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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2011 5:06:53 GMT
This is AMAZING so glad i found this ._. ive been using a small stone for a LONG time it takes hours (works well but WAY too long and not a great idea for polishing ) Thank you Tom, you have saved me so much time i shall start practicing this soon, Maybe you deserve the title of Epic. lol.
The only downside for me is that my musashi rosewood shirasaya has such a lovely fake hamon xP
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TomK
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Post by TomK on Mar 19, 2011 9:03:16 GMT
I bet you'll like it better when it is sharp though. A necessary sacrifice I'd say. ok actually I'd say "fake hamon? ick! it'll look better with out it." but hey we all have our opinions. I'm glad to have helped, as you practice and learn feel free to share your experiences. no one here is so high and mighty they can't learn something from pretty much anybody. heck wasn't long ago I had no idea how to do this either. I just read the guides I found on line and practiced until I got it right.
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Post by chrisperoni on Mar 19, 2011 15:12:15 GMT
Sure does help having tons of swords to practice on too  |
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Post by Northern Wanderer on Jul 7, 2011 13:03:31 GMT
Excellent in depth videos TomK, thank you - have a karma on me. now I've got to sharpen every steel surface in the house for practice before my new H/T arrives, apparently, they can be rather hard and quite blunt, and a blunt in my collection simply wont do.
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TomK
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Post by TomK on Jul 7, 2011 13:20:44 GMT
Good for you! no dull steel for you! I'm glad my videos helped I'm always around to answer any questions I can.
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Post by kasim18 on Dec 3, 2011 17:56:08 GMT
hello Mr.K, i am not exactly new to COLLECTING swords, but i have never actually sharpened one. My question is about your first video, i have zero experience, so to my eye, it looked like you said to run the blade on the bare wood. is this the case, or do you run it on the sandpaper? also, what grit(s) should i use from start to finish. I have or can acquire any of this stuff, but right now, my only option is an accusharp, and they seem to be generally hated on the forum, so they must suck. thanks
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Post by kasim18 on Dec 3, 2011 18:00:04 GMT
oh wait, i watched again and read the description more carefully, i'm all set, sorry for the stupid questions. excellent tutorial
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Post by Aldartith Thinntrew on Apr 7, 2012 20:17:27 GMT
Tom,
If one wants a sword to be cutting sharp, but not razor sharp (to avoid folding the edge), are there any steps in your hand sharpening guide that should be omitted or altered or should one simply do a single pass on each step?
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TomK
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Post by TomK on Apr 8, 2012 15:52:20 GMT
if you are working it by hand you will have a very hard time getting it razor sharp no matter what you do.
if you are using a belt sander all you need to do is adjust the angle a little bit. I generally follow the bevel of the blade but you can always roll the blade a little to blend the angle from what the maker built in to a steeper angle and that will give you a tougher edge. I've done this several times. all you have to do is lift the back or spine/center of the blade away from the belt a little more until you get the angle you want. in most cases even swords that are razor sharp coming off the belts are no in any way delicate. the curvature of the belt naturally give the edge a convex shape which is very sturdy. you have to really work to get an edge that is so thin as to be delicate unless you are starting with a sword that has very narrow bevels like maybe a competition geometry katana like Hanwei XL series or a wide type XVIII or something.
good luck and don't be shy about posting more questions
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Post by Aldartith Thinntrew on Apr 9, 2012 17:25:24 GMT
Thanks very much, and I won't be!
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Post by wolf_shade on Apr 20, 2012 16:15:03 GMT
If a sword is already at the correct geometry and just needs a touch up, would you just use the 1200 and strop? would just the strop likely be sufficient?
Is anyone aware of a location to get higher than 1200 grit (or something between 1200 and 500 grit) 1"x30" belts?
Does the belt sander remove the need to have intermediate grits because of the speed at which it works?
