Completely Frustrated with Sharpening

[joe ashton]

personally I'd say you are working to hard at it.  When it is sharp....stop.

[John Scifres]

I use an Accusharp or a Smith's Pocket Pal.  Cheap, easy, effective.

[NoCams]

If you are going to stick with two blades go ahead and buy the KME knife sharpener with the added bonus of having every knife in your possession so sharp you will have nightmares....    

Just touched up a Buck 110 folder that had gutted 6 deer and would still shave but pulled hair a little rather than shaving clean and slick. I had her back to scary sharp with just the fine india stone and white hard arkansas in 10 minutes. Stropped it a few passes on leather and walla ! Ready for 6 more deer !

If you don't buy a KME knife sharpener and change to 3 blades then you can simply drag them backwards on a big mill file, then hard arkansas, then leather and scary sharp. I touch up my 160 Snuffers just by stropping them usually after a little hunting / quiver wear.

[richter]

Thanks for all of the feedback guys. I am going to try working on these stingers a little more. Pretty soon they will be 100 grainers.

Bladepeek, thanks for the complement, but I actually manage our CS dept. and while our equipment is not foreign to me I certainly don't work on it very often. Usually just government work like this. I did start out on a grinding wheel in our foundry, but the goal there was definitely not precision grinding.

I do like the idea of being able to use the KME on my knives too, but I was hoping to find a lower cost solution. Maybe I just need to suck it up. I guess I have some more thinking to do. Thank you all for your feedback. I'll let you know if I have any Stinger success tonight.

[Ray Hammond]

I think I've been where you are!

Here's what I'd recommend

Do exactly what you've done to 'raise' a burr as you call it then STOP!!!

I've always found it easier to do the next step outside because sunlight makes it easy to see the burr

Get yourself a piece of smooth leather like belting leather - lay it flat on a table

With your broad head on a shaft or piece of a shaft strop the head gently once on one side of the edge then flip and work the other side- back and forth patiently until you see that foil peel off like a little curly ribbon and STOP!!!

Anything you do to that edge beyond that will reduce the sharpness you've achieved

Try that and let us know what happens!

[Yellow Dog]

What Ray said. Years ago I had my Barber order me a horse hide Barbers Strop, file and strop does the trick for me. Go easy and don't over do it, there's a fine line between getting them shaving sharp and making them duller then they were before you started.

[caleb7mm]

X2 on what ray said. I was very sharpening challanged until I visited ray a year ago and he showed me how to do it right.

[Rob W.]

The Rada is no joke, Cost less than most anything else and is almost idiot proof(if I can do it)! No clamps, jigs, stones or boxes to put it all in. I'm sure all the others are great products. I have owned most of them. I now have Rada's for home, truck and pack.


Rob

[BOWMARKS]

Originally posted by joe ashton:
personally I'd say you are working to hard at it.  When it is sharp....stop.

X2

[Autumnarcher]

On 2 blade heads, I use the tru-angle stones. impossible to not keep a consistent angle.
I had one of th wood blocks with the leather strop pads, butthey eventually fell off. I took the block and epoxy'ed 2 mill files on it, so i can run them across a file at a consistent angle, then go to the stones to finish.

im gonna get KME sharpening setup for my knives,but the old tru-angle stones work great too. i had a horrile time with Zwickeys, till i used them.

I have been right where you are now! I used to shoot Thunderheads off my stickbows because i could not sharpen cut on cantact BH's good enough. I have been through several sharpeners and finally found the KME. It still took quite a lot of practice but I have now finally got to where I can get my Bh's very sharp.

On a side note, If I were you I would rather hunt with a replaceable blade head that was scary sharp than with a cut on contact head that was not sharp enough. JMHO

Bisch

[Kentucky Jeff]

If you raise a burr you don't need a finer stone to remove it.  The same stone that raised it can remove it.  The secret is LIGHT pressure and to just use a stropping motion (which is a straight motion but with the edge trailing.)

Most people mess up sharpening because the try to go too fast and don't maintain a consistent angle.  To fix this SLOW DOWN, lay the edge flat on the stone and raise or lower the blade until you can feel the edge raise up or lay flat against the stone with your finger.  Also, color the edge with a black Sharpee pen and make a few strokes and observe if you are holding the edge at too high or low an angle--if its just right the sharpee will be removed across the entire edge not just near the edge or up near the flat of the blade.  SLOW DOWN--speed in sharpening comes with practice and feel that you only get from slowly practicing to do it correctly!  Going fast incorrectly just gets you blade dull quicker!

[Ron LaClair]

For some people it's hard to get a broadhead sharp to their satisfaction. If you like the Magnus Stinger, why don't you try the Magnus Stinger Buzzcut. The main blades have chisel cut serrations. A serrated blade maintains it's cutting edge much much longer that a straight edge. Go to your kitchen drawer, take out a steak knife with a serrated blade and see how it slices a tomato. Now try it with a straight edged paring knife.
http://qualityarcherybows.com/magnus-stinger-buzzcut-blade-broadhead-p-33231.html