Shapeners; any suggestions?

LongRifle

LongRifle

Joined
Apr 5, 2000
Messages
2,018
How much money should I invest in a sharpener/hone/strop etc. What pieces are necessary for creating a shaving edge? Any suggestions as to who makes the best? I am willing to spend around $50, if that isn't quite enough then I can probably scrounge up a little more. I really want to put a scary edge on all my khuks. Thanks for all the help. With any luck I will have a few more nicks on my hand within a week.
Matthew
 
I use a ez-lap fold out diamond hone often. DMT also makes these. They are cheap (likely less than 10$) and cut pretty fast on a khukuri. Also, it when produce a shaving sharp edge. The only problem is you will have to do it free hand.

With the remainder of the money you can get a strop, CrO abrasive, and varying grits of sand paper. This will allow you to do the convex edge.

If you shop around you should be able to get all of the above for less than $50.


Will
 
:
Matthew please check out the thread,
"How to keep you khukuri sharp."

http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum65/HTML/000173.html

It will cost you a bit over $50.00, but you don't have to buy everything at once.
The DMT Duofolds are around $27.50 I think and you could get by with the Red/Green one to begin with. The cheapest and best strop is one you make yourself imo.
I found a website located in Idaho I think it was that has some excellent prices on their DMT and other sharpening equipment.
If you would like it drop me an e-mail and I will try to find it for you.


------------------
>>>>---¥vsa---->®

Each person's work is always a portrait of himself.

---- Samuel Butler.

Khukuri FAQ
Himalayan Imports Website
 
The Spyderco TriAngle Sharpmaker is one of the best sharpening products on the market. I can put a pretty scary edge on my khuks with it. Buy one. You won't regret it.

Then follow Yvsa's advice.
 
Yvsa commented:

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">The cheapest and best strop is one you make yourself imo.</font>
Click to expand...

That makes sense to me. I would at the least expect a strop that you make for the purpose of sharpening khukuris to be better at sharpening khukuris than a razor strop would be.
smile.gif


So, I think I will try to make some. Here are some ideas for comment. Maybe some of the more experienced folks can save me some grief if my plans have any obvious flaws.
wink.gif


Not being much of a leather worker, I don't have leather scraps lying around, but I have been looking to see what I can find on the net. The most likely thing I have found so far is at The Leather Factory, https://cart.leatherfactory.com/quikstore.pl ,
where, under "Strips, Straps, Blanks & Buckles" I find plain "tooling leather" straps 3/4" wide by 50" long for $4.49. This ought to be enough for at least 3 strops (and maybe 4) in the sort of narrow width that sounds appropriate for khukuris.

I am sort of planning to glue lengths of this strapping leather to the narrow edge of a 1x2 (which is why I would select the 3/4" width) and then apply a suitable abrasive compound. I would guess that rough side out would be suitable for tripoli or suchlike and smooth side out for fine SiC or CrO.

Another part of the project would be something for the rougher shaping of convex edges, so I am thinking of making what would effectively be a long, narrow, soft-surfaced sanding block out of the same basic plan, but with a means of holding strips of sandpaper in place. Here is what I am thinking of:

View


I'd want to make it short enough to allow a standard sheet of sandpaper to overlap the ends by enough to be held in place by the clamp. Here's another advantage to using a standard width: I can simply rip a piece of 1 by to a thickness where I can easily use a razor knife to slice off pieces of sandpaper to use.
smile.gif
I'd probably make the strips of sandpaper wide enough to cover the entire leather surface and maybe even hang slightly over the sides (unlike what I show in the pic).

These straps are not described in terms of the weight or thickness of the leather, but they appear to be intended for belts, so the thickness ought to be appropriate for that use. Does this seem like a suitable weight and type of leather for strops? (Especially for strops intended for making convex edges?) Any other comments?

Thanks.

Paul

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Paul Neubauer
prn@bsu.edu
A tool is, basically, an object that enables you to take advantage of the laws of physics and mechanics in such a way that you can seriously injure yourself.
 
