Ruined Ka-Bar Tanto

E

EpicHam

Joined
Feb 4, 2014
Messages
73
Hello everyone ,

I'm new around the Blade Forum , as a matter of fact, I'm pretty new to the hobby myself .
Never really took the hobby seriously . I knew I liked knives but mostly just had some cheap dollarstore utility knives around.

A few weeks ago , I got myself a REAL KNIFE.
A Ka-bar Tanto.
It was a beauty , but then disaster struck when I chipped a chunk off the blade's tanto edge when I accidentally swiped a bottle as I was learning the Heaven Six maneuver .
I tired repairing it , and grinded it down to the point the dent is gone , but so is the factory edge. Now I can't resharpen it .
I tried free-handing it , first tried it on the cheap stuff , but I just ended up ruining those knives.
Got myself a pullthru style Smith's Adjustable thingy , worked alright with knives that still have a factory bevel but not so well for mine.

I tried poking around town , but none of them sharpen tantos , they only do kitchen knives and other simpler drop point cutlery .
I'm pretty much lost here.
Brand new blade... ruined by a rookie...

Any ideas?

The "belly" and the serrations are fine at least from what I can tell ...
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I can't look .
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Poked around even more and not a single online shop does hollow grind , tried looking at the lansky , nope... still just flat bevel....
Is there no hope in restoring my blade back to mint condition??
 
Well, the knife is not ruined, but you're not going to get it back to mint condition. Long and short is, knives are made to be used, they get dull and need to be resharpened. For Gods sake, throw the pull thru thingymajig in the trash - if it is what I think it is - a carbide pull thru sharpener - they have a bad habit of tearing the steel off the edge. If you are going to own knives, you need to learn how to sharpen them. Slip over to the maintanence forum and read. Alot. Get on you tube and check out what you read up on. Buy a a sharpening system that will help you maintain a consistant bevel - crock sticks, sharpmaker, etc. Move up to freehanding on stones if you want. A dull knife isn't going to do you much good, and learning how to sharpen is a skill that will provide you with alot of satisfaction. You do not need to hollow grind?
 
stevewest said:
Well, the knife is not ruined, but you're not going to get it back to mint condition. Long and short is, knives are made to be used, they get dull and need to be resharpened. For Gods sake, throw the pull thru thingymajig in the trash - if it is what I think it is - a carbide pull thru sharpener - they have a bad habit of tearing the steel off the edge. If you are going to own knives, you need to learn how to sharpen them. Slip over to the maintanence forum and read. Alot. Get on you tube and check out what you read up on. Buy a a sharpening system that will help you maintain a consistant bevel - crock sticks, sharpmaker, etc. Move up to freehanding on stones if you want. A dull knife isn't going to do you much good, and learning how to sharpen is a skill that will provide you with alot of satisfaction. You do not need to hollow grind?
Click to expand...

WELP!
I guess no need to redraw the blade bevel with sharpies to hide the scruffs and scratches then.....
and... yeah... it was a carbide sharpener , but I only used that to level the edge bevel down to the dent base , just used ceramic to the fine blade bevel , it worked for cheap knives using 440 and stuff , but on 1095 . I spent an entire afternoon grinding.
If the knife has a mouth , it'll be laughing.

I thought of getting myself systems like the EdgePro and Lansky at first but with the tanto edge's weird angle not really sure if the guiding rods can go that far up . I get droppoints and clippoints , since its a single edge all the way but with tanto.... not as much.... kinda regret getting a tanto atm . So hard to maintain.(freehand is pretty much a lost art , the only 2 people I knew knew how to freehand is dead-god rest me grans' souls , and there isn't a single knifesmith in 50 miles) .

So..... to a newbie in the hobby , what do you recommend?
(And yeah , I just gave up on the pullthru , it wrecks softer steel knives and leaves all this wiggly edges on them when I wipe the metal filings away from the edge)
 
Tantos are easiest to sharpen.
Using the EdgePro on mine without any issues.
First sharpen the long edge and then the short one, or reverse.
 
Grab the Edge Pro , if you follow many of use down the knife hobby path you will be needing one soon enough anyways. Id grab the EPA1 or EPP1 kits , then add some aftermarket stones such as shaptons or choseras.

I do the Tanto and the main bevel on the EP at the same time fwiw. I actually leave it behind the blade table and mark on the spine of the knife where the knife needs to sit on the table for things to lineup throughout the progression. I should make a video on that sometime.....
 
I have a Work Sharp and it works great at quickly fixing 'ruined' edges. Just make sure to look up some tutorials and Youtube videos so you don't accidentally recurve the blade or round off the tip.
 
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Well... crap.
Right off the bat .
GO EDGE PRO!
GO WORK SHARP!
GO CROC STICKS!
GO SHARPMAKER!

I see the Edge Pro and the Lansky system is quite similar on the rigging but with the major difference being you don't have a clamp for your knife on the Edge Pro but you do have for the lansky.....
Hmmm...... so why is the EdgePro so much more expensive??

As for the WorkSharp , I heard that machine grinders may create too much heat from the friction and ruins the blade's tampering..... but I have to say.... machine controlled precision sharpening .... Hmmm....
 
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