Posts By LVC

[CPC]

Wow. Thanks mate. Lots of excellent info there.

If you want to make sure the angle is where you want it to be at the belly and tip, you could probably reclamp it at a slight angle so the stone is come up to it at an angle closer to perpendicular.

I got half way through yesterday and realised I should probably re-clamp it. I'll stuff about with it this morning and see what I can do. I'll post a pic when I'm done. Hopefully it's a pic of a sharp BWM...

Chris.

 

[CPC]

Well, I'm done. I used an 18 degree back bevel like you recommended and a 24 degree edge. Through the belly and to the tip I had to move up through 24 to 27 then put a 30 degree edge on. I only worked it to a 1000 grit stone. It's a user, a chopper that I take camping, so I figured I'd just be wasting my time getting a mirror polish. I tried getting a pic of the edge through the belly but I only have a point and shoot so it was a bit hard to capture it properly. Here's what I got anyway:

You can just make out the 4 angles - 30, lots of 27, 24 and just a bit of the 18 remains at the tip. Thanks for your help with the info.

Chris.

 

[Last Visible Canary]

It looks great

I'd love to try a clamp based system for some of the thicker tipped busse's. With a table based system like the edge pro, you need a flat surface on the knife to get a consistent edge. On a true full convex you get something that rolls around and makes it hard to keep it in one place. And on those models that have a short tip grind and a thick edge, you end up with very little main grind to balance the knife on. The two that come to mind are the Public Defender and the 4" Pure Bred Fighter/killer bee. Even if you do a single bevel at 35 degree's your still eating away as much as 1/2 of the entire forward portion of the main grind.

 

[rodog]

LVC and others, thank you, for the information and pictures. I have a couple of Busses and more on the way but don't have the guts to try to learn to sharpen on my knives yet. I continue to try to soak up all of this information. CPC or LVC, what is the reason for the multiple angles at different sections of the blade? Is it for durability along the middle of the blade and thinner towards the tip for penetration?

 

[Last Visible Canary]

LVC and others, thank you, for the information and pictures. I have a couple of Busses and more on the way but don't have the guts to try to learn to sharpen on my knives yet. I continue to try to soak up all of this information. CPC or LVC, what is the reason for the multiple angles at different sections of the blade? Is it for durability along the middle of the blade and thinner towards the tip for penetration?

edge thickness and angle can be varied at different sections of the edge for different uses. Generally for an edc beater the tip should be kept slightly more obtuse/thicker than the main cutting edge, because it's the more likely to hit rocks when chopping near the ground. But if you mostly do work where the main edge hits things like the stables or wire and the tip and belly are used primarily for skinning, you might keep the main edge thicker or with a more obtuse edge angle.

 

[RokJok]

For hogging off metal, one option is a belt sander used **very** judiciously with a very light touch. If you have unlimited $$ one of the professional 2x72 inch models gets you a very nice machine. If you are on the lightweight budget program, the little Harbor Freight 1"x30" model runs in the $40 range and can go less with their frequent coupons/sales. Another option is the disc & belt combination machines like this HF model.

The key with using belt sanders is two-fold:
1. Avoid heat build-up at all cost. The aforementioned light touch and a dunking bucket to cool the blade are mandatory.
2. Keep the blade moving. Unless of course you actually want to grind a notch into your edge.

Here is a pic of an Assault Shaker that has seen some fair time on an Edge-Pro thinning the shoulder down to make it a decent slicer. As the camera flash shows, there are a few different angles on the edge. Registering a short, 1/4" thick, not-very-tall, almost-all-belly, highly-wedge-shaped cross-section blade on the EP table proved to be a PITA to me. Okay, I'm done whining now.

I have a couple of Busses and more on the way but don't have the guts to try to learn to sharpen on my knives yet.

Rodog, I recommend getting some cheap knives to practice on, just to get the feel and muscle memory for the motions used in sharpening. That way you don't feel bad if you mess up the edge while learning. You just keep going until it develops an edge, then you learn to refine that edge. I get cheap knives at garage sales, thrift stores, inventory overstock outlets, etc. Even old crappy knives will give you something to practice on. If it's more than a few bucks for a butcher knife or around 50 cents for a paring knife, I pass on it.

