Help Please

[Zodiak]

(I have gone back through months of postings and can't find an answer to my question but aplogise if I missed it!)

A few months ago, and before I found this website, I bought a set of Japanese Waterstones 800/1200/6000 as shown on the Ray Mears Bushcraft DVD.

I am happy with the results on my folding knives but not so with my Frosts Mara, and looking at the edge through a *10 eyepiece I can see that I have rounded off the very edge, suggesting that I have been holding it at too steeep an angle

Can somebody recommend somthing to stop me from making it worse please?

The irony of spending 4 times as much on the sharpening kit as the knife was not lost on me, but as an Explorer Scout leader I was hoping to teach the young people how to sharpen their own knives... maybe a bit later

 

[Hoodoo]

Hmmm...not sure what you are doing. With the Frosts Mora, you should not have to hold at any angle. Just lay the entire bevel flat on the stone. If you don't mind a secondary bevel, you can finish up with a light touch on V-shaped crock sticks. This will clean up that round edge and make the edge just a tad more resistant to chipping on bone and such.

 

[Longstrider]

I may be wrong as I do not own any Moras, but I believe they have a "Scandi" grind. This means that when sharpening the knife you should lay the ground part of the blade FLAT on the stone. This means that you are efectively removing steel from an area about 8 to 10mm wide behind the cutting edge. When done on both sides of the blade this will leave you with a fine, sharp cutting edge. As you have rounded the edge a little this will involve removing what is a comparitively large amount of metal to get back to the intended blade shape so your waterstones might not be the best tools to use for the job initially. You could try letting the grind of the knife sit flat on a coarser, cheaper stone to do most of the work before finishing with the finer water stones.
Removing a lot of metal will often result in a burr or "wire" at the cutting edge. This is best removed by using a leather strop loaded with cutting paste of some kind (I use Autosol Chrome Polish from a car spares shop) Finished this way your knife should be "shaving sharp" in no time.

 

[Tadpole]

I did the same when I first sharpened my Frosts Mora, only a few months ago I found I was holding the knife too tight, (trying too hard) by holding your hands, arms, body too rigid you tend to rock the knife at the end of the stroke. I re-sharpened my knife back to a nice flat bevel on the roughest of the water stone. Then it’s just a case of relaxing your body and the death grip on the knife and thinking flat calm even strokes.
YMMV

 

[beowolf762]

Hi Rainsbury,
Give Old Jimbo a look, he has some interesting ideas on sharpening Moras. Heres the link: http://www.oldjimbo.com/survival/index.html

 

[laurens ch]

You should take a look at british reds 5 pound sharpening thread it should make things a little clearer.The tread is a sticky at he top of the page

 

[Andy]

My normal advice for this sort of promblem is to put a few lines of felt tip perpendicular to the edge. Now try and sharpen the knife using fine wet&dry paper (dry). This will show you where your removing metal from. Moras are slightly hollow ground but most people treat them as flat so you should get fet tip removed from the edge and the shoulder of the bevel with small amounts left in the middle of the bevel. Once you've got the hang of keep the right angle move back onto the waterstones or more course grits of wet&dry

 

[Zodiak]

Thanks every one, I recognise myelf from tadpoles diagnosis but I have just bought an indelible pen so that I can check.

I read the other references and another point rang true, in that there are small circular scratches on the surface, these may have come from an earlier attempt to sharpen it with a set of "Diamond Cards" from e-bay, I have may have done the damage right back then.