Jerry, Thanks for an incredible product. I picked up a nice Police Recruit to start off the collection, Battle Mistress next, then SH, then .... Knowing and appreciating the toughness but wanting to do things correctly, just wanted to know any tips on proper care to prevent corrosion, and more importantly ( since the PR seems it lost it's factory razor sharpness ) the proper way to sharpen, or does it go back to you to get a proper factory edge? Any feedback would be appreciated. Keep up the great work, Rand
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Proper Care and Sharpening???
- Thread starter evolhd
- Start date
Cliff Stamp
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 5, 1998
- Messages
- 17,562
INFI is not overly prone to corrosion in the first place and with any decent amount of effort you can avoid rust altogether. At a minimum just clean the blade and dry it when you can. For long term use in a corrosive enviroment you can use oil or a protectant like Sentry Systems Marine Tuf-Cloth.
As for sharpening, first try steeling and then stropping. Neither of these remove much metal but instead try to align the edge back to its proper shape. The next step if neither of these work is to use a light metal removal hone like a ceramic or fine diamond rod. Lightly stroke it along the edge of the flat side a few times and see how that works. You might want to strop it a bit after this for optimal performance.
If even this doesn't help you need to actually hone the blade. To sharpen the flat side just use a normal flat benchstone. For the convex side you want something with some give to match the rounded bevel. A piece of styrofoam or thick leather covered with fine SiC sandpaper with do this easily. Once you finish again go to the strop for optimal performance.
It takes awhile to get to the stage where you need to actually use a banchstone, roughly it was about 1000 or so 2x4 on my INFI BM. The edge was still aligning push shaving sharp but the carbides had rounded and it was not slicing as well as I would like. I would be curious to know how much wood you would need to cut to get to the state where you could not realign the edge. I might try to determine this the summer.
Note if your blade does not have the convex/flat edge but instead a regular v-grind just do the flat part sharpening on both sides.
-Cliff
As for sharpening, first try steeling and then stropping. Neither of these remove much metal but instead try to align the edge back to its proper shape. The next step if neither of these work is to use a light metal removal hone like a ceramic or fine diamond rod. Lightly stroke it along the edge of the flat side a few times and see how that works. You might want to strop it a bit after this for optimal performance.
If even this doesn't help you need to actually hone the blade. To sharpen the flat side just use a normal flat benchstone. For the convex side you want something with some give to match the rounded bevel. A piece of styrofoam or thick leather covered with fine SiC sandpaper with do this easily. Once you finish again go to the strop for optimal performance.
It takes awhile to get to the stage where you need to actually use a banchstone, roughly it was about 1000 or so 2x4 on my INFI BM. The edge was still aligning push shaving sharp but the carbides had rounded and it was not slicing as well as I would like. I would be curious to know how much wood you would need to cut to get to the state where you could not realign the edge. I might try to determine this the summer.
Note if your blade does not have the convex/flat edge but instead a regular v-grind just do the flat part sharpening on both sides.
-Cliff
Cliff, thanks for the wealth of knowledge. I am using Tuff Cloth for the metal treatment, but am new to the sharpening end and guess I need Sharpening 101. I don't want to screw things up. I'm not familiar with the terms or the tools. Need enlightening. Thanks, Rand
Cliff Stamp
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 5, 1998
- Messages
- 17,562
To start off with steeling is just straightening out the the edge. You can buy two type of steels, smooth and grooved. Smooth steels will not remove metal and will just align (straighten out) an edge. A grooved or butchers steel is like a fine round file, it will align an edge faster than a smooth steel but can remove metal.
They are the easiest method of sharpening as all you do is stroke them down the edge pulling away from it. The angle is not overly critical, you just need to be slightly above the angle that it is sharpened at. The more consistent you are the faster and untimately keener your edge will be. However I have found that even if done sloppy I get an improvement. Razor's edge actually sells a smooth steel with an angle guide.
Concerning INFI and butchers steels. I was a bit hesitant to use a butchers steel on my Battle Mistress because I thought it would tear up the edge. However it doesn't do that at all. I would guess that INFI is too wear resistant. A butchers steel actually works well. I usually use a smooth steel though simply because mine is a folding model and is easier to carry.
Ok on to stropping. A strop is just a piece of leather loaded with an abrasive. The finest strops are loaded with very mild compounds (or nothing at all) but these are for aligning only and work best on very soft razors. For todays blade steels you want a decent honing compound which are very common in hardware stores. They are in bar format and you just rub it on the strop.
You use the strop sort of like a hone. You stroke away from the edge and pick the blade up at the end of the stroke and turn it over and pull back the other way. If you just flip it over you will most likely damage the edge.
That is just a short guide, there is a huge amount of information on the web that covers these subjects in detail. A good place to start would be Joe Talmadges Sharpening FAQ :
http://www.bladeforums.com/features/faqsharp.html
The best way to learn is by doing and of course if you get stuck and can't seem to make any progress make a post.
-Cliff
[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 02-23-2000).]
They are the easiest method of sharpening as all you do is stroke them down the edge pulling away from it. The angle is not overly critical, you just need to be slightly above the angle that it is sharpened at. The more consistent you are the faster and untimately keener your edge will be. However I have found that even if done sloppy I get an improvement. Razor's edge actually sells a smooth steel with an angle guide.
Concerning INFI and butchers steels. I was a bit hesitant to use a butchers steel on my Battle Mistress because I thought it would tear up the edge. However it doesn't do that at all. I would guess that INFI is too wear resistant. A butchers steel actually works well. I usually use a smooth steel though simply because mine is a folding model and is easier to carry.
Ok on to stropping. A strop is just a piece of leather loaded with an abrasive. The finest strops are loaded with very mild compounds (or nothing at all) but these are for aligning only and work best on very soft razors. For todays blade steels you want a decent honing compound which are very common in hardware stores. They are in bar format and you just rub it on the strop.
You use the strop sort of like a hone. You stroke away from the edge and pick the blade up at the end of the stroke and turn it over and pull back the other way. If you just flip it over you will most likely damage the edge.
That is just a short guide, there is a huge amount of information on the web that covers these subjects in detail. A good place to start would be Joe Talmadges Sharpening FAQ :
http://www.bladeforums.com/features/faqsharp.html
The best way to learn is by doing and of course if you get stuck and can't seem to make any progress make a post.
-Cliff
[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 02-23-2000).]