This looks like a pain to sharpen

theonew

theonew

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May 16, 2006
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I constantly here people complain about freehand sharpening of recurves. I can understand that to a degree, but honestly once you have the movement down its fairly fluid and I actually find it relaxing. But this beast, the Osborne Gaucho from Knifeworks, looks like a PITA. Unless you were very careful, I assume that the "point" where the curve meets the tanto portion of the blade would become very rounded over time. Though I don't see why that would be such a bad thing. Anyone have one of these that you've hand sharpened?
 
sharpmaker would do it fine... I think... unless M4 is just too much.

Check out the tanto groove from Kershaw and the ZT 0400--those sharpen up just fine on a sharpmaker.
 
No problem getting it sharp but I think theonew is right -- you're going to round off that secondary point unless you are VERY careful.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
you're going to round off that secondary point unless you are VERY careful.
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exactly, for each side you essentially have to break stride in each stroke, change position slightly as well as change the flow of your movement from sharpening a curve to sharpening a flat. Then you get to flip it over and do the same thing to the other side :eek:

I suppose you could do the curve on each side first and then the flat part. But still, maintaining a nice transition looks like it would require a good bit of attention
 
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I've been using one.

The blade shape has proven pretty useful for most of the cutting I do.

As to sharpening, so far only a light touch-up with Spyderco profile rods and stropping has been needed and I have been careful of treating the two distinct edge shapes as separate edges. But, if (probably "when") the demarcation of edges becomes softer with time, no big deal to me, anyway.

BTW - For stropping, I put some leather on a chunk of round fence post I found. Works.
 
With the recurve portion of the blade being fairly shallow, IMO it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I would sharpen the two portions of the blade as separate steps.

That said, I don't see any value in such a blade design ... but that's just a matter of personal preference I suppose.
 
Well, the knife blade was probably designed when there were a bunch of similar styled blades coming out, e.g. the Spyderco Captain comes quickly to mind (I've seen others, but the names just don't "pop-up" at the moment).
 
The 154CM Gaucho came out around 2003-2004, so it predates the Captain by a few years. Mr. Osborne is very good at not needing to follow trends (though the Osborne/Pardue assisted-opening Apparition shows he can).

That's one sweet looking knife! (but then, it's an Osborne... what choice could it have?)
 
I've got one of the 154cm ones, too.

The Captain was simply an example (when did Breeden start making the design?). DDR had knives with a similar blade design, also.

Not a matter of "trends" as it seems in the knife making world there is a lot of parallel development. Then, too, people see others designs and add there own influence.
 
If the Sharpmaker is what you want to use, the recurve can be done on the flats, and it just rides along on the 2 corners instead of one. That seems like it would make the transition/secondary point a little easier to maintain.
 
Sorry about that, orthagonal1. It seemed like my last chance to be needlessly defensive before the year ended, so I went for it. :o

As for the recurve and demarcation, I like me2's idea which can also be done with paper wheels, grinding belts less than 1" wide, and the EdgePro and some acetominophen.
 
thombrogan said:
Sorry about that, orthagonal1. It seemed like my last chance to be needlessly defensive before the year ended, so I went for it. :o

As for the recurve and demarcation, I like me2's idea which can also be done with paper wheels, grinding belts less than 1" wide, and the EdgePro and some acetominophen.
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No problem.

So, do you grind the acetominophen into a paste and strop or simply strop the blade on the usually available tablets? :)
 
Actually, I use an EZE-Sharp 250 grit coarse stone (42C w/o base) glued to an EdgePro stone blank (3M 77 spray adhesive) and pop the acetominophen between deburring with that stone and switching to the standard EdgePro 220 grit stone. The filler in the acetominophen is probably abrasive enough for stock removal, but I don't want to find out.
 
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