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Brennan, I have both the KME broadhead sharpener and the KME knife sharpener. The broadhead sharpener works fine on double bevel broadheads but not on the single bevel heads. For single-bevel broadheads the knife sharpener is the one you want.
Here’s how I go about sharpening a single bevel broadhead, but it’s not a good process for anyone ‘sharpening challenged’. I can sharpen most anything by most any technique. My dad started me sharpening my own single blade Barlow pocket knife long before the first day I ever attended school, and sharpening seems so natural that I find it hard to understand how anyone can not be able to sharpen things.
I don’t use the KME for all of my sharpening, and the complete sharpening technique I use varies by the broadhead being sharpened. On a single-bevel BH the very first thing one must do is be sure the flat side of the edge (the side of the blade opposite the bevel) is truly flat. If it isn’t perfectly flat it must be made so, and it doesn’t matter how you achieve that. If there’s a lot of metal to remove I start on a metal belt sander or a curved tooth metal rasp then move to a series of diamond bench stones (course, medium, fine and extra fine) and then to a hard Arkansas bench stone.
The next step is to be sure that the single-bevel is uniform and is at 25 degrees. On some of the broadheads it’s good and others take a fair amount of work. If there’s a lot of metal to remove (such as when the original bevel is at other than 25 degrees) I resort to the same tools and process I used on the flat side of the edge.
Those first steps are the real work, and are critical to getting a truly sharp finished. If you’ve had to true up the flat edge and bevel you will already have reached the point of having a wire edge on the broadhead, or at least you should have.
This is the point that I move to the KME. Of course if the broadhead you’re sharpening already has a truly flat back edge and a correctly set bevel (as in a broadhead you’ve previously sharpened or one of the higher quality heads that comes correctly ‘trued up’) you don’t need to do all that before going to the KME, unless there’s a ‘ding’ or chip in the blade that needs removing. Don’t get me wrong, a chip or ding can be removed using the KME and, for someone who does find sharpening hard to accomplish I think they should do all the sharpening process (other than truing up and ‘dressing’ the flat side of the bevel) on the KME.
I basically use the KME for applying the final polished edge on my broadheads, freshening up the edge of a broadhead that was sharp but has been carried in a quiver a while, or re-sharpening a dulled, but not damaged edge. What I like about the KME is that it will apply that final edge at a precise angle.
Even though I may have taken the beveled edge all the way to a hard Arkansas bench stone I generally drop back to the medium steel or stone on the KME as a starting point. My KME knife sharpener stays set at 25 degrees. Using light pressure I gently hone the bevel only enough to be certain that it is precise along the entire length of the blade. As soon as I know the bevel is true along the length of the blade I go to the fine diamond steel and polish out the edge. Then I move to the extra fine diamond steel and again polish out the edge. Next I go to the black (surgical) Arkansas and again polish out the edge.
At this point I remove the broadhead from the KME and, alternately working from one side of the edge to the other with the black Arkansas stone, and using very light pressure, I remove the wire edge which will have formed along the edge. Then it’s back into the KME for an edge polish with the ruby stone.
Once I’m satisfied with the polished bevel off the ruby stone I flip the blade over (still in the KME) and using EXTREMELY light pressure with the ruby stone, and working at the set 25 degrees, I make JUST A COUPLE OF STROKES ALONG the flat side. Flip back to the bevel side and take just a couple of light strokes, then back to the flat side and again take JUST A COUPLE MORE EXTREMELY LIGHT STROKES along the edge. This seems to remove some microscopic wire edge. From there I lightly strop the edge on the ‘fine’ side of my razor strop. The razor strop I use is double sided, made from horsehide, and I bought it in a second hand shop about 50 years ago. That’s my process. It might sound time consuming but, other than initial truing on some broadheads, really isn’t.
Again, I must stress that those who have trouble with sharpening things are better off to do the entire process (other than truing the flat side on a single bevel edge) on something like the KME. The biggest reasons I’ve seen for people not being able to sharpen an edge are: (1) not maintaining a constant bevel and (2) not putting in enough time with the courser grit steels or stones. Using the KME on the bevel cures #1 and understanding how to use grits will cure #2. The finer grits are intended to polish out the edge, not to sharpen the edge. You should establish a sharp, wire edge along the full length of the cutting edge with the course steel or stone BEFORE moving to any of the finer grits.
So, if you’re using the KME to re-sharpen a broadhead that you have shot you need to check the flat side first (polish it up a bit, working flat to the face of the blade) then place the blade in the KME and, using a COURSE steel or stone, work on the bevel side until you raise a tiny wire edge along the entire length of the blade, THEN progressively proceed through the finer stones and then finish the edge as described above.
Sharpening is a hard process to describe so I hope my explanation is clear enough to understand but, finished in this manner you end up with an edge that will not just cut hair, you can actually shave curls off an individual strand of hair, without cutting through the hair – or shave your face as close as a straight razor.
Ed
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Allow me to add to your great update, friend David?
For those of you with interest I thought some photos to give you a proper perspective of the Tuffhead would be informative so I took a couple to share.
The .060 thickness makes for a SUPER nice bevel width. All the more leverage for it’s purpose, eh Doc Ashby? I can only imagine (and drool) thinking of what the bevel on the .080 projected thickness of the 300+ grainers will look like!!
Shown next to the ever popular Grizzly single bevel for comparison of the bevel width as well as the over all length and width and also with a Magnus II head as well since many are familiar with this head or the many other various heads that are similar in shape and size.
When stuck on a 11/32 POC the size then appears better in perspective too.
Hopefully this will provide a clearer overview of the Tuffhead’s characteristics. 😀 I know holding it in my hand with the other heads available it was indeed beneficial and informative so thought I would attempt to share this online with my tradbow friends.
“A picture is worth a thousand words” ……and all that! 😀
God Bless!
Steve Sr.
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