file sharpened serrated edge

[swampthing]

Correct me if I'm wrong, with the Hill style sharpening method.
  Sharpen your broadhead with your file, then drag the outside corner of the file along the edge to micro serrate it, clean that burr with a swipe on the other side and go hunt. Doesn't seem very sharp to me.

[Jim Wright]

Go on the 2cnd page of the "members videos" section here and Tom Mussato has a video on sharpening 2 blade broadheads with the method you are partially describing. The broadhead he demonstrates his method on happens to be a Howard Hill.

When I first tried Hills I did the same thing and thought the same as you. I found that it has a lot to do with the file and the control of the file. The first improvement was to make a broadhead/arrow holder, simply a 6" by 1x11/4" chunk of ash that had rounded sides and a slot for the arrow to run in and the head was supported so that it would not twist when applying pressure. Second was to get Grizzly files. The narrow sides do no have the mill grid they are round and the milling comes to an abrupt sharp edge. The round narrow can be used as a mild steel, while the sharp corner cuts a more refined serration. With a Hill I get them as sharp as I can filng, then hit them with the round side, concentrating more on the right hand side and just trying to get a good flat bevel on the left side by filing into the blade, front to back. Getting the bevel flat is important and not having any roundness. then I do just as the Hill instructions say.  With a 140 grain head that my son had mounted on a 2018 I sharpened one of his broadheads that way. He declared the head to be ruined. then that day he missed a deer with one of his shaving sharp,with a Dremel tool, heads and grabbed the one I ruined. The arrow ripped through the deer angled high lung to slightly center from a steep slope. The blood could be seen spraying in the afternoon sun. The deer went about 60 yards and dropped. The next year almost an identical thing happened, he stalked up on a bedded doe and missed with an El Grande Grizzly, this time he intentionally grabbed the arrow that I ruined for the second time and blew it through both scapula and out into the switch grass. He was sure he was going to miss a moving deer at 15 yards, but he did not. That deer went about 45 yards and was found in a huge pool of blood. I will admit to the same skepticism, but the results are what they are. We have never lost a deer hit with a serrated file sharpened Hill with either the double bevel or our favorites, the custom made single bevels. My own personal opinion is that the sharpening method works much better on a single bevel head, most of our 160 grain Hills were bought by our group by the pieces and we had the blades ground to a single bevel left wing for the left wing shooters and right wing for the right wing shooters. With some diligent practice, I found that there is a difference between keen and merely rough. If in doubt, with the use of a Dremel tool and several of its various tools, they can be made shaving sharp with some effort and that has worked just as well for us.

[Stumpkiller]

Last weekend I had a maple leaf and a glob of snow in end of my side quiver that was hanging beside me in my stand.  I grabbed the leaf and flicked the snow out with it.  One of my file sharpened Stos heads was 1/4" higher than the others and about 1/2" of the blade was above the closed-cell foam in the end of the quiver.

Seems pretty sharp to me, as I type this with a still throbbing slice in the pad of my thumb.

Ever run your hand or arm along a piece of sheet steel that has been cut with sheet metal shears?  That's the type of edge a good file job leaves.  It seems to reach out and tear at flesh.

Some heads definately respond to a file sharpening better than others.  Can't be too soft or too hard.  Stos, Magnus and the vanished RibTeks all take a fierce edge with a fine single-cut file.

The 'ol edge test of pushing the head lightly over a just-taught rubber band shows if a file edge has been done properly.

Charlie Lamb has a couple of good videos down in the How To section.  You can also go over the edge with a diamond stick and that leaves a very sharp edge as well.

[njloco]

Hope your thumb feels better soon Charlie.

[Stumpkiller]

Thanks, Ken.  It would be healed already if I didn't keep catching it on everything.    :mad:  

Takes away 1/3 of my typing ability but luckily don't effect my shootin!  (Though it is right where I feel for the index rib on my nocks).


