Thanks, Bob. I think I get the point now. Am I correct in thinking you only used the corner of the stone(s) to sharpen the recurves (at least the most acute parts)? That must have been a hell of a job, taking a long time. Or do the Choseras round off so quickly that you have a larger surface area to work with early in the process?

mark76 wrote:


Hi Mark -
Like Josh (RazorEdgeKnives) in the other the other thread I actually did both - used the stone flat so it was riding on both corners - not fully in contact, and turned the stone so it was riding on only one corner. Since then I have found that in most cases I have found you can do quite a bit of inside curve even with the stone flat and get great results - and the work does go faster this way. I did not lap the corners of my stones like Josh did - that is a great idea as it rounds them much faster.
I found on the Kris blades I worked on that using only one corner did allow me to track the knife shape a little more easily, even though it meant that I was using a lot less stone surface to work with. Both of the blades I sharpened did take a while to do, though I'm unsure of how long it would take me to do those same blades again from scratch as there as a lot of experimenting along the way that took up lots of time (and they weren't mine so I was trying to be very careful). Repositioning the knife slows the process as well - and they are difficult to clamp in my experience due to the blade geometry. In the end, the only step I ended up doing along the full blade length was stropping, everything else was in shorter sections blended together. I can only find one photo right now - didn't realize at the time they were going to come in handy so didn't take many. This one was also taken with my phone so not the best quaility .
Bob

At this point I was trying the curved ceramics and as I recall I had only worked with diamonds. The luks in this knife are fairly gentle so I was able to work it in two sections. I tried out choseras after this to even up the bevel. This was super soft metal, wouldn't hold an edge and scratched really easily. I'm sure Clay remembers this knife which plagued me for days it seemed!

Yep Bob, I remember this knife well. It's a shame the metal was so soft since you did such a fine job of getting nice bevels cut into it.

Thanks, Bob. Vey clear! I am going to try this soon on a recurved blade.

Do you happen to know whether a similar technique is used for free-hand sharpening of recurves (i.e. Use the corners a lot more)?

mark76 wrote:


Have to admit, I'm terrible free hand, so haven't really tried working a recurve that way. As I learn more though I'm thinking of trying again. Maybe Ken or Tom have some suggestions on Free Hand and recurves?