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Sharpening your BKT's

Moosez45

Moosez45

Custom Antlers, Factory Knives...
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So, some folks have asked about sharpening, edge maintenance, stuff like that for their BKT's. Some take care of it themselves, others look for professional shapeners to take care of it for them. RichardJ is one such sharpener, and a damn good one. Plus, there is a level of generosity for those putting themselves in harms way. Free. Yup, free.

After 38yrs of of experience, whittlin' hairs is a common practice around Richard's shop.

LEO and Military, all you're payin for is shipping and insurance. Check him out.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/861580-Professional-knife-sharpening

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-i-have-always-done-for-free-Knife-Sharpening

Moose
 
Thanks Moose - I just got a PM from Richard J a few minutes ago about his service for military guys. After Christmas I plan to send him my 30 year old well used Randall to be sharpened. It's done dozens of deer over the years, I've sharpened it a bunch of times with just fair results. PSYOP sharpened it for me just before this deer season and he got it better than I could do but I'm anxious to see how a real pro does!
 
i want to add that anyone in the 50 states or canada who needs help sharpening a knife can send me their number and i'll give them a call and help them out.
 
Richard I gotta say you really give the hobby a great name. You have always been so helpful with my dumb questions and you constantly give back. Big thumb up!!
 
Knowing that you do it for free for LEO (Thanks for that) I might just have to send you my BK-2.

Thanks.
 
I spent the afternoon with Richard the other day. He gave me a whole new appreciation of what sharp really is. He sharpened a 10 inch chunk of 1095 for me and I went out and chopped at an Ash log for a while and when I was finished it would still shave hair. Wow, he is the real deal.
 
you just aint whistling dixie :D after chopping down a tree, push cut newspaper:eek:

sharpening a knife is one thing, but 'actually' making is sharp is whole other thing...:) push cutting newspaper is SHARP...
 
Ok. So I am super frustrated with hand sharpening. I can get my bk11 sharp enough to cut paper easily but I can't get it shaving sharp. I am using a smith fine/course interrupted diamond stone. The one that's around 15 bucks. Is it just that I need more practice? Or better tools? Or both?

Here are some pics if it helps.

IMG_9267.jpg


IMG_2806.jpg
 
Have you tried shading the bevel with a sharpie to make sure that your working at a consistent angle. I know that trick really helped me out. :)
 
looks to me like you adding a micro bevel to your microbevel, soldmyhat. What technique are you using? for example do you sharpen on one side, raise a burr, then take the burr off by sharpening the other side? or do you do even amount of passes on each side back and forth one side at a time?
 
I tried the marker thing and I took it off in one pass. With my sharpener I can only hold it one handed. That might be holding me back. Maybe. Maybe not. I will keep tryin though. Can you actually see the burr? And how many passes should that take? I have tried many on one side then on the other and going side to side too. All results were about the same. Paper sharp but not shaving sharp. Am I going at too low of an angle?
 
Are you stropping it? I can't get it to shave until I do that... but if you've looked around the forums you'll see that if you start asking about shaving sharp you're gonna open a huge can of worms about a lot of things that might go right the eff over your head. That's what happened to me! As for holding it one-handed, I might be in the minority, but especially with my smaller blades I actually get better results doing it that way. One handed allows me to tilt the stone down and that allows me more control over the angle. When I try it with the stone flat I often find myself catching on the edges of holes on my DMT stone that are meant to catch the slurry/metal filings. Oh and yeah -- are you using water on your stone? That helps too.
 
And if I'm full of it, please, someone say so! I'm a noob too, but I've successfully removed most of the hair on my left arm in the past few weeks based on what I've learned here ;)
 
In my humble experience, something less aggressive than diamonds works best for finishing a carbon steel blade. It's hard to polish off the burr without creating a new one on something like a fine diamond. Try looking at your edge with a little magnification. Also make sure your final passes on the stone are feather light, almost no pressure. I like to use spyderco's ceramic bench stones, but something like an inexpensive crock stick can put killer edge on carbon steel.
 
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