Swivel Blade Question

[bdiamond leather]

I have tried a few tandy blades and ceramic blades and i dont care for any of them. What is the best blade out there? I want something that cuts smooth and stays sharp long. Thanks in advanced for any suggestions....

[Chief31794]

Barry King makes blades, lots of folks swear by them. As for staying sharp long, that is a relative term, I don't think any of them stay sharp for a long time, I strop several times during any carving project and sharpen at least every 2nd or 3rd project. They have to be maintained. If you don't like the ceramics then you will be sharpening a lot if you carve a lot. Just my opinion, you may get some better responses from more knowledgable folks out here.

Ken

Ken

[NoName]

The ceramic blades never need to be sharpened. Strop them often however (on jewelers rouge impregnated leather).

[Sylvia]

I have read here that those that love those ceramic blades have finessed the blade on them. The use an ultra fine stone and sharpen it so that any visible lines on the blade are gone. Then they strop it silky smooth. From that point on it's just a matter of maintaining the strop...

I have a couple of BK blades, for my BK knife... I had a huge amount of trouble trying to sharpen the hollow blade (at least until they fixed my keen edge barrel by drilling out the other end for me) Even then when I sharpened the hollow blade it changed the angle some. It cuts very nicely now.

I look at it this way.... sharpening is part of the job... because a dull blade is a dangerous blade.

[Rawhide]

While ceramic blades are great for long lasting edges, they require A LOT OF WORK before you can expect longevity with your carvings. I had to to work on my ceramic blades about a half an hour on each side. If you look very closely at the bevel of those blades as they come from the store, there are a multitude of serrations. (use a magnifying glass). When you work all these out and make it smooth, they will cut a thousand times better. That being said, the blades from Leatherwranglers seem to me to be the longest lasting for carving without stropping. They have a great metal blade that they researched extensively and I use it regularly. It's always the first one I grab. (I've tried almost all blades too, Henley, ceramic, Chuck Smith, Al Stohlman brand, Barry King, etc...)

Marlon

[pete]

While ceramic blades are great for long lasting edges, they require A LOT OF WORK before you can expect longevity with your carvings. I had to to work on my ceramic blades about a half an hour on each side. If you look very closely at the bevel of those blades as they come from the store, there are a multitude of serrations. (use a magnifying glass). When you work all these out and make it smooth, they will cut a thousand times better. That being said, the blades from Leatherwranglers seem to me to be the longest lasting for carving without stropping. They have a great metal blade that they researched extensively and I use it regularly. It's always the first one I grab. (I've tried almost all blades too, Henley, ceramic, Chuck Smith, Al Stohlman brand, Barry King, etc...)

Marlon

Hey Marlon! Nice to see you here again!

I must have gotten lucky- my 30 year old ceramic has no striations. But my 10 year old does! Wasn't me because I didn't know about stropping 30 years ago! What do you use for the lines- 1200 grit, rouge,...?

Even with the lines on the newer one I love it- cuts cased or dry leather. I WOULD like to make it as smooth as the old one though.

pete

[Rawhide]

Nice to be missed Pete!

I would start with 800 to cut the serrations off, then 1000, 1200, up to 2000 to polish it up. It seems that the big companies are all the same now, they don't really take the time to churn out a quality product anymore. those old ceramics are probably 10 times better than what you can get now.

[Sylvia]

Rawhide:

Do you have a great place for getting those ultra fine stones for a reasonable cost?

[Cyberthrasher]

Sylvia, I'd recommend looking around for some japanese water stones. There are a lot of them from "King" on ebay for a good price. It's one of the better brands and many of them come with multi grades.

[Rawhide]

Sylvia,

I didn't use stones, I used Automotive sand paper. I bought them at O'reilly auto parts I think. I use a 4-sided strop, if you will. I rubber cement to it a strip of 800, 1200, 2000 grit paper, then the last side is a strip of manilla folder with rouge rubbed in. when either side gets roughed up beyond use, I remove that strip and rubber cement another strip on.

for serious work on a blade, you could just use the paper glued to a hard backing so that you have a larger surface to work with. But the strips seem to work great for me.

