SWORD sharpening is HARD, but I figured it out!
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- Опубліковано 2 вер 2022
- Sharpening a sword is very hard, but I eventually figured it out and want to share with you what worked.
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#medievalmisconceptions
Shad, the water keeps the steel shavings from clogging the pores and thus the grinding performance of the stone. Good job explaining to non sharpener people how the whetstones work! I'm 41 and started to learn to sharpen blades at about 10 years old. Sharpening is not quick but nor is it difficult. just maintain your angles, establish a burr, then polish the burr off, next strop both sides on good leather strop and WHAMMO mate your blade is sharp.
Cardboard makes a decent strop as well.
Yep. Grinding, filing etc are material removal processes, and you need material transport (aka water) or you end up clogging up your tools. The extreme version of this are things like milling machines with constant oil flow.
This is the comment I was going to make.
Pre-soaking the stone allows for water to seep out to the grinding face helping flush the pores, but it's still good practice to dunk it every so often.
Yes buddy cardboard can work but cardboard is abrasive and can have glue residue. But in a pinch it will work.
@@ryanramsey9621 A strop is supposed to be abrasive. Granted this is on the micron level, and for that cardboard is about right.
As for glue residue, you must have picked the wrong week to quit sniffin...
As a bladesmith, its awesome to see someone else learning parts of the trade! Dont let the strop intimidate you. Its super simple
Yeah, I recommend a whetstone wheel, the old ones would be better for a sword. As the bottom of them was submerged in water and it was on a wheel, that spun.
You could sit on it and press a pedal to spin the wheel.
It is longer but it will get sharper, and faster than one of the brick whetstone these are ment for small knives
Not a bladesmith just know how to take care of my tools eg chainsaws axes knifes ect. I just use a old leather belt to strop
Hey man do you recommend as a smith, sharpening a blade myself that's not cutting at all like the blade is thick on the sides, or do you recommend searching for someone professional
its awsome to see what? shitty craftsmanship.
I have sharpened my swords and knives by hand for years now. I did mess up on a few of my first tries, but now that I have got past the learning curve it has become a relaxing and rewarding pastime
Please read at least three books of the Bible. The first book of each testament and one you chose yourself. As you do practice forgiveness. It is an extremely important step. The Bible is truth. Jesus Christ is Lord
@@jamesmayle3787 Already have, mate. Don't know how I feel about any of it though
I found the same relaxation reloading my own ammunition.
@@jamesmayle3787 Is the church getting low on numbers or something?
@@jamesmayle3787 Based.
It may help to soak the stones for longer. Clamp the blade down flat by the blade not the guard so the edge you're creating is more consistent. Also try not to push as hard if using a pallet as it's bending the blade and changing the edge angle.
Good enough. There was cut, if it seems like he put it in and out.
That’s the first thing I thought when I saw him clamp the handle and the tip instead of just the blade
Those are glued stones and should not be submerged.
@@donald12998 only if your plan is to keep them a billion years. You can soak them and it won't matter, but people leave their stones submerged in water for the duration of the stones service life when they are used in busy kitchens, and glued stones might come apart in that case.
@@donald12998
"Those are glued stones and should not be submerged."
...Broheim, virtually every man-made sharpening stone is made with some sort of glue, epoxy or resin holding them together. Yes, you *_are_* supposed to soak the stones, especially Japanese water stones, unless the manufacturer specifically tells you not to do so (and they better have a *_very_* good reason for doing so). Japanese brand Chosera water stones? Made with aluminum oxide and a magnesia-based binder. And the manufacturer states that if you don't soak their stones they're not being used correctly. There's also the issue that you literally will not be able to weaken the binder of a Chosera stone before you waste away the entire stone into nothing but several flakes of dust with how long they last and how often they need to be flattened. Silicon oxide, aluminum oxide, etc. And the stones that *_aren't_* man-made and don't use epoxy/resin/binder/glue/whatever - like Arkansas stone? You will not hurt them one bit soaking them in water. Albeit most benefit from mineral oils for sharpening over water.
There is something to be said not to use harsh chemicals when cleaning your stones, but water ain't gonna hurt them unless you do something like leave them out in the cold while they're still wet (that's how people were apparently cracking Shapton stones despite them being some of the best quality stones available on the market and right up there (IMO better than) Chosera water stones). But that's not the stone's fault...
The whet in whetstone means to ‘ready’ as in “whet your appetite.” So a whetstone is a stone to prepare or ready a blade. They work better when wet because there is less friction when running the blade across making sharpening easier, and protects the stone from any damage.
