I have been noticing that I have a couple knives with blunt tips. I free hand sharpen, so I was wondering a good way to get the tip back on them. My mini grip and my small sebenza are the two knives that have blunt tips. Nothing major but I want them to be nice and pointy again. Thanks for the help.
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Sharpening the tips of my knives
- Thread starter Kousii2
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If you don't mind investing in some instructional videos, Murray Carter's basic sharpening DVD has a good section on sharpening and reprofiling tips.
There are a couple of ways to make the tip sharp again depending upon how blunt they are. A quick and dirty way is to grind the spine *right* at the tip. For just a little bit of bluntness, that will bring it back. It *will* change the geometry of the point though. Eventually this will point the tip more forward (towards the cutting edge) as opposed to straight up and down.
You can also simply grind away the rounded part of the edge right at the tip. If you look at the tip with a loupe, you'll see that it's either round or flat at the tip. Grinding at this spot will eventually remove enough material to form a sharp point again. You'll need to do this on both sides (unless it's chisel ground). Check with a loupe often to see how you are progressing. Without pictures or video this might be hard to visualize, but it works surprisingly well.
When you are freehanding this, pay close attention to what part of the edge is touching the stone. I find that I have to bring the handle of the knife up way higher than I thought was correct. What you want to see is a small portion of the edge, from the point back, touching the stone. Before I figured this out, I was not going high enough with my sharpening strokes to hit all the way to the tip, resulting in a blunt point. After concentrating on just the tip for a while, you'll probably want to do some "blending strokes" on the rest of the front of the blade so you don't end up with a secondary facet cut into just the point.
I'm probably over explaining. Go slowly at first and observe what you are grinding. Use a sharpie to color just the first 1/4" to 1/2" of the tip and you'll really see where you are grinding. Best of luck to you.
Brian.
You can also simply grind away the rounded part of the edge right at the tip. If you look at the tip with a loupe, you'll see that it's either round or flat at the tip. Grinding at this spot will eventually remove enough material to form a sharp point again. You'll need to do this on both sides (unless it's chisel ground). Check with a loupe often to see how you are progressing. Without pictures or video this might be hard to visualize, but it works surprisingly well.
When you are freehanding this, pay close attention to what part of the edge is touching the stone. I find that I have to bring the handle of the knife up way higher than I thought was correct. What you want to see is a small portion of the edge, from the point back, touching the stone. Before I figured this out, I was not going high enough with my sharpening strokes to hit all the way to the tip, resulting in a blunt point. After concentrating on just the tip for a while, you'll probably want to do some "blending strokes" on the rest of the front of the blade so you don't end up with a secondary facet cut into just the point.
I'm probably over explaining. Go slowly at first and observe what you are grinding. Use a sharpie to color just the first 1/4" to 1/2" of the tip and you'll really see where you are grinding. Best of luck to you.
Brian.
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2009
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Might be worth posting a pic or two, at close focus if possible, to give an idea as to how blunt the tips are. Suggestions for fixing it may vary from relatively simple to more complicated, depending how much repair is needed. That could make a big difference in time & frustration, at least for the Sebenza's blade (S30V?). Heavy repair on high-wear steels is going to take a while, most likely, if it's all done by hand on stones.
David
David
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On users, SIC stone and grind the spine down, maybe grab a few grits of sandpaper and try to blend the work, takes very little time.
Mini grip can handle some upsweep at the tip IMO and you can sharpen like normal, but at 45 degrees per side from the tip to as far back as you like and then reprofile back to your normal angles.
My opinion is that if you've blunted your tips they're user knives and my thoughts are why not just lower the spine a bit, blend the work if it makes you feel better about the aesthetics.
Mini grip can handle some upsweep at the tip IMO and you can sharpen like normal, but at 45 degrees per side from the tip to as far back as you like and then reprofile back to your normal angles.
My opinion is that if you've blunted your tips they're user knives and my thoughts are why not just lower the spine a bit, blend the work if it makes you feel better about the aesthetics.
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2009
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That actually doesn't look too bad; I'm assuming that's the Sebenza? It looks like most or all could be done by grinding down the spine near the tip. I've used a small pocket diamond hone in this way, on some of my knives. On that Sebenza's blade, it's convenient that the forward end of the blade's spine is essentially dead-straight, from the very slight 'drop' at about 1" to 1-1/4" from the tip, all the way to the tip itself (I'm comparing to the small Seb I have). Easier to lay a hone flush to the spine in that forward section, and 'file' toward the tip. Go in that one direction only, so as to avoid blunting the tip if the angle varies while moving in the other direction. A diamond hone in Fine or EF is probably what I'd use, ideally (assuming S30V). The spines on Sebenzas are somewhat radiused (not flat/square), which means some filing with a diamond hone will flatten that a bit. So, the cosmetic damage in filing it down would be somewhat minimized using a finer hone, though it'll take a little longer.
David
David
Last edited:
I'd like to have a loupe view to be more certain, but it looks to me like the grind gets progressively wider (but only by a bit) as you approach the tip. With that in mind, I'd be inclined to grind from the edge, removing a tiny bit of edge width in the process, and making that tip nice and pointy again. I think I'd either use a DMT EF, or (more likely) a 1000 grit waterstone.
Based on previous experience, I'm pretty sure I could do that in 10 or 15 minutes and get it needle sharp. In other words, yes I can see that it's slightly rounded, but it's very minor compared to other tips I've redone. So it shouldn't be too bad which ever method you decide to use.
Brian.
Based on previous experience, I'm pretty sure I could do that in 10 or 15 minutes and get it needle sharp. In other words, yes I can see that it's slightly rounded, but it's very minor compared to other tips I've redone. So it shouldn't be too bad which ever method you decide to use.
Brian.