Sharpen Dixon Edge Shave Tool

[Stitching Pony]

Hi All

How can I sharpen my new Dixon Edge Shave?

I have just purchased 2 brand new Dixon Edge Shaves a #2 and #3. Trouble is they are both blunt and just chew the edge, can anyone tell me how to sharpen them or should I take them to a professional knife sharpener?

I have had to go back to using my cheap #2 edge beveller which I have never sharpened and actually does a pretty good job. I have also noticed that my cheap edge beveller has a very distinct section cut out at the tip whereas the Dixon edge shavers have only a slight dent in the edge of the tip. Is this right or are they faulty?

I bought the Dixons because I thought they would do a better job of the edge shaving, I'm beginning to think I've wasted my money.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated

[gringobill]

Hi All

How can I sharpen my new Dixon Edge Shave?

I have just purchased 2 brand new Dixon Edge Shaves a #2 and #3. Trouble is they are both blunt and just chew the edge, can anyone tell me how to sharpen them or should I take them to a professional knife sharpener?

I have had to go back to using my cheap #2 edge beveller which I have never sharpened and actually does a pretty good job. I have also noticed that my cheap edge beveller has a very distinct section cut out at the tip whereas the Dixon edge shavers have only a slight dent in the edge of the tip. Is this right or are they faulty?

I bought the Dixons because I thought they would do a better job of the edge shaving, I'm beginning to think I've wasted my money.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated

Dangit!!!! That's a bummer, I'd be mighty dissappointed if I were you. Most high end edgers (I would consider Dixons to be that,) come really sharp and ready to use.

You've got yourself a dilema here! From your discription is sounds like those tools need some shaping before sharpening. From what I expect those tools cost that should not be the case.

I don't know how you bought your edgers, direct from Dixon or from a dealer? I think the first thing to try is to contact Dixon direct or the dealer and ask them for help. If that fails then it's on to plans B, C, etc.

There is shaping and rough sharpening and then there is the finishing up more like stropping.

Shaping the tools requires some skill and you sure don't want to ruin them. Personally I'd be really wary of letting a knife sharpener who isn't familiar with leather tools attempt to sharpen them. They are somewhat precision tools and the groove in the bottom need to be pretty precise.

I have no idea of how confident you are in your own sharpening skills, if you are pretty skilled at that you can probably do the job, but if you're in doubt you probably should seek some professional help.

Some saddlemakers sharpen edgers on the sharp edge of a good stone. Or there are slip stones which are shaped with a sharp edge. Woodcarvers use them to sharpen the inside of gouges.

I think the most common method used on most better quality edgers is to get a round metal rod that fits the bottom contour of the tool. With the rod flat on a hard surface, put a piece of wet or dry sandpaper over the rod then pull the tool towards yourself on the paper. If these tools need a lot of material removed (and it sounds like they do,) you could start out with a course grit and work your way down to some very fine grit like 1500 or 2000 to get a fine finish. You can also put what ever you compound you use to strop your other blades on the sharp corner of a piece of thick skirting leather and strop the groove of the edger on that. You can do the same thing with a piece of heavy cord charged with your stropping compound.

Another method which is more high tech and requires some care and skill is to use an small rubber grit impregnated wheel ( a good hobby store should have some in different grits,)in a rotary tool like a Dremel or Foredom Flex Shaft. You need to make sure the wheel is spinnind toward the tool tip and not toward the handle.

All of this stuff probably means you spending more money so.....this is probably not what you want to hear, but I believe if you can get your money back you'd be better off to do that and spend it on some Ron's Tools or Barry King edgers. I have some of both and both are of incredibly high quality and come very sharp.

Another possibillity would be to find a saddlemaker or other professional leather worker , if there is one in your area, and ask them for help in sharpening.

I feel you pain, good luck!

Bill

[bruce johnson]

Does it look like the one I have attached? They make a flat bottom version and a hollow ground which has a rounded bottom. If it is the flat bottom then the sharpening is pretty straightforward. You sharpen them on a fine stone from the bottom until you get to a fine foil edge. Then strop if lightly from both sides to remove that foil edge. Biggest thing is to make sure you get all of the foil stropped off. For the round bottoms, do like Bill suggested and use a round base like a nail or screwdriver and wrap it with the wet-dry sandpaper. Make sure the radius matches the tool. If there are grit marks when you are finished then go to finer stone or wet-dry sandpaper and do it again until the grit marks are gone. You can strop the slot out with a thin piece of leather or the edge of a piece of cardboard from the back of writing pad works. I use green compound. I would not toss the Dixon's, I have a some Dixons I have kept and the steel is pretty good. The shorter toes are easier to do inside curves with. Pretty nice tools overall.

[Stitching Pony]

]Thanks for your thoughts Bill and Bruce.

