Sharpening serrated blade on the wave?

J

jdailey4206966

Joined
May 28, 2008
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140
Ok, I posted last night about peoples complaints on the 420HC, and I can get it too work great for me. Well, the wave also has a serrated edge blade which will work great for me when it comes to hunting. I am afraid to use it now though for fear of dulling it, but would have loved to use it many of times. Does anybody have any good suggestions on sharpening it in the event it does become dull? I hate knowing I have a blade there I can use, but dont want too because I don't know how to sharpen it if it becomes dull.
 
My recommendation is to buy a Lansky Sharpening System. Especially, the stones for the various 'serrated' edges: Cold Steel, Spyderco, etc. I used this system to sharpen the serrated edge on my Gerber 400 Compact (yes, I do own one!). At the proper angle, working the 'wedge-shaped' stone will soon have your serrations razor-sharp again! The key, is to work slowly and methodically to achieve the proper results. This is the only way, that I know of, for an end-user to accomplish this task. Otherwise, it's back to the factory for the tool, which equals 'down-time' for you without it! Just remember, you have to keep the stone clean from 'slurry' build-up to achieve optimum results. As with all things, it takes practice and patience to become adept at sharpening, but the Lansky-jig system pretty much takes the pain out of it. Hope this helps, good luck!
 
I sharpen the backside of the serrations at a very low angle then hit the front with a small ceramic rod in the serrations. This sharpens up the 420HC to razor sharp in a very short time.
 
For serrated blades I like to use a maintenance system. Instead of sharpening the teeth when it get "dull", I keep the edge polished up on a strop.

I have never had much luck with serrated sharpening systems (I will admit that I have not tried the coveted Spyderco Sharpmaker). My method of a polishing compound loaded strop keeps the edge shaving sharp without having to have a specialty stone. It works on pretty much any knife, and it is very packable.

I will say this, the downside is that over time you will slightly round the teeth of the serrations a bit. This generally does not bother me as they remain razor sharp.

...or you could do what I did to my beloved crunch's blade. Bugger up the serrations, get pi$$ed, and take it to a grinder and make it into a plain edge. Not exactly perfectly straight anymore, but razor sharp.:p:thumbup:
 
SOLEIL said:
I sharpen the backside of the serrations at a very low angle then hit the front with a small ceramic rod in the serrations. This sharpens up the 420HC to razor sharp in a very short time.
Click to expand...

Where can I get a ceramic rod? How much are they? I once heard of a guy who used a 3/32 welding rod and said it worked great, but not sure about it.
 
Two words: Just get a damn Spyderco Sharpmaker.

Ok, so that's six words. Sue me. :p
 
What really knocks me for a loop on the (new) Wave's serrated blade is that the edge bevel is pretty darn thick and somewhat obtuse. This pretty much demands you stick to the factory bevel in order to get it sharp again, unless one wants to do some serious grinding on the blade. And I find sticking to factory bevels a bit difficult to do freehand. The quick and dirty way to do this would be freehand using a small diamond rod. I usually use a EZE-Lap. This alone will get you a toothy working edge.

I have given some thought to making a strop-like leather pad for such serrated blades, using Tripoli as an abrasive rather than the typical much finer medium. The Wave has fairly shallow serrations and a compliant strop should be able to get all the scallops. Then do the back side flat against the strop. The idea here is to maintain the edge more than regrind one, the way one might normally do on a knife, creating a burr and such. Actual edge damage would still need to be ground out. But edge maintenance shouldn't bee too difficult.
 
i touched up the serrated blade on a new wave yesterday for a friend. it wasnt bad but the edge had a good shine to it along the factory edge which meant it was dull. when i was done you couldnt see anything other than the polished metal from the paper wheel. my friend was amazed at how sharp it was compared to before.
a little trick i use to tell if a knife needs to be sharpened. i look straight down on the edge to see if any spots shine from the edge being rolled over. it also tells me how dull a knife is without even feeling it.
 
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