Actually, whet is an old spelling of the modern wet that meant to cover
the etymology of whet means to sharpen. when it is used in the sense of to make ready, that is because your sword is ready because you sharpened it and thats like the start point of where you would see it used in other contexts
@@asherbrunnert3121 both are applicable.
Mineral oil helps a lot
@@Pink_Noodle It depends on the stone, most stones are water stones and some stones are oil stones.
Tip for beginners or bad eyes, run a sharpie along the edge before starting. This will show you if you're keeping the angle consistent and can help you sharpen the same amount on both sides as you're done when the marker is removed.
I am absolutely using this, thank you
sharpie?
The marker trick was shown to me by a friend years ago. Genius, it works perfectly.
That's brilliant. Thank you
@@alexanderchenf1 he means a permanent marker, sharpie is a brand.
Bit of advice to take you to the next level Shad. Whenever you step up a grit, change the direction of your stroke in some way--go from along the edge to circling, for example. When you do this you will always be able to see a difference in texture between the current grit and the last grit. Then you can easily spot any place where you haven't finished.
I like to use long strokes along the edge for my final grit as I feel this is superior for minimizing the burr.
Then learn how to strop.
This is great advice. Like Uncephalized said, if you change directions, and look very closely it's easy to see a night and day difference between finished and non finished areas. Most blades if properly cared for only need to be stropped unless they actually get damaged (by impact to hard surface, or rolled edge).
I just want to take a moment to appreciate this community. I love this comment section. UA-cam comment sections are known to be cesspools, but not Shad's (or others' in the sword enthusiast community AFAIK) and I think that's something worth acknowledging and celebrating.
Lol the cesspools are on the game knights channel. Lots of unhinged right wing theocratic rants from the commenters and shad and his friends thank God they aren't too prevalent on here
@@R1ck_Ryder Lefties like you calling people right wing is meaningless to begin with, since you identify anything right of your toxic worldviews to be "radical right wing."
Because Shad's second channel scared away 90% of the nastiest people online.
@@SergioLeonardoCornejo more like it attracted the 10% of the craziest people lol
@@R1ck_Ryder nah. you're the 10% who wasn't filtered. If you hate his politics and audience, maybe you don't belong. I didn't even see your comment here, but you're exactly the kind of person who makes fandoms toxic for bringing up while everyone is happy talking about swords.
Keep up the good work mate, God bless ;)
6:00 shaaaaad, you should put wetstone into water for 10-30 minutes by default
Whet doesn't mean Wet. Whet is basically "sharpening" or "to sharpen". Whetstone means "Sharpening Stone"
This is one thing I've yet to attempt. Sharpening my swords just makes me nervous as I don't want to royally fuck up the edge geometry.
Totally get the hesitation, was exactly the same.
If you are nervous, buy some gauge plate from an engineering supplier. 1" × 1/4" × 12" is a common size that is expensive for a bar of steel, but it is cheaper than a sword. It is ground to size and consistent. The steel is close enough to sword steel to learn technique. You will have a lot of grinding to do if you want to create an actual edge, but that is not the real point here.
@@shadiversity I am really surprised that you could do the angle by just eyeballing it. All the time I was wondering how you are able to maintain the angle, was waiting for it, none of what you described had anything to do with what I thought would probably be the most important part. And then you said you are eyeballing it, and since then I'm kinda impressed and shocked that that apparently is good enough. Maybe my assumptions about it were all wrong, after all I'm just pondering it without ever having done it.
Go nuts on some old kitchen knives and stuff, try and copy bevels or have fun making up your own edge geometries, this’ll help give you a lot of confidence and feel for what you’re doing.
Would love to see the other sword community youtubers respond to this, telling us how they do it. I know that Skallagrim sharpens his blades, for example.
Indeed, just sharpening smaller knives can be tricky without experience and practice, so I can only imagine how hard it is to sharpen a much larger and longer blade by hand, especially without the proper materials and equipment. Really goes to show how tough people had it back then and why swords were so valuable and glorified in cultures around the world.
If you read whetstone directions, they tell you to soak the stone before use
Exactly hahah
He did.🙄
And he also said he didn't know about it
And if he didn't buy the worst whetstones available he wouldn't need to soak it in water.
Because the good whetstones don't need to.
@@andregon4366 Not everyone can afford Shaptons.
Well Done Shad! Now I have a challenge for you. Go and sharpen the Angus Trim Leaf-Blade that you have on ONE edge and test the difference between the factory edge and your sharpened one. Also I recommend "Burrfection" on UA-cam, he mostly does knives but also katanas. That's not the main reason to look at him though. He has the best recommendation on what sharpening stone work the best.
Shad post let’s goo
True crime fan ey?
Shad's learning curve is always on the up, proud of you sport.
