Help guys,

Needing to add to my christmas list. I have a 12" Medium Bastard File...  Had little success with it, and a guy from work, working them on his "stones"... He is big knife guy, and it is not "shaving sharp"..

Can anyone recommend a diamond stone etc... to go with my 12" Bastard File???  Seems like it took quite a bit of doing on the file to get the sharpie marks off the blade..

Thank you

I use a med smiths diamond stone after file, then finish them off with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper. Go light on the finishing strokes, they are scary sharp now. Good luck!

DMT diamond stones are great.

I'd go a different route, Gator. (I shoot Woodsmen) What I do is put them on a nice flat Arkansas water stone, medium. Next is a fine water stone, followed by a ceramic hone.  Once they begin to show results, I strop them with a polishing oxide on leather.  One time I made a mistake of honing them with a small ceramic stone made for carving tools.  Our Golden Retriever puppy, Ailan, came dashing in from somebody's bedroom with an article of purloined underwear in her mouth, and my wife in hot pursuit: dog slammed into hand, which slammed into WW point, embedding same in bone of index finger. I strop `em in the garage now, on my workbench, rather than in front of the TV!  Stropping them with leather is difficult-they tend to shave it so you have to work only one edge at a time.  With a stone, you can sharpen two at once.  I can easily shave with them!

"christmas list": request #1 - return postage to 3-Rivers.  Supposedly the "new" ones are going to be better.

Get yourself a good sized stone, and don't be afraid to oil it up down right messy.  DMT seems to be a good one.  Touch them up with a croix stick and you will like them.

A good file and stone will do the trick, but if you are starting with crappy heads (like I did), it will take some time.

Gator1, you've got a pm! Mike

Look at Charlie Lamb's video under member videos on sharpening WWs.  It got mine shaving sharp.

If anyone wants  to know how to sharpen the Woodsmans...and I mean RAZOR SHARP....just PM my hunting buddy Bamboo...aks Mike Robin.
He has a system that will have those heads shaving the hair off your arm....and face.

Dan Bissone sharpens mine for free! He puts a scary edge on them in about 3 minutes.

not to steal the thread but has any body tried "the block" sharpening system?? might work

J

Gator,
Give this a try:
3R Dual Grit Broadhead Hone then finish it off with the Montec diamond hone.3 Rivers carries both.

you know instead of a stone or the montech grit that is just to small.


i'd try sand paper on glass just like when we do plane blades and chisels.  Works like a champ.

STart with 200 after the file, then jump to 400, 600, 800 and maybe 1000 or even 1200 to really polish them up.  Use a wet/dry sandpaper you can find at ace hardware.

it's cheaper then all the fancy stones.  It'll gettm sharp sharp sharp, wish my camera worked!  it's a lot quicker then you'd think.  Use a black magic marker on the first one or two to get a feel for it.  You only need to go till the marker is gone.  Then on to the next grit.   with almost no practice it goes smoking fast and you get results at a fraction of the cost!

If you need a tutuorial, find the scary sharp plane blade sharpening method in a google search.  Oh and I dont glue the paper down.  I use a hole sheet on a big enough sheet of glass that is easy to get or free from a local glass store as was in my case.  Hit the edges with some sand paper so they aint so sharp and sharpen on!

Oh btw, stick and string...tell Dan Bisone hi from Dan2 in alaska   !  Good man.