Recurve sharpening

[oldrifleman]

I have a BM 710 and I would like to know how one goes about sharpening this on a bench stone, or are you basically forced to use one of the ceramics? My wife bought me a sharpmaker for my birthday, but as of right now I am far more comfortable using my bench stones. Steven

 

[GarageBoy]

You need the corners of it, or you risk flattening the recurve

 

[Joe Talmadge]

Right, and if the corners of your benchstones have lots of little chips, then you're better off getting something just for your recurves.

 

[oldrifleman]

Thanks that was what I thought. I guess I will have drag out some of my old junk and bet used to the sharpmaker. Steven

 

[HoB]

Well, you can use slip stones, or you can take sandpaper or a lapping plate and radius the edge of you sharpening stones. The Sharpmaker will take a looooong time to reprofile and edge if you don't have the diamond stones.

 

[frugalweaver]

You can wrap 360, 600 and then 1200 grit wet or dry sandpaper around a wood dowel to sharpen the inside curve. Just about any thing will do the convex curve.

 

[louisianacook]

Grind the recurve straight. Did I mention I hate this feature on all of these pocket knives? GRRR....

 

[me2]

You can also take off the thumb studs and use some slack sandpaper or a sanding belt stretched from an anchor point. Just be sure to add a little wrist movement to keep the edge on the paper at 90 degrees to the direction of travel. The thumb studs have to come off to allow a decent edge angle, since the slack paper sags from the pressure. I used this technique on my Kershaw Vapor, but I used a belt sander and a 320 grit belt. Be advised this also produces a convex edge.