I think if you move the sword down a little so the handle and the gard is hanging off so the blade is completely flat and does not flex when you put pressure on the edge you would have better contact with the edge of the blade and the stone
Learning to sharpen is a fun skill to develop, I’ve been doing my own knives for about 8 years now.
Just to answer your question Shad the reason the stone works better wet is because it builds up an abrasive slurry that helps with the re-profile/sharpening of a blade, if you really want to get into it I recommend using leather strops and stropping compound and tormeck paste.
It’ll get your blades frighteningly sharp.
Well, not if you wash off the abrasive paste as soon as it builds....
The leather is good to finish stuff off, I think from this factory grind you’d need the stones to start
ZELENSKY WAR CRIMINAL
Since he practically lives and breathes swords, I assumed that weapon sharpening would be old hat to him. Unexpected.
He lives and breathes swords except he seems like a highschool dropout and he clearly has zero knowledge or any experience with anything he's here "teaching" his audience of fellow Wendy's employees about.
lol breathes heavy
@@jeffhicks8428 Hey Jeff, long time no see.
Say hi to your Mom for me. I'll never forget about her. She gives the sloppiest blumpkins in the business.
With most whetstones you actually want to soak them completely before you use them, it helps the stone break down as it wears out, which keeps the abrasive fresh and prevents clogging. Many people actually just store them in a tub of water so you don’t need to constantly re-soak them
you can simply wrap the blade with a piece of cloth to grab it firmly,... thus sharpening it as intended...
you sharpen one half of the blade and then the other half (tip)
also if you look at japenease sharpennir they are mostly in kneeled in water, with water pooring and flowing on the stone constantly while sharpening it.
You might want to try building a sharpening jig, which holds the blade flat and also keeps your stone at a consistent angle. You also mentioned learning about stropping. See any time you do a grinding operation on metal there will be a burr. When you strop, what you're basically doing is bending that burr back and forth until it breaks off leaving just the sharp edge. All you need is a decent piece of leather.
Historically was done on a stone wheel so the wheel moves and you just hold the sword at the angle you want to sharpen too . today we bench grinder and belt grinders same principle as historical grinding wheel just faster and option to adjust the abrasives to get better results 👍
Power tools and heat treated blades are not something to combine casually.
Overheating the edge is insanely easy to do.
@@Kyle-sr6jm The exact reason why I could only advice using a belt sander with adjustable speed, if you have several swords and whatnot in need of a deadlier bevel. Just clamp the tool into a vice and move the blade around and you should feel it instantly in your fingertips if and when the steel heats up.
A row of strong little magnets embedded and glued into a piece of board works wonders when using the whetstones.
That's crazy! I've been thinking about this for the past 3 days without telling anyone and here you are!
I'm surprised you never asked Matt Easton or Skallagrim for advice in sharpening swords, since they both have made videos about sword sharpening in the past.
If you have an old coffee mug or tea plate, you can use the bottom to polish an edge after sharpening. I don’t use it anymore because my sharpener has a polishing grit side but I swear by using ceramic to polish an edge to a mirror.
Other comments have already mentioned this but you don't need to clean the "slurry" from the whetstone until you're done, it actually helps the sharpening process 👍🏻
Yeah it helps a lot to keep the slurry but it can become hard to see the metal past the slurry.
no it does not. The fine iron particles between the stone and blade becomes free floating material, and other than having that material occassionally and superficially graze your blade, does nothing to enhance sharpness or remove sufficient material in the process of sharpening and shaping a blade. And even if we were to entertainment the idea that material removed by these free floating iron particles amount to anything measureable, its nothing that the whetstone can't do (way better) by itself.
Loved the way Kingdom Come: Deliverance let you sharpen your own swords. Even as basic as it was.
“why am i not breathing”
👀
That game was not a game. It was a peasant simulation lol
You can hear the blade when Shad slices the paper at 15:35. It's such beautiful sound.
“Mom that crazy guy next door is sharpening his sword.”
“In public!?!?”
Shad,
Firstly there are multiple types of sharpening stones the most common types are water, oil, ceramic and diamond stones. Water sharpening stones are generally softer & more porous than other types.
Most water stone manufacturers recommend soaking them in water for a short period of time before each use. Some of them can be safely stored in water others will dissolve if left in water too long.
Oil sharpening stones tend to be harder & more porous than water stones. They are generally designed to be used with mineral oil as a lubrican. If used with water they will likely clogg.
Ceramic stone are generally harder than water & oil stones with a basically non-porous surface. A lubricant is not needed but a splash of water will help keep it cleaner.
My friend dunks his stone (which you did) then holds the hilt with his offhand with the flat of the blade on his thigh and goes over it with a stone. That's how I've seen him do it.
