Swedge Help
- Thread starter Txcwboy
- Start date
Sticks
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure I'm qualified to give any advice on this subject, but I'll tell you what I do. I do the swedge after heat treat. When putting the swedge on a clip point, I use a wheel and a fine grit belt (like 400 grit) and work slowly. I think the last time I did this it took 1 1/2 hours for a slip joint. I usually have the centerline of the blade's spine scribed from doing the primary grinds. If not scribe this as a reference to grind the swedges parallel to the center. I use the edge of the wheel, so that very little of the belt contacts the swedge, and hold the blade so the blade's spine is at a 90 degree angle to the wheel. The clip will be at a downward angle. I put a strip of masking tape on the blade, from spine to cutting edge, perpendicular to the spine, to use as a reference to make sure I keep the blade at this angle. Then its the problem of keeping the swedge even on both sides in terms of angle to the clip "spine" and depth (same angle should be same depth.) Ideally the swedge will end at the tip, that is, not cut down into the primary bevels. Here's a picture of the first swedge I did, because its the only picture of one that I have.
Jay
Jay
Sampson knifeworks
Well-Known Member
I grind my swedges after heat treat and use my horizontal small wheel grinder with a 1" wheel to preform the task. I keep my work rest square to the wheel and use a angle jig made from Micarta with a 20 degree angle to clamp my blade to. I scribe my edge about .020 apart with parallel lines to guide me. The one inch wheel leaves a nice radius shoulders at the termination point. Sharpening my knives and grinding swedges are the only time I use a jig, for me that short of an angle surface is almost impossible to re align once you leave the grinder and have to go back, at least for me! I think Freds bubble jig would also work great for this. Hope this helps. Just wanted to add, I have done this same procedure on a flat platen and it works good too, but using the small wheel lets me do the finish all at the same time in the direction of the finish I want.
Clint
Clint
Last edited:
Just to give you a different perspective, I file my swedges/false edges before heat treatment. I use a 'vise within a vise' setup to hold the blade, and file horizontally, adjusting the angle of the piece being filed, not the angle of the filing. Mark/scribe the centerline of the blade as a guide. I set the angle for the blade, set a file guide where the swedge is to terminate, then file in the plunges with a round chainsaw-type file. I bump the file guide up to halfway into the plunge to keep from messing that up, then flat file in the rest of the swedge. I figure I'm less likely to mess things up with the file than I am with the grinder, I suppose...