Hi Everyone,
I’ve been here for a while now and am very happy to let you all know that as of this week we are now sponsoring TradGang!
My company is KME Sharpeners. Quite a few of you already know me but for those who don’t here’s a little background- I am the product designer and customer service/tech support guy for KME. I grew up with a recurve in my hand, went over to the wheelie bow side for a bit but, I am a trad hunter in both heart and mind.
I learned to freehand sharpen knives as a kid after a local “sharpening service” just about destroyed my prized Buck Fisherman sheath knife. Later I spent quite a few years in the custom furniture business and through necessity, learned how to sharpen chisels, plane irons, cabinet scrapers and all kinds of cutting tools. I studied sharpening theory pretty extensively (and I’m still learning). Anyway somewhere along the line, and without even realizing it, I became a complete fanatic about sharpening and sharp edges of all kinds.
During my wheelie bow days I shot mostly replacement blade heads. Does anybody remember Savora broadheads? How about the old orange Satellites? or the old Wasp six blade? How about the original Anderson 245 Magnums? I also spent a few years with the Rothar Snuffers in my quiver. The package said 145 grains but my powder scale said 200!
The replacement blade heads are the reason that I built the broadhead sharpener. The manufacturers always said “razor sharp and ready to hunt with”. The problem was they were rarely sharp enough for me, remember I’m a sharpening crazed maniac. I built a jig to hold those little blades and it worked great. Then a buddy of mine who shoots Magnus two blades asked me to make him a jig for sharpening those. It wasn’t till we were done that we realized how well the thing worked and that maybe someone else might like to have one too…
I’m not here to push our products, and I will not bash anyone else’s sharpeners. I do know a little bit about sharpening stuff though and I’ll admit I’m pretty opinionated but, my opinions are based on my experience. I am a honed and stropped edge devotee. I often say that a knife can actually be made too sharp for some jobs but a broadhead can never be sharp enough. I will put my .02 in on most sharpening related threads but that’s all it will be- my opinion. If anyone has a question or comment about our sharpeners please feel free to ask.
We are very proud to be part of “The Gang” and I would like to thank Terry for his permission to post this thread.
Now who wants to talk about sharpening Stuff???
Ron Swartz
(Sharpster)