Newbie Sharpening Questions

F

Fohmyn

Joined
Jul 23, 2005
Messages
8
First off, I apologize for making such a thread. On other forums I frequent, these kind of threads get irritating, but I did some searching around here and I'm having trouble finding the information I am looking for.

Im looking at one of the big Dieter ATACs, around a 7" blade, made of A2, close to 1/4 inch thick (9/40"), with a partial seration and a 3 inch false edge. A few features of this knife are giving me sharpening trouble, and I'm looking for advice.

1) It has a slightly recurved blade. My flat Arkansas sharpening stones can't properly reach in there, and I feel like I am just scratching it when I try to sharpen that area. I'm not sure the technique or the tool to deal with this area. This part of the blade is closer to the hilt and has been doing any of the precision work with the blade, I want to keep it pretty sharp.

2) The false edge. This may be a no-brainer, but should this be given any special consideration? Do I really even need to sharpen this? If so, what sort of angle is proper?

3) The serrations. These are still razor sharp, but rather than wait for a problem to deal with it, I might as well ask. How should these serrations be dealt with? There is an inch-long area with teeth of mixed sizes.

Any help is appreciated
 
This knife :

http://nicnac.net/media/ATAC1.jpg

Recurves demand more narrow hones to match the curvature, you can wrap a piece of hardwood with sandpaper, actually buy small slip stones, or try the corner of large benchstones.

The top edge on utility knives is often left at a much higher angle to enable it to take really heavy impacts without damage. Just consider if you want it to serve as a cutting tool and if so for what?

Serrations are just an extreme example of curved edges and thus they are sharpened with the same considerations applied to recurves just to a more radical extreme as they need really fine hones to get in the scallops. The Sharpmaker rods handle almost all common serrations patterns.

-Cliff
 
Cheap and easy way to see how much contact you are making with your stone: take a marking pen(I use cheap kids water colors)and mark the edge of your blade. The ink shouldn't absorb and you get immediate visible feedback on blade to stone contact. remark the blade after every pass and before long you'll be making accurate edge passes every time. Taught my 9 year old nephew to sharpen free hand using this method. Also, get a cheap knife and practice, practice, practice.
 
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