Whetstones will work best when soaked so water builds on the surface. The reason is some of the grit will actually break loose from the surface of the stone and create a slurry on the stone which will help hone the edge.
The reason whetstones work better when wet is that particles of steel and stone are suspended in the water, and work as an additional abrasive. The water makes the stone glide more smoothly, which one would think would reduce the friction, but the reduction is actually in scratches made by the protruding grain in the stone; the water-grit mixture fills the pores, and evens out the abrasive effect. Because of this, you don't want to clean of the grit too often; I generally just wipe off the edge, to have a look, and then continue, though, if the edge needs a lot of sharpening, you'll need to clean the stone occasionally. As you'll have noticed from this, not all the material in the water is steel from the sword; a good portion is from the stone; a good whetstone is supposed to wear down with time.
Water also keeps the blade cool, though I doubt anyone has ever succeeded in heat damaging a blade through manual sharpening, and definitely not by accident.
If you make a really fine edge, _with a single bevel, you want to finish the sharpening by moving the whetstone exclusively and gently towards the blade. This will take a tiny bit of the edge off, but that will be the part that's too weak to hold up when you cut, and will inevitably bend during use, making the edge nearly useless. For slicing, you don't want the edge to be too fine; you want the micro-serration created by a slightly rough stone; the more force you use, the more cleaving action you get, and the less serration you need. I usually make a double bevel on anything that needs to stay sharp through heavy use, but doesn't need a razor edge. A second bevel can also be added for quick touch-up of the edge, but will then require more sharpening to remove the second bevel at a later stage. A double bevel sacrifices some sharpness, but not much; Japanese swords commonly have double bevel, and the samurai weren't exactly famous for the bluntness of their swords... Convex bevels are easier to make, as you have more flexibility in the angle of each stroke of the stone, and they're not necessarily inferior.
Always clean your stone well afterwards, as the loose grit will get stuck in the pores, altering the quality of the stone; you'll want the stone to work the same way every time. Also, they end up stained with rust, if they're not properly cleaned; that's mainly just annoying, though.
P.S.: I've never sharpened swords, but pretty much everything else, such as knives (some of which might as well be swords, for their length and type of edge), machetes, scythes, axes, and more.
Shad, I'm no expert on sword sharpening but have experience on my woodworking tools and some of my knives and axes. You can get a paddle style strop and probably could run it perpendicular to the blade to get that edge finished. You can use strops with or without buffing compound.
It’s a lot better with a buff stone on it though, same reason why you don’t just use a rag as a strop: it is basically a super fine sharpening stone
@@Zack-bl2gg I've never heard of buff stones before, but I'll check them out.
@@willgeorgiadis2025 apparently it’s just called green compound, I always called it a buff stone or green stone or something like that. Sorry about the confusion haha
@@Zack-bl2gg oh no problem! Yup I know what you're talking about. I use a buffing compound as well with my strops
Fantastic info in here, definitely gonna try on one of my swords that came with a crappy edge bevel. You should do this to one of your war swords next, Shad!
Got the notification for this while watching your spear cutting video right as you said "this is *hard* wood".
Just found it funny.
Water is added to whetstones for a few reasons:
Lubrication: Water helps to lubricate the surface of the whetstone, which helps to prevent the blade from getting damaged or overheated during the sharpening process. Without water, the blade may get too hot, which can cause the metal to expand and warp.
Cleaning: Adding water to the whetstone helps to clean the surface of the stone by removing any debris, metal shavings, or grit that may have accumulated during the sharpening process. This helps to keep the stone in good condition and ensures that it continues to sharpen effectively.
Preventing clogging: Some whetstones are made of materials that can clog easily with debris and metal shavings. Adding water helps to prevent clogging by flushing away any debris that may have accumulated on the surface of the stone.
In general, using water with a whetstone helps to ensure that the sharpening process is more effective, efficient, and safe for both the tool being sharpened and the person doing the sharpening.
(This is a ChatGPT answer)
tip for sharpening: when you are clamping down the blade, let the handle hang over the end of the board you are clamping to. that allows for the blade to be clamped flat onto the board and prevents it from flexing while you are grinding. this gives you more/easier control over the actual angle the whetstone is touching the blade while making it easier to apply more pressure during the first coarser stages of the grind
In addition to the cost of swords, the effort and costs required to maintain a sword might be one of the reason that they were not more prevalent as the primary weapon of soldiers back in the day. A knight in shining armor could probably pay for the required tools and have his squire maintain his sword, but your man at arms would have to do it himself and they couldn't just go on Amazon to get clamps, workbenches, sharpening stones and oil while on campaign. It must have been a real pain in the backside and I can see how the soldiers back then would be thinking, "Hmmm, maybe I will buy myself a war hammer for Christmas."
