How I find the "Sweet Spot" (4 Parts)
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Also, you have to work within the limitations of where you can best clamp the knife in the jaw on a flat or smooth spot. That and thumb studs may also dictate where you can clamp it.
Marc
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I’d start by centering the belly’s curve with the jaws centerline
Do you mean just clamp the blade in jaws roughly in center of the blade, with tip elevated? (The comment “centering the belly’s curve”, wasn’t quite clear on that part).
Note: On the knife I’m sharpening, thumb studs have been removed so they’re out of the way.
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I try to look at the belly as a curved section of a ball. (Like the orange peel off a quartered orange). I try to center the belly’s curve with the jaws. For the pictured knife, the belly’s center may be slightly forward towards the tip, from the actual center-point of the blade’s length.
Then working with the depth key pin in the top wholes, with the knife centered to the curve, I leave the spine resting on the rear pin and rotate the tip up off from the front pin. You may even need to elevate the entire knife so the spine is totally up and off both pins. If that’s what’s necessary to clamp it in the jaw tips on the flat spot just below the knife spine, that’s what I’ll do.
A knife does not have to be resting in physical contact with the depth key pins. It makes it simpler to record the clamping position. But as long as you can position an alignment guide in a repeatable stationary position you can still record the knive’s clamping positions for future touchups, that’s all that really matters. The advanced alignment guide helps in these more free form clamping situations.
Marc
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I’d start by centering the belly’s curve with the jaws centerline, and rotate the handle down and tip up slightly.
That’s what I was thinking also.
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I made a batch of skinning knives which have a more or less constant radius belly (see photo below) and found that the best way to mount the knife is to center the belly directly over the center of the vise, ignoring any of the normal landmarks or key positions. This works so well that I’ve adopted it for any knife that has a somewhat constant contour, which Robert’s Hogue certainly fits.
Part of what makes this work is the understanding that straight sections of blade will maintain a constant angle regardless of mounting angle. Put the center of the belly directly over the vise and let the straight section between belly and heel fall where it may. Certainly, this may not work well for tight-radius bellies, but for other, more gentle radii, it might be an easier solution to finding the sweet spot.
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Readers: Lets keep this thread as a read only post. Strictly for the helpful instructional content and information intended for the new Wicked Edge users.
Any comments or questions can be directed via private message(s) or start a new forum post under a new title and subject. Anything posted here other then the original subject matter draws away from it’s original purpose and intent, and pulls this thread off on unintended tangents.
Thanks
Marc
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