Maintaing Blade shape while sharpening

F

Firedrake445

Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
6
I have an Ontario RAT model 1 knife. When I first got the knife I saw that it had a very sharp curve to the belly of the blade, up to the point of the knife. After sharpening it a few times I've noticed that the curve is starting to sort of shallow out. Is there something wrong with my technique thats causing this change in blade shape? I'm kind of crazy about keeping my knives in original condition so any help would be appreciated.
 
What kind of sharpening tool are you using? What it basically comes down to is that you're removing more metal (is it ground thinner around the belly?) on the belly than you are elsewhere.
 
Your most likely not following the curve of the edge properly. Lay the knife on the stone at the proper angle, lift the handle without moving the blade down the stone and watch as you get to the curve. You will notice that just by lifting the handle there will be a natural twist/roll that goes toward the spind, its very slight use just the weight of the knife and its easier to notice. If you have a mora use that to teach you (the wide bevel helps) or get something like the DMT aligner clamp to use with your benchstones. The mora's a good teacher and a good knife but besides that its just a bunch of practice.
 
Also I'm just using a benchstone for sharpening. If I start sharpening to the curve of the blade, will it recover its normal shape?
 
One thing is sure... Once you remove steel you can't put it back on. I doubt it'll be easy to regain the shape short of getting a professional to grind the curve back on.
 
Firedrake445 said:
Also I'm just using a benchstone for sharpening. If I start sharpening to the curve of the blade, will it recover its normal shape?
Click to expand...

No, you won't unless you re-profile it. Now by following the shape that you have profiled the blade to.

Re-profiling isn't hard, just time consuming.
 
Okay thats good. Looking back over how the shape is altered I kind of perfer it. It makes it a lot easier to sharpen ( the original Ontario RAT 1 shape has quite an sharp curve) and it looks nicer in my opinion.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top