Turn Swedge into False Edge, How?

Sulaco

Sulaco

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Nov 15, 2003
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I just got a Condor Bowie II in a trade. It's the earlier model with wooden scales and 1075 steel. It came with a swedge that could very easily be sharpened and I'd like to do that. I was wondering what the best way would be? It's going to take a decent amount of metal removal to get it right and I'm not sure how to do that with such a strong inward curve. Any thoughts?

The cutting edge appears to be a convex secondary bevel (pretty thick bevels) but I'm open to whatever. I have the DMT Aligner w/ the standard diamond hones and the extra coarse, as well as a SharpMaker with the diamond and extra fine sticks.
 
That's going to be an interesting project, given the curve. Personally I'd probably take the belt to it with a coarse grit belt to get the edge profiled the way I wanted it, then run through my standard sharpening and polishing regime. I'm not sure if the paper wheels are capable of that kind of metal removal? They might be, and the narrower width than the belt would probably be a help.

Sharpmaker, even with the diamonds, is probably going to be a totally lost cause there, it's just too slow on the metal removal side.
 
If the swedge is wide enough to get a good feel on the aligner stones I would just do it on the extra course. Remove metal from the entire swedge then progress thru the grits to get a nice polish.
 
Yeah, I tried that, but I can't get the aligner to stay on the primary bevel. There's too much bevel (almost like a Scandi grind) to allow for a tight fit. Looks like I might be pulling out the Dremel tool for this one!
 
sulaco, i'm not sure how thin that tip is (it looks thin in pictures) but it could make it a lot weaker if you sharpen the swedge so you will have to watch what you do with the knife. if a dremel is all you have then you can rough it in with your dremel but you will need to finish it up by hand if a dremel is all you have. send me an email and i'll tell you a few ways you can finish up the job and make it look good. i also have a few tips with the dremel that might work. i can do the job for you also if you want someone to do it.
 
Thanks Richard, I am sending you an email!

richard j said:
sulaco, i'm not sure how thin that tip is (it looks thin in pictures) but it could make it a lot weaker if you sharpen the swedge so you will have to watch what you do with the knife. if a dremel is all you have then you can rough it in with your dremel but you will need to finish it up by hand if a dremel is all you have. send me an email and i'll tell you a few ways you can finish up the job and make it look good. i also have a few tips with the dremel that might work. i can do the job for you also if you want someone to do it.
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