Sharpening a Fallkniven S1

B

boxpipe

Joined
Mar 6, 2008
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Hi Folks, I mentioned this in another thread but it still concerns me.

I ordered a Fallkniven S1 yesterday and it has a convex edge. I'm worried about the best sharpening technique for it. The systems I've researched all seem to work on flat bevels, or perhaps they put a flat bevel on whether you want one or not? I sent an email to the distributor and they said the only thing I can use is a leather strop.

Please help.
 
If you want, you can sharpen any convex edge just like you would a standard v-grind. You'll lose the convex grind over time, but it will work.

I have alot of convex-grind Bark Rivers (I want a Falknivven too!). Here's what I use. This is an old pic. I don;t use mousepads anymore. All my sandpaper "strops" are sutup like the 2000 grit strop - one grit on one side, another on the other. I have 320 and 600, 800 and 1000, and 1500 and 2000. In the last year or so, I have reached a point where I like convex sharpening better than anything else. There is less adherence to a certain angle. It's more relaxing because there's a tad less concentration involved. I don;t know if that can be misinterpreted, but convex-ground edges are just a little less demanding, I think.

ConvexSharpeningKit-01.jpg
 
If you choose to make a setup with wet/dry paper, I think you'll find, even after the roughest use (or abuse) of your Falknivven, you'll rarely need to go below 1500 grit, and I do mean rarely. In fact, most of the time with my knives, even after some heavy whittling includding chopping on mesquite, all that's required are some very light strokes on 2000 and then the CrO2 strop.
 
I used to put a convex edge on my Schrade Peanut and Benchmade TSEK by just clamping a piece of wet/dry sandpaper to a table and stretching it tight. I went to 220 or 320, then finished off with some very light alternating strokes on the finest stone I could find, usually a Fine Norton India. For the BRKT knives, this may not work, as the convex bevel extends quite a way up the blade, from the pics I've seen. This technique worked for a convex edge on a flat ground blade, in the case of the TSEK, or for a full convex on a narrow blade, like the Peanut. For the Schrade, I went to 1500 grit followed by stropping on the same length and width leather as the sandpaper, typically 1" wide. This was the first hair whittling edge I was able to get. Longer paper strips, like 1x30 belts cut into 15" pieces, or pulling the strip tighter will give you a shallower bevel without laying the blade flat on the paper. Using some 320, I also beveled the edge of my Kershaw Random Task to allow sharpening on the Spyderco Sharpmaker 20 degree/side slots.
 
Thanks for the advice, guys. I really appreciate it.

Stretch, pardon my noobness, but what is the green butter thing?
 
Oh crap... I just bought a few pieces of sandpaper and the finest they had was like 600... I am afraid that if grit numbers run the same in USA than in Spain... I will probably need to get finer gris somewhere else. Any ideas?

BTW I didn't have a suitable mousepad at home... but I found a pice of high density foam I had lying arround for makeshift shin pads (my Vasque winter climbing boots hurt me there). So my questin is... is that foam too stiff for backing the sandpaper? Will it be soft enough to shape the edge (I can tell you the blade weight is not enough to bend it)? Do you think I could use some 5mm thick neoprene instead?

Mikel
 
Lay you blade on the foam you have and press down to indent the foam. Now pull the blade (edge trailing) along the foam and watch how the foam curves around the blade edge. If you can easily maintain the pressure required to form the curve that suits you, then your foam is fine.
 
Finer grit sandpaper (wet/dry, of course) can often be found at auto-shops, or at least the automotive section of a hardware (or even a general, if you have an equivalent to Walmart) store.
 
Thanks guys... Yesterday I found and old beaten solingen spear point stag handled knife I bought cheap on ebay (it is sooooo beaten up...). Telling by the shape of the sheath I am afraid it wasn't even spear pointed... someone took it to a grinder and butchered it badly.

I sharpened it using the sandpaper-mousepad/foam setup going from 320 to 500 grits and it looks as polished as the (still) factory edge on my F1. It is quite sharp and doesn't catch on paper at all (doesn't shave though). A closer inspection revealed that I should have going through the coarsest grits a little bit longer... I may try again today.

I wanted to touch up the edge on my F1 badly (doesn't shave now and has a little dent) but I won't do it untill y have improved my sharpening-fu a little bit more....

Still looking for a suitable piece of leather for stropping (found some green and red polishing compound on local cutlery stores... they sell them for razors...).

Mikel
 
Mikel,
That green butter thing is 9oz leather glued to a wooden board and "buttered" with green chromium oxide. That's my strop.

That Bark River link that Rifon2 provided is a good one for starting out with convex.

I have found that I like a more firm substrate than mousepads. So now all my sandpaper is backed by leather glued to wood or MDF. I sharpen all the way up to 2000 grit, then strop.
 
I keep on thinking about a suitable backing for the sandpaper... I found an old mousepad in the office and took it home. I placed it soft (neoprene/rubber like) side up, put some sandpaper over it and clamped it down with some clips. It is definitely softer than the other foam I used in the morning but it is thinner as well (2mm thick against 7-8mm of the foam).

StretchNM, I thought that the foam could be too stiff but you are just telling me that you use leather as a backing for sandpaper. Leather is definitely stiffer than the foam... does it convex at all? I bet it is more like a flat / sligtly convex edge... Looking the edge of my F1 it doesn't look too much of a convex either! I know it is just by the way the light shines on it but almost can't tell by eye.

I think that my foam is going to do a good job after all...

Now let's go with the strops. At the cutlery store they told me to go check a good old store where they crafted stuff with leather... I might find something there. The bad news is that they closed it not long ago. I have a few leather belts lying arround at home and I know for sure that one of them is pretty old (I could just "borrow" it and none will notice :D :D). How thick and wide it should be? I am good to go just glueing a length of it to a hard backing like a piece of plywood? Do I have to season it in anyway or just rub the compund with a toothbrush of choice while heating it with a hairdryer?

Keep the info comming... in the meantime I will check THIS thread and go look for finer grit sandpaper.

Thanks a lot for all the info,
Mikel
 
A relevant aside. I've been using 3 sided nail emery blocks from the drug store for about a year now. Great for field maintenance. S1 is the best Wilderness survival Fallkniven IMHO
 
Here are two links for creating a convex edge:

Convex Grind F.A.Q.

The Convex Edge

Here are pictures and measurements of Hand American's stropping system.

"Conditioning" the leather is a matter of personal preference. I think it's pointless for most strops glued to a stiff backing. One exception is my 3"x10" "green" strop glued to a wood block. I use chromium oxide powder mixed with leather conditioner to simplify the spreading of the CO. Works very well. In the kitchen I use a plain 2'x3" hanging strop which I condition to keep supple.
 
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