 

[Last Visible Canary]

For hogging off metal, one option is a belt sander used **very** judiciously with a very light touch. If you have unlimited $$ one of the professional 2x72 inch models gets you a very nice machine. If you are on the lightweight budget program, the little Harbor Freight 1"x30" model runs in the $40 range and can go less with their frequent coupons/sales. Another option is the disc & belt combination machines like this HF model.

The key with using belt sanders is two-fold:
1. Avoid heat build-up at all cost. The aforementioned light touch and a dunking bucket to cool the blade are mandatory.
2. Keep the blade moving. Unless of course you actually want to grind a notch into your edge.

Here is a pic of an Assault Shaker that has seen some fair time on an Edge-Pro thinning the shoulder down to make it a decent slicer. As the camera flash shows, there are a few different angles on the edge. Registering a short, 1/4" thick, not-very-tall, almost-all-belly, highly-wedge-shaped cross-section blade on the EP table proved to be a PITA to me. Okay, I'm done whining now.

Rodog, I recommend getting some cheap knives to practice on, just to get the feel and muscle memory for the motions used in sharpening. That way you don't feel bad if you mess up the edge while learning. You just keep going until it develops an edge, then you learn to refine that edge. I get cheap knives at garage sales, thrift stores, inventory overstock outlets, etc. Even old crappy knives will give you something to practice on. If it's more than a few bucks for a butcher knife or around 50 cents for a paring knife, I pass on it.

I've had mixed experience with the 1x30", it's good for full convexes, but it's really difficult for anything resembling fine work because there so much wobble and play in the belt. They are very cheap, but can be difficult to use. Even though the 4x36" is going to be harder to sharpen on since theres a metal lip on each side of the belt that will life the ricasso (you can make a cut out for sharpening), it's going to be less floppy in use.

This was by far the hardest thing I've ever sharpened with an edgepro, including axes and khukries where I had to balance one end on my knee and my hand was going numb from gripping it so hard. The table's lip has a chamfer thats about 1/8" wide on it from curved blades and me hitting it with the stones on accident, so a not-tall knife like this tends to roll around on it. One of the things I really wish edgepro would make, or that I would get around to making, is a metal lip plate that would screw onto the base. Or plastic, anything replacable so you didn't have to throw away the table once the chamfer gets to big.

 

[richstag]

You could always get a Kalamazoo 1SM, 3M metal grinding belts, leather belts and buffing compounds and have the sharpest Busse you have ever held

 

[rodog]

LVC and RokJok, thank you for the replies. It seems I have some practicing to do and I am off to some thrift stores to look for cheap knives. I see alot of names put out e.g. edgepro, Kalamazoo (Richstag), etc. To the OP, thanks for putting up this post as I am going to tag along and do alot of reading (don't want to dupe questions). Great pics from the trough, keep'em coming!

 

[RokJok]

Another consideration when sharpening your edge is to think about what type of cutting you wish to do.

As a general-purpose edge or for cutting soft materials (meat, tomatoes, soft veggies) or soft food with a crust, which are cut with a draw- or push-stroke slicing action I like a toothy edge. So my last sharpening step is usually a worn diamond-coated chef's steel. That is probably equivalent to a 600 or 800 grit wet-dry sandpaper or waterstone. This leaves microscopic teeth along the edge.

For push cutting hard material (wood fuzz-sticks) or slicing flimsy material (paper, fabric, thin leather) I like a very polished edge. To achieve this I use a 6" Harbor Freight buffer spinning a sewn muslin wheel charged with white rouge to buff off any wire edge or toothiness.

Below is a picture of a Scrapyard Scrapper 5 LE that I ground the hump off, thinned the edge shoulders, and buffed the edge after sharpening with a belt sander and the diamond rod. It doesn't feel particularly sharp in one sense. I can slide my fingertips lightly along the edge and feel no tendency for the edge to grab hold of skin. But it is very, very efficient at shaving armhair off and slicing paper due to the polished edge.

 

[Last Visible Canary]

To give another perspective on edge thickness, cliff stamps comments in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqeApnjxM6I

For him .020" is a heavy chopping edge, and .010-.015" is good for finer cutting, on top of being at a lower initial edge angle than 20 degree's per side. My caveat with any thinness below .020 is simply that you test you edges before relying on them.