Overview
Our sharpening service will provide a good serviceable edge on the blade. The result is typically “very sharp” with a small secondary bevel and a bit of an “apple seed” profile. The resulting edge is somewhat dependent on the particular blade. Some blades will take and hold sharper edges than others and the thickness of the blade will determine how wide the bevel will need to be. We adjust the angle of the edge to suit the specific blade and attempt to get as close to a bevel-less edge as possible without marring the surface of the blade.
The Sharpening Process
The sharpening service is done with a belt sander. The process involves many passes with sanding belts of various grits. The blades are rested between passes to prevent them from becoming hot and damaging their temper. By default we will sharpen as much of the blade as possible including any false edges if appropriate. If you have a different preference, feel free to make that request in the special instructions at check out. We can sharpen only the last half or third of an edge, for example. Our sword sharpening expert has personally sharpened several thousand swords at this point, so will provide you with a professional service.
What the Service is Not
The resulting edge will be “sword sharp” not razor sharp. Our goal is to provide you with a usable edge for cutting practice that will hold up to some use and not require constant re-sharpening. In other words, we intend to provide you with a serviceable weapon, not a personal grooming implement. The service will not provide a completely bevel-less edge. To create that type of edge will necessarily scratch up the blade surface and we lack the machinery and time to provide a full re-polishing of a blade’s surface. A service of that nature would be significantly more expensive as a great deal more time would be required. We do not offer this type of service at this time.
Disclaimer
We make no guarantee that the resulting edge will meet with your expectations. Every blade is different and some will take and hold a sharper edge than others, due to the blade material, heat treatment or geometry. Some customers can also have incorrect assumptions about sword sharpness and improper expectations as a result. All we can say for sure is that the resulting edge will be sharper than the default edge, in most cases, significantly so. We can not provide any refunds for the service once it has been completed, so consider it to be provided “as is”. That being said, if you are unhappy with the product for any reason, we do still allow you to return the item for a full refund, including the sharpening costs under our normal return policy. This does not apply to special sharpening requests, for example if we sharpen something specially for you that does not normally list that option on our site. The vast majority of our customers are happy with the results of the service, so as long as you keep the above mentioned in mind, we are confident you will be pleased with the results as well.
Mantrid –
A nice looking and affordable knife. It just arrived, so I have yet to thoroughly test it, but it seems to be a quality blade. The blade comes sharp enough to slice through an envelope, and I always liked the shape. Aside from the leaf blade, the convex to concave blade shape is elegant, useful, and in my opinion, beautiful. The blade metal had no pitting or light rust, which was good, since it wasn’t shipped with a coating of oil or cosmoline. The sheath is of good quality leather that is actually very thick. It feels like the sheath should have cost at least $30 by itself. The handle of this blade feels like strong wood, but it’s weight throws me off. I’m not sure if the wood is kind of cheap, or if it isn’t full tang, which brings me to my only complaint; I can’t tell if it is a full tang or not. The end of the tang isn’t visible (which I already knew from the pictures) but I didn’t feel it’s weight when holding the knife. Even if you can’t see the tang or pommel, you often can feel it’s weight. This knife is top heavy, so maybe it’s just hard to notice it. Considering the cost, if it is a full sized and full length tang, then this is probably the best deal on a knife on all of KOA.
curiouscoveter –
KoA, Please provide information on whether this is full-tang or not. Sans that, I can only imagine the worst since there’s not sign of the blade below the hilt. “Is an inch-long nub of the blade really just friction-wedged into the wood handle?” That. Sounds horrible, right?
David W –
The knife is designated as “Integrated” for its construction. It is not full tang in the sense of the hilt construction being a tang with two grip scales attached, as has been noted by that tang not being visibly present. Knife is listed as battle-ready as it is durably constructed. The tang itself is about 70% of the length of the handle.