Forged WoodsWalker--revisited

[Schwert]

In a shameless attempt to troll for compliments I present my Nick Wheeler Woodswalker (OSF) after my first sharpening.

I have been playing with my forged OSF since its arrival. I had stropped it back to a very slight convex edge over this time. I did put a very small roll in the edge by torquing it in a branch join carving a hooey stick of all things, but otherwise the edge stood up to my chores remarkably well.

I decided to extend the convex back a bit with a modified Hoodoo Hone approach.

I took my leather strop which is backed with felt and layed a Micro Mesh paper on it. The slight oil of the leather held the micro mesh in place.

I started with 1500, then 1800, then 2400 grit micro mesh and layed the grind flat on the strop. I polished with the 1500 for quite a while before moving to the finer stuff. I worked the edge flat the whole time but the slight give of the leather pad ended up giving me a convex about 2mm back from the edge. This removed minimal metal from the edge as I can still see the straightened roll, but wow what a sharp piece it is once again. The first mm or so of the new convex edge is nearly scratch free. I finished this on the leather loaded with jewlers rouge suspended in oil.

I have not been pushing it to test this edge type much but it is certainly as sharp as it was delivered and I think a bit more robust.

If I would have started with 600 grit or so I could probably bring this to a mirror with these microgrit papers I bet.


Trying out the Gallery with the knife before my polishing of the scandi grind. The photos are not completely clear as to the degree of polish now on the flats, but while it originally was a fully satin grind now it is a polished satin....only the deepest grind scratches are now present.

 

[leon-1]

Randy it still looks beautifull, what has it been like to work with? Do you still find it as comfortable to use as you did when you got it out of the box?

 

[RovingArcher]

Yep, good looking blade for sure.

 

[Schwert]

I have really enjoyed working with this knife. I have been using it for many of my kitchen tasks like cheese, sausage slicing, some vegetable prep (slicing not peeling) and other smaller tasks. I had a nice mottled grey patina going until I polished most of it away.

Outside I have done a bunch of small stuff like whittling hooey sticks for the neighborhood kids.

I managed to put a small 1mm roll in the edge by cranking the edge laterally on a cherry twig trying to scrape the bark out of a branch join. I was able to roll the edge back with a smooth steel and strop the edge back to near perfect. I can still see the rolled place, but one or two more sharpenings like I just did will eliminate that.

The edge was really almost molecular thin. I could watch it deform over the steel rod in a wave with very modest pressure on the steel...cool. I now have taken it back to a bit thicker but it is still thin.

Lateral side scraping is probably not a good use of this sort of edge, but all other wood work from fuzz sticks to splitting small stuff has gone without a hitch. It is so sharp that I can set the edge in a stick to be split with just a slight tap then drive it in with a light baton and done.

Notching the hooey sticks in dry cherry was easy, cutting larger branches off the dry tree was easy, making fuzz sticks and peeling bark went super smooth. I have done some green wood peeling and shaping but have mostly done dry wood work.

The handle configuration and the blade angle etc have really worked well in my hands. The dropped edge is particularily fine in the kitchen slicing cheese or sausage. The angle down of the blade seems to make fuzz sticks peel smoothly as the blade presents an angle to the stick. This may be just a artifact of the scandi edge overall, but this blade really handles hard dry wood well and carves green stuff like there is no tomorrow.

I just finished the sharpening outlined above and the knife has only done some light kitchen tasks but I believe I have a slightly more robust edge....but so far untested for many tasks.

 

[rapidboy]

Nice knife Schwert ,im still waiting for my OSF.
What sheath did you get ,Jamie Briggs?
RB

 

[Schwert]

Jamie Briggs did the sheath, and a fine job he did too.

Nice package from all three of the fellows, Nick Wheeler-blade, Jamie Knowlden-handle, and Jamie Briggs-leather.

I recommend all these fellows, their work is outstanding.

 

[rapidboy]

I have the two Jamie's lined up for mine also ,cant wait.