Be careful with belt grinders and sharpening -- myArmoury.com

Christopher B Lellis

Just a warning to anyone who is new to swords and or sharpening.

I noticed one of my swords looked a bit skinnier than it was new so I weighed it on a cooking scale and my perception was correct.

One sword weighed an ounce less than it did new after several sharpening sessions, it is an Albion Crecy, and now it's like a shorter talhoffer. I haven't noticed any diminishing in cutting ability but, I wouldn't want to take any more metal off. Thrusting though is probably slightly better.

Original weight was 3lbs 1 ounce, ,now it's 3 lbs .001 ounce

YIKES

I guess I destroyed the resale value on this one. Eek!

Belt grinders will get swords sharp quick with the right grits but careful, it's also easy to go overboard.

Daniel Wallace · Posted: Wed 08 May, 2013 8:53 am Post subject:

bench sanders, or grinders (which ever you prefer to call them) even with very fine paper takes off a lot of meat in a really short amount of time. not to mention if you're not familiar with the tool, it can easily take the temper right out of the edge. you can change the entire profile of a blade in just a few minutes.

anytime sharpening come up i always recommend to use good old fashioned wet stones. you can control the pressure on them to hone a good edge with practice, and it only takes a few swipes to bring the edge back to a serviceable cutting edge epically for a sword (which does not have to be razor sharp)

if you don't have any stones, find wet/dray sanding paper and use a hardwood block for a backing. this is cheaper than stones - less maintenance, and with practice get the same results as stones.

Eric W. Norenberg · Posted: Wed 08 May, 2013 9:12 am Post subject:

Well, could be worse... When I read the post topic I was afraid that not the sword, but one of our fellow members, had lost some mass (really hard not to say "lost some members" there! Oh. Oops.).

Dangerous work, putting the final hone on a three foot piece of steel using a rapidly whirring abrasive tool, whether belt or wheel.

May I propose a "silver lining" of sorts? There are lots of original medieval swords out there whose profile appears to have been altered, within their working lifetimes, by repeated honing. To the degree that those of us who get hung up on blade typology (guilty myself there) will banter about classification. Many of these show marks of continued use, which suggests that the owners didn't worry too much about a fair bit of "wearing in" (or perhaps many folks couldn't afford to just toss it aside and get a new one).

I wouldn't worry about the loss of 0.999 ounces, few people would notice that weight chance in hand. Keep cutting with it, let the leather get some wear, let the hilt get some sweat stains, but respect it and keep it clean- twenty years from now it won't be a worn out sword, it'll be an heirloom.

Best to you Sir!
Eric

Christine Munro · Posted: Wed 08 May, 2013 9:14 am Post subject:

eek! Sorry to hear about that. It sounds like just the sort of thing I'd do, only I'd manage a worse outcome; I'm best kept away from power tools... fortunately my swords are quite sharp enough as it is, even the blunt ones!

Christopher B Lellis · Posted: Wed 08 May, 2013 1:23 pm Post subject:

Christopher B Lellis · Posted: Wed 08 May, 2013 1:27 pm Post subject:

Peter Johnsson · Industry Professional

It is all in the life of a sword.
:-)

Use it well and it will need some sharpening. In the end it will show in the shape of the blade. Just the same as you can see on well preserved originals.

I am happy to hear this story.

Harry Marinakis · Posted: Wed 08 May, 2013 3:53 pm Post subject:

Every resource that I've found regarding sword sharpening recommends avoiding power tools for this very reason.