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Post by bensta96 on Jul 5, 2014 17:24:11 GMT
looking to get a sharpening kit what should i get ? , (i have basically no experience in sharpening and have patience but not a insane amount of it)
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Post by crazywolf on Jul 5, 2014 18:10:05 GMT
I went with water stones got a set of them used.I have had good luck with them but then I did know how to sharpen.there are a lot of good videos on how to sharpen check them out and go from there.depending on what sword you have and what you cut it may be a while before you have to sharpen.good luck with it.
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Post by LG Martial Arts on Jul 5, 2014 18:35:19 GMT
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Post by bensta96 on Jul 5, 2014 19:46:34 GMT
will the belt sander harm the temper and if not how would i use it , would i still neeed to go over it with stones, etc ?
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Post by LG Martial Arts on Jul 5, 2014 20:33:18 GMT
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Post by Arwyn on Jul 9, 2014 18:08:37 GMT
Belt sander works well, but yes, you do need to watch the heat. In most cases, if you are just touching up the edge, and you use a fine grit belt, it wont get too hot. If you are doing major recutting/reshaping of the edge due to damage, you want to make sure you have something to cool the blade with.
If you go with a sander, go slow, go fine (on belts), and operate with "less is more". Better to go too light and have to make another pass, than too heavy and lose too much steel.
Stones are more work, but you have to work at it to do any real damage to the steel, so its easier to learn on compared to the belt sander.
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Post by Voltan on Jul 9, 2014 18:13:56 GMT
I use the belt sander to sharpen exclusively. For smaller pieces, I keep a pitcher of cold water nearby for cooling. For long blades, I fill a large ice chest with cold water. After each full pass on the sander, I touch the flat of the blade on my forearm. If it's warm, dunk the blade to cool it off. The key word is WARM...don't let it get hot!
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Post by Gakuseinozen on Jul 12, 2014 7:36:00 GMT
Will the belt sander effectively remove a secondary bevel if one is present? If so, is any special technique necessary, or just the standard "hold blade at 20 degrees and run the edge along the belt"?
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Post by Voltan on Jul 12, 2014 16:23:18 GMT
I feel it's the best way to do just that. As far as angle, it depends on how steep the existing bevel is. It's hard to explain...I just "eyeball" it---I'll study the existing edge, and just take my time. After each pass on the belt, I look closely at my progress and adjust my angles accordingly. Also, I now use blue painter's tape to mark off the blades I work on. This way, the edge of the tape marks the highest point of contact where I want the belt to first touch the blade.
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Post by bensta96 on Jul 12, 2014 17:28:23 GMT
after sharpening with the belt and all how do you restore the finish of the blade ?
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Post by Voltan on Jul 12, 2014 17:47:54 GMT
That's another reason I'm using the tape now...to keep the belts from scuffing the blade above the edge. As far as the edge itself, I go up to 1200 grit, and finish with a leather strop belt with green honing compound. Often my edges have a higher polish than the rest of the blade. A good blade sharpener I am...a blade polisher, I most certainly am NOT.
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Post by Voltan on Jul 13, 2014 5:00:01 GMT
I should've mentioned this in my first post, as Arwyn's comment about learning the belt sander reminded me...for me, the best way to get good on the belt sander was practice, and lots of it. I scrounged the house for any old, beat up knives or the like. Kitchen, fixed blade, folders, anything that wouldn't be a loss if I damaged it. I called my Dad and got any "junk" blades he didn't want. The more you use the belt sander, the better you become at judging your angles. I actually find the work therapeutic. I get in the zone, and become absorbed in my work. It takes my mind off the stresses and rigors of life outside of this wonderful hobby of ours... I've also found that even the finer grit belts (1200 is the highest I use) as well as the leather strop belt can warm up the blade too, so the cooling tray is a must in my opinion. I hope this is helpful for you.
