Need your advice on a dull GEC White Owl

[surlyman]

Hi all,

I just received a GEC White Owl. I love the knife but the edge on the primary spear blade was pretty dull, so I started going through my routine on my Sharpmaker. I typically have pretty good luck with this device on my other knives but after a lot of grinding time I still can't get the thing to slice telephone paper. Finally, I started the "what is going on?!" level of investigation and I am beginning to think that the knife left the factory with an edge on one side and not the other. I should add the caveat that I am not all that experienced with sharpening and I do not intend this as a post to disparage GEC, I am simply asking what do you think is the best way to handle this? I don't want a new knife. Once this baby is sharp, it will be a great day to day carrier, but, at this point, I am concerned I may be causing more damage, or I may simply not have the necessary equipment to set a proper edge.

It is difficult to illustrate the issue, but here are two pictures. The first (the side without logo) seems to have a nice factory edge. The other picture seems to be rounded to the edge. It seems like a bevel wasn't created.

Because I hastily jumped in and have tried (for a long time) to sharpen this, I don't want to ship it back and ask for a new knife. I simply want to get an edge established. So ... back to the dealer? Ship it right to GEC and ask them to put on a nice edge? Mail it to one of the several sharpeners on this forum?

Thanks,

Tal

 

[nmcbride]

Rather than ship it to the factory as it would take about 3 to 4 weeks to get it back, there is a great gent here on the forums that sharpened knives and will put a scary edge on it. I had a old case sodbuster that I could get to take a edge due to prior damage the original owner caused by sharpening it incorrectly and Richard did a amazing job and you can't beat his price. Below is the url for his thread he is a great guy and incredibly quick turn around time.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...8-years-of-experience?p=11044655#post11044655

 

[surlyman]

Now that is why I love this place: ten minutes and I got the info I was looking for.

Thanks,

Tal

 

[fatcorgi]

From the photos it looks as if there is an edge on both sides, it just has a very shallow grind. This is typical of GEC, they tend to be ground at a very shallow profile, something like 50 degrees. That's why the sharpmaker at 40 or 30 degrees will only hit the bevel. There's nothing as good as professional reprofiling of course, but for the future, if you were to tackle the problem yourself, you could reprofile the knife at the edge angle that you want, I'm sure there are lots of threads going into more detail about how to do this, for example you'd need coarser stones than the sharpmaker standards. Though it is time consuming, the GECs respond very well to reprofiling as the grind is very even. I have most of mine at 30 degrees, and the edge is very sharp and easy to maintain.

 

[surlyman]

fatcorgi,

Thanks for the info. I tried using more aggressive DMT diamond stones leaned against the sharpmaker stones to maintain the angle. It was pretty awkward and I didn't have the confidence that I was doing the right thing in the first place. I am going to have one of our forum members reprofile it for me this time.

Thanks for the information.

Tal

 

[shudaizi]

The White Owl (clip blade) that I bought last month came very dull too. As fatcorgi said: the factory angle was really off (at least 50 degrees) and I had to spend considerable time reprofiling. Now, it's sharp and just a quick stropping brings back the edge when it starts to dull. (Mine had other issues too, including the pen blade tang / kick rubbing the main blade when the pen was opened and closed -- again, some time with the stones fixed it right up.) Definitely worth the time spent as the WO has become my EDC.

-- Kevin

From the photos it looks as if there is an edge on both sides, it just has a very shallow grind. This is typical of GEC, they tend to be ground at a very shallow profile, something like 50 degrees. That's why the sharpmaker at 40 or 30 degrees will only hit the bevel. There's nothing as good as professional reprofiling of course, but for the future, if you were to tackle the problem yourself, you could reprofile the knife at the edge angle that you want, I'm sure there are lots of threads going into more detail about how to do this, for example you'd need coarser stones than the sharpmaker standards. Though it is time consuming, the GECs respond very well to reprofiling as the grind is very even. I have most of mine at 30 degrees, and the edge is very sharp and easy to maintain.

 

[surlyman]

Kevin,

I am looking forward to the knife being reprofiled. Other than the edge, I love everything about this knife. It is very comfortable in the pocket and the Autumn Gold Jig Bone is beautiful. I am confident that eventually this will be one of the knives in my edc rotation.

Thanks for the information.

Tal