Sharpening Recommendations?

M

Mateos

Joined
Dec 2, 2015
Messages
316
Hello Folks,

What is the best way to sharpen a kukri? There may already be a thread on this? I don't have a lot of free time so spending an hour honing each knife on a series of stones is not ideal. I do have a bench grinder but the stock grinder wheel is probably overkill... I hear there might be polishing wheels I can add some buffing compound to that can provide a great edge? Lastly my kukri are all working knives (not fighters specifically) so I'm thinking we want a slightly larger angle on the edge? 30 degrees I hear is good for machetes?

Thanks in advance to the dedicated folks on the forum! With my expanding collection I'm looking for a fast and effective way to keep my kukri super sharp.

Cheers!
Mateos
 
I'll second the Work Sharp, but I jam the handle under a chop saw and use mine without the guides to grind on it like a normal belt sander. The nice thing about a Work Sharp is that you won't remove much metal as you would with a normal belt grinder and it's much, much harder to overheat the blade.

I set mine up like so. Works great.
DSCN0914.jpg


This allows you to follow the existing bevel instead of creating a new secondary bevel. Get some of the high grit belts as well so you won't remove too much metal at once. You won't need the 80 or 220 unless you damage the edge. I don't think you'll want to give a kukri a secondary bevel, especially an HI model. Just sharpen along the existing bevel angle and you should be fine. My WWII model already has a perfectly good bevel as it came. No need to blunt it with a secondary bevel. Unless you're talking about a Becker BK-21 or a Cold Steel kukri that already come with secondaries, and then a 40 degree inclusive convex edge might be a good idea. My Becker machax, a kukri-like object, has a 40 degree edge on it that works great. I also had a 40 degree on the Ontario Spec Plus kukri I used to own.

For hand sharpening, I've had a lot of luck with a phone book and sandpaper. The bevel won't be as pretty as it was new, but it'll be wicked sharp. You can strop on the same phone book with a five inch wide length of leather treated with some Bark River black compound. Works great for me.
 
i use my worksharp to get the initial edge on very dull 'factory edge' stuff. haven't had to use it on a khukuri yet. have used it on a couple of combat axes. i found it best without the guards, and using it for just a few seconds each pass, alternating side, and stopping if the edge got even slightly warm, running under cold water & drying it if i was in a hurry. i do not have room for a (slack belt) linisher, so this is the next best thing. as it's a bit of a pain to get it out of the closet & set it up, i still use a mouse pad/emery cloth setup for touching up knives, axes, and swords. except the japanese one. :)

a round grindstone is a no-no. it produces a hollow (concave) ground edge unless you are very careful. especially the small dia. ones on the std. bench grinders. i saw a video on water powered trip hammers and grindstones in a 'traditional' sword maker's smithy, they used a very large diameter slow moving real stone wheel, and 'rocked' the blade around the long axis by bending their wrists, to avoid a hollow grind.
 
I primarily use a Worksharp with the blade grinding attachment. Don't think I have a pic, but you can look it up. It's not worth it unless you're gonna be doing a lot of reprofiling and/or grinding blanks, but it sure is awesome. I usually start with the finest grit belt, and only lower the grit if it's not hitting the while edge, i.e. if the blade REALLY needs sharpening.
 
Personally, I just use a butcher's steel on most of my blades. I also suggest looking up the video about using sand paper and a phone book on youtube. So long as I maintain the honed edge a few minutes here and there after each use, I don't have to break out my stone set. I just keep them all sharp and since I'm only using one blade at a time, I don't spend a whole lot of my days sharpening. Now, if I could only extend that policy to the gun range so I'm not cleaning 6 guns or more after each trip.

I don't like using electric tools unless I'm shaping bar stock for a knife build. This is my personal opinion, but I think it's too easy to overheat the blade and ruin the temper with electric sharpeners. That, and they seem to take of more material.
 
Yeah, I don't touch my khuks edge with anything powered. I don't trust myself. For me, the ritual of sharpening a khuk is just part of my partnership with the knife (I don't like to consider myself an "owner" of a knife that will outlast me by several generations;)).

Even the dullest edge can be brought to hair popping using a stone, butcher steel, sanding block, and a strop. I might spend 30 minutes to get it right the first time. If I use an ounce of prevention, I might be out 5 minutes touching it up as needed.

I'm just old school. I like to freehand :)
 
Thanks All!

I dont think I will need to be reprofiling any of my edges (not yet at least), but that worksharp does look pretty cool. I think I might try the sandpaper and mouse pad approach. This might take more time than I would like, but at least it would finally provide a purpose for my mouse pad :)

Thanks again for all the links and info, this forum is great.

Mateos
 
I use a lansky puck (meant for axes, I know) for taking dings out, followed by a ceramic and then the chakmak. Get's me to a razors edge when I want it.
 
kronckew said:
i use my worksharp to get the initial edge on very dull 'factory edge' stuff. haven't had to use it on a khukuri yet. have used it on a couple of combat axes. i found it best without the guards, and using it for just a few seconds each pass, alternating side, and stopping if the edge got even slightly warm, running under cold water & drying it if i was in a hurry. i do not have room for a (slack belt) linisher, so this is the next best thing. as it's a bit of a pain to get it out of the closet & set it up, i still use a mouse pad/emery cloth setup for touching up knives, axes, and swords. except the japanese one. :)

a round grindstone is a no-no. it produces a hollow (concave) ground edge unless you are very careful. especially the small dia. ones on the std. bench grinders. i saw a video on water powered trip hammers and grindstones in a 'traditional' sword maker's smithy, they used a very large diameter slow moving real stone wheel, and 'rocked' the blade around the long axis by bending their wrists, to avoid a hollow grind.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I tried using some smallish (maybe 12 inch) wheels when I made my few blades I ran into that problem when I did. Eventually I experimented with the rocking motion, though i never got the hang of it. I ended up with striations of the blade because I wasn't good at it.
 
Mateos said:
Hello Folks,

What is the best way to sharpen a kukri? There may already be a thread on this? I don't have a lot of free time so spending an hour honing each knife on a series of stones is not ideal. I do have a bench grinder but the stock grinder wheel is probably overkill... I hear there might be polishing wheels I can add some buffing compound to that can provide a great edge? Lastly my kukri are all working knives (not fighters specifically) so I'm thinking we want a slightly larger angle on the edge? 30 degrees I hear is good for machetes?

Thanks in advance to the dedicated folks on the forum! With my expanding collection I'm looking for a fast and effective way to keep my kukri super sharp.

Cheers!
Mateos
Click to expand...
Check the Spydeco Sharpener and you can also watch the sharpener demo in youtube. I bought this because of my Khukri (not from HI) that have a dull edges. It only took me 20 minutes to get a razor sharp edges.
I I also bought the lansky but it would not work on Khukri because of the thickness of the spine. As I said the spyderco work on Khukri, the difficulty I have encounter is when passing the curve to the sharpener but it work.
I bought a 14" vintage (very old rusty) khukri and the edges have quite big nik, found out after I remove the rust, I reprofile the edges and use spyderco to sharpen the old khukri back to life. if you like to make your Khukri push cut paper or slice.Use spyderco.
 
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