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Post by Dandelion on Nov 6, 2020 17:10:39 GMT
Hi to the experts, we have ordered a set of hardness testing files; anyone has tips how exactly to use them? Input appreciated... Attachments:
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pgandy
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Post by pgandy on Nov 6, 2020 17:43:19 GMT
Sorry, no tips here as I don’t feel all that confident with them but am glad that I have them. They appear to be subjective as to the results but I can get relative differences and a ball park figure. My big objection is that they scratch the sword’s surface and I wouldn’t dare use them on a katana. On the other hand they did show that I was correct in finding Universal’s EN9 steel on the soft side. Their 1065 somewhat better. Not as hard as I would like but can live with it. Windlass was about 50 and I’m satisfied with that brand. Oddly the knives appeared to be a trifle harder. I found the files interesting to play around with but limited their use due to the scratching. I do not regret buying them if that helps.
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Post by Dandelion on Nov 6, 2020 18:04:06 GMT
Sorry, no tips here as I don’t feel all that confident with them but am glad that I have them. They appear to be subjective as to the results but I can get relative differences and a ball park figure. My big objection is that they scratch the sword’s surface and I wouldn’t dare use them on a katana. On the other hand they did show that I was correct in finding Universal’s EN9 steel on the soft side. Their 1065 somewhat better. Not as hard as I would like but can live with it. Windlass was about 50 and I’m satisfied with that brand. Oddly the knives appeared to be a trifle harder. I found the files interesting to play around with but limited their use due to the scratching. I do not regret buying them if that helps. So you do run them across the edge?
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Post by AndiTheBarvarian on Nov 6, 2020 18:16:17 GMT
I have them too. There's a small file area on the business end. You have to try to file or scratch a bit into your blade. Not necessarily the edge except you want to know exactly the hardness of the very edge. As long as it scratches into the blade the blade is softer than the given file hardness. They advise to start with a harder file and change to softer files as long as they scratch. That means more scratches in your blade. The opposite way to start with the softest file results in only one scratch but the soft files can wear out on harder blades they say Maybe you can scratch a polished blade on the surface even with a file softer than the blade steel but I'm not sure about this.
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pgandy
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Post by pgandy on Nov 6, 2020 18:26:03 GMT
I don’t know where the best spot is. I’ve seen people, Skall was one, go across the cutting edge. That is something that I was reluctant to do because it’s possible to leave a “valley” for the lack of a better word. That would be a good spot to test though with solely a result in mind. I tested on the side of the blade where it didn’t affect the cutting ability and could be polished out. The ricasso is an example. When I first got mine I tested a half dozen blades possibly just over to satisfy myself as to what I had assumed just by using the blades. I and think once since to check something. I had gotten a good idea previously to receiving the files from sharpening and cutting with the blades but the files allowed me to put a ball park figure on the HRC.
I quickly adopted the method Andi is talking about by reversing the recommendation and starting with the softer file or next to the softer.
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Post by Dandelion on Nov 6, 2020 18:45:51 GMT
Thanks to both of you! The big guy is hot for testing some canadian made, differentially hardened swords... ;-) Anyway, first try on a quite cheap Krutsky stage/showfighter: the HRC 65 file bites, the 60 almost skates off, bites only a little and the 55 clearly skates off the 2 mm edge O.o - so we were uncertain! Guys! Can those cheap swords be so hard?
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Post by pellius on Nov 6, 2020 18:51:33 GMT
*want*
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pgandy
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Post by pgandy on Nov 6, 2020 18:51:34 GMT
Apparently so. With a 2mm edge that hard I would hate to try to be the sharpener.
I missed the part about stage so it wasn't intended to be sharpened but intended for hard knocks and blows.
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Post by Dandelion on Nov 6, 2020 20:53:26 GMT
That could "cut" some other, softer stagers in half! At least deep bite or break them...
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