Sharpening-----New Tools

I like the idea of the sheath made from honing leather so a strop is easily available.

HandAmerican says that their leather has been specially compressed, and also offer a compressed/treated version.

Would this make these leathers unsuitable for molded sheath construction? Would the desirable properties they have imparted to the leather be lost in the molding process?

Maybe a belt made of the stuff is the way to go?
 
Originally posted by firkin
I like the idea of the sheath made from honing leather so a strop is easily available.

HandAmerican says that their leather has been specially compressed, and also offer a compressed/treated version.

Would this make these leathers unsuitable for molded sheath construction? Would the desirable properties they have imparted to the leather be lost in the molding process?

Maybe a belt made of the stuff is the way to go?
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1st question..... Yes.

2nd question....... If that's what you want.

Firkin any decent heavy leather, vegetable tanned, so suitable for tooling and/or taking the grit from a polishing compound, would be suitable for making a strop.
There's no need of any compresssing or such.
The problem with a scabbard of belt made into a strop is that the cutting or polishing compound you put on it is subject to getting all over anything next to it as well as picking up undesirable grit from the terrain.
Just wear a decent 10 to 12 ounce leather belt without any compound and simply strop on it. It won't do the job a real strop will, but will be suitable for removing a burr edge on any knife.
Lots of old timers used to use the smooth underside of their leather soles on their shoes next to the heel where the leather was basically clean to strop thier knives.
If you happened to be wearing boots so much the better because then the surface was rounded.
As has already been mentioned, "Dragging a freshly honed edge over a piece of hard wood will remove the final burr edge on a knife." there's no sense in trying to reinvent the wheel. Use what's available in nature.
 
Thanks, Yvsa!

Sounds like this leather compressing is mostly a "marketing advance"? I've seen it mentioned by several strop manufacturers. Or using the wide variety of non-veg-tanned leather of varying quality as a strawman when they should be comparing to quality veg-tanned leather?

Contrary to possible appearances, I'm not trying to re-invent the wheel, just sometimes having trouble figuring out whether I'm seeing the original wheel in a slightly different form or something else not worth messing with...

Sometimes it's hard to tell when something's worth buying because it's the best by a noticable margin, or if it's just carrying a bigger price tag because of a nice story! That's when other's experience is valuable.
 
Here's an old tool and cutter grinder trick for removing a wire edge. Use an old copper penny. Not one of the newer ones, it should be pure copper. We use 'em on high speed steel tools to remove wire edges after finish grinding. Brass brushes will work too but I prefer using a penny, seems to work better.
Nowadays all I grind is solid carbide so the pennys just come out for my knives instead of endmills. But I do have access to all the carbide bar stock I want for sharpening rods ;)
 
Originally posted by Cole
Use an old copper penny... But I do have access to all the carbide bar stock I want for sharpening rods ;)
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Great advice. Thanks!
Email Sent.
 
hmmmm....

How 'bout "steeling" with a brass rod instead of using the penny? Is the generic brass rod from the corner hardware store likely to have enough of a greater hardness so that it wouldn't work as well as the penny?

I like to keep my fingers farther away than a penny allows!:)
 
..because a penny saved is a penny earned, and fingers like to remain on the hands which brought them.

munk
 
Well, I've been making sharp tools with multiple cutting edges for about eight years now and I haven't been cut yet using a penny that way. Been cut lots of other ways but not that way. But I can understand your reluctance and I suppose you shouldn't do something if it makes you uncomfortable. Brass will probably work fine if it's a softer alloy. Like I said above, a brass brush works too. I just wanted to pass on the penny method as a bit of obscure trivia from an obscure trade, so take it for what it's worth:p
 
"Well, I've been making sharp tools with multiple cutting edges for about eight years now and I haven't been cut yet using a penny that way. Been cut lots of other ways but not that way. But I can understand your reluctance and I suppose you shouldn't do something if it makes you uncomfortable. Brass will probably work fine if it's a softer alloy. Like I said above, a brass brush works too. I just wanted to pass on the penny method as a bit of obscure trivia from an obscure trade, so take it for what it's worth"

Hey, it's the idea that's important--not the exact implimentation! And thanks! I know the many alloys of brass available comlicates things as opposed to the unique element copper. Since I know little of such things I thought I'd ask.

