Regrinding/reshaping hard steel, like bg-42

eyeeatingfish

eyeeatingfish

Joined
Dec 9, 2003
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I have A sog recondo in bg-42 and i like the knife, i just dont like the straight edge part of it. It is sharpened on one edge only byt its a larger angle than most knives so it is much harder to sharpen with a v sharpener like the spyderco sharpmake, though i understand to sharpen bg-42 you need daimond type sharpeners, is this correct?

I would like the have the edge reground to a smaller angle, would a a professional knife sharpener be able to do this, or should I look for someone more special. for the $130 or so i think i payed for it years ago id rather not take it to a belt sander... would that even work?

Since the edge is a single grind and is a larger angle cutting things can be weird because the blade, if it bites wrong, will want to angle a certain way, in certain materials it would be hard to just press down straight.

Ive got a belt sander with 300 grit which is fairly smooth but i dont think it would leave a real nice finish on the edge.
 
You can do it by hand on an x-coarse hone, it will just take awhile. On a belt sander with a 80 grit belt it will be a few minutes depending on how much metal you want to remove. The primary grind on that knife is far too low for anything aside from prying, which isn't a useful idea anyway, so I would spend about 10 minutes lowering the primary.

-Cliff
 
I have 80 grit to, but once i got a grind that I liked, what grit would I need to finish it to? Is 300 still to rough?
 
What are the primary uses of the knife? I have left blades at 100 AO for optimal performance, it depends on the tasks.

-Cliff
 
To me cutting is more important than looks. I would go ahead and use the belt sander, but start out working carefully. In fact I would start out experimenting with junk knives. Go to some thrift stores and look for old kitchen knives made in Japan. These tend to be made of rather abrasion resistant steel. They should cost $1 to $3. Just eyeball what looks like a reasonable angle and do some grinding. Mostly work on your technique for getting a uniform (pretty) edge. 80 grit may be a little coarse for you until you get practice. It cuts pretty fast and your work may look sloppy. Until you get the hang of it I would start at 120 grit if your belt is worn or even 220 grit if you have a new belt. 300 grit will leave a nice enough looking finish. Finish the edge with a little work on the Sharpmaker.
 
Uses? Well i took it camping in alaska, so it was a general camping survival knife. Problem with that is that it lacks the weight of a heavier sog, kinda wished I had gotten the seal knife from back in the day instead.

I dont have a specific use in mind so I just want a good general purpose grind.


I work a lot with my belt sander so i think I wil be able to make the knife come out quite all right.
Ill have to post the results.

Cliff stamp, are you the guy who has that website that runs tests on knives? Do you still do knife tests regularly?
 
Sorry, i just realized I was being kind of vague there hehe.
The reason i asked is because I have a knife or two I was thinking of sending to you if you were still active in doing knife reviews.
 
I am with Jeff. I prefer and often times focus on utility over looks. Does it work or not in other words. One of my favorite users looks dawg ugly but it gets the job done.

STR
 
I went out and started to reshape my knife. I started out with a 100-120 grit (I think) and put a new shape on it, then switched to a 200 grit to finish it off. Only problem is that i kept getting a slight edge on one side or the other. Problem with it moving so fast is that it kept putting burs on the opposite side of the blade. I ended up trying to get them as small as i could and then i turned off the machine and just ran the blade up the belt until i couldnt feel any burs. I havent tested it yet, but i was able to get it semi-shaving sharp.

Should I have finished with 300 grit? Would this make a more durable edge or reduce the ur problem?

I did have minor trouble making sure i was getting the same grind angle when i would remove it to look then gind some more, but i think i was able to conpemsate for that. It might not be perfectly flat going to the edge but a slight amount of rounding shouldnt hurt should it?
 
The curvature will just increase the thickness slightly and thus reduce the cutting ability. As long as it is minor it isn't an issue. The edge retention as a function of grit depends on how you are cutting mainly. As you do more push cutting the blade will benefit from a finer polish. Lighten up on the belts significantly when you are sharpening as opposed to just reprofiling.

-Cliff
 
by lighten up on the belts you mean reduce the tension?

Does hacking include push cutting? I dont plan to use it for hacking though as I assume the harder steal might be damaged.

I did realize something though, the serrations have a more conventional angle and it seems they would be used for finer work while the straight edge was made to be more durable. However durable, less usefull i think, and now its reground. Not sure how i will use this knife though. Maybe camping... it really is more of a tactical knife shape, though to big for me to wear on police duty.
 
10-4, I was pressing very lightly at the end. Ill probably go back and hit it with 300 grit to finish.
Thanks

So are you still actively reviewing knives?
 
STR said:
I am with Jeff. I prefer and often times focus on utility over looks. Does it work or not in other words. One of my favorite users looks
dawg ugly but it gets the job done.

STR
Click to expand...
I prefer to have both looks and performance. I do agree learn to get them sharp first then work on making them look good too. I really don’t think it takes much effert to make a rebevel look good. I’ll even go as far as saying I believe that even and smooth bevels will improve cutting performance.
 
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