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Razor
Senior Forumite
Posts: 1,883
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Post by Razor on Jul 13, 2014 18:34:58 GMT
There is a lot of different way to use this belt sander, but this is something I wouldn't(I edit would to wouldn't because I forgot to put the n't there lol) do. From everything that I read and what people have told me and then when youtube came in the picture, they all said never have the edge up like what he is doing in the video. Now with him laying it down like that, I have a friend who does that and likes it better than standing up. I personally like my belt sander standing upright and sharpening with the edge down. I have instructions that says never sharp edge up, the edge should never opposite the movement of the belt and could throw the tool from the machine, causing the tool to become a DANGEROUS projectile.
Yes but it really depends on the blade and the secondary bevel what you can do because every blade isn't the same.
I use black sand paper and 3 in 1 oil and I always start with a lower sand paper grit than the on I used on the belt sander. Just try not to run the sand paper over your sharpen edge.
On a sword with a good/ proper edge geometry you should mess up your finish on the blade. you just want to touch up the edge. Now on sword like Windlass, DSA, and Del Tin that come with a 1mm to 2mm edge, the blade or edge geometry isn't quite finished. This is probably when you start hitting the blade finish but it also depends on the blade and what would be the best geometry.
I fix the edge geometry on Todash's DSA very bad secondary bevel, that DSA did. I chanced the geometry of the blade to a lenticular geometry, a very strong and sharp edge. But to do it I had to mess up the finish and I sharpened her VA sword that has a good blade geometry and I didn't even mess up her finish at all.
So it really depends on the blade to how you are going to sharpen it.
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Post by LG Martial Arts on Jul 13, 2014 18:51:26 GMT
Yep, my bad... :oops: I was in a rush when looking for appropriate videos and chose the 1st one I found on youtube. I agree that you should never sharpen a knife, sword, or whatever with the blade up into the belt, because like you mentioned, it can knock it out of your hands and cause major damage/create a dangerous situation. Sorry about that.
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Post by bensta96 on Jul 23, 2014 3:31:18 GMT
does any one have any video examples of sharpening with the belt sander then polishing the blade because im still confused as to exactly what to do
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Aikidoka
Member
Monstrous monk in training...
Posts: 1,452
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Post by Aikidoka on Jul 23, 2014 6:34:47 GMT
There was a recent post on this forum that had a link to a video of Mike Edelson using a belt sander to sharpen a sword: /thread/40430I've sharpened 3 swords so far following his advice and the results have been good. I haven't experienced any major scuffing from the belt sander, but if I did need to polish one of the swords, I would try to match the original polish while avoiding the edge, as Razor mentioned. The Borderwatch sword that I sharpened on the belt sander has the standard Albion satin finish that can be reproduced with the gray ultra-fine Scotch Brite pads and a little 3-in-1 oil. Albion recommends running the pad parallel to the edge in one direction (hilt to tip) and repeating until the finish is restored. In the past, when I have used sandpaper to hand sharpen blades, I would use sandpaper in the same way (hilt to tip) to bring back the original polish. And again, the grit should be appropriate to the original finish if you want it to look consistent. My Hanwei blades (Tinker Medieval sword and the Rhinelander), for example, have a very coarse finish.
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Post by aussie-rabbit on Jul 23, 2014 10:29:53 GMT
The belt sander is a good choice with fine and very fine grit belts. 400 to 2500 - I even have 5000 grit belts
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Scott
Member
Posts: 1,676
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Post by Scott on Jul 23, 2014 13:29:10 GMT
Ok, dumb question time. From what I've read, using a bench grinder or an angle grinder for sharpening is a big no no. Why?
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Post by aussie-rabbit on Jul 24, 2014 3:39:31 GMT
Very rapid removal of metal with consequent heat generation, most angle grinders run at +5000 revs and you probably will never see a disk with fine enough grit, don't be impatient, a good edge takes time and very fine grit paper/belts.
If you want to try grab a garden spade and try to put a fine polished edge on it.
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Scott
Member
Posts: 1,676
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Post by Scott on Jul 24, 2014 4:55:08 GMT
So it's the rapid removal of metal and heat build up. Thanks for that. I'm guessing that even a sanding disk would generate too much heat due to high speed? Must say I wasn't planning to try sharpening a sword with an angle grinder any time soon.
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