Swivel Knife Help

[charlescrawford]

I am fairly new to all this. I have 2 swivel knifes among with 2 blades and a stripping/ sharpening jig. Both of the blades I have sharpened on a rough grit and finishing stone. I have also strophe the blades a lot. Neither of the blades are cutting leather at best they are scratching the first layer or two. I see videos on You tube where Bruce Cheaney is using a swivel knife and the cuts seem effortless and the cuts seem to be a lot wider. What am I doing wrong? Are new blades not sharpened? Am I doing something wrong? Last night I spent over 2 hours sharpening, and stropping the blades and no change in my cutting ability. I am totally flustered and confused. This should not be this difficult.

[Northmount]

Is the edge truly sharp, faces polished so there are practically no scratches?

Is the leather properly cased? Too wet is no good, and of course dry isn't any good either.

Close up in-focus pictures of the blades both profile and flat, as well as of your cuts would help someone here to give you good direction.

Tom

[electrathon]

My first question is what you are using for a stone. Stropping is only done to keep it sharp, sharpening makes it sharp. You sould be able to sharpen a blade in just a few minutes, never more than a handfull.

What grit stones and what kind of stones? What are you using on the stone and is the stone flat on the top?

Aaron

[charlescrawford]

The stone I have been using is a double sided stone we got at Home Depot. One side is rough grit and the other side is smoother both are blue if that helps. Our local Home Depot that's the only sharpening stone they carry. It is for knives, chisels and other tools in the profile face of each side of the blades there are a couple marks but most of it is shiny and reflective.

[Blake]

A dumb question, But are you casing the leather? Also, what angle are you using on your blades?

Blake

[Chief31794]

The stone at home depot is too coarse for doing swivel knife sharpening. I use diamond stones and in 400, 1200, and 2000 grits. You can use wet dry sand paper in 400, 1800, 1200, 2000, and 2500 progressively to get the swivel knife blade sharp. Is the sharpening jig made for swivel knives? If not, I recommend you get one of those as well. Sharpening is a skill that almost borders on being an art. If you are having trouble, I think some of the tool manufacturers will sharpen your blades for you.

You could also replace the blades with ceramic blades, they don't require any sharpening, just stropping to keep them clean.

Chief

[charlescrawford]

Yes the leather has been cased and I wait for it to come back to its pre casing color.

The Home Depot stone is a wet stone you use oil on it when are sharpening on it. I may try to find someone to sharpen them tomorrow that way I know it has been done right.

The jig I use to strop and sharpen is one I got from tandy

[Northmount]

Homedepot has several diamond sharpening "stones" like this http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=203381318&R=203381318#.UMU9BXy9KSM

You need extra fine, so need to research a little to find the best. Also consider higher end woodworking tool stores.

There are several threads here on sharpening swivel knives. Do a search for them.

Tom

[electrathon]

The Tandy jig works well, but you definatly are on way too course of a stone. Minimun 1200 and should be pushing 2000 grit. Wet/dry sandpaper glued to glass works if you do not have a proper diamond stone.

[charlescrawford]

Thanks for all the info I will do some searching tomorrow now that I know what to look for

[King's X]

Spend $15 bucks and buy a Barry King blade to fit your Tandy Craftool knife. In the mean time, head over to Leather Wrangler's website and check out Paul's video or tutorial on sharpening a swivel knife blade. There way too many things that could be going wrong to try and diagnose without seeing what you are doing. Unless you are dealing with a flat blade or one with a chip in the cutting surface the coarse is way to aggressive to use out of the gate. My lowest size stone is 600 grit and I go up to 8000.

Good luck!

[charlescrawford]

So I went over to our local knife shop at our mall today and the owner is going to sharpen my blades. I even learned how to properly strop using my tandy jig. I was using the whole strop going forward one end to the other then backwards end to end. He told me just to go backwards that you never go forwards when stropping.

I even found the Saral paper at our small Podunk JoAnn Fabrics. They only had the sample packs but it has enough paper to last a while and you can reuse it several times which my wallet likes. The sample pack ran $7.99 and has 5 sheets of 4 different types.

I also got a 1/4 inch Filigree blade in today's mail from tandy that was pre sharpened now I know what swivel knives are suppose to feel and cut like. I am going to buy some more blades from the king website later in the week that someone linked to above. I see from the site that for each size there is a "thick" and a "thin" listed does this refer to how thick the cut is? Like a thin cuts a thin path where a thick cuts a much wider path? That is the first site I have seen the thick and thin blades. The only thing I don't get is how one blade runs $8.00 in shipping.

[Sylvia]

Charles: One of the best pieces of advise I ever got on here was when someone told me to use a felt tip pen and darken the edges of my blades before I attempt to sharpen. This little bit of info shows immediately what your problem is, especially if you are getting the angle off. If your angle is off... you are not sharpening... no matter how many strokes you do. Also this may seem intuitive for some but it needs to be said. "Push to sharpen, pull to strop"

Regarding"thick/thin blades... that refers to the thickness of the blade itself. I prefer a thinner blade for most things.

[charlescrawford]

Sylvia

Thanks for the tip. When I dropped the blades off to be sharpened he measured the angles and said he had butter knives sharper then my blades.

So I see on YouTube guys using a swivel knife that looks to cut a wider swath then others how are they doing that? Is it a special kind of blade?

[electrathon]

Sylvia

Thanks for the tip. When I dropped the blades off to be sharpened he measured the angles and said he had butter knives sharper then my blades.

So I see on YouTube guys using a swivel knife that looks to cut a wider swath then others how are they doing that? Is it a special kind of blade?

Wider blades cut a wider V in the leather. Thick leather helps too.

[immiketoo]

Charles, everyone here has given great advice. One other thing is that Bruce is a MASTER leather carver. Of course its going to look effortless. Carve for about 30 years and you will look like that too. Not to take away from anyone else's comments here. They are all valid, but time behind the knife is important too.