Unsharpened Sgian Dubh

[Bob C]

Bob,

I can't help but wonder at what kind of formal events you go to that require you to show your knife. Generally the well behaved Scot keeps it tucked away to preserve the mystery.

Hmmmm...wait a minute what are we talking about again?

Cheers

Jamie

Someone always wants to take a peek at my sgian at these banquets. I expect it to be even more so because the new one is very cool.

[O'Neille]

The type of grind on a sgian is usually a convex grind. In order to sharpen one you should shape the blade down to the cutting edge, about .5mm using wet/dry sandpaper or a or a small belt sander with ever finer grits of paper to shape the entire blade. When you get the edge down to about .5mm you can sharpen it as usual. These blades are very hard and will require a considerable amount of work to get the final sharpenable shape.

[Brasilikilt]

Just about every mall has a cutlery store.
Every one of those shops I've been to, they do sharpening in addition to selling knives.
It's my guess that you can bring your sgian dubh into one of these places and have it sharpened for what shouldn't be more than $5.

[PiobBear]

It's really quite simple to bevel the edge with a file and sharpen it with a stone. I can't imagine paying someone else to do it for me. What do you do when your blade's dull and you need to slice a tomato; go buy another knife?

[James MacMillan]

Paying someone to sharpen a knife is just not right. Here's what you should do. First, go ..here.. and read up on how to sharpen a knife.

Then go ..here.. and ..here.. and buy these two items.

Next practice oon an old knife.

Finally get all your knives out of the kitchen drawer and make them tools again.

--And finally tackle that sgian dubh.

You can do it!

[bjproc]

can i ask why it needs to be sharpened?

is it to look better when somebody takes a close look at it or do you use it to cut things?

i think if it was me, i'd just leave it & keep it in my socks

[Chef]

I have been wearing sgians for a long time and while I get many comments on them (I own several interesting ones) I rarely have anyone specifically ask to see it. If they comment I usually just say thank you and leave it where it is. My personal opinion is that it should stay put unless you are actually using it. Which is highly unlikely with a dress sgian.

When it comes to my dress sgians, some have edges and some don't (even some very nice and expensive ones came without a sharpened blade). Since I don't plan to be doing real work when in formal attire I have never sharpened one that came without a proper blade. Sgians for daywear are another story and all of mine have proper sharpened blades. Personally I would leave it be.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

At Wilkinson's we only edged our products at the specific request of the customer. Retailers don't want to sell sharp sgean dubhs-- there is too much of a chance someone looking at it will cut themselves. As far as sharpening by own sgean goes-- well I don't cut my own hair...

[thescot]

can i ask why it needs to be sharpened?

. . .

This is just a wild guess, but I suspect it is so that it will cut something.

A sgian replaces a pocket knife for me, and a blade without an edge is pretty well useless. There's always something that requires a knife when you least expect it.

As to the process, if you are hoping to preserve the polished finish, go to a real pro, not one of those mall people. They can put on edge on it, maybe even a good edge, but the polishing takes special equipment like belt sanders and such.

I agree with Topp that one should sharpen his own blade, but in this case--you probably have a mirror finish on it--I'd get it done by someone with the equipment. If it doesn't have that mirror finish, then roll up the old sleeves and get to work.

Good luck.

[James MacMillan]

a blade without an edge is pretty well useless.

That's the way I feel.