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3D printed cutthroat sharpener

heretic

heretic

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2018
Messages
608
Location
Missouri
So it turns out that I'm only okay-ish at hand sharpening two bladed broadheads. Good enough for government work on a knife blade but not good enough to make a broadhead scary sharp. I looked into the kme broadhead sharpeners but after scoffing at the price I figured that money would be better spent on other hunting gear.

I modeled up a kme inspired sharpener for my 150 grain cutthroats and posted it on thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4559963
I used a #10-24 x 3/4" machine screw and nut for the clamping force, but I think you could probably get away with a 1/2" screw. It's designed to be ambidextrous so right/left bevel shouldn't matter. My only concern is how the geometry changes between the different sized broadheads.

NOTE: when grinding your initial bevel, be sure to focus pressure on the leading edge of the broadhead and not the trailing edge of the sharpener. It turns out rough stones tend to eat away at PLA better than they do hardened steel, who knew? :tearsofjoy:
 
What's the title for the project in Thingiverse? The link doesn't work.

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My wife works at a shaving supply store (Maggards), and sharpening straight razors is a normal thing there. I'm gonna have no problem getting good stones, buffing compound, strops, or even instruction. The problem will be the angle. I bought a guide to solve that problem.

Makes me wonder if I could make a broadhead that uses double edge safety razor blades somehow, because they're wicked sharp, cheeeap (5/$.75) and easy to replace.



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JBDaddy said:
Makes me wonder if I could make a broadhead that uses double edge safety razor blades somehow, because they're wicked sharp, cheeeap (5/$.75) and easy to replace.
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Click to expand...
Early on back when I first started bowhunting, (45 years ago) broadheads that used razor blades were common. They were sharp but didn't hold up well past the rib cage.
 
@heretic Thanks for sharing - It looks good.
How did you combat the material loss of the guide hitting the sharpener?
Adding a photo for those interested
Screenshot 2020-08-03 10.26.01.png
 
j_laucks said:
@heretic Thanks for sharing - It looks good.
How did you combat the material loss of the guide hitting the sharpener?
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting a photo, I know it takes some time for thingiverse to render a preview of the part.

For combatting material loss: The majority of your loss will be at your coarser stones. The trailing edge did wear down a couple of milimeters before the second larger face takes the brunt of the force. At which point the surface area is much larger and loss becomes negligible. If you focus your pressure on the leading edge of the broadhead (as mentioned in the OP), the trailing edge will last longer.

What you see in the photo is the first revision to the design with a trailing edge that is twice as wide as the first version. This should help reduce loss since the surface area of the trailing edge is much larger.
 
heretic said:
Thanks for posting a photo, I know it takes some time for thingiverse to render a preview of the part.

For combatting material loss: The majority of your loss will be at your coarser stones. The trailing edge did wear down a couple of milimeters before the second larger face takes the brunt of the force. At which point the surface area is much larger and loss becomes negligible. If you focus your pressure on the leading edge of the broadhead (as mentioned in the OP), the trailing edge will last longer.

What you see in the photo is the first revision to the design with a trailing edge that is twice as wide as the first version. This should help reduce loss since the surface area of the trailing edge is much larger.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback and for sharing the file for the members here to give it a try!
 
Come on guys. There is a guy working hard to provide a cheap sharpener (Stay Sharp) and selling them for a cheap $20 each. Sure there is some satisfaction in DIY but throw the guy bone. I can tell you he ain't making any money selling those sharpeners. Plus, his has a roller to eliminate the wearing down this DIY one will have.

 
ricky racer said:
Come on guys. There is a guy working hard to provide a cheap sharpener (Stay Sharp) and selling them for a cheap $20 each. Sure there is some satisfaction in DIY but throw the guy bone. I can tell you he ain't making any money selling those sharpeners. Plus, his has a roller to eliminate the wearing down this DIY one will have.

Click to expand...

I just bought one if these wednesday! His site was down for a bit but it’s back up and running now.


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ricky racer said:
Come on guys. There is a guy working hard to provide a cheap sharpener (Stay Sharp) and selling them for a cheap $20 each. Sure there is some satisfaction in DIY but throw the guy bone. I can tell you he ain't making any money selling those sharpeners. Plus, his has a roller to eliminate the wearing down this DIY one will have.

Click to expand...
It's not like I'm mass producing these and selling them off for five bucks a pop (which based on flat-rate shipping from USPS, would be selling at a loss). For every one person who would download this and print their own, I would imagine there's at least 10-20 more people who would rather just buy one from Innovative Outdoorsman and save themselves the hassle (spoiler alert, there's been only six downloads thus far). That same logic applies to pretty much anything in the DIY section: platforms, saddles, sticks, etc etc.

Don't make me design a roller out of spite ;)
 
ricky racer said:
Come on guys. There is a guy working hard to provide a cheap sharpener (Stay Sharp) and selling them for a cheap $20 each. Sure there is some satisfaction in DIY but throw the guy bone. I can tell you he ain't making any money selling those sharpeners. Plus, his has a roller to eliminate the wearing down this DIY one will have.

Click to expand...
Have you used these specifically with cutthroats? Does it work with the angle of them?
 
To be clear, i was not suggesting you should just go buy one. Im a diy nut. I was more suggesting that you could look at a proven design and tweak yours if needed.

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