For quite a few years this Buck Strider 881 mini tanto in BG42 steel was gathering dust in a drawer, as to me it was more a knife-like object, literally unable to cut anything.
Over the last few weeks i changed that with the help of my Tormek SB-250 stone (for the point area), a 300 grit diamond file, a Foss 7205 black/green silicon carbide stone, and some 400 grit wet & dry SiC paper on glass (for the straight edge)
The apex on the now full convex blade measures somewhere between 22.5 and 25 degrees inclusive, and i'm first going to do some test cutting to find out if i can safely lower it a bit more.
Also rounded the overly sharp G10 grip plates a bit and sanded the screw heads.
Before:
(https://i.ibb.co/ydyXqpj/Foto-s-1541.jpg) (https://ibb.co/RY09cNw)
(https://i.ibb.co/tptZx8R/Foto-s-1536.jpg) (https://ibb.co/jk2VWgt)
(https://i.ibb.co/12KCmCT/Foto-s-1537.jpg) (https://ibb.co/f0t3x3H)
(https://i.ibb.co/tPCcBy4/Foto-s-1538.jpg) (https://ibb.co/VpBDVXt)
(https://i.ibb.co/T8STSxc/Foto-s-1533.jpg) (https://ibb.co/KqkGkp6)
(https://i.ibb.co/xz6y3tT/Foto-s-1534.jpg) (https://ibb.co/kqXpMsC)
While grinding the blade with the diamond file:
(https://i.ibb.co/syHmjpx/GEDC3893.jpg) (https://ibb.co/m68DJrZ)
(https://i.ibb.co/GpkhKr2/GEDC3894.jpg) (https://ibb.co/3dWJDPN)
(https://i.ibb.co/0X16L0g/GEDC3895.jpg) (https://ibb.co/pPNMTHt)
(https://i.ibb.co/MgyTQjM/GEDC3896.jpg) (https://ibb.co/YN49wKp)
(https://i.ibb.co/SJNqgbC/GEDC3897.jpg) (https://ibb.co/nRrhy9J)
After the 400 grit SiC paper and removing the tiny burr on a piece of hard cardboard with a dab of 1.0 micron diamond paste:
(https://i.ibb.co/4s6qpRT/GEDC4026.jpg) (https://ibb.co/yhw9qFy)
(https://i.ibb.co/ZfL3bgg/GEDC4027.jpg) (https://ibb.co/wd0T2QQ)
(https://i.ibb.co/RHq5trz/GEDC4028.jpg) (https://ibb.co/q1vZhqk)
(https://i.ibb.co/58w32Xw/GEDC4029.jpg) (https://ibb.co/MVQH9yQ)
Considering all work was done with only one eye currently functioning at about 80 % (plus a pair of reading glasses) i'm quite pleased with the result, :-)
I knew beforehand that the outcome wouldn't be everybody's cup of tea, but for me functionality trumps looks every time.
Grinding the rough convex form with the diamond file (without apexing) took a few hours in total.
Most time was spent shaping & smoothing the blade surfaces on the Foss combination stone and the wet & dry paper on glass.
Visually it's still not 100 % perfect, but the current edge already holds up fine whittling an old piece of hard beechwood cutting board.
A few more pics:
(https://i.ibb.co/X5MfWgL/GEDC4030.jpg) (https://ibb.co/s1zpgGR)
(https://i.ibb.co/878tmR7/GEDC4031.jpg) (https://ibb.co/fx0LXKx)(https://i.ibb.co/2y6HdWf/GEDC4032.jpg) (https://ibb.co/t4hFDQW)
(https://i.ibb.co/64MGcs7/GEDC4033.jpg) (https://ibb.co/sFfcp3d)
(https://i.ibb.co/YpzWk2s/GEDC4034.jpg) (https://ibb.co/RzxS02w)
(https://i.ibb.co/qy6SNr6/GEDC4035.jpg) (https://ibb.co/6nQMHWQ)
(https://i.ibb.co/t4592ML/GEDC4036.jpg) (https://ibb.co/1LxkXfz)(https://i.ibb.co/LQWQpBx/GEDC4037.jpg) (https://ibb.co/jV2V4qy)
(https://i.ibb.co/SdLQVLk/GEDC4039.jpg) (https://ibb.co/RB5hQ5X)
(https://i.ibb.co/7WzFLw9/GEDC4040.jpg) (https://ibb.co/Wy31jbT)
(https://i.ibb.co/Km1nRs4/GEDC4041.jpg) (https://ibb.co/PtSk3WX)
(https://i.ibb.co/yPJn2CS/GEDC4043.jpg) (https://ibb.co/GpjvmDT)
(https://i.ibb.co/FYNczJ4/GEDC4045.jpg) (https://ibb.co/dp1XD64)
(https://i.ibb.co/NLvDpmH/GEDC4046.jpg) (https://ibb.co/2j9VPsf)
very good result, I think the finish is much better than before :)
Nice result. Congrat.
Could you be so kind to describe what you did with the Tormek for this task?
Here the Tormek was used only to grind a new point / slanted edge section on the disassembled blade, using a small knife rest as a guide.
Very cool! I think it looks great.
I wonder if it might have been easier to do the convex on a soft substrate, like sandpaper on a mouse pad instead of glass?
Imo sandpaper on a soft substrate will work very well to resharpen an already convexed edge or full convex blade, but to get that convex shape in the first place a hard substrate works much better.
Phew.... I've been reading the first few posts and I was like "How on earth can one achieve such a result with the KJ convexing feature"...
Nice job !!!