Blunt knives and the sharpening there-of.

[StalkerB]

As some may know from my post in 'combat simulations' I'm intending to stage a mock bug out across the West Highland Way this year, for some friends who are into zombies but perhaps not as practical.

One of my tasks I'm considering is to get them to sharpen a knife freehand, which will be a useful skill that most of us ('us' being my friends) will have never done.

I don't however have a whole bunch of blunt knives or sharpening stones.

Does anybody know of a cheap place to get blunt knives (I have no idea who'd sell them, or why people would buy them except for me for this though) or a quick way to blunt cheap knives.

In terms of making them sharp again what material should I be looking at having the knives made out of?

NB I'm located in the UK and cheapness is of importance, I'm looking to make this a cheap week of fun for people and don't want to be charging them £50 for a set of tools they'll hardly ever use (save when the Zombocalypse comes, when they would thank me).

Also check out my other thread and see if you have any ideas, thanks

http://zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15226

[Squirrley]

stabbing a pile of sand seems to make my blade go dull pretty fast.

[misanthropist]

Take a bunch of Mora knives ($10 Canadian here so I assume cheaper still for you and very, very good quality knives, best stab for the buck by about a million miles) and point them, edge straight down, into the sharpening stone. File the edge off. There is no faster way to make a knife dull than that!

The bonus is you can sharpen them easily no matter how inept you are due to the scandi grind on them, and when you're done, you have a knife that you would have to spend a hundred bucks (at least) to outperform.

Ask anyone who uses knives: the Mora is the ultimate cheap utility machine.

[hunter :(]

As some may know from my post in 'combat simulations' I'm intending to stage a mock bug out across the West Highland Way this year, for some friends who are into zombies but perhaps not as practical.

One of my tasks I'm considering is to get them to sharpen a knife freehand, which will be a useful skill that most of us ('us' being my friends) will have never done.

I don't however have a whole bunch of blunt knives or sharpening stones.

Does anybody know of a cheap place to get blunt knives (I have no idea who'd sell them, or why people would buy them except for me for this though) or a quick way to blunt cheap knives.

In terms of making them sharp again what material should I be looking at having the knives made out of?

NB I'm located in the UK and cheapness is of importance, I'm looking to make this a cheap week of fun for people and don't want to be charging them £50 for a set of tools they'll hardly ever use (save when the Zombocalypse comes, when they would thank me).

Also check out my other thread and see if you have any ideas, thanks

http://zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15226

Get the 10" British army machete. You can get them at surplus stores for a tenner.

[Haji]

The problem with cheap knives is that they're generally stamped from very high chromium steel. Chromium is used for rust resistance, and is contraindicated for ease of sharpening. For a reasonably easy to sharpen knife for cheap, see if you can find the Victorinox or Wenger paring knives. They're soft, easy to dull, and quick to resharpen. They run about $5 to $8 US each; it'll be difficult to find anything that'll take an edge cheaper than that. Just run the edge straight on a stone or similar hard object. That'll dull 'em quick.

If you have a knife shop close by, they may have some stuff that people have left there that you may be able to get. When I was in the knife biz, I regularly had folks bring in big bags of knives, and ask if any of them were worth sharpening. They'd ask us to dispose of that which was junk or unsharpenable-like the micro-serrated Ginsu junk-which we would then use for training or experimentation.

The key to sharpening is simple: you're taking two angles and making them meet at the same place. Its simple to learn, and can take a lifetime to master. I got damn good with a stone after four or five years of sharpening up to 20 or 30 knives a week by hand. We finally got smart and got a 1" belt sander, and increased the number of knives we sharpened in a week by about 10.

[mr.trooper]

The problem with cheap knives is that they're generally stamped from very high chromium steel. Chromium is used for rust resistance, and is contraindicated for ease of sharpening. For a reasonably easy to sharpen knife for cheap, see if you can find the Victorinox or Wenger paring knives. They're soft, easy to dull, and quick to resharpen. They run about $5 to $8 US each; it'll be difficult to find anything that'll take an edge cheaper than that. Just run the edge straight on a stone or similar hard object. That'll dull 'em quick.