Never need to sharpen a mace or warhammer. And if they get rusty, it doesn't really stop them functioning just fine.
On the other hand, it won't dull if you don't use it. Weapons of Self-Defense hopefully are rarely, if ever, used.
It... is really not that big a deal, and no, that is unrelated to their use as sidearms rather than military sidearms. Shad was in the learning process; once you know how to maintain it correctly, it rarely takes more than like 30 minutes at the upper end. And such touch-ups would be infrequent, anyways.
Swords were not primary because polearms are longer and strike harder, and missiles have _much_ greater range. Sidearm-sized maces and hammers were not primary weapons much to anymore frequently than swords were.
I don't think that's the case. Everyone had a knife. You had to sharpen those knifes. Those same stones could be used on a sword if needed.
@@nevisysbryd7450 not just learning, but putting a new bevel on. You don't do that everytime you sharpen something, or you quickly end up with a long thin toothpick
Now that I think about it this is first time I have seen someone sharpen a sword
It's just so nice seeing Shad going about his business, doing his medieval things. He comes across so happy and satisfied! Amazing :)
I've actually never sharpened a sword, but have done plenty of axes and they use circular whetstones but you use the exact same motions here or small circular motions. I feel like using your method with a circular stone that fits better in the hand might be the perfect combo!
Yep. A puck or disk would work well here. I would want a really coarse stone for thinning out the edge. There is a lot of steel to remove on a sword. It's like sharpening all of your kitchen knives at one go.
Yes shad, you generally let your whet stones soak in water before use…
Nice job. I like the methods you come up with. Very natural and effective!
Love The Energy You Bring To Your Viewers and Great Content. Respect !
When doing a casual sharpening of a knife, including my 14in bladed hand crafted Bowie, I spit on the stone. BUT, if the knife needs a lot of work I use honing oil. Honing oil provides the lubrication and metal suspension and reduces the heat created by sharpening. If you don't use water or oil, you fill the pores in the stone with metal shavings and then it stops sharpening.
Why did you not put the blade flat on the wood to support it, as every time you applied pressure you bent the blade changing the angle for your stone. Get the handle off the end so the blade if supported by the wood.
The best sharpening stone i got is a piece of slate i found in the river.
I polished it with another rock i found i the same river and now my knives are razor sharp.
I prefer wet stone over dry stone because when you sharpen something the water will mix with the metallic dust and stone dust to make a "sharpening mud" that help a lot.
You can use that mud to polish your metal object too.
And sharpening a sword is different from sharpening a kitchen knife.
If you look a kitchen knife with a microscope you'll see that the blade look like a saw.
Really good at cutting soft object but weak.
A sword blade would look more flat, less efficient at cutting but more solid.
I'm glad to see several of us here already sharpen swords and knives by hand! Someone else already mentioned what I was going to suggest of clamping it down on just the blade to give a more consistent angle. From everything I saw in the video it looks like your getting the hang of it! Now you just need to find what methods, angles etc work for you. I've been sharpening by hand enough to agree that you definitely can tell by feel, look, and even sound of the stone on the blade, what angle or consistency of angle you're getting. Have fun learning more!
fun fact the sharpening stick/steel/honing rod doesn't actually sharpen the blade but realigns the slightly dulled edge to extend the time you need before you actually need to sharpen it
Urban legend. A steel is a file with lengthwise teeth. The grooves on the surface of the steel are carved on a shaper (a machine tool with a tool holder going back and forth) by a tool with a triangular bit, producing a succession of sharp edges on the surface, chromium plated for extra hardness. And steel are magnetized on purpose to retain the tiny shavings they cut from the edge of the sharpened blade.
@@MadNumForce that's where you would go if you used abrasive honing rods they go from ceramic or ribbed steel that remove material by adhesive wear to steel or diamond that really sharpen it by removing material and steeling is when you use totally blunt rod to align the edge which one is better the honing (minor material removal) or steeling (realigning the edge) is up to you why they call rods with completely different characteristic the same.. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@MadNumForce
You literally couldn't be more wrong. Modern "sharpening steels" use ceramic or diamond. Any over 20 years old are almost certainly made of stainless steel, softer than typical chefs knives, not magnetic and the ribs are purely for decoration. Professionally they're called honing steels because honing is the act of straightening out a bent edge and specifically the reason you'll see most chefs perform the same manoeuvre with two knives instead of bothering to get the steel is because the steels are totally worthless.
