We visited a family member in Alfonso, Cavite, in the Philippines. Her home has a small garden in the back filled with various fruit trees and she insisted we take some fruit with us. Part of what caught my eye was the machete being used. That you can see above.
I turned out that her husband enjoyed making knives before he passed away. He shaped the steel, made the handles and the wood sheaths. I wish I could have taked to him.
The handle was about 8″ long and the blade is about 12″ long. This side of the handle still has the ferrule to keep the wood from splitting. The blade does have a sickel shape and the cutting edge was facing me (downwards in this photo). Any steel surface wants to rust in the Philippes. It’s due to humidity and salt in the air.On this side, the ferrule is gone. The handle didn’t have a forward taper but he did have a slight bulge at the front to help with gripping the blade and not sliding forward onto the blade.The handle had cracked and been glued at some point. The blade thickness is a tad under an 1/8th inch.
That is the knife they use for everyday tasks. When they heard I am interested in knives and used to make them, they brought out two the husband made that they keep indoors.
This knife immediately caught my eye.He ahd braided string to make a neck strap when climing trees and the overall color was very nice. It would fully seat in the sheath – I didn’t realize it was partly out when I was snapping photos.The handle was about 6″ and he would taper the handle down slightly as he went forward. This knife was in much better shape than the first and you can just see the silver ferrule where the handle transitions to the blade.My best guess is that he differentially tempered the blade by first tempering the blade and then pouring hot water on the edge. The greyish discoloring is the telltale sign. It’s not consistent but clearly it has held up over time. The blade shows marks from plenty of sharpening.This blade is right arond an 1/8th inch or maybe a tad thicker. The handle had cracked a bit.His work on the sheaths was exemplery. He cut the two halves, carved the channel he needed to hold the blade, glued and then clamped them together. I wish I had a good photo of the side – you have to really look for the seam where the two haves come together to find it.
This third knife, I didn’t think we’d get to see it. The blade had rusted into the sheath. My older relative went into her house and came back with it separated. She’d used a small hammer to tap it out – she’s in her 70s and knows how to fix things “old school”. She wanted me to be able to see it.
I’m glad we could see this one, The handle is about 6″ long and the blade is about 8-9″. He had clearly upped his game both in terms of the handle and the sheath. The blade had a bit of a recurve grind also. My guess is that someone else made the ad hoc sling.. Odds are they put it away wet too and it rusted.This side of the blade did show some forging marks. I did recommend to the relative to brush off the rust as best she could and apply a little bit of oil to preserve the blade. We weren’t there long enough or I would have done it.This bade was also about an 1/8th inch thick. Note the slight crack in the handle. The ferrule is still there.
Summary
We were only able to stay for about an hour and really appreciated their sharing the blades with me. I truly wish I could have met their maker but in many respects he lives on with them and his family.
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As I have written about in the past, I have a Ken Onion Worksharp (KOW) knife sharpener. Folks, I have used the heck out of that little thing and it is still cranking. For example, I used it one time to put the edges on five khukuris from scratch. They were antiques and I used my belt sander to remove the beat up edges and then the little KOW to profile and put the final edges on them. I can’t begin to guess how many khukuris, folders and fixed blade knives have been sharpened on this unit.
At any rate, the one thing about the KOW is the cost and selection of the little 3/4″ wide x 12″ belts that it uses. Worksharp does sell kits with belts in them but its pricey. Happily, as the popularity of the KOW has increased, a number of makers have appeared. I’ve had very good luck with Econaway Abrasives and Red Label Abrasives to name two of them.
What makes a belt good? I really look at two things – does the belt stay together and does the grit stay on or seem to flake off. I have no means of knowing whether a given declared grit is what I actually get – for example, the vendor says it’s 400 grit but is it really? All I can do is go by feel.
Leather Belt
I added a new step in my sharpening – I added a leather belt this year so I could use rouge on the belt for a grit of close to 10,000 for the final edge. I opted for a belt from Pro Sharpening Supplies. It comes with a small packet of white rouge polishing compound.
Sharpening My Three Favorite Flippers
Okay, I needed to sharpen my three favorite assisted opening “flipper” pocket knives. My #1 favorite is my 3.5″ Hogue X5. The other two tie for second place at this point – my ZT 350 and my Kershaw Knock Out.
If I had thought about it, I would have put them in order of being my favorite. Purely by coincidence they are in order of age – the Knockout I bought near Christmas 2018, the Hogue was Father’s Day 2018 and the ZT 350 was purchased in 2015.Guys, I love that Wharncliffe blade profile on the Hogue. You can use it to scrape stuff as you have a flat edge.
It had been ages since the ZT350 was properly sharpened, the Hogue needed a touchup and my new Kershaw Knockout did not have as fine of an edge on it as I wanted. The ZT was part of what motivated me to buy the KOW years ago – The ZT uses S30V steel which is very hard and takes forever to sharpen by hand. I had been using a Spyderco Sharpmaker to that point and decided it was time to buy a better sharpener. The KOW has a wider 3/4″ belt and a bigger motor than it’s predecessor, the basic Worksharp unit. I’ve never regretted the purchase.
The KOW is adjustable so I use this brass guage made by Richard Kell in England to determine what to set the KOW at. The blades were 15 degrees or less with the Hogue pretty much being right at 15. The other two, I’m not sure. They were more accute than the gauge supported.
A Richard Kell blade angle gauge.
Belt Details
I bet everyone has their secret formulas for sharpening blades and odds are they all work. Since these were all touchups, I started with a 320 grit belt. See, I don’t want to take off any more than I have to so I’d rather start with as fine of a grit as possible.
Grit
Maker
Passes/Side
Sets
320
Econaway
3
2
600
Econaway
3
1
800
Red Label
3
1
1200
Econaway
3
1
5000
Red Label
3
1
10,000
Pro Sharpening
3
2
Comments on the Leather Belt
Okay, it through parts of loose leather everywhere when it first started just like when you start a new cloth wheel on a buffer. It did stop after a bit. By the way, safety note – you should always wear safety glasses and a dust mask regardless – this just reminds you of the need.
The second comment is that it did not stay centered on the wheels of the KOW and traveled to the left when looking down from the top towards the front edge. It did not seem to harm anything but the whole point is that it really should have stayed centered on the wheels. No harm done and since I will not use it a ton, I am not going to worry about it.
Photo of the belt up on the left edge of the front lower wheel. Note all the junk on the mat. Good reminder to wear eye protection and a dust mask *always*.
Lesson learned for me, dial back the speed on the KOW from the get go when doing the leather belt.
Sharpening Results
All three knives are wickedly sharp now. I’m very pleased with the results.
Cleaning and Lubrication Comment
Whenever I sharpen a flipper, I blow out the insides with compressed air and then lubricate them. My preferred lubricant is Teflon/PTFE. Because it dries after application, it does not attract and hold dirt. Thus, I applied it to all three knives like I normally do.
It’s common for things to feel gritty until the fluid evaporates but the Hogue didn’t get better, it got worse. I’m not sure what Hogue uses to lube their knives but the solvent in the Dupont spray must have cleaned it off and the dry Teflon wasn’t enough. Conversely, the ZT 350 and Kershaw Compound worked great. It’s not unusual to see something work with one mechanism but not another so it was time for plan B.
Okay, plan B. I started using Super Lube this year on firearms and really like it. Basically, Super Lube is a synthetic lubricant that includes tiny PTFE particles in it. So, I applied it with a pen dispenser and it works great. Way, way better.
Final Result
The knives are all very sharp and they are flipping smoothly. Time to keep using them 🙂 I hope you found this helpful.
If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.
