Sharpening for a very special purpose.

[emtore]

I make my knives scary sharp.
However, I get many questions from people that require knives with very special characteristics.
Here's the background:
Reindeer herders mark their calves in august by cutting off pieces of the calve's ears.
Each owner has his/her own pattern.
The problem is a scary sharp knife creates a cut that never stops bleeding, and in some instances the calf looses so much blood it is not possible to save it's life.
This is why the herders do not want a knife with a very fine and sharp edge, but still sharp enough to cut a precise pattern.
The knife must be sharp, but also tearing the tissue in order to make a surface with enough tissue fibres to make the wound heal up fast.
Reindeer herders ask me to sell them such a knife all the time.
So, how would you go about in order to sharpen a knife meeting the above mentioned requirements?

 

[Johan Nel]

Perhaps you can indicate your sharpening procedure?

 

[EdCaffreyMS]

For that kind of cut you want a "ragged" edge on a knife. It's the same here with castrating calves during branding.

I've found that a fairly fine flat ground blade, sharpened with a worn out 400 grit belt and left...... no stropping or finishing beyond the belt, is what the Ranchers around here want. Might give that a shot and see how it works.

 

[emtore]

Perhaps you can indicate your sharpening procedure?

Well, it depends on what I've got at the moment in the department of 2x72 belts. The local hardware store stocks 40 grit only.
Across the border to Finland they used to stock large rolls of 2" wide material enabling me to make my own belts in several grit sizes.
They went belly up a while ago.
So,-I'm usually stuck with 40 grit since I've been too lazy to order online and then I polish the egde with a leather wheel and Tormek paste to get rid of any signs of being ground by a 40 grit belt.
The edge gets very sharp indeed this way.

 

[emtore]

For that kind of cut you want a "ragged" edge on a knife. It's the same here with castrating calves during branding.

I've found that a fairly fine flat ground blade, sharpened with a worn out 400 grit belt and left...... no stropping or finishing beyond the belt, is what the Ranchers around here want. Might give that a shot and see how it works.

I think cattle ranchers in the US and Sami reindeer herders in Northern Norway would get along just fine,-same problems, same solutions.
Your suggestion would leave a fine wire edge, plus the tiny grinding marks left by the belt would create the fine tissue strands that prevents the animal bleeding too much.
I was sceptical when these herders said that the calves were in danger of bleeding to death if the wound didn't heal fast enough.
What??? A small cut in the ear could be fatal???
Well,-they explained that even minor blood loss could be fatal considering the condition the calves are born into.
The calf faces harsh conditions in the arctic, even in summer, and it doesn't take much to make them unfit for survival.

I'm sure your suggestion would work. Reindeer herders would be thrilled.

 

[Motor City Mike]

I prefer a "toothy" edge on my knives as opposed to an ultra fine scalpel edge.

I use a worn out 220 or even a 120 belt to raise a burr then knock it off with a paper wheel with some white compound it giving it a bit of a buff.

This leaves it sharp enough to shave arm hair or push cut paper while still being toothy enough to "grab" the cutting surface.

I've found this to edge to be the best balance between sharpness and durability.

 

[emtore]

I prefer a "toothy" edge on my knives as opposed to an ultra fine scalpel edge.

I use a worn out 220 or even a 120 belt to raise a burr then knock it off with a paper wheel with some white compound it giving it a bit of a buff.

This leaves it sharp enough to shave arm hair or push cut paper while still being toothy enough to "grab" the cutting surface.

I've found this to edge to be the best balance between sharpness and durability.

My kitchen knives are scalpel sharp with a shallow angle about 20-22 degrees, but a knife used outdoors I grind a 25 degree edge (scandigrind) raise a burr with whatever belt I've got and polish with a leather wheel and compound. They slice through paper sheets without tearing the paper.
The largest Sami-knives (9" blade) are ground close to 30 degrees, convex grind, more like an axe.
These are used for cutting brush, splitting firewood and reindeer bone to get to the marrow or as a breaking bar for getting belts back on snowmachines should they fall off. Still the edge slices papersheets and will take a fair amount of abuse.

Regarding reindeer bonemarrow: -Delicious and extremely dense in energy. It will get you through the day when temps are at -50F or below.