@Shadiversity Just one little point, about the burr on the edge: grinding an edge on steel always produces a burr - *except* when the direction of the stroke is *against* the edge (the way you have it set up in the video, that would be towards you), as any metal that becomes so thin it bends is ground off. Usually this is one of the functions of the strop, but in general, it can be done with the finest (last) step of grinding being done. Both the circular motion and the long strokes along the edge will burr the edge, and grinding to center the burr will usually only make it fold over.
Further note: if using power tools (angle grinder, belt sander etc) grinding against the edge can be really dangerous, as if the angle becomes too steep or the belt/disc bites too deep under pressure, the blade can come loose from the mounting because alot of torque is generated, and in some cases can even slice through a sanding belt - potentially sending it (and also the blade) in a random direction at high speed (keep your body out of the line of fire as much as possible!). With manual methods, the forces are much smaller, leading to better control and the danger is negated.
In sum: rough grind can be done from blade center towards the edge, fine grind should be done against the edge towards the center.
Also, a jig to help keep the stone/sharpening tool keep the same angle against the edge helps more than one thinks.
Um, I think I learned the crazy trick of soaking the whetstone before using it from the instruction manual. It's something you should >always< do.
It's also in every tutorial on YT, manufacturers sites etc.
Also, the stuff "comming off" isn't metal for the most part. It's the paste that is >supposed< to build up on the stone and do most of the sharpening. Constantly cleaning it off will severely reduce the lifetime of the stone and also be much harder on the blade. You only clean it of when you're finished so the metal particles don't sink in and form rust.
I just love this comment section and the community, such fun.
By the way, you not "bend" the burr back to center, you acually grind it back and brake it off. If done correctly the point of contact where the burr broke off is your actual cutting edge.
Good luck with all coming exploit👍
When you’re piling the blade would A Gun oil/lubricant suffice? Does it need to be mineral oil? And also what would be the better oil to use actually. Could Gun Oil be better than mineral oil?
Pretty much any oil would work. A thinner one won't gum up as much and food based ones (like olive oil) may eventually go rancid and smell.
A gun oil would probably work fine, though I don't do guns so I cannot be certain.
There are brands of professional artist pencils that are sold completely unsharpened because it's assumed different artists will want different sharpening profiles for their pencils. I think a similar logic applies to swords, expecting that people who buy real swords also know how to sharpen one and they don't know beforehand what a random buyer wants that sword for so they give them a shallow angled edge such that it can either be made to what edge angle the buyer wanter or be blunted relatively easy for martial arts practice.
Can you imagine Aragorn sharping his sword, out in the wilderness like this? Good stuff!
I've only just started to learn how to sharpen blades myself. It is interesting watching someone else go through this process. I love watching their methods of working things out.
This was a really interesting video Shad. A pleasure.
Water is to a wet stone as oil is to a dry stone . It allows metal to be ground away without generating enough heat to affect the temper . Also the pores are full of fluid and not packed with metal which defeats the ability to grind .
Please read at least three books of the Bible. The first book of each testament and one you chose yourself. As you do practice forgiveness. It is an extremely important step. The Bible is truth. Jesus Christ is Lord
@@jamesmayle3787 wrong channel.
@@tarektechmarine8209 it's a bot just report it as it has left the same message on other comments
ngl i thought people used to sharpen swords with a spinny wheel thing
That was often how swords were given their original edge. But once you give a sword an edge, you simply need to make sure it never gets dull with a whetstone
Well done Shad. Learning a skill like sharpening is useful, and it was good seeing it done on such a cool sword. Can be app,ied to every sort of blade.
Thank you! I couldn't find a good sharpening video and this answered all of the questions I had. Now I can sharpen my own longsword.
You should watch or read a tutorial on water stones. Constantly washing off the abrasive paste, which is >supposed< to build, - like Shad does - is terrible. It's not metal that comes off in the bucked, but mostly the stone, he might as well use it dry.
The stone get's used up quicker (won't be flat anymore) and it's harder on the blade.
@@wolfvonversweber1109 Can you recommend me some decent tutorials?
Honestly mate, if you want to learn the best advice I can give you is this: do NOT spend money on anything related to sharpening and don't believe anyone who pretends that there is a "this one simple trick" that will teach you how to do it. They all do the same thing, scratch tiny bits of metal off a piece of metal.
Go and find the cheapest, nastiest knife you can get your hands on and the cheapest packs of rough & fine sandpaper (40 to 80 grit is fine for rough and 240 will work for fine grit), a flat piece of wood and an old mouse pad that you can use as a strop.
Get the cheapest glue you can find and glue the rough sandpaper to one side of the wood, the fine sandpaper to the other side and then get to work.
