silver flame broadheads

[Sharpster]

Dave,
I haven't had the pleasure of meeting JC yet but, I have no objection. I would like to suggest Lin Rhea (if he's willing). Lin was the  grand champion of the BLADE Show cutting competition in 2006, and I think a journeyman bladesmith would be able to judge the sharpness of any type of blade better than most of us.

I suppose that we could easily assemble a panel of judges to keep it all honest. It's too bad we're all so spread out. It could be a good time at a rendezvous or trad shoot somewhere.

-Ron

[Arrow4Christ]

Oh, I was able to use both Eclipse and STOS heads on another deer as well. I felt the Eclipse's wound channels on both animals were underwelming, which I thought strange, due to their large width, even though they seemed to penetrate very well.
The STOS left a great wound channnel, which I thought strange due to their small width   , but the tip bent pretty good after hitting nothing hard dead on, not even a rib. The arrow did not completely pass through either, to which I was surprised. It could've been a strange situation, but I feel the tip should not have bent that much on that particular hit.
To me, from what I could observe that was not subjective, the Silver Flame seemed to outshine the others considerably.

[Markus]

Folks,

there is no magic involved, only a bit metalurgy (spell?) and a few guys who are top notch experts in their field.
Especially the company who does the hardening (tempering) and grinding of the blades is superb. They normally make high-end industrial knives.

Describing the whole process would take the whole night, so I cut it down.

The edge is ground in a CNC machine with a size of approx. 20'x20'10' in a wet grinding process by a special grinding wheel which got two different grids on it. Don't ask me how that works. I simply don't know.

I get the blades ready for assembling, showing a tiny tiny burr at the very edge which I strop on two leather wheels and one flat leather with different kind of polishing paste. That's all.
The paste is no secret since I tried different ones and most times I got the same results. Using a hard, vegetabil tanned leather is more important imho.

Resharpening:
Once the blade lost of its cutting ability I use a fine single cut cabinet file and let it slide with almost no pressure two times over one edge, then turn the broadhead and let it slide one time over the opposite edge (flipping the burr).
That creates the same tiny burr which I can strop again. You can put the burr upright with a kitchen steel before stropping if you like.
That's effective resharpening with $15 tools in about one minute.

It's important to note that you should resharpen the edge as soon as it doesn't shave hair anymore.
Up to this point the file method works best.

Recreating a complete new edge on a really dull head is asking for some more abrasive methods.
Here you will need your Lanskys, Spydercos, EdgePro etc. or whatever works best for you.
Sharpening is a very individual thing.

For next year I will offer the SF blades in a new steel. Basically it's the same alloy but treated in a patented process before the steel boards get roll-forged.
The result is a superfine micrograin structure yet only to be found on carbon steels. That means a tad more edge retention & easier resharpening.
That steel is somewhat more expensive but I will absorb that.

Markus