mora microbevels and frost history

[marty66]

hi all ive just read robin woods thread on moras would the members agree that its important to maintain the microbevel on the moras maybe thats why getting to the shaving sharp stage has eluded me. i always thought on a scandi bevel you just maintained the primary bevel seems not. could i also ask to get this microbevel will i achieve this by using my spyderco sharpmaker on the ceramic sticks in the 40 degree slots giving 20 degrees a side or is the edge of a car window just as good?

does anyone know of any info on the history of frosts knives and their knife making process.

thanks guys!

 

[brancho]

Look HERE at thier website

 

[harryhaller]

For professionals

For woodcarving knives

 

[Shinken]

For a general purpose knife i would keep the microbevel. And the sharpmaker is ideal.

But of course if you cut things that arent very hard then taking the microbevel away is okay.

Buy two and try both ways

 

[wizard]

I've been able to maintain my Mora's and other Norweigan grind knives with a shaving sharp edge. I am not applying any additional bevels other than the primary bevel. I am using good Japanese water stones and a strop treated with green jewler's rouge to do my sharpening.
Now, I will say that knives I own with a typical double bevel with a small sharp edge are a real challenge to get very sharp and I have tried every method known to man and sold anywhere to sharpen knives. I can never, ever get any of them nearly as sharp as I can a knie with a Scandi grind. Personal thing I guess. I have trouble with the angle on a double bevel and will sharpen one stroke and dull the next I guess.

 

[Nightwalker]

...important to maintain the microbevel on the moras maybe thats why getting to the shaving sharp stage has eluded me...

I don't think that it is important on your Mora and I know you dont need a micro-bevel to get it shaving sharp. If you cant get it sharp unfortunatly something else is wrong its not just a matter of not being able to achieve a micro-bevel, I dont strive to get one.

I use japanese waterstones and then just strop on leather and dont over-sharpen. Good luck,

 

[rg598]

I agree with Nightwalker. You don't need a microbevel to make a Mora shaving sharp. A problem some people have with sharpening a scandi grind is that when they place it flat on the stone, they think nothing else is required. You still have to make sure that there is enough pressure towards the cutting edge that it contacts the stone. You can easily place the full scandi edge on the sharpening stone, and still have the cutting edgee itself slightely elevated from the stone surface. If that happens you will be grinding the metal behind the edge, but the cutting edge would be untouched.

 

[robin wood]

Here are some pics of the factory from when I visited in 2003 http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28467&highlight=frosts+factory

It is easy to remove the secondary bevel and "zero grind" a mora but to do so you want to stay on the coarse stone quite a while to remove a lot of metal, otherwise you are not actually touching the edge at all.

The reason for my original thread was that if you have a mora, watch Ray Mears sharpening his zero ground woodlore and do the same thing to your mora it may not work well. For a start unless you spend a lot of time on the coarse stone you will not have removed the secondary and exposed new metal at the edge, then however much polishing and stropping you do to the primary bevel is actually doing nothing to the cutting edge at all. If you do spend a lot of time on the coarse stone and remove the secondary then go down the grits properly you should get an extremely sharp edge though too fragile for powerful work.

I have zero ground knives for woodcarving which is what I do most but a knife sharpened with a small secondary as the mora comes from the factory is an excellent multi purpose knife and sharpening takes seconds instead of tens of minutes because we are only removing metal from a less than 1mm wide bevel. The sharpmaker should put an excellent edge on a mora quickly and easily though I do it on stones.