Recommendation? sharpening a recurve blade

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upstate88

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Dec 18, 2014
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I am looking to improve my sharpening skills and get some better equipment. I have been using a Lansky (the one with the guide rods) for years and it has always been great for hunting and pocket knives. I recently got a Tops Operator 7 (which is awesome by the way), and using this as a good time to get some new sharpening stuff and learn some new skills. The recurve blade presents a challenge, and it looks like I have two options. Option one is get a steel, but all the steels i am seeing are meant for high end kitchen knives, not for a big bowie in 1075. Option two is to use the edge of a wetstone, will this destroy the stone?

FYI I tend not to worry too much about having something shaving sharp, at least not my bigger stuff. If I can get it there great, but not a deal breaker.
 
I've been using the corners of my Sharpmaker for several years. It works great to put a sharp edge on a recurve blade that's not
dull.
 
Just use the lansky. Those stones are narrow enough that the recurve will pose no issue.

Also, steels don't sharpen. They just straighten the edge out. Kitchen knives tend to be a little soft and thin, so the edge rolls. The steel is simply meant to return it to an apex. Not entirely without use on the Tops, but won't actually remove any material.

On a knife that large, in the field, I like a scythe stone for a good working edge. Baryonyxknife.com sells their "Arctic Fox" stone for an extremely reasonable price and would be perfect when combined with a strop. FortyTwoBlades FortyTwoBlades (store owner) is even a member here. :-)
 
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I have a large, round ceramic rod that I have used for years. It's officially called a kitchen steel but it does not have the ridges. Works great. I use it on most of my user knives

Actually just checked it's not called a steel. It's a messermeister ceramic sharpening rod.
 
The standard bonded Lansky stones will work just fine. Only the diamond plates would have any trouble. The corners of the stone will still contact the bevel. That being said, scythe stones are a good option for maintaining recurves. A bit of sandpaper wrapped 'round a dowel works fine, in a pinch, too.
 
>> The Lansky will work. The very small hones will be very slow for any heavy work on a big blade, like reprofiling. But if simple upkeep sharpening is the goal, they'll do fine.

>> A grooved kitchen steel of reputable brand can work at light sharpening, i.e., touching up after daily use. They actually ARE capable of sharpening, i.e., removing metal, as they're hardened to HRC 60+ in reputable brands and work like a metal-working file would at similar hardness. Could also use a ceramic 'steel' to the same ends, as previously mentioned.

>> An oval diamond kitchen 'steel' works very well at heavier metal removal on recurves, even for reprofiling. I've used one for such a purpose.

>> The edge of a SiC or aluminum oxide oilstone (Norton Crystolon, India stones, for example) can be radiused pretty easily by rubbing against a coarse stone (SiC works well), and would work pretty well on a 1075 blade for heavier grinding/shaping. The scythe stones mentioned are essentially shaped for such work on large recurved blades, used with water or oil. An aluminum oxide stone of one of these types would likely be my preference (used with oil) for a 1075 or other simple carbon steel blade.

>> As mentioned, just some wet/dry sandpaper wrapped around a dowel or section of PVC pipe can work also.

The above points are listed in order to show that you do have many options. :)
 
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