- Joined
- Apr 28, 2012
- Messages
- 30
Hello all, first I wanted to thank all of you for your past posts and content. It was a big help to me when I was making purchases recently and I even learned some skills that were new to me (such as using a knife to baton wood in lieu of a hatchet). Maybe someday I'll recreate my attempt to baton a Mora through wrist thick seasoned hickory on video so you can better understand my choice of a user name 
Anyways, I wanted to try and contribute something back to the forum, even though my knowledge is minimal at best. I figured I would offer this post either as informative in its own right, or as a lesson to others in what not to do.
One of the other things I found through this forum was the Kabar Blade Forums offer on the Machax. I had a whole bunch of landscaping chores around the house and while the wife foolishly suggested I use the clippers, saw, or axe I already had for such chores. I explained to her that it was clear that only a Machax was up to the task of pruning back our bushes and trees. Women... you just have to explain everything to them and then they STILL don't get it.
Anyway, I received the Machax and put it to work on a crepe myrtle that needed trimming. The Machax bit into the free-hanging crepe myrtle branches quite nicely; but I couldn't quite master the technique of lopping them off. Usually what happened instead would be the Machax would bite into the wood and then the weight/force of the hit would cause the branch to break off at some point closer to the tree than where I hit. Not that this was a big concern.
I did note two things though. The "sweet spot" of the Machax was great for chopping and the base of the blade near the handle was suprisingly good for carving/whittling. I decided that although the factory edge was good, I could do better with the Wicked Edge sharpener I had picked up a few months earlier. The only problem was I wasn't sure whether I should go with a 20 degree edge for better carving or a 25 degree edge for better chopping? From some reading I had done here, it popped into my head that I had a 9" curved blade, so why not do both? I would sharpen the base to 20 degree and sharpen the remainder to 25 degree. Since I was using the Wicked Edge system, I basically needed to divide the task into 3 sections to minimize the effect of the curvature of the blade and the length of the blade on changing the angle. I decided to sharpen the blade in the following 3 sections (shown by the red lines - alignment gauge included in case anybody else wants to try this):
I started out by first trying to identify what angle was already on the blade by laying the stone up against the edge of the blade and using the inclinometer on my iPhone to measure the angle. The blade still had some crepe myrtle sap on it which helped give me an indicator of the bevel much like a sharpie. Based on my rough estimates, it looks like the edge was around 26 deg on one side and around 24 deg on the other. The measuring process wasn't precise by any means; but it was clear from my later sharpening that the bevel wasn't even on both sides. From a practical standpoint, the only difference it made for me was that it was a pain to get the burr started on one side of the blade compared to the other. I started out using the 600 grit stones since the blade already had a good factory edge; but a coarser stone might have saved me some time.
First I started to sharpen the base section using a 15 degree angle on one side and a 20 degree angle on the other. Then I pulled my head from my posterior and set both sides to the same 20 degree angle before too much damage was done. After this I worked from 600-800-1000-5 micron strop-3.5 micron stop on the base section. When I was satisfied here, I moved on to the "sweet spot" of the Machax (shown here with next alignment)
I moved the angle out to 25 degrees here and begin raising a burr with the 600 grit again. This part was a breeze to sharpen. I made sure to overlap my previous blade section, so that there is actually a small section of compound bevel (25 degree primary with 20 degree secondary). Other than making sure I overlapped, there was nothing real tricky here and I moved on to the tip (alignment shown).
For some reason, the tip gave me a little more trouble. The 25 degree angle was just a tad bit too shallow on one side and a bit too steep on the other to match the existing bevels. I ended up going to 400 grit on the shallow side in order to grind that bevel back to 25 degrees. This took a while because I was reluctant to use a coarser grit out of fear I would screw something up and do damage faster than I could recognize I was screwing up (like my earlier angle error). Again, I made sure there was a slight overlap with my previous work. After some work, I got the tip finished. The Machax in the pics shows the final result (not the work in progress).
