Recent posts

#11

Knife Sharpening / Re: Knife restoration - Puma 8...

Last post by kwakster - December 24, 2025, 04:08:06 PM

The knife is now almost done.
The blade surface was refined with 800 grit wet & dry and some WD40.
The new convex edge apex measures ~30 degrees inclusive and needs to have it's tiny burr removed later, after which the sheath will receive a few coats of warm Granger's wax.

#12

Knife Sharpening / Re: Knife restoration - Puma 8...

Last post by kwakster - December 24, 2025, 04:06:57 PM

Separately polished the miniature guard a bit, then put the handle back together using glue between all the washers:











How the knife looks at the moment:

#13

Knife Sharpening / Re: Knife restoration - Puma 8...

Last post by kwakster - December 24, 2025, 04:05:55 PM

This is how the blade looks after regrinding by hand both sides with only 400 grit wet & dry SiC paper using WD40 oil as a lubricant on a semi-hard rubber backing.
Somewhere in the past the edge had already been sharpened convex, so in order to remove as little steel as necessary i just evened things out to a new edge of around 30 degrees inclusive.
It's not completely finished yet (there is still a bit of edge damage left under the letter T), but that can also be done after the handle is re-installed.

#14

Knife Sharpening / Re: Knife restoration - Puma 8...

Last post by kwakster - December 24, 2025, 04:04:49 PM

Started with the blade:

#15

Knife Sharpening / Re: Knife restoration - Puma 8...

Last post by kwakster - December 24, 2025, 04:03:49 PM

Handle disassembled.
Tools used: a modified Swiss Made PB flathead stubby no.5, a thin scalpel blade with a purposely overstropped apex (polished blunt), and the flathead screwdriver on my old Amefa army knife.

#16

Knife Sharpening / Knife restoration - Puma 8101 ...

Last post by kwakster - December 24, 2025, 04:02:44 PM

A few years ago a member of Tactical Forum in Germany sent me this vintage Puma 8101 Texas Bill, advertized in a 1950's Puma brochure as a "throwing Scout knife" (German: Wurf und  Fahrtenmesser)
The request was to give the knife some TLC, post some pics how i do things, and then return the knife to it's owner.

#17

Knife Sharpening / Re: Is there still a wire burr...

Last post by Andy - December 23, 2025, 11:25:31 PM

Hi, how are you? I can't find it. I saw a link to a knife sharpness chart here on the forum. It looks like a test. How to check the sharpness of a knife when you don't have a device. I remember there being mention of cash register tape -?Bess and cigarette paper- ?Bess .....
Thanks.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Peaceful skies.

#18

Knife Sharpening / Re: Newbie question: chef kniv...

Last post by MarthaH - December 23, 2025, 10:12:40 PM

While you are reading this, may I ask a favor? Although I am a US native English speaker, I have some long ago background in Spanish and German. I am sensitive to the frustrations our members who are not native English speakers may have on the forum. The forum has grown from a primarily US based English speaking community to a much more global community. I welcome this growth, although it also brings some "growing pains". I  would welcome any suggestions you might have to make the forum more multilingual friendly. You may post them or send mea Personal Message

I've been around discussion boards from the early days of the internet (usenet...) until today (I got my first permanent (!) connection from my home to the net in 1995, with superfast 64kb/s...) English is by now the "lingua franca", and nearly everybody (with some technical background) is more or less fluent in it. My native language is German, and there are german speaking boards about knives and grinding them. However, I feel discussions there tend to turn into esoteric regions with more or less connections to the real live. I read through several threads here and think the contributors here are a little more down to earth. I appreciate this approach ;-)

It is not easy to fill a board with lively discussions in several languages. Anyone who is into a technical/practical hobby like this should at least be able to follow the topics in english, so no direct advice from me. One could however keep a list of native speakers somewhere in this board to have someone to talk to if the language capabilities are not precise enough.

#19

Knife Sharpening / Re: Newbie question: chef kniv...

Last post by MarthaH - December 23, 2025, 09:53:11 PM

Welcome to the forum, Martha.

If you hold your knife on a cutting board, looking at it from the side, you should not be able to see light under any part of it.

This implies that the cutting part of blade is straight. Usually it is curved, but I think you want to say it should touch the board at one point only (this being the lowest part of the curve). If you have two points, the blade curves away from the board between the two contact points.

That said, how do I remove the excess of material towards the grip? I found a video on YT where someone repaired a similar knive by grinding away the excess metal with a belt sander before grinding the blade. I don't have a belt sander, can I use the standard (coarse) Tormek stone for this?

M.

PS. I now can add pics, this is the knive I want to sharpen.You cannot view this attachment.

#20

Knife Sharpening / Re: Newbie question: chef kniv...

Last post by Ken S - December 23, 2025, 08:52:29 PM

Welcome to the forum, Martha.

If you hold your knife on a cutting board, looking at it from the side, you should not be able to see light under any part of it. If you do, you need to correct it. The area where the light shines through will not cut through properly. In English, we call this "the green onion effect". This is usually caused by the bolster of the knife protruding below the edge of the blade. This is corrected by grinding down the bolster. This should be checked and corrected as part of routine sharpening, although it is frequently overlooked. This can be done freehand. Wolfgang covers this in one of the advanced knife sharpening classes.

Please let us know if this does not correct the problem. We are here to help.

While you are reading this, may I ask a favor? Although I am a US native English speaker, I have some long ago background in Spanish and German. I am sensitive to the frustrations our members who are not native English speakers may have on the forum. The forum has grown from a primarily US based English speaking community to a much more global community. I welcome this growth, although it also brings some "growing pains". I  would welcome any suggestions you might have to make the forum more multilingual friendly. You may post them or send mea Personal Message