Hollow grinding and sharpening Snuffers and other 3 blades

[Ryan Rothhaar]

Wudstix asked me about this a bit ago, and I thought I would go ahead and put on a thread.

This is how we have sharpened Snuffers for many many years. The idea is you hollow grind the head on a 6 inch bench grinder till you have full new bevels on all blades. Finishing is then done flat on a stone or diamond, allowing the finish sharpening to create a micro bevel where you are only sharpening a fraction of the hollow ground bevel making finishing faster and easier.

Starting with a new head, pull the head from back to front slightly on the grinder at a 90 degree angle perpendicular to direction of rotation.  Be careful not to be too aggressive and build up too much heat to remove the temper..if the metal turns blue you got it too hot!  Keep a cup of water handy to dip the head in.  Also lighten pressure as you get to the tip...dont roll off the tip.  Use the medium grit wheel on the grinder...fine gets too hot too quickly.

You want to have a shiny new bevel the full length on all edges.  Dont try to do it in one pass...make several light passes.  This is really easy to do when you develop a feel for it.

I also sharpen the trailing edges of the head on the grinder.  I dont finish sharpen them....its just insurance in case the head stays in the animal...more cutting

Here is the hollow ground head off the grinder...shiny bevels (with huge burrs) all around.

These are nasty burr edges now.  To finish them I pull the head backwards, flat, 2 blades at a time on 1st a KME finer grit stone then 2nd on a Smith's fine diamond stone.  I generally do 4-5 passes per 2 edges on each...so like 12 or 15 passes rotating the head each time per stone.  Finally I pull backwards with light pressure 3-4 times per side on a leather strop on a wood block.  This progressively works to smaller burrs, with the strop removing the last wire edge.  This gives a smooth hair shaving edge.  Take it as far as you want, I know some guys work down to a real mirror edge, but this is good enough for me.

Here's the KME, smiths, and strop.






Of course if you have carbon steel heads you need to oil them somehow to protect from rust..I had some mink oil laying around from treating boots so used that this time.

R

[Rando]

This is the best method I've found for my few remaining Snuffers and other 3 blades, thanks Ryan!!
Rando

[kennym]

Excellent way!  I black the edges with a sharpie first so I can tell when they are cleaned up.

[Terry Green]

Great stuff Ryan... I use a belt sander... all good!!!

[Orion]

Yep.  Looks like it works quite well.  For those who don't have a bench grinder, a friend of mine uses a piece of PVC pipe to put concave bevels in the blades.  I don't remember the diameter of the pipe, but he glues a piece of sandpaper to it and then pulls the blade backward, rotating every couple of strokes.  Starts with fairly coarse paper and progresses to fine. I don't know whether he then creates a secondary bevel on a flat stone or just keeps the hollow grind with a very fine grit on the pvc tube.  Regardless, he gets them very sharp.

[HornHunter]

Thanks for posting this Ryan,
Ive been sharpening snuffers like this for many years, I use a 6" coffee can with different grits of wet and dry, finish them with a piece of 2 inch nylon  strap ...seat belt.. that has red jewlers rouge ground into it, can shoot that broadhead into a foam block a dozen times and it will still shave hair. everything fits inside the can, goes to hunting camp with me.
side story... I met your dad in 1986 at the SHOT show in vegas, we talked for almost 2 hours about everything I had just started shooting snuffers, when we got done he asked me for my address said he just liked to keep track of the people he met, 2 weeks later, a small white box showed up, packed with snuffers, small note inside said these are some blems but they should shoot just fine, Rodger Rothhaar, he had just started putting the small drill stem piece in the point, I sent him several pictures of deer and elk that I took with those heads, I still have that box and about a dozen of those heads! One of my most prized possesions . I d post a picture if I could figure out how.

[Wudstix]

Thanks a bunch Ryan.  Great talking to you in "High Ground".  I'll use this on all my 3 blade heads.
 

[Patknight]

Orion, im going to try that pipe method,  thx.

[Ryan Rothhaar]

Hi Scott, great story! Yep, 2nds are all we ever used, and most of the old heads I have stashed away are 2nds.  We would hit the 2nds with primer gray spray paint to differentiate them from 1st run heads. They were cosmetic flaws only, and Dad sold many many 2nds for $1 each out of our living room over the years.

[Roy from Pa]

Fixed the pictures for ya Ryan..

[rainman]

Would an 8 inch wheel work for this also?

[Ryan Rothhaar]

Thanks, Roy!

I'm sure 8 inch diameter would be fine, you'd have a problem going too small on the diameter, it would create too much hollow and thin things down alot. 

[HornHunter]

True story:  in the late 80's we had extra wt doe tags, so I took advantage, eastern CO one cold frosty morning I was headed to my stand just getting light and there was a HUGE doe standing underneath my treestand, so I took a knee nocked an arrow, and as fate would have it she started walking straight at me 30 yds away, had her head down sniffing the frozen grass, at 7 yds I pulled and released, snuffer took her dead center throat 3 inches above bo,ttom of the brisket, she jumped, spun , wobbled 5 yds and fell over dead, end of story? Nope gutted her drug her back 200 yds to the truck, and here comes another truck down county rd, game warden, he slammed on the brakes, mind you its only 30 min. into legal shooting light and Im stand there with dead deer,, he was positive he had a poacher,, she was still steaming, showed him my lic.,,,,good, he looks at the entrance wound , What the hell did you shoot her with? pulled the bloody arrow from my quiver,,, he wasnt buying that,,, young man probably his first season, he was convinced I shot her with a gun, searched my truck, surrounding bushes, no luck no gun, I pointed out the distinct 3 blade hole and how the snuffer compared to said hole, still wasnt buying it, so off to the kill site, blood guts everywhere, back to the truck he finally admitted he had never seen a bow kill befor and that was damn imppressive , I gave him the arrow and broadhead and said keep this, he hung it in his office and we became good friends. Just another snuffer story .

[A Lex]

HH, great story,
Thanks for sharing that.

Best
Lex

[shick]

That's a helluva experience Scott.
Shick

[Ryan Rothhaar]

Ttt for sharpening three blades

[Steve O]

Perfect. Nothing better than getting a late night Snuffer sharpening lesson with your Dad out back in the shop. Sure do miss stopping by on scouting trips. Your mom made the best pancakes. God’s speed; they were GOOD people.

[acolobowhunter]

I've never tried Snuffers and have been shooting for over 40 years now.  Usually shot Zwikee's and on my trip to Namibia I used Rocky Mountain Cuttroat's, which I was impressed with.  I like a 2 blade head, but can see where a 3 blade head would add to cutting surface.
How heavy do these heads come?  I shoot 200 grain heads, with 100 grain inserts.