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Post by YlliwCir on Jul 18, 2009 16:53:44 GMT
I have never contacted KOA regarding whether they sharpen in house or not. I have ordered Windlass blades sharpened from both MRL and KOA. They are identical, leading me to believe they came from the same source (MRL). The speed with which I have received the sharp from KOA also indicates that they keep some Windlass sharps on hand or at least the one sent to me.
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Post by Tom K. (ianflaer) on Jul 18, 2009 17:01:05 GMT
good info Ric. yeah KOA is silly fast to ship most of the time. kinda like Bugs Bunny mail order.
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Post by YlliwCir on Jul 18, 2009 17:09:12 GMT
good info Ric. yeah KOA is silly fast to ship most of the time. kinda like Bugs Bunny mail order. Yeah, I know, Tom. I got a sword from them once in 30 hours or so, regular shipping. Made me think if I'd used the fast shipping, it woulda got here afore I ordered it.
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Post by Tom K. (ianflaer) on Jul 18, 2009 17:12:08 GMT
I think I'll try that someday. maybe now that I've thought about it I have a sword on the way. I think we may be on to something here!
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Post by hotspur on Jul 18, 2009 17:37:40 GMT
Hi Tom,
I bet they put a secondary bevel on it too! lol
Actually, not the case for me. If anything, using those options have blended the edge to the primary grind even more. In my ordinary tuning whether, file, stone, diamond or ceramic; I am typically holding (or bracing the point on something) a sword then running up the edge in sections or full strokes. That tends to round an edge shoulder anyway, so that even if it might have started as a crisp and finely defined angle, it blends. It is that angle to a primary bevel that makes the major difference in apparent performance. There are a lot of other reasons a given sword may not perform like one in a different ballpark. I have continued to use a small flat EZ-Lap and a way old ceramic with different surfaces to stroke my PK. That is still a very low angle to that grind and although applied several times now, has left but that hairline final edge that would dissapear if I bothered to spend more time polishing.
Then there are hollow grinds that absolutely end up with a secondary grind. It is easier to me to regard those edges as grinds and not bevels because it is that final angle or radius that one would address in sharpening or modifying. My old Blackjack is a convex grind as well and there are multiple solutions folk have mentioned as "how to" tutorials but in the end, simply keeping them sharp is a lot easier than creating an edge from scratch. I have played with mouse pads and papers, yet keep going back to stones and the basics.
Somewhere back in the Gus discussions at SFI, folk will read that Gus used to go as obtuse as 60 degrees (30/30) as inclusive. A general rule of thumb from ye olde Boy Scout manual calls for a great deal less but I don't recall exactly. Mebbe 30 inclusive is what folk have/had been taught about general knife lore. Even back then though, the differences in grinds were apparent to me in handling old Western brand fixed blades, Marbles and on to a lot of axe play in the sixties.
Many modern produciton katana (and even western types) have so little niku that one might as well be viewing the proposition as just grind everything flat to the blade surface. The thing is that one can lose the original intent pretty quick in lots of stock removal. Tinker recently goes on briefly about rolling an edge and that is really no difference than blending a crisp bevel to begin with. You can see that a little in my XIIIa pictures above. An original Jason Dingledine secondary bevel and one that has broadened in appearance simply in my attentions in longwise stroking. My reproduction sabre is probably pretty ugly lookin' from my grinding with file and stone but it cuts like sin That started as blunt and was started with an Accusharp to save some time in first getting the bevels to meet. It might be prettier if I polish it entirely but may find I actually lose a little toothiness in the process.
In the end, a lot of it becomes a very subjective preference in tool use. I try to keep open to alternatives and have tried a few more handy but have really not changed my methodology a great deal in more recent years, now dealing with longer edges.
Cheers
Hotspur; I do know Gus' swords are sharp enough one will want at least a good handy flat diamond hone for tune ups. Don't wait until it gets too dull
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