Trad Gang
Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: nyamazan on August 11, 2008, 06:39:00 PM
-
How do you determine when your broadheads are hunting sharp?
Here we call the broadhead "Bang skerp" which means Scary sharp when they are ready, but how to determine this is not allways that easy. Is shaving sharp a good enough test or is there another method?
Thanks for your time.
-
I heard of people using a stretched rubberband between the fingers, then rest the broadhead on the rubberband and swipe ounce, if it slices the rubberband on that first time its sharp!
-
It will easily shave the hair on my arm after awhile you can feel the edge with your thumb and know you have them sharp enough to cut hair.
The rubber band stretched I never knew how far to stretch the rubber band or how much down pressure on the broadhead to use.
-
the Tusker site in the Sponsor's List has a sharpening tutorial, and a test demo with rubber bands....go to the "Sharpening" section.
-
If it shaves hair it's ready to hunt with.
-
when my arms are bald then they are sharp
-
My heads are ready when my arms are bald.
-
they shave hair and you are afraid to touch um' thats how I like um' NASTY!
-
I can shave hair with my magnus I's, real easy to get sharp, wensel woodsmans are easy to get sharp too
-
"Bang skerp" = Silver Flames
Look at them cross-eyed and they will cut ya. :scared:
-
Originally posted by GrnMtnTradNut:
you are afraid to touch um
ditto
-
Red Boar,
Your right, I know a bloke over here who has some and they look awesome. Trouble is the price by the time they get here make me "bang". Sure they're worth the price looking at the construction though.
Reason I ask is I found some Zwickey 2 bladers in a gun shop here, real cheap, probabley very old stock and don't even know if they're even made any more or if people use them.
Anyway I can get the single part of the blade scary sharp but having a bit of hastle doing the same to the front part where the blade has the 2 extra reinforcements spot welded.
Using a Lansky ( made in the good old U.S of A!) sharpener system.
Fatman,
Will have a look at that site now.
AS usual thanks for the advice guys, you are a good lot, most of the time!
-
When your eyes bleed when you look at em.
-
Shaving sharp for me too. Those Zwickys you found are still being made. They are very good heads IMO. I hunt with them as do lots of other folks.
-
You know its funny--I am reading this and I look down and see that half of the hair on my arm is gone----I sharpened a lot last night--I leave tomarrow for my hunt starting this saturday.
-
There is a single word to describe the perfect broadhead edge.......vorpal.
I mythical word invented by Lewis Carrol in the poem "Jabberwocky." It means it will pass through flesh, sinew and bone like a red hot wire through beeswax.
If your broadheads don't scare you, they aren't sharp enough.
By the way my friends have learned the hard way that when I tell them,"it's sharp." they no longer test the edge with their fingers.
-
I use LANSKY. LANSKY makes a broadhead so sharp that it wont leave a blood trail. I'm talking with knowledge. Three deer left no blood trail because the wound sealed and,not one drop of blood to be found.
I wont use that sharp any more.
-
In bowhunter education, they said the standard is a number 14 rubber band stretched between 2 nails 2 1/4" apart.
I use truangle files, followed by a DMT angled diamond stone (you can use the truangle hones as well), and then a leather strop (also angled) to finish. When done, test on the rubberband by holding your arrow by the nock. This means you only have the weight of the arrow putting pressure on the rubber band.
Mine will usually cut through the band in less than an inch of travel along the blade edge.
I use this method on all 2 blades and 4 blades with removeable bleeders. Truangle products can be used on heads that dont have removeable bleeders as well.
BP
BP
-
I like to use a tissue to test with.. Next to the table edge I place a small empty coffee cup on the tissue with the rest of the tissue hanging over.. I hold the other edge up so the tissue is horizontal.. Then I put the arrow with a broadhead on it point down. I want to see it cut thru the tissue by it's won weight, and slice not tear to the full radius of all blades.. Trouble with the rubber band thing is it only take a sharp edge on one blade to cut it, the others can be dull as a brick and the broadhead will still pass the test.
-
Earl,
I agree with ya. I go through a lot of rubber bands since I test each and every blade on a head. Usually a couple times.
I have never had a broadhead I thought was TOO sharp.
BP
-
Whn you are truly scared to remove them from the quiver!
J
-
Nyamazan,
There is a test that no one has mentioned yet and it is the one I use and believe to be superior to the shaving or rubberband test. Hold your BH edge against your thumbnail at about a 45 degree angle. Applying just the weight of the BH drag the BH in a direction that is perpendicular to the blade orientation. In other words, pretend you are trying to shave hair off of your thumbnail. If the BH edge bites or catches into the thumbnail with just the weight of the BH.....it is sharp.
I don't like the shaving test because even a dull BH will shave and the actual shaving process dulls the edge that I have worked so hard to achieve.
Anyway...just thought you might be interested.
Brett
-
If you can shave your FACE....... :p not your arm....your FACE.....try it..let me know how you come out
-
There ya go joebuck LOL thats what I'd say too and there is a big differance between face shaving and arm shaving
carbonarrow :confused: :confused:
No blood trail ??does that mean ya just walked over to where ya saw the deer fall over??I've only seen that with a high entrance and no exit.....that deer only traveled 30 yrds but I never found a spec
-
Joebuck,
I agree with you....you definitely have a point there ;) But again...why dull your BH that you've worked so hard to get surgically sharp by shaving your arm or face??? My test will not damage the BH's edge.
Carbonarrow,
When you opened those deer up.....what did you find inside????
Brett
-
Carbonarrow,
Biology 101: A sharper instrument (knife, scalpel, razor, bh, etc) makes a cleaner cut which bleeds MORE and clots SLOWER than a cut made with a dull instrument. That's not an opinion, just medical fact.
If there was no blood trail there's something else at work, not that the bh was too sharp.
In the past I was satisfied with setting the edge with a fine file and polishing it with a soft Arkansas stone. The difference in performace going from that edge to one polished on a black Arkansas???
My kitchen knives (the ones I let my wife use) are sharpened up to a soft arksansas. They'll finely slice through flesh (and tomatoes) with ease. My good knives are honed up to the black arkansas... they'll slice through everything with less than the weight of the blade.
-
Carbonarrow that statement does not make sense. A dull or jagged cut seals up much quicker and is less likely to leave a bloodtrail. ZJeremy hit the nail on the head. He knows, he makes a very fine knife and they are scapel sharp. I am very careful handling stuff Jeremy puts an edge on. I get mine as sharp as i can and shave hair with them. Shawn
-
you can always tell when huntin season is rolling around..... me and my buddies all have bald arms.... I sharpened a bunch of stuff for some friends one year and ran out of arm hair.... had to start on my left calf!!!