:
Paul the best leather for strops is 9-10 ounce, an ounce = 1/64 inch.
Don't use the flesh side. I made one that way and it didn't work as well, so I had to pull the leather off and put a new piece on. The smooth or hair side is the best.
If the leather is 3/4" wide then the wood needs to be the same width.

I have a couple here that I really need to get sent off to Dave K and he's been very patient with me. I have bee using the one I put green chrome on as it does the finest job of polishing an edge I have ever seen.
These are about 1 1/8" wide and are the best size for getting into the recurve. The leather omewhat conforms to the shape of the blade anyway.
If you want to make one wih a radius you might do like I did and use a piece of 1" dowel rod. I can't see where it has an advantage though.

I use the buffing compound sticks to load my stops with. I was able to buy a stick of the green chrome at the last gun & knife show.
I have 3 strops. One loaded with Tripoli, another with Jeweler's Rouge and the last with Green Chrome. The Tripoli takes off any burr the hone has left, the jeweler's rouge smoths and somewhat polishes the edge and the G/C poishes the edge to a mirror finish.

The two Puukkos I have with the single edge bevels polished out with this system are the absolute sharpest knives I have ever seen or owned.
smile.gif


Oh. And I cannot for the life of me find that website I thought I had saved from Idaho. It really ticks me off too, because they had some really good prices on a lot of things as well as an excellent selection.
frown.gif



------------------
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;---¥vsa----&gt;®

Each person's work is always a portrait of himself.

---- Samuel Butler.

Khukuri FAQ
Himalayan Imports Website
 
Thanks for the critique, Yvsa. So I'll try for about 1 1/8" rather than 3/4" width if you have found that to be better. And I'll stick to smooth side out, too. I'll try to make up 3 or 4, including at least one to hold sandpaper.

I had, indeed, been thinking of trying the leather around the dowel idea too, but if you say it really doesn't have any advantage, I guess I'll skip it, at least for now. Maybe I'll eventually try it just out of sheer perversity. (And as we all know, we khukuri knuts can be pretty perverse folks.
wink.gif
)

Thanks, Uncle Bill. I figure that if I'm trying to get comments about a plan, I'd better put up something clear enough that folks can see what a hair-brained idea it is.
biggrin.gif


I'll try to report back, eventually, about whether I succeed in putting together something that seems to work for me.

Paul


------------------
Paul Neubauer
prn@bsu.edu
A tool is, basically, an object that enables you to take advantage of the laws of physics and mechanics in such a way that you can seriously injure yourself.
 
Yvsa, I take it that the hair side of a belt is the side everyone sees when you wear it (correct me if I'm wrong). I'm planning to get a thin belt so that I'll have a strop for my khuks. How long should my strop be (I know that it should be about 1 1/8" wide)? If I find a long enough belt, I can make two strops perhaps, one with jewelers' rouge, and the other with green chrome. Since I use a ceramic stick sharpening system, I shouldn't have to worry about burrs.

Bob
 
:
You're correct Bob, the smooth side is the hair side.
I like a thicker leather for strops as it has more give than the thin stuff. And if you could find some good harness leather you would be better off imo, as well as cheaper.
You might try some places that sells tack & harnesses as they usually have some plain straps for repairs and the like.
All of my strops are 9-10 ounce leather. Leather weight equals 1/64" per ounce.
The 1"- 1 1/8" wide is a great compromise. It's wide enough for other knives and narrow enough to fit the recurve of most khukuri's.

PS Something else you might look at would be some of the heavier dog leads. They're usually made of at least 7-8 ounce leather and some for the bigger dogs of 9-10 ounce.
The one I have that I am gonna send to Dave has 13" of leather on it. You can make the length of the handle to your preference. I drilled a hole and put a 3/8" dowell about 1" long at the base of the handle for safety purposes.

------------------
>>>>---¥vsa---->®

Each person's work is always a portrait of himself.

---- Samuel Butler.

Khukuri FAQ
Himalayan Imports Website

[This message has been edited by Yvsa (edited 12-23-2000).]
 
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