Last Fall I bought myself a USMC KaBar. I love this knife, but was bugged by the clip point. I thought that a straight point or spear point would be better, and waited until I had the proper equipment to do anything about it.
I recently purchased a Harbor Tools Belt Sander and some belts from Lee Valley. So now I could tinker with my KaBar.
Here is the stock KaBar
I outlined the blade on a sheet of paper to determine just exactly how much metal to remove form the tip
After taping the blade. I drew the exact line I wanted to use on the side grinder to remove
Next I took the amount off with the side grinding wheel of the Belt Sander. Be careful doing this as this side grinder will really hog off the metal. I basically bumped it, taking minute portions off and not allowing the tip to heat up. Here the blade is finished with the clip point removed.
Now that the tip was exactly as I wanted it, I was unhappy with the powder coating that was ground off during my sharpening. So I thought that maybe if I removed the powder coating along the blade edge that might be alright
It wasn't. The powder coating is fairly thick and there were some chipped portions....so off with all of the powder coating
Now I need to polish up the blade, and thought that the Belt Sander might be some help....it wasn't. The Belt Sander would polish along the edges but not across the whole blade...so it's time for some elbow grease and 1500 grit wet/dry paper
The wet/dry paper did well, but I also used my Dremel tool and a small felt polishing pad with stropping compound to help speed things along. Now that the blade was starting to take it's polished finish, I needed to touch up some marks left by the Dremel tool on the blades edge.
Shaving sharp and good to go...
However, I'm not finished with this blade yet. My next project with it is to Blue it. That'll be another time.
I recently purchased a Harbor Tools Belt Sander and some belts from Lee Valley. So now I could tinker with my KaBar.
Here is the stock KaBar
I outlined the blade on a sheet of paper to determine just exactly how much metal to remove form the tip
After taping the blade. I drew the exact line I wanted to use on the side grinder to remove
Next I took the amount off with the side grinding wheel of the Belt Sander. Be careful doing this as this side grinder will really hog off the metal. I basically bumped it, taking minute portions off and not allowing the tip to heat up. Here the blade is finished with the clip point removed.
Now that the tip was exactly as I wanted it, I was unhappy with the powder coating that was ground off during my sharpening. So I thought that maybe if I removed the powder coating along the blade edge that might be alright
It wasn't. The powder coating is fairly thick and there were some chipped portions....so off with all of the powder coating
Now I need to polish up the blade, and thought that the Belt Sander might be some help....it wasn't. The Belt Sander would polish along the edges but not across the whole blade...so it's time for some elbow grease and 1500 grit wet/dry paper
The wet/dry paper did well, but I also used my Dremel tool and a small felt polishing pad with stropping compound to help speed things along. Now that the blade was starting to take it's polished finish, I needed to touch up some marks left by the Dremel tool on the blades edge.
Shaving sharp and good to go...
However, I'm not finished with this blade yet. My next project with it is to Blue it. That'll be another time.
.
I polished and convexed my Shorty, and now it's a superb cutter.
