Hawkbill dragonfly sharpening

[Lumpy]

So who’s got a good method of sharpening the serrated hawkbill dragonfly? I can’t seem to find much about sharpening serrations on a hawkbill style blade. Tried a few methods and while it does get sharper than it was, it’s still not as sharp as I’d like it to be, and it seems certain parts of the blade don’t get as sharp as others. Serrations and the recurved blade are still somewhat new to me. I have a sharpmaker and it works perfectly for plain edges, but I think I’m missing something for this style blade.

Any help is a appreciated, thanks y’all!

[vivi]

sharpen it like a wharncliffe. finish the very tip on its own.

[Bloke]

Hey Lumpy, I’m fairly new at sharpening SE’s and what I know I learned here along with trial and error.

Anyhow, I sharpen SE’s basically following the factory grind angle by holding a SharpMaker rod in hand not in the base and get good results that way. I think one of the most important things is to sharpen heel to tip then tip to heel. If you don’t, I think you’ll find you’ll not sharpen the entire scallop.

Have a bit of a search as Vivi and Evil D have both posted fairly comprehensive and informative SE sharpening techniques which have been my foundation.

Good luck and let us know how it goes for you. :)

[Evil D]

sharpen it like a wharncliffe. finish the very tip on its own.

Exactly this.


Vivi was first (that I remember) to point out that serrations don't really follow the curve of a blade, regardless of whether it's a hawkbill or leaf shaped blade. If you look at the serration pattern from the side you should be able to spot a single serration somewhere towards the middle that will look to be the most "up and down" and less curved than the rest. If you just focus on holding the knife so that single serration stays at 90 degrees with the Sharpmaker rods, you just make straight down /back passes as you would any other blade shape. The plain edge at the tip CAN (and probably should) be sharpened separately and at a different angle from the rest of the blade.


Also I just mentioned this in another thread, but for me a brand new blade is always more difficult to sharpen the first time until I establish a micro bevel. It's different if I'm reprofiling the whole bevel or if I already have reprofiled it. My point is don't get discouraged if you don't get immediate results because it definitely gets easier.

[Lumpy]

Thank you for the responses! I will give it another go when I have some free time in the next few days. Really appreciate the help, will let y'all know how it turns out. Probably need to have a bit more patience with it than I've given it haha.

[JuPaul]

I'm still learning this, too! There's a ton of advice in other threads, and Vivi has very helpful videos (as do others). We can bumble through it together. I'll try to find links to some videos...

[JuPaul]

Videos are linked in this thread:

viewtopic.php?t=74747

[Doc Dan]

Vivi taught me how to sharpen a serrated edge. Now that I can easily do it, I buy serrated blades more often.

[Lumpy]

JuPaul, thanks for linking that video, seeing someone else actually doing a hawkbill is very helpful. I actually found that before and skipped right past the hawkbill :rolleyes: :o
Oops!

Doc Dan I think the same thing is going to happen to me. I put off serrated blades for so long, but with all the raving about spyderedge going on here, I’ve decided to slowly add some to the collection starting with the dragonfly. Only one more knife in the budget for this year, and it’s gonna be the new pac salt....serrated :cool:

Thanks again for everyone’s input on this!