Amateur hour at the knife block.

[Rick]

So, thought I would post a few pics of what I have been woking on lately. By no means as impreasive as several others on this fourm. :ohmy: Their work is outstanding. However I think Im getting there. Any other amateur want to jump in here? These knives are not mine, I am sharpening for other folks.

Custom made karambit

Cold Steel, Gerber, and custom karambit.

Sogzilla

[Rick]

I am currently playing around with an idea of using my Wicked Edge to sharpen and polish my wifes ULU (think I got that right) knife. To be honest I have never sharpened one of these before, but am in the process of figuereing out how to go about it. Yes there are proabaly easier ways, but hey I like a challenge. lol. Well that and the wife gave me the go ahead. lol .Got a couple of old issue Kabars, and some cold steel that I need to get fixed up first. Then on to the fun suff. lol. I am also finding the with the Elmax steel, I get a “micro” burr, which is the best way I know how to describe it, and am having a little trouble with this. Any advice here from guru folks would be grealy appreciated in helping me deal with this. Oh, and more pics form some of the new folks. This is supposed to be the Amateur hour at the knife block. Besides its nice to see the progress from where we start to and travel along this rabbit hole as it were. lol. At least for me that is. Hope all is well with you folks!

[Rick]

Been out and about for a bit, but am back. lol. Any way, The idea of using the Wicked Edge to sharpen and polish an ULU knife. Well I did it, and to be honest if the urge ever should hit you to do this, I would say stick with free handing on large stone or diamond, what ever your preferance. With that said, I believe I have established that I am a goof ball, and this seemed an intresting thing to try. I started out by removing the right side of the clamp, as I was not willing to tap the pins for this and then repin it. I started with a few zip ties to hold it in place.

I discovered that I needed just a little more, so out comes the tape. Also I placed the clamp half that I had removed between the Ulu and the remaining clamp half.

Please pay no mind to the stropp in the pic, I was at the time using that to help with an explaination.

This is by no means a mirror polish, but all in all not to bad I think. The wife was happy with it.
With out going for my notes I believe the factory bevel on this was around 20 degrees or so. I matched this to smooth out the factory angle, then went back and put a 30 degree micro bevel.
This is a Buck 315 that belongs to a good friend of mine. He carried this while on active duty. After he retired it stayed in his pocket for a few years, then retired to a drawer. I cleaned it up as best I could. I really should have taken a before pic.



I cleaned and polished as much as it as I could get to. Again not willing to tap and repin. Retiped the marlin spike, and worked 1500 then 2000 grit sand paper to make it look alittle better, and of course sharpened. lol.

[tcmeyer]

Your wife’s ulu? Is she an inuit? Very impressive job, considering the mounting difficulties.

It’s been 52 years since I went thru Navy boot camp. Is marlinspike all one word? Many times I wished I had one, just for untying knots. For you land lubbers, there’s also a “fid” and an “admiral”. Bigger versions of the marlinspike. Also used for splicing and working special knots, Like eye splices or back splices.

[Rick]

tcmeyer Thanks! Yep, marlinspike is one word… :blush: I should know this as I was Navy and occasionally used one. :side: Further proof that sleep is good, and a lack there of is bad. :woohoo: . The ulu was a gift to my wife from some friends of ours. She’s not Inuit. I think she saw them using them on one of the shows that she likes to watch and was intrested in trying one. She loves the thing. Oh, on the knots list, dont forget the monkey fist. lol.

[tcmeyer]

I never learned how to tie a monkey’s fist, but there are some knots I use at least a couple of times every week; bowline and rolling hitch. I can’t tie a square knot without reciting in my head “Left over right and then right over left.” With the bowline, it’s “The squirrel comes out of the hole…” LOL.

After that last post, I remembered that I do have a marlinspike in my toolbox. It’s not part of a folding tool you’d keep in your pocket though.

As to the ulu, I have had exactly the same thoughts as your wife – it looks like it’d be a cool thing to own and try. I couldn’t think of a place I could keep it without endangering someone’s fingers. Do you have a sheath for yours?

