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Ed Caffrey's Workshop Talk to Ed Caffrey ... The Montana Bladesmith! Tips, tricks and more from an ABS Mastersmith.

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Old 12-17-2004, 02:46 PM
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jonwelder jonwelder is offline
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Question Question: making and keeping a knife point?

Dear Ed, Recently a JS smith told me, I needed to make my knife points more "pointy",, he said you should be able to set the point into your fingernail and not be able to move the knife blade any direction, it should stick, not slide. How do you make or keep a point that sharp without getting it too hot on a grinder? I do a lot of hand finishing, my blades are "fine shaped" with files and sanding boards while "soft",, then hardened and hand finished. I find it hard to maintain a small sharp point while finishing. It tends to "go away" as I hand sand and polish the rest of the blade. Perhaps I'm too aggressive! I'm open to new tricks! ---jon
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Old 12-17-2004, 09:56 PM
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Ed Caffrey Ed Caffrey is offline
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Making a blade that is "pointy" can be a difficult thing. It is one of the things I look for when judging for the JS rating. Getting that fine, sharp point comes mostly from experience, however, a couple of things to think about in relationship to it are.....
If your not getting that fine, sharp point of a knife, you need to examine your grinding technique. I know you said your shaping by hand, but it applies to that also. I tend to leave things fairly thick prior to heat treating, and do about 40% of my grinding afterwards, being very deliberate and cautious when working the point area of the blade.

The other thing that falls right in with grinding technique is the geometry of the blade. Generally speaking, if the point is thick, heavy and blunt, then the rest of the blade will usually look the same. This may or may not be the case, but either way it tells me that the individual needs to study/work on a geometry that will provide less cutting resistance for the knife's intended user.

If your doing it all by hand, about the only suggestion I can give is to work the blade to the point where you think it's done, then work another 20 minutes on it. That may sound snotty, but it's not intended that way, it's just the most honest and direct way I can say it. If your using a grinder, that last 1/3 of the blade near the point needs to be worked slowly, carefully, and deliberately. Everything must appear to flow, without any portion of the blade looking "out of place" with the rest. One of the reasons that I'm always harping on experimenting is because in order to achieve that fine point, and have it be durable, you'll have to discover what level of heat treatment will provide the qualities you seek for that fine point.

When you get into the realm of bladesmithing, and are seeking more than just an average knife, you have to sometimes go outside the established "box" of grinds and heat treatments to achieve what your wanting to. That's the reason I often use the phrase "this is what works FOR ME." Simply because once you step past the realm of the common grinds and "recommended" heat treatments, each an every one of us must do it slightly different based on our tools, methods, and understanding.


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Old 12-20-2004, 12:58 AM
Jason Cutter Jason Cutter is offline
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Some of you might frown on this but I cheat. When grinding in the edge, I use a slack belt, that always risks rolling the very tip if I'm not careful. The rounding effect is tiny - only 1/32inch or 1/16th inch in size if I'm very tardy. To correct this, there are 2 thing to do.

#1 - I sharpen the rest of the blade up edge down on a slack belt, then hand hone the tip in on a stone or with a diamond hone. But I soon found that the easiest way was ...

#2 - After grinding the edge at the tip, if there is a bit of rounding, I bring the tip to a pointy point by grinding on the spine so it drops that tiny bit to get past the "rounding" to create an acute point.

I hope you get the idea. Jason.


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