff
[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 03-23-2001).]