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Post by willhart on Apr 20, 2012 17:34:54 GMT
Just a disclaimer. I'm not an expert at all. I've only sharpened only 3 swords so far and 2 have been shaving sharp, which I test shaving hair off my arm to test the sharpness. I've practiced on a Cold Steel Kurki for practice because my friend gave me one. I bought some Trizact Belts from Lee Valley. They're amazing when you get them. Completely uniform and people say they last a lot longer than the normal Aluminum Oxide ones. They're also double the price. I'm pretty sure they go up to almost 2000+ grit. It's 6 micron, which I think converts to supposedly inbetween 2800-4500 micron, according to the internets. But I'm not an expert on this. www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=66268&cat=1,43072 Now I've also bought these Micro-Mesh belts, which can be used to polish things to a mirror polish. They go up to 12,000 grit. They seem to work and create a weird smell, which must be the shaving of metal off into micro fine particals. They do not create grinding sparks like my other belts. micro-surface.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=273_197&products_id=91&zenid=0d355f6d39995389db30c62e633347d3On a side note, I want to now sharpen my lawn mower blade with a convex edge. Going up in grit would probably make the blade last longer anyways, but the blade only has one angle. Anyone put 2 angles on a lawn mower blade? |
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TomK
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Post by TomK on Apr 23, 2012 19:51:58 GMT
no matter what, I always start with 400/500 grit and establish a bur edge then I use 800, 1200, then leather strop. I find that the lower grits establish the edge better and you end up with a cleaner edge with much less effort. if a blade is in good enough shape that a 1000 grit belt would be good enough to start with then it doesn't need to be sharpened yet. I get all my belts from: www.trugrit.com/they have pretty much everything and at better prices than most places. |
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Post by willhart on Apr 23, 2012 21:33:33 GMT
So this is just my experience with a sharpening job I did this weekend.
I bought a Hanwei Tinker Longsword and it came with a an almost 60 degree beveled edge. It was horrible. I tried to file them bevel off and then take it to the belt sander, but that wasn't even close to being enough.
What I did was using a sharpie pen (permanent pen) colored the whole edge of the blade. I then spent 2 full hours going back and forth on the belt sander with a 160 grit Norton Blaze sanding belt. I must have taken a few ounces off the blade with the amount of black powder under the belt sander. But it wasn't until the 50th or 60th pass, did I start to hit the actual edge of the blade and took off the sharpie marks (2 hours of going back and forth with a 160 grit sanding belt). I think using the sharpie for me really helped understand when I was hitting the actual blade vs hitting the edge.
Anyways, I don't know how you guys would take metal off hard steel like the Hanwei Tinkers without such a low grit, unless you use a file. And this is just to shape the geometry of the sword. I used the backplate with the sander which put more tension on the belt so I could push a little harder and still allow the belt to give a little. I didn't use the portion of the belt that was directly against the backplate much.
Anyways, I think the blade turned out great. Thanks Tom
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Post by Striderfly on May 30, 2012 7:24:45 GMT
By the way, the single angle on the lawnmower blade is to create a directional vacuum that sucks the grass up into the bag.
If you were really asking. . .
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Post by Sir Thorfinn on Oct 2, 2012 0:18:40 GMT
And then....when you want to examine the edge you've put on, *very closely*, Amazon has cheap LED adjustable 100x microscopes for about 10.00. It may sound overkill, but if you examine (at least parts) the blade between grits, you will see whole different worlds.
It took me 10 years to realize sharpening is the same as polishing. Just decide how well you want to polish.
I bet i'm the only one on SBG that looks at his edges with one of these...
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Post by chrisperoni on Oct 13, 2013 15:38:32 GMT
this needs to be stickied at the front of this section
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Post by willhart on Oct 14, 2013 18:18:27 GMT
Wow this is an old bump, but incase anyone was wondering, I did sharpen my lawn mower blade and following Striderfly's suggestion of only sharpening one side. I didn't go up the grit levels too much like I would a sword, but it still works perfectly. I'm guessing I have the sharpest lawn mower blade on the block now  |
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Post by Adrian Jordan on Aug 17, 2019 18:10:36 GMT
Bump.
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Post by Curtis_Louis on Aug 17, 2019 18:15:00 GMT
Funny! I just linked this thread in the Beginners Forum. My favorite sharpening thread. |
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