Sharpening Devices For Busse Factory Edges

For those of us who use a Sharpmaker to touch up edges ....and I use mine for both convex and V grind .... if you have an Eze Lap model M for field work for sorting out dinks in the blade from hitting stones ..... as it works well as a "steel" and as a basic edge restorer ....and then take a single white rod from the sharp maker to fully restore the edge .... so you have both .... and so you can work at 20 degrees each side which is 40 degrees inclusive as per the original sharp maker with both the Eze Lap and white rod .... I got a pipe cleaner and holding it horizontally flat I placed it up against the white rod fitted in the sharpmaker at 40 deg's and bent it to a right angle about 3 inches away from the base and where the pipe cleaner touched the rod higher up having been bent 90 degrees I trimmed the pipe cleaner off.

Now I just carry that cleaner in my pouch folded with the Eze Lap and white rod ... if I need to do something to sort the knife out and want to make sure I am working at the same angle as the original edge .... I just take out the pipe cleaner and bend it out into a "L" shaped right angle and place the Eze Lap or the white stone along the base and tip to make up a triangle. Then if you wedge them against a couple of split sticks with the upper one tapped into the ground for an anchor in the same "L" shape.... and trim a notch for the lower stick to take the rods when inclined at the correct angle .... you have an improvised sharp maker for field use ....

And it works well because you are not working at the wrong angle where you might be "re-profiling" the blade and taking ages to sort out the edge ....:thumbup:
 
I use a combination of a Gatco Tri-Seps and a Gatco X sharpener in the field. The X sharpener looks gimmicky but to touch up a slightly dulled edge in just a few swipes it is great. If your hands are bloody, cold or otherwise compromised you only have to worry about centering the blade and drawing it through a couple of times. I keep fairly thin edges on my hunting and skinning knives and this has always been enough to keep them going through multiple caribou. The Tri-Seps is used if there is any actual minor edge damage. For anything more than minor damage or for a larger knife or machete I use a small diamond lap. That X sharpener has been carried in the Altoids tin for over a dozen years. It rides in foam padding and I keep an extra set of the gray stones in a spare piece of foam. They have a newer model out that actually has both gray and white ceramic rods mounted at the same time.



DSC00091.JPG
 
The Spyderco ProFile system is nice - you can sharpen recurves and serrations and all sorts of stuff with them. Recommended only for v-grinds.

For convex, use the old sandpaper-on-leather trick. Add some compound to the leather so you can use it as a strop when you're done with the sandpaper. It's a great system and works for any convex edged knife.

For convexed swords, waterstones work best.
 
PeterPHWS said:
For those of us who use a Sharpmaker to touch up edges ....and I use mine for both convex and V grind .... if you have an Eze Lap model M for field work for sorting out dinks in the blade from hitting stones ..... as it works well as a "steel" and as a basic edge restorer ....and then take a single white rod from the sharp maker to fully restore the edge .... so you have both .... and so you can work at 20 degrees each side which is 40 degrees inclusive as per the original sharp maker with both the Eze Lap and white rod .... I got a pipe cleaner and holding it horizontally flat I placed it up against the white rod fitted in the sharpmaker at 40 deg's and bent it to a right angle about 3 inches away from the base and where the pipe cleaner touched the rod higher up having been bent 90 degrees I trimmed the pipe cleaner off.

Now I just carry that cleaner in my pouch folded with the Eze Lap and white rod ... if I need to do something to sort the knife out and want to make sure I am working at the same angle as the original edge .... I just take out the pipe cleaner and bend it out into a "L" shaped right angle and place the Eze Lap or the white stone along the base and tip to make up a triangle. Then if you wedge them against a couple of split sticks with the upper one tapped into the ground for an anchor in the same "L" shape.... and trim a notch for the lower stick to take the rods when inclined at the correct angle .... you have an improvised sharp maker for field use ....

And it works well because you are not working at the wrong angle where you might be "re-profiling" the blade and taking ages to sort out the edge ....:thumbup:
Click to expand...

That's a pretty smart idea, but wouldn't that give you a 30 degree angle on each side?
 
I keep a med. grit folding DMT sharpener in my truck, in my bag, by the bed, in my desk.... If it ain't something you can have with you when you need it it ain't worth a $h1t. :thumbup:
 
PeterPHWS said:
For those of us who use a Sharpmaker to touch up edges ....and I use mine for both convex and V grind .... if you have an Eze Lap model M for field work for sorting out dinks in the blade from hitting stones ..... as it works well as a "steel" and as a basic edge restorer ....and then take a single white rod from the sharp maker to fully restore the edge .... so you have both .... and so you can work at 20 degrees each side which is 40 degrees inclusive as per the original sharp maker with both the Eze Lap and white rod .... I got a pipe cleaner and holding it horizontally flat I placed it up against the white rod fitted in the sharpmaker at 40 deg's and bent it to a right angle about 3 inches away from the base and where the pipe cleaner touched the rod higher up having been bent 90 degrees I trimmed the pipe cleaner off.

