Old Gerber dagger

[tuffy braithwaite]

X is the only flat spot.

any suggestions?
thanks

Attachments:

• GERBER.jpg

[blacksheep25]

I think you have three choices: clamp it on the “x”, clamp it near the “x”, or clamp on the other side of the “x”. =) Have you tried clamping it to see how it would grab?

IIRC that blade is 1/4″ thick in that area, so on the floating clamp side, you might want to adjust the arm setting outward a degree or two more, unless you have a angle cube.

[tuffy braithwaite]

Thick—yes in deed it is.
Clamps pretty tight

[Leo James Mitchell]

I clamped mine on the flat spot and did a bit of work that gave me a keen edge but I was not able to work without scratching the dickens out of the blade because of its narrow, dihedral shape. I had a similar problem with my Fairbairn-Sykes commando dagger. Perhaps Clay will have a suggestion.

Leo

[cbwx34]

Kudos if you can do it, and it can be done to a point… but I just don’t think daggers are really meant to be sharpened. It’s not their purpose in life. :side:

[tuffy braithwaite]

it turned out kinda nice and not overly sharp.
thanks everyone for the tips.
see u

[Leo James Mitchell]

Sorry Curtis, but the Fairbairn-Sykes knife and the Gerber knives similar do indeed require and edge. You wouldn’t think so at first glance, but these knives are often used to deliver slicing attacks for which an edge is absolutely necessary. If you study knife fighting as taught by the military, you will see that this action is often used against an enemy who exposes and arm or a leg that is vulnerable to such slicing swings of the blade. I won’t go into the gruesome details, but there is nothing nice about attacking and killing with a knife. Much as I love my two fighting knives, their use gives me the shivers. Think about it for a minute and you will agree I am sure that a dagger without a sharp edge is not as good a weapon as one with. Colonel Fairbairn, the inventor of this fine knife wrote the book on the use of this knife…you can still get it. Get Tough is the book.

Leo

[cbwx34]

Hey Leo:

You’re right… guess I should stick to my rule of don’t talk about what you don’t have. 😳 Funny thing is, after looking up the Gerber dagger, I actually have one that is similar to it. I also have a ZT boot dagger, that has a decent profile, and can take a pretty good edge.

I guess I was thinking of the thick “novelty” style daggers that people buy and then want it to whittle air. (Not implying that this is what the OP wanted… just what popped in my head when I replied). So, my bad.

BTW, it looks like you can read GET TOUGH right online.

Thanks for setting me straight. As penance, I’m going to go sharpen the Gerber style dagger I have. 😉

[cbwx34]

it turned out kinda nice and not overly sharp.
thanks everyone for the tips.
see u

I’d be curious what settings you used on your knife. Thanks!

[Leo James Mitchell]

Curtis
LOL! It’s just that I am an old coot who learned all this stuff back just after the Korean War. My first love as a teen was the F/S Commando knife. My friend and I owned several surplus ones each and we practiced throwing them until we were pretty good and Fairbairn was our hero. His Get Tough book only has about 4 pages of stuff on using the knife, but really all the rest is not too important. Ten years in the Algonquin Regiment Reserves also taught a lot about hand to hand combat including the use of knives as weapons. It was OK when it was a rubber knife and nobody really got hurt. Reality knife fighting is something I’d rather not think about let alone do.
Keep your dagger sharp!

Leo

[Ken Buzbee]

I have that exact MK I (I also have it’s big brother, the MK II 😉 ) L6 tool steel. I LOVE that knife. Incredibly tough. I was sad when they switched to a lower grade tool steel.

For sharpening, I’ve always just used sandpaper. It has a zero edge (no bevel) That the only way I ever found to do it. Too many arcs to get results from a stone (for me anyway)

Ken

[cbwx34]

So, I paid my penance, here’s the info FWIW. :dry:

As you can see, this knife is a bit beat up. :blush: All of the errant grind marks are from past sharpening attacks (long before the WE). I probably haven’t even carried this knife in over 10 yr., although I used to carry it all the time.

Didn’t have the most even edge on it, so I picked an angle that wouldn’t cause me a lot of effort, which turned out to be 32 deg…. per side. :S Seems steep until I realized the rest of the bevel is around 12 deg. so the the edge is around 20 deg. per side give or take. Not too bad. Leaves a bevel around 1/16″ wide.

Anyway, came out pretty good, actually sharper than it’s ever been from what I remember, and better than I expected (especially since I didn’t spend a lot of time on it). I just sharpened it to 600g… not stropping or anything else. It’ll slice paper… won’t really pushcut… and will actually shave a few arm hairs, although I wouldn’t call it shaving sharp. It’ll pass all the “Edge Tester” tests (discussed elsewhere). I don’t think the steel in this one is very good… not sure how it compares to a Gerber, but guessing this is a knock off. (Didn’t know much about knives back then either). :ohmy: Plus it gets thick pretty fast behind the edge. Since I’m sharpening a “fighting knife” 😉 I tested…. with a 600g finish it would immediately cut into skin when I tried. :woohoo:

Thanks Leo! 😆

Attachments:

• image_2013-05-07.jpg

[Leo James Mitchell]

I had one of those Gerbers some time ago, sturdy litle things they are. Someone broke into my car and stole a lot of stuff and that little knife was part of it. You did well to get a good edge on it Curtis.
Here is my present Gerber Limited Edition Command II Fighting Knife. It is the one below the F/S wicked-looking dagger.

Leo

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