Lash tab PFD “rescue” knifes

[Guest]

BTW – What went back to Spyderco for sharpening. One H1 Salt Sheath and two Cara Caras

I am somehow anticipating the return of those knives any day now. Or not; I have no idea what Spyderco’s turnaround is on sharpening knives and 3 weeks may be unreasonable. I do expect that winter is their busy sharpening season. And I’m surprised those Byrd’s were included in lifetime sharpening.

I'd be interested in knowing how they sharpen a serrated blade. If all they do is put a bevel on the flat back side, that's not really sharpening the bevels inside the serrations themselves, but it will sharpen the knife overall by grinding off the tops of the serrations from the back. Do this enough times and you have no serrations left, but you will have a sharp knife throughout the knife's life.


It'd inspect the serrations under magnification when the knives come back to see if there are abrasive lines inside the curves of the serrations. That should tell you whether they sharpened the serrations themselves.

Me too, and will do so under magnification. I do really like that early H1 Spyderco fixed blade for general camp use (but not the sheath) and, if they can put an edge on the rusty Cara Caras, I’ll try to take better salt water care of them.

The various knives, axes, hatchets, machetes and sundry odd cutting tool threads have made me realize that we, trippers, constitute a peculiar subset of edged tool aficionados, stretching from survivalists to urban lumbersexuals.

It reminds me of the population at herp shows; tattooed biker dudes, geeky parent’s basement-dwelling snake guys, under-age kids (“How do you think you’re going to hide that from Mom!”), tweed jacket with leather elbow patch professionals and retired professorial types who look like bums. Just a weird span of community.

Maybe all “communities” have their outliers. I’ve never been to a Gun & Knife Show. I should put that on the To Do List.

Pardon the blather, someone is shooting in the distance. Reloading and shooting again, 6 rounds at a time. From the sound I’d say a revolver. An old school man after my own heart.

 

[Guest]

I am somehow anticipating the return of those knives any day now. Or not; I have no idea what Spyderco’s turnaround is on sharpening knives and 3 weeks may be unreasonable. I do expect that winter is their busy sharpening season. And I’m surprised those Byrd’s were included in lifetime sharpening.

They are backkkkk. And clean, and sharp. Very sharp.

I'd be interested in knowing how they sharpen a serrated blade. If all they do is put a bevel on the flat back side, that's not really sharpening the bevels inside the serrations themselves, but it will sharpen the knife overall by grinding off the tops of the serrations from the back. Do this enough times and you have no serrations left, but you will have a sharp knife throughout the knife's life.

To sharpen serrations from the front, you need to go into each serration with different size abrasive rods, which is a manual process. You can do it also on the Spyderco Sharpmaker, which has triangular rods. I don't believe Spyderco would engage in a manual process for sharpening serrations. Factory sharpening is usually belt sanding, which is inferior to manual sharpening with Japanese water stones or the Edge Pro Apex, according to those who are adept with those systems.

It'd inspect the serrations under magnification when the knives come back to see if there are abrasive lines inside the curves of the serrations. That should tell you whether they sharpened the serrations themselves. I'd also look at the direction of any intra-serration abrasive lines on a curved blade. If all the lines go in the same direction at each point on the curve--parallel to each other rather than perpendicular to the apex tangent of each serration--that could suggest some sort of belt sanding jig.

dang, that last descriptive sentence took me a while. Under magnification each “tooth” in the serrations shows abrasive lines and those serrations are different sizes (one big, two little, one big, two little and repeat). Those abrasion lines run parallel to the vertical axis of each individual tooth, except when the apex tangent of moon is at apogee.

Since that Spyderco was my only sheath knife it had seen a lot of semi-abusive action and the serrations look much more crisp. My guess is that Spyderco sharpened the serrations and not the bevel on the back. Even the rust bucket Bryd Cara Caras are now sharp, clean, rust free and easy open lubricated.

Overall I am very pleased with Spyderco’s lifetime sharpening performance. If I can send back up to four knives at a time for professional sharpening at $5 a box, especially with serrated blades, I’m sold.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Originally posted by Glenn MacGrady with pellucid clarity

I'd also look at the direction of any intra-serration abrasive lines on a curved blade. If all the lines go in the same direction at each point on the curve--parallel to each other rather than perpendicular to the apex tangent of each serration--that could suggest some sort of belt sanding jig.

Tangential lunar response by Mike McCrea

dang, that last descriptive sentence took me a while. Under magnification each “tooth” in the serrations shows abrasive lines and those serrations are different sizes (one big, two little, one big, two little and repeat). Those abrasion lines run parallel to the vertical axis of each individual tooth, except when the apex tangent of moon is at apogee.

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None of your blades is curved. Hence my trigonometric sentence is irrelevant if not lunatic.

I'm happy your Spydercos are clean and sharp. Something in this world should be. Good job, Spyderco.

I'm buying a million yen worth of Japanese water stones and leather strops because canoe forums are making me do it, rather than paying $5 to a professional knife sharpener.