Now I just carry that cleaner in my pouch folded with the Eze Lap and white rod ... if I need to do something to sort the knife out and want to make sure I am working at the same angle as the original edge .... I just take out the pipe cleaner and bend it out into a "L" shaped right angle and place the Eze Lap or the white stone along the base and tip to make up a triangle. Then if you wedge them against a couple of split sticks with the upper one tapped into the ground for an anchor in the same "L" shape.... and trim a notch for the lower stick to take the rods when inclined at the correct angle .... you have an improvised sharp maker for field use ....

And it works well because you are not working at the wrong angle where you might be "re-profiling" the blade and taking ages to sort out the edge ....:thumbup:
Click to expand...

That's a pretty slick idea Peter you sure are the thinking man. I'll maybe have too pick up a sharpmaker and give it a go. Thanks, :thumbup:
Doug
 
ThornStrike said:
That's a pretty smart idea, but wouldn't that give you a 30 degree angle on each side?
Click to expand...

The angle of the rod would be the same as that when placed into the sharpmaker slots .... so either 40 deg inclusive which is often otherwise called 20 degrees per side for the main edge recommended angle .... or 30 degrees inclusive otherwise known as 15 degrees per side for the back bevel set of slots ... I actually carry 2 pipe cleaners, one marked with a bit of sticky tape for the more acute back bevel angle .... if my edge is convexed I fix it at 40 degrees and do a few strokes at 30 degrees ( inclusive ) to give as near as possible a convex aspect to the edge .... subsequent stropping will round off the back bevel straight edges giving a complete convex curve .... but you cannot fix a dink in an edge or bad rolls which need steeling with a strop when in the field.

Not unless you want to take a good few hours out of your day .... even using wet and dry high grit paper .... the dink can often tear it .... I know because I have tried ..... many times .... the best way to fix "dinks" is a diamond rod used like a steel such as the Eze Lap to re-align the curved over steel .... then use a hard ceramic stone to bring back the basic edge ... I use the triangular curved setting .... not the flat setting on the Spyderco stones. It works relatively quickly .... say no more than 30 mins or so to sort out the dinks as a field repair ....

It would not however be 30 degrees per side .... that is 60 degrees inclusive and to make that sort of error I would have had to trim the pipe cleaner way off beam .... that is the purpose of the cleaner .... to ensure the rods match the angles when fitted to the larger base. They act as a "constant" reference point to enable the right incline to be set ....

I have used this method a lot over the years .... it really works .... some of the easy ways to deploy it are quite neat .... forinstance ... take a log that you want to chop through for fire wood and have it angled against a tree to do so .... something like this ....

P1010452.jpg


If you have dinked the blade by the tip the edge near the choil will be fine ...
so cut a square notch to place the Eze Lap point down and/or the Spyderco stone with the curved triangle tip uppermost into the log .... the same sort of cut you would do for a Fig 4 trap .... a simple oblong right angle relief cut ....

Then get the pipe cleaner out .... straighten it to 90 degrees and this time using an inveted "L" so the longest section is vertical and the shortest horizontal .... angle the log to the 40 degree setting .... and just sharpen away 10 or so on one side .... then walk around the log and do 10 on the other .... a few touch ups either side etc and the edge is back to normal ... just like using the Spyderco system .... and then your sorted and can keep chopping .... takes me no more than 15 mins if I ding the knife when chopping logs ...

I have edited this to give another tip I often use .... most of my time in the field is often with a bolt action rifle either working in the services or as a simple hunter in my social time .... now if you have a really bad "dink" where using the diamond Eze Lap might actually take away metal off the curved out "dink" before re-aligning it as the Eze Lap is meant more for sharpening than steeling .... but can work as a steel for minor dinks .... take the bolt out of the rifle .... this is hardened steel and if not fluted or otherwise decorated with an engine turned pattern ( I prefer my bolts simple for field rifles although relief is a benefit on Artic rifles for clearance with snow ) it can be used the same way .... just cut a relief for the bolt and set it in the log and you have the perfect "steel" to straighten out the dink .... if large dinks are likely .... you could always carry a sawn off section of a butchers steel and use this the same way ... I have one I carry because the L96 and now the L115 we get issued have fluted bolts for Artic Conditions .... the cut off steel is another bit of weight .... but not much and ultimately protects the edge as best as possible from having a gap in it once the edge is re-aligned ....
 
Last edited:
great thread-awesome tips- thanks // when 'croc stick' is mentioned-which specific model/brand is being refered to?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top