I purchased them through ebay from a lady in England who sells leatherworking tool.

Now that you have confirmed what I thought about them being sharp I have contacted her back and have asked for replacement tools, I am waiting to hear what she says.

They do look like the photo you attached Bruce but it is very hard to see the tip in your photo so can't really say how they compare. I have taken a couple of close ups of the tip of each tool and I will try to attach it so I can get your opinion if you'd be so kind.

This is the Number 3

[Stitching Pony]

This is the number 2. Mine have a dark reddish stained handle whereas the one in your photo Bruce are a light stained handle, other than that they look the same

[bruce johnson]

They look just like the one I have for sale. As far as the tip profile, that is how they are. They may not come deadly sharp from the factory, so a replacement may not be any better. I don't know to what degree of sharpness Dixon goes with their new tools. Some of the old line companies did not put a final edge on cutting tools. I have not had a new Dixon so can't say. I have pulled old Osborne tools out of the paper that hand no real edge. Older guys have told me that was to put your own favored final edge profile on. I got a pretty old Dixon plough gauge knife last year with the blade having a profile somewhat but a square edge on the front - it is my most reached for user. Pretty much most tools you get are not going to be using-sharp out of the box. For new edgers, Bob Douglas and Barry Kings should be. I don't know about Ron's edgers since he sold the business.

although we expect to get sharp ready to use tools when we buy them new, they mostly aren't. If they are, we are generally paying the price for the maker to do that. In some cases that doesn't mean the tool is bad - just that it takes a little time to finish it off and make it good. Sharpening up that edger might take 10 minutes. In the process you will get a feel for how hard that steel is and what you can expect out of the tool. Even the ones coming sharp will need to be worked on every so often.

[Stitching Pony]

They look just like the one I have for sale. As far as the tip profile, that is how they are. They may not come deadly sharp from the factory, so a replacement may not be any better. I don't know to what degree of sharpness Dixon goes with their new tools. Some of the old line companies did not put a final edge on cutting tools. I have not had a new Dixon so can't say. I have pulled old Osborne tools out of the paper that hand no real edge. Older guys have told me that was to put your own favored final edge profile on. I got a pretty old Dixon plough gauge knife last year with the blade having a profile somewhat but a square edge on the front - it is my most reached for user. Pretty much most tools you get are not going to be using-sharp out of the box. For new edgers, Bob Douglas and Barry Kings should be. I don't know about Ron's edgers since he sold the business.

although we expect to get sharp ready to use tools when we buy them new, they mostly aren't. If they are, we are generally paying the price for the maker to do that. In some cases that doesn't mean the tool is bad - just that it takes a little time to finish it off and make it good. Sharpening up that edger might take 10 minutes. In the process you will get a feel for how hard that steel is and what you can expect out of the tool. Even the ones coming sharp will need to be worked on every so often.

Thanks for that Bruce,

I have just gotten a reply back from the supplier in England, their reply was that their saddler commented that the tool just needs to be dressed to requirements by drawing the underside of the tool on a sharpening stone until I reach the depth and angle of cut required and that this is normal with new saddlery tools.

I suppose I assumed that when buying a new specific sized tool as in a #2 and #3 that it would be machined accurately to that specific size. Having to sharpen it to "my requirements" sorta seems to defeat the purpose of having different sizes. Just as a side note I have a cheap #2 hobby edge beveller which I have used a lot and never sharpened and it does a lovely job, the only reason I wanted to replace it was because it is a bit short and I thought the longer Dixon Professional tool would be better to use.

Anyway enough of my complaining, thank you for your help it is greatly appreciated. I will certainly have a go at sharpening my new tools as you recommended, hopefully they will be the tools I hoped for. If not, I always have the cheapy to fall back on I suppose.

Thanks again

[bruce johnson]

Actually your are going to have to sharpen that edger you now use too at some point. The techniques should be pretty much the same. As far as ordering a #2 and #3 and having to machine them to that size, it should have nothing to do with the size. The size designates the width, and every maker is a bit different with the same number sizes. One contemporary and a couple of old line makers are way different on their sizing number compared to others. Your #2 shoud cut a narrower edge than the #3. They should both be sharpened exactly the same way. Properly sharpened those Dixon tools will outlive your other one by years or generations. If you don't want to got through it, I'll buy them both as is without sharpening.

On a side note, what is the Ebay seller you bought them from telling you? Are they reselling new tools with an Ebay store without adding any value over ordering from Abbey or Dixon straight up or was this a one time deal for them?

[amuckart]

Sharpening that shouldn't take too long, or more than six or seven dollars in abrasives if you don't already have any. It's an extremely worthwhile skill to learn because being able to sharpen tools is one of the most important skills a leatherworker can have IMO.