Those of us who don't work with sharp tools for eight hours a day need a little extra margin for our ineptitude...I've spent many years working with substances that ignite spontaneously upon exposure to air and I wouldn't be the least bit upset if someone told be that it made them uncomfortable to do the same--I thought of brass rod because it's eay to obtain and seems stiff enough to stand up to repeated use. I have trouble thinking of a ready source of a long thick chunk of copper. I must admit I envy your ready access to carbide!
 
Originally posted by firkin ....[BI have trouble thinking of a ready source of a long thick chunk of copper[/B]
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Is copper plumbing pipe too alloyed, too hard?
I guess so.
Come to think of it, how about the thinner copper (about 1/4" OD) line used for ice-maker, and similar connections. That copper line is pretty soft.
If it needs to be longer than 6" or so, a metal rod inside would keep it from bending.
What about copper wire (low gauge #), or even multi-strand cable.
 
ddean:

The smaller copper tubing with a tight fitting rod inserted is an interesting idea. I haven't seen an old "pure" copper penny for so long, I can't remember if they're as soft as the small tubing.

The more I play with the chakmas, it seems that on some, the edge is harder than the sides...maybe the ideal chakma has a hard edge to move metal and allign the knife edge, and soft sides to remove wire edges and polish the knife edge?

"two,two tools in one", as it were?
 
Originally posted by firkin ....I haven't seen an old "pure" copper penny for so long
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I was unaware that copper pennies were no longer pure/purer copper.
Could someone tell us what year the changeover occured?
 
I was unaware that copper pennies were no longer pure/purer copper.
Could someone tell us what year the changeover occured? [/QUOTE]


1982.

I do remember the guy I apprenticed under telling me to use pre 1970 coins because they had less zinc in them. Don't know if it's true but that was his claim. Now they are about 98% zinc with only a copper coating.
 
Thanks, Cole


I now vaguely remember that some time back then, the government was concerned about people melting down pennies for scrap because there was more than one-cents worth of copper in 'em.
 
THat is correct. there is only a thin plating of copper on a whole-zinc penny. I know, 'cause my 18" AK cuts right thru 'em. The zinc gets a hi-polish when cut edge on.

Keith
 
Originally posted by Sylvrfalcn
Check out the steels and burnishers at www.handamerican.com. Their burnishers are nothing more than a smooth steel rod hardened to between 62-65 RC. Wonder what they'd think of a chakma? An idea I might borrow from them is a tubular leather sheath that encircles the burnisher. When you get done touching up the edge with the burnisher, you slip it in it's leather case and use the thing as a strop. Just the ticket for the curved edge of a khukri!

Sarge
Click to expand...

Just spoke with Keith at Hand America.
Very friendly and helpful on the phone with excellent suggestions for working on Khuks (didn't know he was mentioned in the HI Forum)
I asked him for a recomendation for a large khuk and Keth suggested his 17" steel, the bigger the better.

He also offers a 10% discount for people who find him through the Blade Forum, just ask in the "special instructions" area of the order page.

Will let you know when I receive my steel.
 
Hate to steer this back to frying pans, but...

It always bothered me that you're not allowed to use teflon (and its various cousins) if you have tropical birds for pets. Kinda sounds like the canary in the coalmine to me:D I realize we are not birds, but you've got to wonder that if it kills birds quickly, what does it do to us over time?

We switched to all stainless, but we have one griddle that we use about twice a month for big breakfasts (which incidentally will kill us quicker than teflon;):D).
 
MauiR.

"
It always bothered me that you're not allowed to use teflon (and its various cousins) if you have tropical birds for pets."

Whaaat??? :confused:

Only "tropical birds"? Not a particular family,genus??

If you don't feed them food prepared in the pans, and they don't nibble at the pans, how does it hurt them?? Teflon is kinda to freon what wax is to butane... is freon leaking from an old fridge bad for them too? seems easier to get a big dose from the gas/volatile liquid than a solid stuck to a pan.

doesn't make much sense to me unless it refers specifically to parrots that like to munch all kinds of stuff up with their beaks--if swallowed they might get fatally constipated I guess...why would teflon be worse than other very thin plastics??

firkin@verypuzzeled.huh?
 
Firkin,

I'm not sure of exact Genus,species designations, but I had heard that teflon coated pans give off some kind of fumes that kill/harm tropical birds--I'm assuming parrots and their close kin. IIRC my biology professor who owned a amazon parrot species said the same thing. but who knows? could be one of those urban myths.
 
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