pgandy
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Post by pgandy on Jul 5, 2020 18:24:53 GMT
Congratulations on your new sword. I wouldn't go experimenting with the edge until it needed sharpening, and then? Cross that bridge when you get there.
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Post by howler on Jul 5, 2020 20:22:03 GMT
Nice, enjoy that ZT...but if you hammer on it I'll slap ya. You can put a keener edge on it but you always run the risk of weaker, so you have to decide what you want. uh,,, I wouldn't try to do that,,,, I would only try it on edges that DON'T work well. ,,,, if the sword is getting sharp, then why would I benefit from doing something other than standard sharpening>?? anyway,,, that's NOT the story with every blade i have, although some of them are better than others. let me rewind. I have a bunch of cheapo swords. I even have a few that are literally just meant for costumes, but I got those on accident. SOME of them are embarassingly soft,, they are tempered soft. (ok, not tempered is probably a better description, but I imagine they HAVE a temper, just not a BLADE temper). ,,, SOME of the swords are described as "real swords", or "battle ready", but when I sharpen them they still don't work to cut. THey can cut milk jugs, but my other swords (take the zt for example) just cut automatically. Then some of them just DON'T get sharp. you literally lose the edge on ONE cut on paper. you FEEL the blade rubbing off while cutting the paper. (like the way you feel sanding remove the wood). SO,,,,,, for these "other than serviceable" blades,,, which may potentially cut with enough practice, I may consider trying to do some oddball things like peening them or blowtorching them just to see exactly what DOES happen. For example i have a seconds quality balaur arms 12th century arming sword with a twisted blade. I can't cut for shinola with it. I cut like, a shampoo bottle from how soft they are. Another example is a stainless steel costume gladius. I tried peening that today, jsut an inch of it, and I sharpened it after, and I noticed no change, it cuts paper (better than the balaur) just the same as the portions which I did not hammer on. I didn't hammer it very well, but the dang steel is actually harder I think than some carbon steels. I also have some ordinary mild steel stuff I made that I probably will try it more legitimately on. also I was thinking about cold-hammering some mild steel bar into a blade, and seeing how long that takes. well, one problem I have is the neighbors. I live in hawaii, which is very densely populated, and everyone is all close, and I stand next to a steel shipping container and echo into approx. 100 or so families dwellings.... I don't do it for very long or very often. it's like someones over my shoulder for every hit. therefore, , I thought i would talk about it first...... (the bar by now is pretty much scrap, so I can really do as I please) I was just goofing you on hammering the ZT . No reason not to bang away on your El-Cheapo swords just to satisfy experimental itch. Don't know ZT Sharkalope edge, but was meaning that, for instance, one can perhaps change a flat grind to an even narrower convex and maybe that would keep or increase sharpness while enhancing anti-chip robustness (that would be the type of experiments I'd engage in.
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Post by RaylonTheDemented on Jul 5, 2020 20:53:54 GMT
It would be interesting for the community members for you to make a video of your sharpening methods.
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Post by tsmspace on Jul 5, 2020 23:07:38 GMT
It would be interesting for the community members for you to make a video of your sharpening methods. well I have some sharpening dimaond plates and some stones and some files. It is pretty standard, with the only variation being that instead of where some have the stone on a stand and move the sword, I am generally more likely to hold the sword in one hand and the stone in the other hand and sit cross legged and then it really depends. If I'm filing it's more aggressive and then I start polishing from rougher to smoother stones and get more gentle as I get closer to finishing. THe quality of the edge (if the sword is going to be able to take an edge thats nice) might stand for some improvement but that will just take more practice, but I get blades to be really sharp, if not necessarily consistent in bevel angle. I don't ONLY have blades that don't cut. I have some that cut really well. Some came sharp and all I do is hone them up occasionally, some I sharpened from blunt. When I sharpen from blunt I admit I get a bit of scratching on the blade, but it doesn't hinder the good cutters in any way, so I'm confident that it is probably not the problem with the bad cutters,,,,, the problem is the metal is not as good at being a sharp blade. ------ for these blades that do not cut very well,,,, I am probably eventually going to monkey around and see what happens. I have already monkeyed with bevel angle on a few of them, going very obtuse and very thin, and I've also thinned the overall blade a few times, both by powered grinding and by using a stone. Mostly I don't seem to care how thick the blade is because I'm only cutting bottles,,, it just matters exactly how capable the metal is of being a cutter. --------- I am aware that you can buy premium swords that really cut on par with quality knives, as mentioned above my sharkalope is now two days old, but I will stand by it having a premium edge capability. I have a weapon edge which is always more fun every day, but really takes a swing to cut with, even though I made a very nice edge on it, a universal swords which is similar, a few windlass which remarkably are NOT that way, and cut very well, some shinwa which although bend easily cut like professionals, a sokojikara t-10 which although chipped on a log still takes the win for best razor blade at 30". interestingly I'm not shopping for katanas and wakazashis right now, I mean at some point I'm just not in for that one at the moment, maybe later. I AM shopping for small one-handed swords more in the vein of arming sword to machete. I look at up to rapier, because I think a rapier is probably difficult to cut with and would present a unique challenge,,, I probably should quit talking about it and get a nice jian ,, ,, but that starts to enter the territory of nice katana, where we are talking about a really nice blade, what a shame to own one,,, its like you say. This guy seems to want to get a hammer and pound his sword all messed up, what's his problem. so, having said all of that I have all of these bars of metal, some of which are already good, some are not, and I could play around with the junk. One thing I thought about recently (the start of this thread) was using a hammer to "work" the edge and then see if that lets it get more sharp. It doesn't seem like anyone has any relevant experience beyond peening the scythe, but then if you peen a scythe, what is there to know that might apply??? second news, I should ACTUALLY get some bronze, and it might as well be a sword. any cheapos around??
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pgandy
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Post by pgandy on Jul 5, 2020 23:46:24 GMT
Setting cross legged with a stone in one hand and the sword in the other doesn’t sound appealing at all. I question your control. I set with both feet on the floor. I prefer to disassemble the sword and work with the blade only, probably a carryover from my katana days but I have more feel of what’s happening. In most cases with western swords that is not possible due to peening, and lately I’ve gotten some advertised as threaded only to find epoxy involved, so of course no disassembly. Either way I prefer moving the sword with the abrasive, whatever that may be, stationary. Frequently that isn’t possible for instance with the guard making contact with the work surface so in those cases I reverse the procedure securing the sword so that it doesn’t move while I use a sanding block or whatever. Some people never get it right, like Skall for instance, and found a Work Sharp the answer, or maybe he was just making a sponsor happy. However I’ve known of people that couldn’t manage that. It is nearly impossible to get true angles and edges with your technique. Your stones will work fine. I used stones and ceramics of various tapes for decades and I still do at times but I’ve found a Work Sharp to be faster and easier.
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