Sharpening Systems for Head Knife / Round Knife

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BigRiverLeather

Joined
Feb 15, 2010
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5
I've lurked on and off for a while and thought I would try to find some needed help and / or advice.

I have a few different head knives I work with in my leatherwork. To be frank I'm an amateur at sharpening steel. I picked up some Arkansas stones at a gun show and have been able to use them to put a reasonable edge on a couple of my knives, some newer CS Osborne knives. Newer, as I've learned, means it is a softer steel than the older, higher quality Osbornes. One of them is a damscus blade, or at least a damascus wannabe. I honestly don't know the exact composition of the steel on them.

Anyway, the edge I've been able to get has been ok and makes cutting the leather (usually 8-9 oz, sometimes double thickness) serviceable, but still work. I've seen roundknives sharp enough to slice through leather with no effort whatsoever. This is what I want.

My first plan was to get some DMT diamond stones, probably 600, 1200 and 8000 grit. However, before dropping the money on each of those $80 stones, I began second guessing my abilities, mainly in holding a consistent angle.

Then I stumbled on the ongoing Wicked Edge thread here. That looks like a great system if it will work for a blade that has the round profile of a head knife / round knife. Has anybody used this or any other mechanical system?

I use a sharpmaker for my EDC Kershaw and my kitchen knives, but I don't think I'd want to try that with my round knives.

Part 2 of my question is for another round knife I have that is made from dendritic cobalt. It does not have a beveled edge, rather the edge is ground from back to edge with no bevel. The bolster on the knife sets the correct angle for stropping. But this blade has seriously lost it's edge and has small chips visible. Because of the hardness of the steel the Arkansas stones I have don't touch this. This is what led me on the path of DMT stones, but I don't want to make my $260 blade worse. Finding a mechanical system that can accommodate this type of grind may be a real challenge. Any advise?

I've avoided naming the maker as I do not want his product perceived in a negative manner. I would post a pic but I've got it packed up to ship back to the maker to re-tune the edge. However he wants $20 to do that so I'm hesitating. Here is a pic of a very similar blade to mine, a thing of beauty -

leather_10b.jpg
 
Because of its shape it requires a fairly complex hand movement to sharpen, something I don't see a system easily replicating. My choice would be waterstones, you will likely spend a similar amount on quality stones as you would with the diamonds but they would be better suited to sharpen that style blade than the diamond hones.

Your other blade sounds convex and while it could be sharpened on a stone it takes lots of skill to do so. A more common method would be sandpaper over a mouse pad or leather.
 
Knifenut1013, thank you for your response.

From what I have seen the most common method of sharpening these on stones is to do them in quarters, one 1/4 of one side, then mover down to the other end, then repeat on the other side. That is what got me thinking that something like the Wicked Edge might work proper.

The maker of the second blade does not call it a convex edge, I think he has referred to it as a infinite taper. I might try the convex edge method with it though. Is there a better type of sandpaper to use than others for this? I'd probably start around a 600 and take it up to an 8000 polish. I'm just wondering if there is a specific compound I should be looking for, and maybe a good source.
 
BigRiverLeather said:
Knifenut1013, thank you for your response.

From what I have seen the most common method of sharpening these on stones is to do them in quarters, one 1/4 of one side, then mover down to the other end, then repeat on the other side. That is what got me thinking that something like the Wicked Edge might work proper.

The maker of the second blade does not call it a convex edge, I think he has referred to it as a infinite taper. I might try the convex edge method with it though. Is there a better type of sandpaper to use than others for this? I'd probably start around a 600 and take it up to an 8000 polish. I'm just wondering if there is a specific compound I should be looking for, and maybe a good source.
Click to expand...

Both 3M and Norton make excellent wet/dry sandpaper. The Norton, in particular, can be found at Woodcraft (stores or online) in grits up to 2000. I've been using wet/dry sandpaper up through 2000 grit, and polishing beyond that with Simichrome polish (on either/both of leather or balsa backing). I'd think the sandpaper on leather would work very well for that round knife, in particular, using an edge-trailing stroke.
 
Does your dendritic cobalt knife happen to be a J Cook? If so, I fell for that too, although not for $260. (thankfully) The knife is extremely hard to sharpen and then it did not retain the edge well at all. I finally had another knife maker friend heat treat it again and it improved quite a lot, but is still not a knife (or maker) I would ever recommend. Good luck.

Paul
 
Well I emailed Clay at Wicked Edge and asked him what he thought. He said if I sent it to him he would give it a whirl and see how it works, so I packed up the J Cook and sent it on it's way. I'm thinking it might if it is done 1/4 at a time, or half rather using the WE from both sides.

I'm anxious to see the results! If it does that will make my life much easier.
 
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