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.
maciakl (verified owner) –
You get what you pay for, I guess.
The blade itself is sturdy and well constructed, and a little on the dull side (even with the sharpening service). I haven’t done any cutting with it yet but it seems perfectly serviceable and functional. The dagger as a whole, however has a myriad of flaws.
The grip, for one, is awful. The description says it’s wooden, but it does not feel like wood. It feels like a rubbery substance that’s a bit sticky to the touch, and brittle. It rubs off on your fingers, cracks and peels in layers. I presume there might be a wooden grip underneath, but the coating is dreadful. What’s worse, the blackening process during which this rubbery goo was applied left black residue on the pommel and cross guard. You can get it off with some scrubbing, but it does not look aesthetically pleasing out of the box. You can actually see the black goo residue on some of the pictures in the KoA store when you zoom in on where the grip connects with the pommel/crosguard.
Finally, the most egregious flaw: pin on top of the pommel seems chipped. It looks like piece of it broke off leaving jagged sharp edges that were not polished down that could snag your clothing or scratch your bare forearm when wearing it on a belt. The chip does not seem to be large enough to compromise the construction but it is definitely noticeable.
The scabbard also leaves a lot to be desired. It clearly was not designed for this blade. It’s about two inches too long, and the opening is to narrow. The hammerhead blade has the distinctive notch on the false side, and the scabbard was not made to accommodate that. You can either push the blade in up to the notch, leaving about half an inch exposed, or force it down visibly stretching the leather almost to a breaking point. In both cases it simply does not look very presentable.
All in all, it’s an ok low end dagger. The shape is rather cool, and the blade is decent, but if you want to make it look good, you’ll need to put some work in. At the bare minimum expect few hours of cleaning and scrubbing. You’ll probably also want to rre-wrap the grip (and possibly scrape off that dreadful sticky black rubber off of it) and if yours has the chipped pin like mine did, you might need to get that polished down a bit to prevent snagging.
maciakl (verified owner) –
I would like to update my review of this item. I mentioned previously, the black paint/stain used on the grip kept rubbing off on my hands and was smeared on the metal parts. Turns out the sickness was caused by some sort of epoxy glue that was used to secure the grip and mask the cracks in it. After some scrubbing with soap and water, some of the glue came off revealing cracks in the grip that started to chip off. Whats’ worse, the grip appears to have loosened and it now rattles around when handled. It appears the grip was not fitted or even internally glued to the tang, and the little bit of epoxy on the around the pommel and the crossguard was all that was holding it in it’s place.
If the grip got loose during heavy duty cutting practice, that’s one thing, but it coming apart after some light cleaning is unacceptable even at the low price point. Giving it one star. Buyers beware.