Sometimes it's more than just sharpening

Jason B.

Jason B.

Joined
Jun 13, 2007
Messages
11,143
Today one of my co-workers gave me some knives he wanted sharpened. Most were hunting knives but one was very special, he handed me a Gerber Applegate-Fairbain combat folder and said "this one has seen foreign soil". A friend of his just got back from Iraq where it had been put to good use.:D
When he told me this It became more than just another knife, its a peice of history, something that someone actually trusted their life to. It may not be the best knife in the world but it felt like holding excalibur.

There was a little damage to the tip and the main edge felt like a butter knife. The serrations were in good shape and after a good polishing were slicing paper and shaving some hair nicely. I lowered the bevel angle a few degree's and suprisingly it took a while to grind it down, I used my DMT stones with the aligner tool and 1 micron diamond paste. I think I might polish it some more but it has a nice "tooth" to the edge so I might leave it.

Before:
Picture413.jpg


Picture416.jpg


After:
Picture419.jpg


Picture418.jpg


Picture424.jpg


Picture422.jpg

Picture430.jpg
 
Sorry not paste but spray, I got a sample bottle of 1 micron handamerica diamond spray. I use it on my leather and MDF strop's just like other compounds but its sooooo much easier, two sprays and start stropping, plus it cuts really fast.
 
Very nice looking edge! I am really impressed, you got skillz.
 
That is the nicest/most polished bevel I have ever seen. You did an awesome job.
 
Thanks for all the comments I really appreciate it. I have a feeling he will be happy with it but hope he will never need to use it again. I decided to keep polishing it so I will get some pic's up later of how it looks now.
 
thats a sweet looking edge. i might have to get some of that spray but i might wait to see how well it works for you whenever you get a set of the wheels.
 
Very nice job on the whole knife. Looks better then new. I also get satisfaction bring a tired knife back into shape. I see you enjoy your talent. Keep sharing your methods with us all.
Ron
 
richard j said:
thats a sweet looking edge. i might have to get some of that spray but i might wait to see how well it works for you whenever you get a set of the wheels.
Click to expand...


Maybe one day but not any time soon, I might get a leather belt for my 1x30 but doing it by hand gives me great satisfaction even though it may take longer.
 
Awesome job! I think the guy is going to be blown away by what you've accomplished. The fact that you did it by hand and got those results says alot...
 
knifenut1013 said:
Maybe one day but not any time soon, I might get a leather belt for my 1x30 but doing it by hand gives me great satisfaction even though it may take longer.
Click to expand...
Definitely get a surgi-sharp leather belt from lee valley, it's 20 bucks, and I can get it as mirror polished as the edge you just did in 30secs with the smooth side + CrO.
 
I continued to polish the edge at 1 micron, the edge got sharper but the surface polish did not improve much. I finished with some 0.5 micron diamond spray with only a few passes and called it quits, its sharp enough.

After the 1 micron
Picture432.jpg


The diamond stones work very good but leave scratches that are almost too deep to polish out. This next pic looks bad but its just the lighting, in person it looks more like pic #6.

0.5 micron for that extra curl :D
Picture434.jpg
 
Nice work Knifeknut!!!

It makes me proud that people still do that kind of stuff for their friends. That's going to be a knife he can hand down. It's not the brand of knife......but who held and used and carried it. ;)
 
Looks good - have you tried cutting a standing, rolled up piece of phone book paper with one swipe?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top