I think the ulu has a big advantage in that the user can see all of the edge at any time. With longer blades, there’s always the possibility that part of the edge is out of sight and dangerously close to something very dear to me.

[Rick]

I never learned how to tie a monkey’s fist, but there are some knots I use at least a couple of times every week; bowline and rolling hitch. I can’t tie a square knot without reciting in my head “Left over right and then right over left.” With the bowline, it’s “The squirrel comes out of the hole…” LOL.

As to the ulu, I have had exactly the same thoughts as your wife – it looks like it’d be a cool thing to own and try. I couldn’t think of a place I could keep it without endangering someone’s fingers. Do you have a sheath for yours?

I think the ulu has a big advantage in that the user can see all of the edge at any time. With longer blades, there’s always the possibility that part of the edge is out of sight and dangerously close to something very dear to me.

I end up using something like the squirrel through the hole to remember several knots. lmao. The Ulu has proven to be a great kitchen knife. My wife loves it. Other than keeping it sharp I dont really play with it that much. It has a wooden base that it sits in.I will be building some thing a little better for it. Ill have to take a pic and post it. the couple of times I have used it slicing veggies it was great.

[Rick]

Well, been a bit since Iv been around. Between working on getting my shoulder back in shape, and other projects. lol. Sharpening some knives here and there. Then it happened. One of the guys brought me a Sog tomahawk and asked if I could sharpen it, maybe put a polish on the edge. Sure. So sitting there later looking at it, and the thought crept into my head, I wonder if there is a way to do this with the WE? Yeah, I should maybe start a thread called things I proabaly should not be sharpening on the WE. :side:

So I removed the side of the clamp, and used a zip tie to help hold it in place.

After the first couple of passes to see about where I was on the edge, and if this was going to work.

No were near a mirror, but a decent polish.

[Rick]

My wifes poor OTF. I had to regrind the tip, and take out some chips, now a little more work, and finish polishing that I got the tip mostly strighted out. 😆

[CliffCurry]

Nice work on the matching bevels!

[tcmeyer]

Kat:

Thought you (or your wife) would find this interesting. It popped up today in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel when a woman was trying to find a replacement for a knife she’d bought years before at a flea market. She was emphatic that the knife was a great performer. They found a version of the knife, sold by Lamson & Goodnow, but it’s about twice as big as hers. Both knives show below:

Attachments:

• uluknives.jpg

[Alan Thomas]

I was in the Navy from 73-77. Ended up a BM2. I was lucky, bought my first Case XX then for $10 in the ships store. I still have my Marlin Spike I used to carry to do work with wire cable and do back splices in 21 thread.
I would think you could find a Marlin Spike at a Army Navy surplus store somewhere, they are handy when you need to undo a tight knot,

[Rick]

Tcmeyer: My wife said she likes them, though for the life of me I have no idea what she would use the large one on. lol. I checked their websight and they also offer a “bowl slicer”.

Couple of recent jobs.
Buck knife used for skinning. Blade was in ruff shape but not to bad. Hand rubbed the blade down to 2k grit, then sharpened.


The top half of the blade is nice and shiny but due to a lack in my ablity to get the light to work with me it looks darker than it is. lol. I stoped on the top at 1500 grit.

5.11 Pocket knife
sharpen and polish deal. lol. Had to do some work on the Yokote and it had some rounding, and the tip. They wanted these more pronounced.

[Rick]

I was in the Navy from 73-77. Ended up a BM2. I was lucky, bought my first Case XX then for $10 in the ships store. I still have my Marlin Spike I used to carry to do work with wire cable and do back splices in 21 thread.
I would think you could find a Marlin Spike at a Army Navy surplus store somewhere, they are handy when you need to undo a tight knot,

I carry one when we go camping, which is about the only time I use one these days, and then mostly for getting a knot lose. Stright wall canvas tents use alot of line. lol.

[tcmeyer]

I have a marlinspike which has striations along its length so it can be used as a sharpening steel. I bought it so long ago I have no recollection of where. Never used it to sharpen anything.

For those who haven’t been to sea, a little info. “Line” is the maritime term for what landlubbers call rope. “Rope” is the term used for stranded steel cable, more often called “wire rope.”

[Author]

Posts