mattfish
Active Member
I appreciate the info now I have someone to blame for my new obsession.
Dean's been blamed for all sorts of stuff. That's part of being a good teacher I suppose.Oh man, you are giving me way too much credit for what I do. (!)
A couple years ago I read a BUNCH about knife sharpening and what I learned is that there are many different ways of accomplishing the task of 'sharpening' a blade. What is important is to know what is actually happening when you sharpen a blade - material is removed, a bevel or wedge shaped is formed, and the very edge of the blade should be true. If you look at the long axis of a laser-sharpened razorblade under an electron microscope it appears to be a jagged plateau as opposed to a nice image of a super-fine "V" shape. Broken glass or obsidian when broken is able to go all the way down to a single MOLECULE along it's blade length, that is sharp! We can never accomplish that mechanically no matter what we try to do.
My purpose in using a steel or ceramic stick as the final step is simply to align the steel fibers at the very end of the blade, trying to make it more 'obsidian like'.
You can do the same with a strop, but it is easier for me to do with a sharpening steel or ceramic rod because it is easier for me to keep the angle the same throughout the process.
I think many people have a tough time because they try to rush the process. Sandpaper and other sharpening tools should cut and remove metal not just push your burr to the other side of the blade. This happens if you press too hard and will frustrate you in the long run.
Three-blade heads get sharp but don't feel as sharp as two blade heads because the sharpened angle of the long axis of the blade is less accute; 33.5 degrees vs 20 degrees or so. It is sharp, just doesn't 'feel' sharp. Some folks change the end bevel of 3-blade heads by sharpening them on a conical stone. E.g., fine sandpaper glued to a pipe, this will give you less than a 30 degree angle and the head will feel sharper to you.
I read an article YEARS ago by Dean Torges on sharpening plane blades and cabinet scrapers to help my (then) bowmaking hobby - God bless Dean, but I blame him on this sharpening quest of mine...
I mean a dull knife can still cut but it loses momentum along the way.... I like a sharp broadhead, not like shave your face sharp but definitely sharp enough for a clean cut, of course I’m a single bevel fixed blade guy so.......I cant lie, this summer I fell into the heavy arrow, fixed head fad. After tinkering with it all summer long, and never seeing the light, I went back to a well balanced arrow with a fixed 3 blade broadhead. Now, I have killed two deer thus far with this set up and I could not be happier. One was a quartering away doe at 30, zipped through her and stuck 6 inches in the dirt. The second was last night, and it was another doe at 20 yards. Well I left my range finder in the truck, so I shot the deer a touch high. The arrow blew through the bottom of the spine and hit a rock on the ground which sent sparks flying everywhere (I had no clue what had happened). This dulled my G5 Montec M3 pretty good.
Now I catch myself sitting here trying to get this broadhead sharp enough to cut leather, because once again, I been watching too much youtube. I cleaned the edges up to make them even again, but for some reason these heads will NOT get as sharp as others I have shot in the past. So, I'm sitting here getting irritated, and it dawned on me that the dang thing wasn't that sharp out of the pack. With the tip of these heads being so sharp, I honestly cant see myself having any issues with the cutting surface not doing damage as it flies through vitals at 285 FPS.
Anybody else seem to get caught up in the latest and greatest things that we consume on the You Tube? I fight it all the time. Its crazy that two years ago I was killing deer with expandables, in a big heavy lock on lol. Now it makes me cringe