Should I put a convex edge on my ASH1?

[leatherman]

You are definitely not the only one. Convex edges and convex grinds make me twitch when they get dull.

 

[awestib]

I have a little bit more experience now with convexing a blade. I have been experimenting with my new Esee-5 and I think I have screwed it up totally but the point is, I also found a few things out. First of all, it's not a job that you can do like "honey, I just disappear in the basement for a moment...". No, I takes a whole day if not more. Also, I think it is very crucial to find the right surface softness, width and sandpaper-grit !! Al this plays a role. If the surface is to wide, you need more time and likely more pressure, if the surface is too hard, again you need more pressure and you risk to still have a "flat" bevel afterwards. Grind away spine to edge and backwards while you push down the flat bevel on the mousepad/leather and move the whole blade sideways. Eventually (after hours or days) you will grind the blade convex until you reach the very edge. Job done. This is more theoretically since I have not achieved this really yet but I am looking forward to it. I will get a used belt sander soon and will try belts from Klingspor x-weight. They are a bit thicker and stronger I believe. I'll see how that works. Hopefully the belt sander takes over the grinding job in a shorter time and then I can focus on the convex edge sharpening, getting a burr, polishing by hand etc.
Keep you posted....
Thanks!

 

[d.weglarz13]

Sounds like you guys are using too much pressure. Once you have a convex edge, it should only take a few passes on the mouse pad (again, very light pressure) to bring the blade back to hair popping. The great thing about the convex edge in the first place is the fact its so easy to do. You guys are having the same problem i did when i started convexing, which is that your putting too much into it. Get the blade convex by using very coarse stone or sandpaper, then just a few passes on each grit should bring you very very sharp within a few minutes! thats why some of us love it in the field! hope this helps.
dave

 

[Bigfattyt]

That was a decent vid on that Rat (ESSE).

You will notice, he was using more pressure while he was doing the flats. He seemed to lighten up when he was doing the edge.

With the strop, you can slide the knife edge wise to find the angle the knife stops sliding and tries to "bite" the strop. You don't, I repeat don't have to actually cut your strop! I saw onw tutorial where the guy was slicing his strop all up finding the angle. If you have the strop well loaded, the edge won't "bite" the leather, only the compound.

Even dull knives should not take hours to make sharp on the sandpaper. The only time it should take that long is when reprofiling the edge to start with. If you have good coarse stones, it should only take a few hours. I did my Fbmle and ash 1 with limikted sandpaper and equioment so I took longer.

 

[HandofCod]

I started out trying to convex a Kabar Short Utility... big mistake. It was a spoon before I started and it's still a spoon now, but a shiny one!

However I stuck to it and tried to convex my recon scout. The first thing I did was grind down the shoulders with a freehand diamond stone from my Lansky setup. I was very careful though when I did this. After that I put the sandpaper right on the leather strop and used a firm pressure at a low angle until the marker near the edge was beginning to wear away. Then I took a steeper angle to finish off the edge and strop, strop, strop. I'm still stropping but now it's shaving sharp. INFI might be harder to reprofile by hand though compared to 1080 (SK5).

 

[Edgyone]

I started out trying to convex a Kabar Short Utility... big mistake. It was a spoon before I started and it's still a spoon now, but a shiny one!

HofC - I'm in Melbourne. If you want to try a belt sander on that Kabar, I'm happy for you to try on my little beast (it's no KMG, but it is ok for sharpening/basic re-profiling of an edge). If you are interested I'll post up my email.

 

[awestib]

Awesome work and you SHOULD be proud :thumbup:

I'll be honest, a little over a year ago I went on a convex binge (bought all the papers, compounds, strop etc.) and tried to do it, but, for the life of me, could NOT get a good edge with sandpaper and a mousepad. I destroyed a few cheap folders and dulled the hell outta a skinny ASH (but the edge WAS very shiny )

I watched the videos, used a sharpie and practiced practiced practiced - I maybe put in 12+ hours of work and could not get a sharp edge. Maybe I'm a moron or butterfingers, but I just cant do it.

I have since convinced myself that a nice 40* V grind can take care of what I need a blade to do...

Regretfully yours,
-Sharpmaker for life

Hi again:
I got some more experience with convex sharpening and also convexing a blade (grinding) that I want to share. I dulled my Bravo 1 on a small rock until there was no edge anymore (it was shaving before!). I probably overdid it since I think I not only bent the edge but also flattened it. Anyway, I tried to resharpen it with sandpaper/leather strop and I tried carefull forth and back motions (as Virtuovice does on his youtube video) and also pulling motions (stropping) only. I tried to determine the angle by "cutting" in the leather. I did not get anywhere, I got the blade very shiny, used down to 80 grit paper, observed the edge etc. No success at all, not even close. I dulled the sandpaper (sandpaper for metal) etc. The problem also was that the "cutting into the leather" trick to determine approx. the angle did not work in this particular case since there was no edge anymore that could have bitten into the leather. I tried for 2 hours altogether until I got frustrated since I did not see any progress. I wondered if I did it wrong or if I am just too inpatient?? So, I went to my new belt sander with the idea that if I do it the right way and use the right technique but am just too inpatient, I likely will have success with the belt sander, sine I "know what I do" but it will be much, much faster. I have never used a belt sander before, by the way! So I did it last night. I basically used the same technique that I used on the sandpaper/leather strop. Tried to have the right angle, the right pressure, etc. And - I got my very dull Bravo 1 back to shaving sharp in a few minutes with an excellent looking edge finish?!?! I made sure to have "brakes" between sharpening to avoid heating up the blade. Interestingly not at any point got the blade/edge even warm to touch! The only problem is the speed. It is very abrasive. If I could only slow down the rpm, my belt sander would be the most amazing thing to use and this is just the beginning of my experience with it. I am very confident that convexing a blade is also no problem. This is going to be my next adventure. Having said that, I do think that I want to master my hand sharpening skills on sandpaper/strop but I can see the problem to do that in the field once your edge is nothing but dull!
Thanks and I am looking forward to your guys input!
A.

 

[awestib]

Sounds like you guys are using too much pressure. Once you have a convex edge, it should only take a few passes on the mouse pad (again, very light pressure) to bring the blade back to hair popping. The great thing about the convex edge in the first place is the fact its so easy to do. You guys are having the same problem i did when i started convexing, which is that your putting too much into it. Get the blade convex by using very coarse stone or sandpaper, then just a few passes on each grit should bring you very very sharp within a few minutes! thats why some of us love it in the field! hope this helps.
dave

How can you convex an edge/blade on a stone?
Thanks, A.