single bevel sharpening

[Fly Caster]

Hi Guys
I have been lurking for a couple months now and have been soaking up all the info. I  purchased and Harvest Master 53# at 28" Hill Country bow from Git-r-Done. I picked up some
Tusker broadheads that need to be sharpened. They are partly beveled, Should I try to do a single bevel or go with the whats been started and double bevel? And if single bevel which side do I sharpen to match my right hand flechting. My arrow wieght is 540 grains 300 up front.
Thanks for all the good reading

Cal  

[Mo. Huntin]

I believe it is right bevel for right wing feather.  You should look at a picture of the Grizzlies I think they are all right bevel.  Man I spent 4 hours trying to sharpen a Single bevel no mercey with no success so I got the file out and turned them into double bevels and my word they are super sharp.  Some say it is easy once you figure it out but I did not get it in 4 hours so I said forget it.

[Doc Nock]

right for right..yup.

Contact KME, A sponsor here. They're single beveling Tusker's for sale and custom beveling your heads for folks who have their own...

That hard steel...you'll loose your mind long before you get the degree bevel you want!

[Sharpster]

Cal,

You can sharpen them either way... single or double bevel but if they already have a partial double bevel grind, that would be the easieast way to finish them up. When single bevel sharpening, the "unbeveled" side of the blade must be perfectly flat. It can't have a partial grind, nor can it have a extra lamination like the No Mercy or Eclipse singles do.

I love Zwicky and Eclipse broadheads in thier original double bevel designs but, it's very  difficult to take a broadhead that was designed to be a double bevel and transform it to a single simply by grinding just one side. I have no doubt that's what caused your difficulty in getting the No Mercys sharp Mo.Huntin...and you are correct, all Grizzlies are RH, and RH singles perform best with RW fletch.

You can tell a RH single from a LH single by laying the broadhead on a table with the tip pointed away from you. Postitioned like this, if the bevel is visible on the RH blade, it's a RH single. If the bevel is visible on the LH blade, then it's a LH single.

Ron

[lt-m-grow]

Sharpster and Doc Nock,

So..."hours" are the metric to get these things sharp vs. like minutes?  

Like Fly Caster, I worked on a Abowyer bonehead for an hour and a half and was just starting to get it to shine on the bevel.  I felt that was too long.  Does it take that long and my impatience is showing?

Fly Caster, not trying to jack your thread, I thought maybe I (and maybe you) weren't giving the sharpening process enough time.

[Masham Man]

I sharpened some Zwickey single bevel No Mercy heads using a Lansky style sharpener and they are extremely sharp. It did take about 1 hour per head because I had to get the initial bevel changed but it shouldn't take 5 minutes to touch them up once you've done that. I did use a file at first to get them close. Then a course diamond, medium diamond and finish up with a fine Arkansas stone all with the Lansky.

[SlowBowinMO]

One of the advantages of the Tusker heads is you can sharpen them about any way you want due to the single piece of steel that makes the actual blade.  If your Tuskers are already double beveled that would be easiest to finish but they will take a single bevel on any side you want if you're willing to go to the effort.  The Tuskers are over 50 hrc so it takes a while to get the proper edge, but they get absolutely wicked and hold the edge much better than many other heads once they are sharp.

Converting other heads doesn't work nearly as well, just as Ron stated.  I've converted a number of triple laminated heads to single bevels, and I'm now convinced they are better left double beveled.  I do have some single bevel No Mercy's that are wicked but I really feel the best No Mercy is the double beveled head version.  Even a Grizzly blank does not make a very good left beveled head due to the way the laminations lay.

[Jeremy]

My Tuskers are all right around 55-56Rc and like SlowBow says, setting the inital angle by hand is going to take awhile.  I did mine on my knife grinder in a few quick passes.      

lt-m-grow, the ABowyer heads are hardened to 52Rc.  The ones I've seen came marginally sharp, but only took a few minutes to hone.  If it's taking 90minutes on a head where you are not re-profiling the head, there's either something wrong with your stone/file (dull, clogged, or way too fine) or technique.  There's no need to redo the grind angle on the Abowyers... they're set at 25degrees.

I never could understand the difficulty people have sharpening a single bevel head.  You only need to be concerned about keeping one angle consistent with every stroke and the larger bevel gives you more reference for keep the angle.  With double bevel heads you need to keep the angle consistent on two narrow bevels.

[Fly Caster]

Thanks for the info. I haven't actually tried to sharpen them yet because I wasn't sure how to tell left from right...thanks Ron...I will give it a try. They seem hard to beat for the price.

What type of glue do you guys use to glue in the brass inserts and the the bh to the adapter?

Cal  

[BobCo 1965]

A wet/dry grinder gets the bevels set very quickly.

[lt-m-grow]

Thanks Jeremy, that is what I was thinking, but thought I would ask folks better at this than I am.

I am using the KME knife sharpener using the stones that that come with the diamond kit.  It does a great job on double bevel knifes, but haven't figure out the Boneheads yet.

[Mo. Huntin]

2 part apoxy on the inserts.  JB weld or 2 part apoxy on the adapter.  Clean very well in acetone denatured alcohol, I like acetone.  You could use a file to ruff up or remove any paint like on my zwickeys.

[Sharpster]

Originally posted by lt-m-grow:
Sharpster and Doc Nock,

So..."hours" are the metric to get these things sharp vs. like minutes?  

Like Fly Caster, I worked on a Abowyer bonehead for an hour and a half and was just starting to get it to shine on the bevel.  I felt that was too long.  Does it take that long and my impatience is showing?

It's pretty difficult to get the laminated tip section of an Eclipse or Zwicky No Mercy sharpened in a true single bevel configuration because the "unbeveled" side of these blades has the additional layer of steel which is very difficult to get around. Less a question of how long it should take than can it be done at all on these type of heads. I think without grinding away the laminated section on the unbeveled side, the best we can hope for is a modified single/double hybrid.

Like Tim said, Tuskers have a one piece blade and can be ground/filed in any configuration you like. The steel is very hard and the factory bevels are lightly ground so the initial sharpening can take some time if you're not good with a file but, like Jeremy said, after that initial sharpening, they're pretty easy to touch up.

I'm surprised that you're having that level of difficulty with the Abowyers though because they've got a very good factory grind. Are you free-handing them...? and what stones are you using? These should really only take a couple minutes per blade.

Ron

[Sharpster]

Originally posted by lt-m-grow:
Thanks Jeremy, that is what I was thinking, but thought I would ask folks better at this than I am.

I am using the KME knife sharpener using the stones that that come with the diamond kit.  It does a great job on double bevel knifes, but haven't figure out the Boneheads yet.

Guess we were all posting at the same time...
Give me a call and I'll walk you through sharpening a bonehead on the phone. It will take about 10 minutes.  

Ron
800 561-4339

[Doc Nock]

...10 min tutorial and then 30 min of rachetjawin!      

[Sharpster]

Originally posted by Doc Nock:
...10 min tutorial and then 30 min of rachetjawin!            

Oh yea, this good coming from a man who needs 3 paragraphs just to say "good morning".   :D   :p

[Terry Green]

Too Funny RON!!!!

BTW....Ron's got it down folks....I wanted to 'see what its about'...Ron's sharpening services so I ordered up some heads.

Let me tell ya, if you are sharpening challenged....take advantage of this service.  Your heads will come back to you unbelievably sharp, and protected by a rubber/plastic dip on the edges.

I would suggest mounting them on your arrows with the coating still on.