I recently bought a box lot of leatherworking tools from an estate, which included a rather nice, but long neglected Dixon french edger that was blunt and somewhat rusted. I don't have a 'before' photo of it but I've got a picture of a hook knife that was in the same lot and is in much the same condition as the edger was.

Hook knife before:

Edger after, front & back

The back was easy, I took the corrosion off with 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper laid on a piece of glass then worked through 15, 5 and 0.5 micron microfinishing sheets, again on glass. You could just go with regular 1000 grit to 1200 grit wet/dry paper then hone on a leather strop, but the 3M sheets cut faster. Use a small drop of baby oil to float the swarf. I used maybe three square inches of each sheet to do this.

To do the groove I whittled a flat into a dowel then whittled the sides into a trapezoid shape until it was the right width, wrapped the abrasives over that and used it like an extremely fine file. On a new blade this probably isn't necessary but there was pitting on this one I had to clean up. You don't have to use dowel, I just happened to have a snapped off chunk lying around.

All in all it took me less than 10 minutes to take the tool from unusable to shaving edges just fine.

The size makes my one a slightly easier job than your really narrow ones, but with those you can just whittle a bit of wood into a long thin triangle section and shave off enough of the sharp edge to give you the width you need, or just fold a piece of abrasive paper over a cord of the right size and use that.

This is my only edger, but if I had more (which I will, one day), I'd take a block plane and shape hardwood slips for each one and just charge those directly with honing compound.

[Leather Guru]

Actually your are going to have to sharpen that edger you now use too at some point. The techniques should be pretty much the same. As far as ordering a #2 and #3 and having to machine them to that size, it should have nothing to do with the size. The size designates the width, and every maker is a bit different with the same number sizes. One contemporary and a couple of old line makers are way different on their sizing number compared to others. Your #2 shoud cut a narrower edge than the #3. They should both be sharpened exactly the same way. Properly sharpened those Dixon tools will outlive your other one by years or generations. If you don't want to got through it, I'll buy them both as is without sharpening.

On a side note, what is the Ebay seller you bought them from telling you? Are they reselling new tools with an Ebay store without adding any value over ordering from Abbey or Dixon straight up or was this a one time deal for them?

Hello Bruce,

I've got at least 15 different edge shaves and plenty of dixon's I had to sharpen every one .

I've seen some edge shaves on the Osborne web site and I wrote to them but received no answer . Do they still make those types that have holes (bisonett ) and who stocks these tools for sale ?

[Stitching Pony]

Actually your are going to have to sharpen that edger you now use too at some point. The techniques should be pretty much the same. As far as ordering a #2 and #3 and having to machine them to that size, it should have nothing to do with the size. The size designates the width, and every maker is a bit different with the same number sizes. One contemporary and a couple of old line makers are way different on their sizing number compared to others. Your #2 shoud cut a narrower edge than the #3. They should both be sharpened exactly the same way. Properly sharpened those Dixon tools will outlive your other one by years or generations. If you don't want to got through it, I'll buy them both as is without sharpening.

On a side note, what is the Ebay seller you bought them from telling you? Are they reselling new tools with an Ebay store without adding any value over ordering from Abbey or Dixon straight up or was this a one time deal for them?

Thanks for the offer and advice, I will hang on to my Dixons, as you are right, it is worth the effort to learn the correct technique for sharpening them. This will force the issue for me which is a good thing. As to the ebay store they are a Dixon reseller with a number of Dixon tools for sale. Their price was slightly better than buying direct from Dixon in England and a lot cheaper than buying them from an Australian dealer.

[celticleather]

There's a pretty neat way to strop the inside of the Dixon edgers at http://leatherworker...topic=7439&st=0

[amuckart]

That's very clever, thanks for the pointer.

[Stitching Pony]

Thank you for all your help and suggestions everyone. I am happy to say that I now have two razorsharp edgers that cut the leather like butter. I had to shape the #3 (the #2 was fine) and I was really worried that I might ruin the tool but all it took was some 800 to 1500 grit sandpaper on the edge of a metal ruler which worked really well. I then used a leather strop with some chrome metal polish. I can't believe the difference it has made they are now really lovely to use. It worked so well that I did the same with a couple of other tools with fantastic results.

Thanks again

[bruce johnson]

Thank you for all your help and suggestions everyone. I am happy to say that I now have two razorsharp edgers that cut the leather like butter. I had to shape the #3 (the #2 was fine) and I was really worried that I might ruin the tool but all it took was some 800 to 1500 grit sandpaper on the edge of a metal ruler which worked really well. I then used a leather strop with some chrome metal polish. I can't believe the difference it has made they are now really lovely to use. It worked so well that I did the same with a couple of other tools with fantastic results.

Thanks again

:popcorn: Don't ya just really like a good ending.