[Sylvia]

Thanks to both of you. I have some wet/dry in some pretty fine grit... and some emery cloth strips. I might try that before I go buying something.

[Bob Blea]

I use a Leather Wranglers SK-3 and find the blade holds it's edge wonderfully and takes very little maintenance. I also have a Barry King knife that has found it's place doing my decorative cuts and as a beader blade, but for general carving, I don't think Leather Wranglers can be beat. I haven't tried a ceramic blade though.

When I do feel the need to sharpen I have a similar set up to Marlon's. I have a board that has 1000 grit wet/dry on one side and 2000 on the other. Start on the 1000 grit side and then move to the 2000, and then strop.

Bob.

[shtoink]

After some first hand experience with sharpening the ceramic blades I feel as though I can add some meaningful content. I have thought about writing up a How-to, but will wait to see if there is much desire for one. I want to say that these are just my findings and there is always room for improvement.

I bought my first ceramic blade and can easily see why the complaints about dragging and sharpening have come up. The machining on the cutting edge is rough at best and fixing it takes some work. Fortunately, it can be done with a few easily, and cheaply, obtainable items. A sharpening jig, 1000 and 2000 grit wet/dry sand paper, sheet of glass, water, dish soap, and patience. A magnifying glass of some sort might help. The sharpening jig is a must, since this whole thing hinges on repeatability. It is highly recommended that the sheet of glass be tempered, as it will be stronger than simple window glass and less likely to break. An old or broken scanner can be purchased cheaply or found free from almost anywhere, which yields you a very nice sheet of tempered glass. You can gut it to remove the glass or use it as is. A drop of soap is added to the water used on the sand paper to alter the surface tension. Primarily, this keeps the water from just beading up and rolling off.

The other thing that I felt was important was the technique used to actually drag the blade on the paper. The initial instinct for most is to apply pressure while moving the blade back and forth. The issue with that is on the forward stroke, the paper will yield under the pressure and curl up ever so slightly. This will still happen when moving the blade from side to side, too. To overcome the curling, I found that light pressure, with a slight side-to-side motion, on the pulling stroke works very well. The machining marks were removed reasonably quick and a highly polished blade that shaves was the result.

I should add that the buffing compound on card stock over a hard surface was also used to strop the blade. I must say that little tip was amazing.

Now all I need to do is just be careful not to chip the dang thing.

[Gump]

Hi Folks; I have what seems to be a rarity, a ruby edged swivel knife, and I must admit that I have never had to sharpen it. But I guard it with care. Does anyone know if they might still be available, or where it came from? I got it in a complete set of tools I purchased from a man who gave up the hobby.

[Gump]

Not 10 mins. after my previous post, I find a picture of a ruby edge swivel knife on Usedleathertools.com's homepage. It has a straight blade, mine is angled. Gump.

[WyomingSlick]

Hi Folks; I have what seems to be a rarity, a ruby edged swivel knife, and I must admit that I have never had to sharpen it. But I guard it with care. Does anyone know if they might still be available, or where it came from? I got it in a complete set of tools I purchased from a man who gave up the hobby.

They stopped making them when they came out with the ceramic blades. They are not terribly rare, but if you have one in fine condition; it is definately worth keeping that way.

[shtoink]

I have seen a number of opinions in this thread and that is to be expected when a question like "What is the best ..." is asked. What I also saw were speculations about sharpening, and the need to sharpen, ceramic blades. Contrary to a popular opinion, they do need to be cleaned up first before they will cut effectively and this led me to purchasing one and do some testing of my own. What I found was that it's relatively easy to polish up the bevels on them and no special, expensive equipment is needed. I'm sure there are as many preferred methods to sharpen swivel knives as there are knives to be sharpened, but this is the most effective method I found through testing to address ceramic blades specifically.

I'm not sure if anyone is interested in seeing just how I got it done, but I can do a write up on it if you guys do.