- Joined
- Dec 29, 2008
- Messages
- 1,647
Hi guys,
I have had trouble with my spyderco bushcrafter ever since I bought it. I believe it was a "lemon". The grind was not flat at all but rather slightly convex and not evenly angled on both sides. I have been trying different ways to deal with this. I tried sandpaper on flat surface, sandpaper on thick leather, flat grinding on diamond and waterstones, "longitudinal" sharpening with a mini-stone etc. etc. On flats I got frustrated just because it would work but would take forever. Also the edge was somewhat fragile if flat when I started to build my first fire bow. Not sure what the wood was but many knots. So I got roles/dents on different spots, no chips though.
Since I am currently on a "back to simply sharpening" trip and I always think of "how would I maintain this grind and edge outdoors without all the stones and jigs etc., I took my well used coarse DMT diamond stone (I know, not really what you would easily find outdoors in the wild) and started to sharpen the scandi in a very careful rocking motion. For the belly and tip area I only slowly lifted up the handle, I did not stay perpendicular to the edge!
It was quite easy for my dominant right hand but for my left hand not so much. As you can imagine, I got a burr rather quickly and not to my surprise but to my excitement the whole bevel was "touched" by the stone as before there were always spots that remained untouched. I flipped over a few times to make sure all is even, then I took a strop with black compound (in the field that would be my leather belt with some dirt/sand rubbed in) and refined the edge which was now more scandivex. I finished on green compound from handamerican (which would be the other side of my leather belt).
Here are some pictures of the grind/edge. I probably now have a slight scandivex (does not really look like it on those pictures) and I guess a very slight microbevel (picture 3) but I don't mind since regrinding seems to be easy from now on if necessary and this way I hope for bit more edge retention.
Thanks!
P.s. you can also see that slight taper of the proximal end of the handle that I ground in for better thumb comfort with chest lever grip
I have had trouble with my spyderco bushcrafter ever since I bought it. I believe it was a "lemon". The grind was not flat at all but rather slightly convex and not evenly angled on both sides. I have been trying different ways to deal with this. I tried sandpaper on flat surface, sandpaper on thick leather, flat grinding on diamond and waterstones, "longitudinal" sharpening with a mini-stone etc. etc. On flats I got frustrated just because it would work but would take forever. Also the edge was somewhat fragile if flat when I started to build my first fire bow. Not sure what the wood was but many knots. So I got roles/dents on different spots, no chips though.
Since I am currently on a "back to simply sharpening" trip and I always think of "how would I maintain this grind and edge outdoors without all the stones and jigs etc., I took my well used coarse DMT diamond stone (I know, not really what you would easily find outdoors in the wild) and started to sharpen the scandi in a very careful rocking motion. For the belly and tip area I only slowly lifted up the handle, I did not stay perpendicular to the edge!
It was quite easy for my dominant right hand but for my left hand not so much. As you can imagine, I got a burr rather quickly and not to my surprise but to my excitement the whole bevel was "touched" by the stone as before there were always spots that remained untouched. I flipped over a few times to make sure all is even, then I took a strop with black compound (in the field that would be my leather belt with some dirt/sand rubbed in) and refined the edge which was now more scandivex. I finished on green compound from handamerican (which would be the other side of my leather belt).
Here are some pictures of the grind/edge. I probably now have a slight scandivex (does not really look like it on those pictures) and I guess a very slight microbevel (picture 3) but I don't mind since regrinding seems to be easy from now on if necessary and this way I hope for bit more edge retention.
Thanks!
P.s. you can also see that slight taper of the proximal end of the handle that I ground in for better thumb comfort with chest lever grip
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