Blades change in thickness and width and the belly of the blade curves (on a longsword that curve will be at the tip). That means that the edge angle changes as you run a sharpener over the edge. The only way you'll get a feel for it is by doing it. Use the cheap nasty practice blade until you're confident.
I've used oil stones, water stones, soapy water, grinding wheels, diamond sharpeners, abrasive pastes and multiple jigs.
Now I usually use a nail file and a mouse pad and my knives will all shave hair.
There is honestly no trick to it, every single method boils downs to exactly the same thing; you're just rubbing an a abrasive stick over a piece of metal until it's the shape you want, don't overthink it.
@@CallMeMrChainmail Thanks, and yeah I learned with firearms ('Murican here) That simpler is usually better. Like for oiling my sword, I already had 3-in-1 oil and a shop rag lying around and that has kept the rust away from my sword for the past few months.
@@alienatedpoet1766
I use 3-IN-ONE for everything except sex and food.
the metal on the wetstone actualy helps the grinding process
Shad, just get that spinning stone wheel everyone else uses.
I am a knifemaker and I learned to sharpen knives when I was a kid. I have also taught people how to sharpen knives. My first recommendation to anyone wanting to sharpen their knives is not any sharpening gizmo but one of these cheap, two-layer silicon carbide stones. And soaking the stone in a bucket/bowl of water is a part of my lesson.
It is always a good idea to soak the whetstone, whether synthetic or natural. If the stone does not soak in any water, no harm done. If it does soak water, then it would soak it in during the sharpening anyway. And pre-soaked whetstone loosens swarf more easily.
Should we use 1000 grit stone for a sword?
Got halfway though this video and felt inspired to sharpen all of my kitchen knives :D
They are very sharp now :)
I know you've had a problem with UA-cam lately but THIS is the type of video I subscribed for! Thanks, Shad!
I really love how much effort you put in here
Just bought my first ‘battle ready’ sword, and your absolutely right that there’s very few videos on how to refine the sharpening on long blades out there… except for you. So I thank you sir!
Great vid and info on how you did it. I liked the board idea for mounting the blade.
I went the oil stone method (each pass wiping the blade and stone then reoiling it) and all by hand while holding it. It got scary near the end. I used 200 grit to 6000 grit in steps. My katana cut twine and then cut thin chain once done. I removed the burr by running a piece of bass wood down it on the burr side. This was on a 440C Stainless Steel wall hanger too.
Thats it! no more fancy sharpening tools that fail me, time to get some proper whetstones. This is the way.
Bomino this is really helpful thank you btw I am a huge fan of you and have read your book and I am anticipating the second one
You’re awesome man thanks for sharing your experience
This is super helpful! I needed something exactly like this!! Got a new sword but despite the company selling sharpened swords in the past, they'll now only sell swords that are blunt so if want it sharp... gotta do it yourselves... thanks Shad!
The water on the wetstone keeps the fine dust formed by the lose abrasive and the removed steel produced during the grinding from clogging the stone and helps with heat dispersion if you are to agressive on your strokes. For better results is recomended that you clean the blade and the surface of the stone between grits so you dont mix abrasive sizes.
Gonna have to rewatch this a few times to really absorb the info. Love to get my knives sharper! Especially explaining what and how to make new bevels.
Was just thinking about how much I would love a sword sharpening video from Shad because yeah, there's lots of sharpening videos out there... but I have yet to see any of them prove it by chopping a spearhead off. And then like magic, Shad comes out with a sword sharpening video!! I cannot stress how much I love this channel, thank you Shad!
perfect! this video helped me sharpen my sword ready for my murder court case next month. I don't even need a lawyer, i can just plea trial by combat
The same excellent quality videos as always. Hope the algorithm grants you more mercy in the future.
A small amount of dishwashing liquid helps as well. It is a surfactant and makes the stone more easily wetable.
An easy way to see where you have ground on the bevel is to run a Sharpie down it. Then you can easily see where you have missed by the remaining black marking.
you can razor sharp with 1000 grit and a strop. you NEED to hold your angle and sharpen each side until you feel a "burr" this will tell you when you are finished. when you feel the burr down the entire length of the other side of blade. then you flip, HOLD YOUR ANGLE THE SAME, and repeat. I cannot stress how important it is to keep a consistent angle. the angle doesnt matter as much as keeping it the same throughout.
you dont want to push the burr to the center, you want to take it off. you do this by finer grits, and spend less time on each side as you flip the burr. you want it gone, period. the strop really helps with this. strop is just leather glued to a board, or something related. I hope this helps for you or anyone else struggling or inexperienced in the future!
When particulates are wet, they turn into more of a paste, allowing them to ensure a smoother finish. As apposed to dry particulates which just fly everywhere.