Both the 20 degree section and the 25 degree section will shave hair off your arm with no problem and push cut paper easily. Hopefully when given a more traditional task, the idea will work out as well there as it did when I was thinking about it. When I get around to that, I'll let you know how it pans out. In the meantime, thanks for your past help.
Anyways, I wanted to try and contribute something back to the forum, even though my knowledge is minimal at best. I figured I would offer this post either as informative in its own right, or as a lesson to others in what not to do.One of the other things I found through this forum was the Kabar Blade Forums offer on the Machax. I had a whole bunch of landscaping chores around the house and while the wife foolishly suggested I use the clippers, saw, or axe I already had for such chores. I explained to her that it was clear that only a Machax was up to the task of pruning back our bushes and trees. Women... you just have to explain everything to them and then they STILL don't get it.
Anyway, I received the Machax and put it to work on a crepe myrtle that needed trimming. The Machax bit into the free-hanging crepe myrtle branches quite nicely; but I couldn't quite master the technique of lopping them off. Usually what happened instead would be the Machax would bite into the wood and then the weight/force of the hit would cause the branch to break off at some point closer to the tree than where I hit. Not that this was a big concern.I did note two things though. The "sweet spot" of the Machax was great for chopping and the base of the blade near the handle was suprisingly good for carving/whittling. I decided that although the factory edge was good, I could do better with the Wicked Edge sharpener I had picked up a few months earlier. The only problem was I wasn't sure whether I should go with a 20 degree edge for better carving or a 25 degree edge for better chopping? From some reading I had done here, it popped into my head that I had a 9" curved blade, so why not do both? I would sharpen the base to 20 degree and sharpen the remainder to 25 degree. Since I was using the Wicked Edge system, I basically needed to divide the task into 3 sections to minimize the effect of the curvature of the blade and the length of the blade on changing the angle. I decided to sharpen the blade in the following 3 sections (shown by the red lines - alignment gauge included in case anybody else wants to try this):
I started out by first trying to identify what angle was already on the blade by laying the stone up against the edge of the blade and using the inclinometer on my iPhone to measure the angle. The blade still had some crepe myrtle sap on it which helped give me an indicator of the bevel much like a sharpie. Based on my rough estimates, it looks like the edge was around 26 deg on one side and around 24 deg on the other. The measuring process wasn't precise by any means; but it was clear from my later sharpening that the bevel wasn't even on both sides. From a practical standpoint, the only difference it made for me was that it was a pain to get the burr started on one side of the blade compared to the other. I started out using the 600 grit stones since the blade already had a good factory edge; but a coarser stone might have saved me some time.
First I started to sharpen the base section using a 15 degree angle on one side and a 20 degree angle on the other. Then I pulled my head from my posterior and set both sides to the same 20 degree angle before too much damage was done. After this I worked from 600-800-1000-5 micron strop-3.5 micron stop on the base section. When I was satisfied here, I moved on to the "sweet spot" of the Machax (shown here with next alignment)
I moved the angle out to 25 degrees here and begin raising a burr with the 600 grit again. This part was a breeze to sharpen. I made sure to overlap my previous blade section, so that there is actually a small section of compound bevel (25 degree primary with 20 degree secondary). Other than making sure I overlapped, there was nothing real tricky here and I moved on to the tip (alignment shown).
For some reason, the tip gave me a little more trouble. The 25 degree angle was just a tad bit too shallow on one side and a bit too steep on the other to match the existing bevels. I ended up going to 400 grit on the shallow side in order to grind that bevel back to 25 degrees. This took a while because I was reluctant to use a coarser grit out of fear I would screw something up and do damage faster than I could recognize I was screwing up (like my earlier angle error). Again, I made sure there was a slight overlap with my previous work. After some work, I got the tip finished. The Machax in the pics shows the final result (not the work in progress).
Both the 20 degree section and the 25 degree section will shave hair off your arm with no problem and push cut paper easily. Hopefully when given a more traditional task, the idea will work out as well there as it did when I was thinking about it. When I get around to that, I'll let you know how it pans out. In the meantime, thanks for your past help.
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we'll have to see how that works out
