Sharpening a swivel knife ??

[TheTrooper]

Dear all,

maybe it´s a dumb question, but how can a I get a swivel knife blade sharp ?? I ordered a blade from Tandy, which are not pre-sharpened. I used the following tutorial Swivel knife sharpening.

What I used is the keen edge sharpener and some fine wet griding paper (p800,p1200,p2000) on a hard surface (metal plate). But somehow I´m not able to get the blade sharp. What could I make wrong during this procedure ?

Hope someone has a hint for me.

Cheers,

Marcel

[Rawhide]

what happened is you skipped some steps. The keen edge sharpner is the way to go, but you need to start using a course stone. I use a diamond hone but a good tri-hone will work too. On the stone go back and forth with the blade. Once you develop a burr on one side, do the same on the other until the burr is gone. Now strop your blade on the wet dry paper away from the edge only. Lastly, make a rouge card/board. I use a manila folder or illustration board and rub rouge on it and do a final strop here. When your blade begins to drag again just strop on the rouge and you'll be good to go.

Marlon

[Regis]

Marcel,

It is very difficult (but, not impossible) to begin with unless you have someone sharpen, show you, or buy a sharp blade. If you are following the proceedure, my guess is that you are not getting the angle flat against the surface and back at the "exact" same place after each turn. Even after you do all you can with the wet papers you list, you will still need to POLISH and POLISH and POLISH. I use hard/smooth side of leather and also a business card with rouge on a very flat surface to polish. I trided the flesh side but, it tends to round/dull the blade (for me anyways).

Took me a long time and when I "thought" I had a sharp blade. Later, I bought a Henley and realized that was the 1st SHARP blade I'd ever seen/used. Now, I ca sharpen and keep them polished.

Best of luck.

Regis

[mikeymoto]

Not that this helps the original poster, but once your swivel knife is sharp you can keep it that way by stropping on something hard with your choice of polishing rouge. If you strop after every time you use your swivel knife, you will never have to take it back to stones or sandpaper.

I got my swivel knife from Tandy and the 1/4" angled blade looks to have come with a scandi type grind - a flat grind with no secondary ("micro") bevel. If you want to keep this original grind, do not use a soft-backed material when you strop your knife, or the edge will become convexed pretty quick. If you want a convexed edge, cool, in fact I prefer them on my pocket knives, but you may want to keep the flat grind on your swivel knife.