Basically the science behind particle board VS. sawdust.
6:19 Friction, it's to eliminate extraneous friction from the stone to not only improve sharpening, but also prevent damage to the stone. You should soak the stone 15-20 minutes prior to sharpening then use additional water or oil when sharpening.
I've always wondered because when I had got my family Calvary sword, (passed down from my Dad from his Dad when got it in the army) and a Conan sword, both hadn't been taken care of well after years in a closet. I want to make them sharp again like new. Thank you.
Thanks Shad, a great tutorial!
Thanks for this video! :)
Got here because I'm playing D&D with some friends and my character - who's pretty martial oriented - is going to go teach some of the NPCs the broader points of sword and armor maintenance next session. This video and a lot of the comments have been invaluable for me to prepare to roleplay that part. :) Thanks for all your work!
In this video Shad does something I seem to know more about. Hooray!
As several people have pointed out, that blade flex isn't doing you any favours. Move the sword so that only the blade is on the work surface so the whole length is supported.
Water enables the removed metal, and broken pieces of the stone to form a slurry, which becomes part of the abrasive and prevents the stone clogging. That said, this means some of your abrasive is uncontrolled. A better solution would be having a constant fluid flow to transport the slurry away. People sharpening carbon steel blades don't tend to want to just run the garden hose over what they're sharpening though.
As a few people have pointed out, the final edge is often about the burr. Or the microscopic parts of metal pulled past the edge, forming a flap that is usually rolled over in one direction or the other. A fine stone can be used to grind into the edge, avoiding this. This is also the main purpose of a sharpening steel. The final grinding/honing/etc generally has to be into the edge to make sure there's no burr. Apart from stropping. The hope with stropping is that we're finally working on a fine enough polish that any ability to create a burr will be so tiny as to be ignorable
The water helps keep surface cool to protect the blades heat treatment
I'm not getting notifications from these big videos, but these shorts you are posting I am getting notifications for.
This is great! A warrior must take care of their tools properly after all. I'm really happy now that I've gained insights on how to sharpen stuff,
Well done! I never have liked the sharpening "systems" too much. I hand sharpen all of mine. Worksharp stuff is alright but best for knives etc imo. Oh & the term whetstone literally means "stone to sharpen" for "whet" means "to sharpen". The reason they are best wet is that the liquid (oil or water usually) helps carry away the swarf or slurry of materials ground off the stone & the edge as well as helping keep everything cool. At least this is my understanding. I recommend CoalCracker bushcraft for stropping tips. Also you can use a leather belt if you dont have a strap, just lay it on a board or glue a strip of leather to one all are fine for the job.
Water (or oil in some cases) helps the swarf to wipe away (that's the super fine metal dust you get when sharpening), while also being a sort of lubricant. Helps keep the edge clean as you're pushing/pulling down the stone (or pushing the stone down the blade, as you're doing with swords).
To establish the bevel start with an axe sharpening puck. Then your whetstone technique is good. If you do a lot of swords you can get some cheaper whetstones and soak them in light oil. It will last a lot longer. The liquid is building a slurry that does the actual sharpening, like a really coarse polish.
Hi Shad I do in fact have a lot of experience with whetstone work. The true whetstone process sharpens via the slurry that forms when they are wet, instead of a raw dry grinding which is much more like honing instead of sharpening. Normally we soak the stones at least until no more air bubbles come out. I would personally submerge whetstones for no less than 2 hours, and still have a bowl of water on hand to keep the surface fresh if needed. It's important to work up the slurry/paste before committing to the sharpening work, and it's important to keep that slurry at a certain workable moisture level. You will see it change color as the steel is abraded off the weapon/knife, which is the sign you're using the stones correctly.
The best low budget thing I've for sharpening a sword is a SHARPAL 127N Dual-Grit Diamond Sharpening "Stone" (though its made of high carbon stainless steel with diamond grains embedded in it.) Its primarily made for sharpening lawnmower blades but you can see how that could easily translate to swords. Its basically a high/file grain file but is a lot easier to wield and handle than a whetstone (largely on account of having a handle). Only downside is because its dry you have to manually wipe off the shavings more frequently but it really gets the job done.
Cool video Shad. I might have tried to build a jig to hold everything locked into the angle I wanted but that was well done as a quick and dirty method.
This is very helpful! Thanks.
As a 33 year old man, who has worked on steel and other metals since I was 7.
There is a method to make this easier, and it is what they did back then and I highly recommend you find if you intend to do this more often.
The method used is a whetstone, but it was a wheel that was half submerged in water, and you would have to spin the wheel with either like a foot pump or pedal.
If I could link it I would.
These bricks are ment for small knives and cooking knives.