Photos ScrapYard War Dog INFI hand regrind

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Dec 23, 2005
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Just finished hand regrinding this older ScrapYard War Dog in INFI steel using wet & dry SiC paper, first on glass then on rubber with WD40 oil as a lubricant.
The old convex edge measured ~40 degrees inclusive at the heel widening to ~50 degrees inclusive at the belly, while the new convex edge measures an even ~30 degrees inclusive from heel to tip.

Blade crosshatched with a red marker, which i find useful to see where exactly i'm removing steel in the beginning.
The apex has been removed by pulling the old edge a few times very lightly over a fine diamond plate.





The almost 6 mm thick INFI blade:



After hand regrinding the blade on 1/2 a sheet of 180 grit SiC to a shallower convex edge (without producing a burr), while regularly checking with the Tormek AngleMaster to make sure that the new apex would fit in the 30 degrees inclusive slot.
Time spent up to this point: 2 hours





After the first refining steep on 1/3 of a sheet of 240 grit SiC, this time creating a small and even burr (only when the grit became increasingly finer due to SiC's friable nature)





Busy refining the scratch pattern and the burr on 1/2 a sheet of 400 grit SiC, but now on a semi-hard rubber backing, again using WD40 as a lubricant.



The burr has been removed on the Tormek leather wheel with 1.0 micron diamond compound to reveal a toothy edge that is reverse chesthair whittling sharp.





Specs:

Overall length: 24,5 cm
Blade length: 12,2 cm
Max blade thickness (ricasso): 5,98 mm
Steel: INFI
Hardness: 58-60 HRC
Handle material: Resiprene-C rubber
Weight: 176 grams
 
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The burr has been removed on the Tormek leather wheel with 1.0 micron diamond compound to reveal a toothy edge that is reverse chesthair whittling sharp.


Good job, but holy moley, is that knife lying on the chest hair you shaved off? You are one hairy, beast of a man! :eek:

:p:D
 
Just finished hand regrinding this older ScrapYard Wardog in INFI steel using wet & dry SiC paper, first on on glass then on rubber with WD40 oil as a lubricant.
The old convex edge measured ~40 degrees inclusive at the heel widening to ~50 degrees inclusive at the belly, while the new convex edge measures an even ~30 degrees inclusive from heel to tip.

Blade crosshatched with a red marker, which i find useful to see where exactly i'm removing steel in the beginning.
The apex has been removed by pulling the old edge a few times very lightly over a fine diamond plate.





The almost 6 mm thick INFI blade:



After hand regrinding the blade on 1/2 a sheet of 180 grit SiC to a shallower convex edge (without producing a burr), while regularly checking with the Tormek AngleMaster to make sure that the new apex would fit in the 30 degrees inclusive slot.
Time spent up to this point: 2 hours





After the first refining steep on 1/3 of a sheet of 240 grit SiC, this time creating a small and even burr (only when the grit became increasingly finer due to SiC's friable nature)





Busy refining the scratch pattern and the burr on 1/2 a sheet of 400 grit SiC, but now on a semi-hard rubber backing, again using WD40 as a lubricant.



The burr has been removed on the Tormek leather wheel with 1.0 micron diamond compound to reveal a toothy edge that is reverse chesthair whittling sharp.





Specs:

Overall length: 24,5 cm
Blade length: 12,2 cm
Max blade thickness (ricasso): 5,98 mm
Steel: INFI
Hardness: 58-60 HRC
Handle material: Resiprene-C rubber
Weight: 176 grams

Very nice, optimal profile for that model <for my uses>.

Question please, thank you: When you were doing your initial grinding on the primary, describe your basic grinding motion, such as: scrubbing back & forth, pushing only <edge leading>, pulling only <edge trailing>, etc.?
 
Nice work, War Dog is an old favorite of mine. Just so we're clear, 15 DPS is still a rather robust edge geometry... especially if it is a larger edge bevel width IMO. Of course, it may fail more acutely on harder items but for all but the roughest work it's just fine.
 
I love the War Dog...such a lightweight powerhouse. I do wonder how awesome a 1/8" thick version would be though...

Probably pretty fantastic...
 
I love the War Dog...such a lightweight powerhouse.

I have wondered what a 1/8" thick version would be like...I bet pretty freaking awesome.
 
: When you were doing your initial grinding on the primary, describe your basic grinding motion, such as: scrubbing back & forth, pushing only <edge leading>, pulling only <edge trailing>, etc.?

Pulling the edge a few times very lightly over a Chinese 3000 grit diamond plate does two things: it removes the possibly weakened metal in the old apex plus it creates a very narrow and continuous light reflection all along the edge.
I use this line as a guide to sneak up upon while sharpening, and in the end make it disappear as evenly as i can.
On the 180 grit wet & dry i use scrubbing back & forth motions until my angle guide tells me that i'm nearing the 30 degrees inclusive mark, and from then on i change into pulling / edge trailing motions until i have reached both sides of the still flattened edge.
 
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Just so we're clear, 15 DPS is still a rather robust edge geometry... especially if it is a larger edge bevel width IMO. Of course, it may fail more acutely on harder items but for all but the roughest work it's just fine.

I agree, 15 degrees inclusive is quite robust, and it's actually the largest inclusive edge angle i use for choppers like these 2 Condors in 1075 steel:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/finetuning-a-couple-of-condors.1662592/#post-19189406

and these Cold Steel kukri machetes in 1055 steel:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/optimizing-3-cold-steel-kukri-machetes.1561064/#post-17968792

and these heavily modified Cold Steel Heavy Duty machetes, also in 1055 steel:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/modding-a-heavy-duty-machete.1564991/

I also found that choppers with larger edge angles than 30 degrees inclusive tend to bounce off of harder wood types much sooner, even when they are sharp, and that 25 degrees inclusive edges can lead to edge rippling when chopping into certain wood grain that makes the blade go in a different direction suddenly mid-cut.
Experienced this on a CS kukri machete in ~56 HRC 1055 steel.

I actually sharpened the bevels on this War Dog to a hair below 30 degrees inclusive, and counted on the micro-convexing effects of my Tormek leather wheel with diamond paste to enlarge the apex to ~30 degrees inclusive.
But this cannot be photographed clearly with a cheap camera.
 
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