Sharpening Grizzlies and Other Stuff

[stickytoes]

Pictures are worth a thousand words. Thank you for taking the time.....I am using replaceable blade stingers and a kme and still trying to figure out the best routine

[Smallwood]

Jim,
 When your grinding the bevel in...are you going back and forth with the kme clamp?

And when you have moved on to the finer grits...
are you just using forward strokes to take the burr off?

thanks,
sammy

[Charlie Lamb]

This is a great time of year for this thread to be on Pow Wow. Always lots of sharpening questions. If it looks like the thread is going to slip away, I'll move it to the "How To" forum.
Well done.
   

[JimB]

So how long did one head take?
It probably took about 10 minutes per side.Like I said before,this batch of heads had the angle way off at 32 degrees.I had to change the entire bevel to 27.A belt sander and jig would have been more efficient for this batch.

I recently sharpened 2 other packs of (6)of the new El Grandes and they came much closer to 26-27 degrees and they went much faster-probably half the time.

I start off pretty agressively,forward and back.At this stage I am just knocking metal off to get a full bevel,the same angle as the KME because that is what I will use for future touch ups.I pretty much do the back and forth till I get to the last grit,then I am drawing away from the edge and only enough pressure to know the entire edge is in contact with the paper.I shouldn't even call it pressure.A light touch.Once the full bevel was established,not much pressure was needed.I am only trying to eliminate most of the scratches from the previous grit.I am also taking one or two strokes on the flat side with each grit before moving to the next.

As I said before,once the hard work of establishing the bevel is done,it gets easy and quick.I didn't time it but I probably don't spend more than 30 seconds per grit,making several strokes on the bevell and a couple on the back side.Light strokes after "grinding" the bevel and getting lighter with each successive grit.

I sharpened some Zwickey Eskimos afterwards and they went very fast.

Many people use the sandpaper over glass and I'm sure that works equally well.

Sharpening a single bevel isn't that different from anything else.You develope a burr and work it back and forth till it comes off.With the single bevel,you put the flat back of the blade down on the stone,rather than a second bevel.

The Grizzly is made of hard steel and has a coarse grind so it is a challenge but the KME and coarse grit to start,takes the fight out of it.This should work well on Tuskers too and most popular 2 blades should be just a snap.


The real work AND time,is just in truing up that bevel.many other broadheads won't require that kind of effort.

[JimB]

I should have taken this picture last night but was in a hurry and didn't dig out my tripod.

If you go back to the beginning,where I drew the non bevel side across the hone to even it up,this is how I hold the head and KME.I sort of tilt the blade and then let it settle down on the hone and with the thumb and index finger of my left hand,I can feel the "click" when the flat of the blade makes full contact with the hone.I then lightly draw the point toward me a few strokes.

This is exactly the same thing I do for a couple strokes after honing the bevel with each successsive grit.Naturally,the broadhead ferrule has to be off the hone to get the blade flat down on it.The tips of my fingers feel when I have full contact and they also provide just enough pressure to keep it down on the hone.

I can't emphasize enough,I'm no sharpening expert.I have struggled with this as much as anyone.That is exactly why I am posting this,hoping that someone else can get something from it.Out of necessity,I worked out my own way of getting this done,with the least amount of effort and this especially applies to re-sharpening.I'm no sharpening expert but I did buy my sharpener from one.
 

[Steve O]

Um, we need to get one of your buddy's to come over and take a little video to post from start to finish.

Thank you, this was excellent.

[elkhunter752]

Nice how-to Jim!!!