Sporting Knives

Legacy Forum Archive basic-techniques-and-sharpening-strategies
1

I just purchased the Pro-Pack I and added a set of the super fine ceramics. I have been reading and learning a lot from this forum as we all know there is tons of great information within these pages. I have done several searches but have not been able to locate any suggested sharpening progressions for fillet knives or knives used to field dress larger game.

If I am understanding the science of sharpening a “toothy” edge may be preferred for these applications.

If someone could give me some guidance on progressions to get me started on these knives it would be appreciated.

Thanks

2

I just completed an elk hunt and sharpened my knives with the following progression: 600# diamond > micro-fine ceramics and it was great on my bull for field dressing and quartering. That said, I’d done hundreds of elk with the following progression: 800#> 1000#> 5um strops > 3.5um strops and have had wonderful results. I also use a fillet knife with all my de-boning and butchering and love the 3.5um finish. I am looking forward to seeing how the micro-fine edge does for butchering and de-boning, I’m pretty sure it will be terrific.

[quote quote=“TPeters” post=5342]I just purchased the Pro-Pack I and added a set of the super fine ceramics. I have been reading and learning a lot from this forum as we all know there is tons of great information within these pages. I have done several searches but have not been able to locate any suggested sharpening progressions for fillet knives or knives used to field dress larger game.

If I am understanding the science of sharpening a “toothy” edge may be preferred for these applications.

If someone could give me some guidance on progressions to get me started on these knives it would be appreciated.

Thanks[/quote]

3

Since all I have thus far is the Pro Pack contents, I’ve gotten a lot of chance to play with 1000#, 5um and 3.5um finishes for various uses and have to say they all perform excellently for most tasks. I took my old man’s old Buck 110 up to 5um if I recall correctly, and will be interested to see how it handles dad’s favorite autumn passtime of small game (especially tree rats!).

I found a goodly sized 6" Imperial filet knife in our storage room last week and took it clear to the 3.5um with quite a few strokes to shine it up. I also knocked the angle two degrees shallower when stropping as one of my first tests of that technique. It’s interesting how it doesn’t have the same sharp feel to the touch, but cuts wonderfully none the less!

4

What angle on the arms did or do you start with?

5

Eric,
What kind of knife are we talking about and what kind of blade steel does it have.
This can make a significant difference as to the angle that you want to sharpen at.

Phil

6

Its a 4.5 in drop point skinner with a 3/16 back bone, and ATS 34 STEEL

7

Bottom line is that there are so many places where so much has been written on this subject and that ithere are so many variables, that it is hard to give any answer that is definitive…at least for me.

I wrote what I thought was a comprehensive answer, about 6 meaty pragraphs, and once again the forum software ate it. Ijust can’t get up for doing it again.

The reason that I asked about the knife is that the blade steel and hardness is the first thing that I like to know about before even starting to experiment. You di not mention the brand of the knife, so I can’t try to track down what kind of temper aand the resulting hardness that the maker used.

With very hard strong steel you can use smaller angles. Other steels you need to increase the angle to keep the edge strong. ATS-34 can be tempered to yeild from 56 to 59 Rockwell C. Again, knowing exactly what you have can give you a starting place to begin to get the answer to your question.

Personally, if I had a knife with your steel that was 56 Rc I would start around 20 to 22 degrees per side.
At 59 Rc, I might try 18 to 19. Then you see how the edge performs and how the edge itegrity and retention works out and adjust from there. The more acute the angle (smaller) the easier a blade cuts, but that doesn’t do you much good if you have rolling or chipping problems, or if it just gets dull before you finish a job. If the blade will not support the angle, try increasing it to leave more meat behind the edge, or doing a microbevel at a greater angle.

In other words, I am not sure that there is a definitive answer without knowing much more about the knife and exactly what your useage patterns are…even then, it would just be a starting suggestion, not a hard and fast rule.

BTW, you might even be well served by starting off duplicating the factory angles, getting it good and sharp, and working with it for awhile. The maker likely had a good reason to sharpen it the way that he did… even if it was maybe just economics.

Phil

In case anyone wonders about the Rc numbers I quoted, they came from here:
http://www.admiralsteel.com/reference/sstltech.html

Since then I have read that lots of knife makers harden the steel to 59 to 61 Rc.
Still don’t know what Eric has…

8

I have been sharpening some hunting knives for a few buddies. To date I have had feed back on 3 different knives, most had some form of 440 stainless. To keep things simple I have been using a 19 degree angle down to a 3.5um strop. Then I come back and hit it with the 1000# at 20 degrees for a micro bevel. All the reports I have received have been great! One of the knives, while the owner told me it was not as sharp as when I gave it to him, would still easily cut phone book paper.

Hopefully I will be able to put my knife, with its new edged, through its paces in a few weeks.

9

Just browsing a bit and ran across this quote:
“Edge angles can vary from 10 degrees to 40 degrees, but most are between 15 degrees (filet knives) and 30 degrees (survival knives). Different angles are suited for different tasks. What’s suitable in the kitchen will not do for camping. Twenty degrees is about right for kitchen knives, twenty two degrees is good for pocket knives, and twenty five degrees gives a long lasting edge to a camp knife. A good starting point is to duplicate the angle the maker put on the blade.”

Made me smile a bit…
:slight_smile:
The whole article is here:
http://www.ebladestore.com/sharpening_tips2.shtml

It is an interesting read.

I still think that you need to tweak an edge for a given knife to suit your use. The Wickededge system is the ideal platform to do this with.

Have fun !!

10

I just wrote a note to our webmaster about this. Once or twice I’ve had it happen and I think I traced it back to a write problem for the database when two users try to write to the database at the exact same time. I don’t know a ton about databases but I think I remember something about performance and simultaneous write functions on higher end software. I think ours may not have that capability.

11

After typing a long response you can hit “select all” (command A or ctrl. A) or highlight the whole text with your mouse then hit command C or ctrl C to copy. Click submit, if it fails the text is still copied to your clipboard. Clip reply and paste.

BTW Murphy’s Law say only the long posts get dropped.

12

I have been trying to remember to do exactly that in every case… and I do in most cases..
Mother Murphy also dictates that on the longest most painstakingly written posts, one will forget to do that just before hitting submit and having the entire thing simply flash out of existence… POOF..:frowning:

Phil

13

After having this happen to me several times (on other forums) I started writing all my forum posts in Word. Then I copy and paste to the forum. If it disappears, into the ether, I still have the original.

14

AND.. there is a spell checker…with my lousy typing skills…that would be great.
Good idea.
Phil