Evan.

It does sound like your edge did not have enough support like you said. I would also agree that you are holding the blade too flat on the belt. How tight the belt is makes a difference as well. Something that may help is to cut some thin strips of wood and practice on those so that you can get the feel for what you're doing and what the results will be on the edge.

Thank you for that good idea! I'll try testing the edge using this method, I resharpened the edge and added more tilt and the knife no longer folded at the edge. The idea of using thin pieces of wood is great, and should allow me to further get an idea of the edge I should use for a particular knife. Thanks again!

Evan

I was just reading through this thread, and I was wondering how thin do most of you all flat grind the edge down to before sharpening or convexing? In other words, at what thickness is the blade ready to be sharpened?

Ed C.

Ed, I usually go to about twenty thousandths for a hunter. Large blades, between twenty five and thirty thousandths.

Brion

Brion,

Thanks...After posting this question, I found some discussion elsewhere on the forum about this and a mention of "1/4" from the edge" being where the measurement of .020-.030" was taken. Is that correct, or is it .020-.030" at the edge?

Thanks,

Ed C.

Ed, mine is .020 to .025 or .030 at the edge before convexing. After reading your post I went and measured my house cutter, general work in the yard knife, and it measured .044 at 1/4" from the edge. It could probably stand to be a little thinner, say .035 to .040., but it is working fine at the moment. You just need to do experimenting with how thin you can go.

Brion

Wow, I'm forging a little too thick at the edge! In the past I needed to forge a little thicker, but now I guess I can start forging even closer to finished dimensions <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//cool.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='B)' />

Thanks, Brion...you've been a big help!

Mike Quesenberry showed me a very cool technique for convexing the edge. We both have been finish grinding on the 9 inch disk sander. Mike took a piece of rubber, probably about 1/8 inch thick and cut it into a 9 inch circle and glued it to the face of the disk. Then he attaches the sandpaper to the rubber and voila! Rolling the edge requires very little tipping of the blade to achieve a very sharp edge rolled in. I purchased some rubber sheet from Grainger.com that is 3/16 inch thick with a 35 durometer hardness. This is working pretty well for me. As for the edge thickness before sharpening, I usually grind on the disk to .015 or .020 and then roll it down on the rubber disk to sharp. I try to forge down the edge to about .08.