Here is another great sharpening link.  This is the system I use (and even the JAck Bowers quiver with the file sheath); though I use a Tru-Angle S-24 file block to set the initial angle to 20° with a new broadhead.

 http://bowyersedge.com/broadhead.html

The other day when I was hurriedly changing arrows to shoot at a turkey,(I did not want to use a Schulz Hunters Edge for turkeys) I went for my 160 grained serrated Magnus. When whipping it out and towards my bow, I hit the arrow on a tall weed. The arrow slipped from my fingers and rotated in the air and bounced the broadhead off my thumb. No, that blood trail was not the turkey or a deer, it was me. I kept pressure on it for an hour to get the bleeding to stop. Then later a fine fat doe came straight to me when I sucked on my fawn bleat. I reached for my bow, hit my thumb on the bow string and started spurting blood again. The doe came within ten feet while I sat there on my Nifty seat squeezing my thumb. I should have gotten stitches.

[Nate Steen .]

I used to use the file/reversed file jagged edge ala Hill on all my heads and then I found out that using a 1/4" round chainsaw file does the same thing alot easier.  I sharpen the heads, single bevel first with a flat mill bastard file, obtaining a real good edge and then sharpen with the round file.  It adds a jagged edge like the edge of a soup can lid....and it stays real sharp

[swampthing]

So sharpen first with a bastid' then a few swipes with the round one on the other side of the bevel?

[ChuckC]

Sorry, but I am of the opinion that a pointy stick thru a deer's chest will leave blood and kill it.  A sharper stick just does it better and messier.
ChuckC

Louis Armbruster of Zebra longbow, sharpened the right side with the wide side of the file, then reversed it and pulled forcibly with the reversed file using the narrow side of the mill bastard file to pull up a nasty jagged long burr.  He killed over a hundred deer , so it must have been good enough. It worked for me as well with a number of deer.

[YORNOC]

Originally posted by Stumpkiller:
Last weekend I had a maple leaf and a glob of snow in end of my side quiver that was hanging beside me in my stand.  I grabbed the leaf and flicked the snow out with it.  One of my file sharpened Stos heads was 1/4" higher than the others and about 1/2" of the blade was above the closed-cell foam in the end of the quiver.

Seems pretty sharp to me, as I type this with a still throbbing slice in the pad of my thumb.

Ever run your hand or arm along a piece of sheet steel that has been cut with sheet metal shears?  That's the type of edge a good file job leaves.  It seems to reach out and tear at flesh.

Some heads definately respond to a file sharpening better than others.  Can't be too soft or too hard.  Stos, Magnus and the vanished RibTeks all take a fierce edge with a fine single-cut file.

The 'ol edge test of pushing the head lightly over a just-taught rubber band shows if a file edge has been done properly.

Charlie Lamb has a couple of good videos down in the How To section.  You can also go over the edge with a diamond stick and that leaves a very sharp edge as well.

I'm using ribteks this year, you're not kidding. Wicked filed edge.....

[charles m]

I don't know why folks just keep asking questions when the answer was given to them and where to go find it.          

So, do yourself a favor and go watch his clip.

[swampthing]

Well, I don't know if you're asking or complaining, Charles M, I'm using a Mac. unless that clip is on youtube I can't watch it because it is on a format that my computer won't read unless I download some junk that will read it. If it is bothering you that I asked a bowhunting related question on tradgang consider yourself reminded that, this is what it is all about. If you cannot be bothered to help the ones that need it.... then.... I don't understand why you are even here.
Paven thank you for your tidbit, that is what I'm looking for, ie: file one side, drag the other. Gonna try it.

[Stone Knife]

I watched the video and did some Hill heads up this morning, wicked        I cant wait to see what they'll do    

I tried Nates method with the chain saw file, that is about the same edge as the Louis Armbruster method using the the narrow flat reversed, except it does not take as much pressure with the chain saw file doing the reverse side drag.

[SlowBowinMO]

I prefer a "sticky sharp" filed type edge as well.  Easier to attain, they hold the edge well if the steel is decent, and are also easier to touch up in the field if need be.  Blood trails have been fine too.