If you have a knife shop close by, they may have some stuff that people have left there that you may be able to get. When I was in the knife biz, I regularly had folks bring in big bags of knives, and ask if any of them were worth sharpening. They'd ask us to dispose of that which was junk or unsharpenable-like the micro-serrated Ginsu junk-which we would then use for training or experimentation.

The key to sharpening is simple: you're taking two angles and making them meet at the same place. Its simple to learn, and can take a lifetime to master. I got damn good with a stone after four or five years of sharpening up to 20 or 30 knives a week by hand. We finally got smart and got a 1" belt sander, and increased the number of knives we sharpened in a week by about 10.

MORA KNIVES Try the laminated Sandvic steel.

[jamoni]

Pawn shop. There's plenty of used, decent quality blades if you know where to look. And most are dull as hell.
Incidentally, if you happen to be the knife guy that everyone expects to borrow a knife from (and misuse it), hit the pawn shop and buy a whole box of knives. Sharpen them up, and keep a couple handy. Then when someone wants to borrow a knife, you give them one, and save yourself the trouble of tracking them down when YOU need it.

[Jeriah]

Pawn shop. There's plenty of used, decent quality blades if you know where to look. And most are dull as hell.
Incidentally, if you happen to be the knife guy that everyone expects to borrow a knife from (and misuse it), hit the pawn shop and buy a whole box of knives. Sharpen them up, and keep a couple handy. Then when someone wants to borrow a knife, you give them one, and save yourself the trouble of tracking them down when YOU need it.

+1 on the pawn shop. Great idea. Flea markets etc. as well.

[StalkerB]

Thanks guys, Mora knives seem decent

Any idea for cheap sharpening stones?

[Haji]

Cheap is relative. I've always favored Eze-Lap diamond stones. They cost more than a traditional novaculite stone, but they last far longer. Additionally, they don't need lubrication like natural stones do. So, unless you lose it, the value is in the diamond stones.

[misanthropist]

If you need sharpening stones in bulk to teach other guys to sharpen, the cheapest solution is to use wet/dry sandpaper on a flat surface. Really! It works just fine, and you can supply ten guys with sharpening stones for under twenty bucks. Get yourself a 180 grit, a 400 grit and a 1000 grit sheet for each guy and you will be able to produce knives sharper than most people will ever own.

[StalkerB]

Sandpaper? Hmmm.

Yeah, I've seen $1 sharpening stones and the dude at ragweedforge is pretty cool, only problem is it'll be +$40 shipping and then the customs men will take another +$50

Thing is the same Mora knife here is £8-9 where as over in the US it's $8-9. Which is weird since we're much closer to Sweden, but we get screwed with VAT and such like

Anyone know where I could get double sided credit card sized sharpeners in the UK?

[Valarius]

You know what? Try the sandpaper thing. I'm willing to bet that's a lot easier to find in a PAW environment than actual sharpeners, and it's got to be a lot cheaper.

Then put up a thread and tell us how it worked.

[misanthropist]

It will work well. A sharpening stone is about as simple a machine as you are likely to buy! It is just a flat, abrasive surface. You are using it to scrape off little bits of metal.

Well, you can scrape off little bits of metal with anything harder than the metal itself. If you like, you can sharpen a knife with a brick. It's not rocket surgery!

Here is a little link that references sandpaper sharpening:

http://www.oldjimbo.com/survival/cks.html

Old Jimbo knows what he is talking about!

Here is another link:

http://users.ameritech.net/knives/knives1a.htm

Featured Quote:

An inexpensive alternative to stones is silicon carbide sandpaper. A piece of silicon carbide (also called wet or dry) sandpaper glued to a wooden block will work as well as a stone. Wet or dry sandpaper on plate glass is popular with woodworkers for sharpening plane irons and chisels, and for flattening the sole of planes. This method is called Scary Sharp by those who promote it.

No kidding. It's cheap and easy, and plenty effective. Anyone who knows woodworkers can tell you that if they are using a method to sharpen their chisels and plane blades, it must work, because no woodworker can use a dull chisel or plane.

I can understand someone being skeptical, but if you don't believe me, give it a quick go. It works.