Sharpening Tips

[Guest]

Hello everyone, I am new to this whole area, and I was wondering if anyone would mind sharing their wealth of knowledge about the proper sharpening of european swords with me. I am curious as to what angle they should be sharpened at, hints and tricks, what you guys find works the best for a newbie, anything at all you think I need to know. <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />
Thank you very much,

Kelby Napier

[Shane Smith]

If your sword already has a decent edge and a thin geometry,the 5 dollar handle-with-ceramic-bit sharpeners(ie. hunter honer or similar with ceramic inserts preset at the correct angle) available from most any hardware store will do just fine.These sharpenenrs work well on my Atrim XIIIa and it's true sword-edge geometry as it only takes a light pass to restore the bite.On my DelTins it doesn't work quite as well however,the thicker edges make the sharpener want to remove alot of excess material and that is a losing proposition as the DT's were not intended by their maker to have true sword edges beveled cleanly from fuller to edge.

[joelthompson1]

I have an older short sword that also has the thicker blade geometry which doesn't lend itself well to traditional sharpening methods. So when I decided to sharpen it, I started with a 120 grit belt on a belt sander. I took some of the thickness off of the entire flat of the blade and then worked on putting an edge on it. After getting a sharp, rough edge, I used whet stones to get a nice cutting edge. It cuts pretty well considering its original blade geometry. If you're familiar with the Viking Sword that Bud K and some others sell for about $30 these days, it's the same one except it's many years older. I wouldn't bother with the ones they're selling today. The older ones were made of better steel, and mine has had the handle and tang reworked. So it's also balanced pretty well now. Hope this helps.

Joel

[Casper Bradak]

I went to a local antique shop and bought a pedal operated sharpening wheel, which was a good investment. Sharpening wheels of varying sizes being used on swords are in surviving medieval artwork.