Not so long ago or far away.A sharpening thread

Spyderco quite porbably makes the best ceramic sharpeners. As for using them, yes you use a motion prety much the same as you would do with a steel. In regards to stropping, you can go with that method either. It is just more difficult as khukuris are in general fairly heavy.

-Cliff
 
For some really good sharpening tools look to the woodworkers. Espececially the carving stuff. Carving tools can be very expensive and one doesn't want to replace them. These sharpening tools come in a variety of shapes and sizes. I use ruby slipstones to take out a big nick. And a much finer stone to polish the edge. A truly sharp edge is a mirror edge. This kind of edge is still best achieved with a strop. Of course this is all just what has worked for me.
 
When I was a kid and started shaving every barber shop had a leather strop for their straight razors. That's what I used when starting out -- leather strop and straight razor. I agree with Mike. The leather strop will produce the sharpest edge and I have the scars to prove it.

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Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ

 
:
The round strop I made works real nice for the khukuris. If it is a larger khukuri then the strop can be pushed away from the edge while holding the knife still.
I made a strop the other day and it's an 1 3/4" wide and 14" long on the leather part with a 5 1/2" handle.
I usually just put the jewelers rouge on a smooth belt blank or the like and the one end of it off. I glued this one down and I really do like it. I am gonna make another one and try the rottenstone that Cougar mentioned in another thread. I never knew that it is what is also known as Tripoli.

I wonder about one only an inch wide would be like. That would be narrow enough to use in the recurved area on most of our knives. Obviously with it glued on the wood it wouldn't twist like a narrow piece of leather. Perhaps it would be even more useful?
Old habits die hard and I think that's why all the old strops were as wide as they were; so they wouldn't twist.

Any opinions?

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>>>>---¥vsa---->®

If you mix milk of magnesia with vodka and orange juice do you get a phillips screwdriver?

Khukuri FAQ




[This message has been edited by Yvsa (edited 01-22-2000).]
 
Yvsa, I think you are right about the width on the old strops. The one my Dad had and the one I had were pretty wide and made of heavy leather. They had a leather strop and also one made of canvas, I think, stitched together at the top with a hook so you could hook it to the wall. The procedure was to draw the strop pretty tight against the hook and stroke the razor back and forth flipping it with each stroke. I watched my Dad do it and tried to imitate him and ended up cutting the strop because I didn't flip the razor right.

The strop could also be substituted as a whip for teaching kids the error of their ways in major offenses!

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Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ

 
Matt;
Your logic is sound, wood workers on the average can sharpen metal cutting tools with more skill then most any other group of individuals. They also sharpen a greater variety of shapes, but usually use forged carbon steel. I pick up my stropes at Trash and Treasure sales for 3-5 dollars in the S.F
Bay Area. My Son In Law is a atticted to wood working in general, and furniture making
as his favorite pass time. We take our stropes and mix Red Polishing Rouge, with Acetone, and apply with a cotton towel. When the surface dries, you have good penetration, and a very even surface.

Floyd
 
Old junk files are the cheapest source of high quality blade steel I know of (cheap, as in entirely free; I get the slingouts from a local factory) I believe the usual material for files is AISI W-2. Even unhardened, (ie in the annealed state) it's springy and tough, and will keep an edge; conversely, if quenched in suds (water-soluble machinists' cutting oil), it's often possible to dispense with tempering without too much risk of shattering on knife-sized blades. I make 8" - 12" blade heavy cutting knives out of file steel; after forging and contour grinding I just harden, don't bother with tempering, and none of 'em's busted yet.

Finally, I find you can forge file steel at much lower temperatures, down to a barely perceptible red glow, without serious risk of cracking.

As regards the teeth of files; if you forge a file into a blade without grinding the teeth off first, you're effectively forge-welding the teeth into the blade, and you have to grind a heck of a long way down to get rid of those checkered lines (done deliberately with an old rasp, you get a very attractive fish-scale pattern)

As regards burnishing; I was recently given two 3/16" tungsten carbide rods. They make outstanding sharpening steels.
 
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