sharpening - rounding off tips?

E

edb

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Aug 30, 2002
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I've seen several references to rounding off the tips of blades. Many had to do with sharpening on a Sharpmaker, which I use.

Those posts were never of much interest to me, until this AM, when I tried to pierce the top of a coffee cup top (plastic). Yeah, tough thing to pierce ;) , except that I realized that both knives I had in my pockets had rounded-off tips. :eek:

So, having messed up on rounding off tips, how does one go about restoring a "pointy" tip?
 
"..the back.." ?? :confused:


Do you mean inverting the blade while running it across the sharpmaker tri-hones?
 
That would work for Spyderco knives, but I'm not sure Spyderco will sharpen non-Spyderco knives for me... ;)

So, seriously, gents and ladies - any suggestions for getting the points sharp again?
 
Take a marker and outline the tip until what is left looks like a point again, now grind off the required amount of metal to restore the point and then resharpen.

-Cliff
 
Cliff Stamp said:
Take a marker and outline the tip until what is left looks like a point again, now grind off the required amount of metal to restore the point and then resharpen.

-Cliff
Click to expand...

This is interesting because I have one or two with the same problem. (I don't do it anymore. Now I use the flats for the whole blade and the corners for everything but the tip.) Cliff, could you expand on what you say above as I'm not following you. :confused:

oil
 
I regrind tips all the time, usually not from sharpening issues, more from breakage. The first thing I do is take a marker and draw what I want the regound knife to look like as you either have to sweep up the edge more or drop the spine down. Once you have decided on this you just cut all the unnecessary metal off. If you are going to use the Sharpmaker, just take the medium rod and use it like a hand file until you have the tip shaped and then sharpen it as normal.

-Cliff
 
everyone talks about the sharpmaker i have never seen one but i feel there is nothing better than hand sharpening on a ceramic stone i have sharpened by hand for many years and have never seen a sharper knife even when i sharpen for other people they are astonished by the beyond razor sharpness
 
I just stroke the blade so it would ground out on the base of the Sharpmaker before drawing the tip across the sharpening surface. Then I go back and touch up the tip as necessary. If you're drawing your tip across the stick with a big finishing flourish, you will surely round all your tips. I say avoid the problem rather than react to it after it happens.
 
J.D. Smith, my knifemaking teacher, sharpens tip first in order to avoid this very thing. He still uses benchstones, and takes a "slice" off the top, but simply does so from tip to choil.

John Frankl
 
it is simple to not round off tips ypu just need to have control slow even stroks stoping at the tip of the blade and not going past sharpening a knife is not learned over night and takes many years to learn but with pratice comes perfection and a rod style sharpener makes it even eaiser to round a tip
 
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