Finally managed to get my knife sharp.

clivej

Well after trying for about 3 years to get my Mora hunting knife sharp I have succeeded.
Over the years I've bought many of the gadgets but I was never able to get this knife to do the 'cut paper' test.
I've had the DMT Diamond Diafold sharpener kit for a couple of years and have sharpened many knifes with the kit. But I could never get an edge on this Mora knife.

So sat down and put the knife in a small vice to hold it whilst I tried to get an edge. I ran a marker along the knifes edge to see what metal was coming off, and used an x9 jewels eyepiece to look at the edgeIs I was honing.
Well it turned out that I had to take an lot of the metal off to get the 30 degree edge I was wanting, took me about 3 hours of honing.
Job done now and I used the knife to skin a deer I shot 2 weeks ago. I'll use the same knife to help butcher it tomorrow.






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Feisar

Is it a scandi grind on that mora?

clivej

Feisar wrote: »

Is it a scandi grind on that mora?

I've no idea what your taking about.

Feisar

cookimonster

A scandi blade edge falls around 22 degrees give or take a few degrees. In most cases there is no secondary bevel so the cutting edge is continuous from the edge to the spine of the blade.
All my knives now or either factory finished with a scandi or modified by me to a scandi. When sharpening or honing the blade I dress it up to the particular medium (such as a sanding block with wet and dry paper or a steel) at a 90 degree angle, then I half that to 45 degrees and then again to 22'ish degrees. After a while you will develop muscle memory as to the angle.
If the knife is a stainless steel it is harder to remove material, although edges tend to last longer. High carbon steel is easier to maintain but can dull quicker. I prefer high carbon steel for the reason that it takes an edge quicker. The secret is to maintain it every time you use it. I will always give the blade a few swipes of the steel after getting home or during butchery. For my own personal use I always have separate knives for hunting and butchery, nothing to do with hygiene or anything more some each are better suited to the job. Don't get me wrong I have field butchered deer and goats with a mora companion heavy duty on more than a few occasions, but various geometry of blades make life easier. A stiff but thin narrow bladed boning knife is ideal for separating joints, while a wide thin chefs knife is suited to clean straight cuts/slices used for steaks or dicing meat. Each has a lower drag and slices instead of the typical cut produced by the almost chisel like blade of the mora. The mora, my go to blade, was originally designed as a woods crafter knife ideal for hogging out wood, notch making, pairing etc.

tudderone

If you have a bit of rough leather, make yourself a strop. I made one for the straight razor and a few strokes now and then and it keeps the edge keen, noticeably so.

Rows Grower

tudderone wrote: »

If you have a bit of rough leather, make yourself a strop. I made one for the straight razor and a few strokes now and then and it keeps the edge keen, noticeably so.

My block of stropping compound arrived from Amazon during the week so I dismantled an old Ecco boot to really get my moneys worth out of it. Flattened it under heavy tiles overnight (white spots from tile sticker) and glued it this morning.

This will be one of these simple jobs that I'll drag out for ages.