• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Thoughts on getting broadheads insanely sharp?

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...
Dean's been blamed for all sorts of stuff. That's part of being a good teacher I suppose.
 
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
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.......
 
Man I wish I could recall who makes my adjustable broadhead sharpener that has two 600 grit diamond hones. I have used it to Resharpen many of my beloved Wasp Boss SST 3 Blade FBBH and before that it was NAP TH 3 blade FBBH been using it for over 25 years now
It was designed to sharpen most two and 3 blade FBBH designs common back then works great on my Wasps as well
What's great about it is you don't have to take your FBBH apart to touch up your blades
I can get a knife scarry scarry hair popping sharp so I know what sharp is and admittedly it doesn't get them quite that sharp but sharp enough so that the slightest forwsrd contact with a stretched rubberband cuts it instantly
I also use a clamp you can buy to sharpen re-sharpen individual BH blades and 1k and 1200 grit sand paper works darn good also
Can be bought on eBay very reasonably priced
I use a 18"x18" piece of 3/4 plywood to staple my sandpaper to and use the roller wedge to re- sharpen my blades on
I even sharpen my brand new BH this way. Might be luck but don't recall a double lung hit deer yet I had any issues with not leaving a good enough blood trail since going to the 3 bladed Wasp Boss SST's
 
Back
Top