Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Sharpening traditional broadheads--Zwickey

I am fairly new to traditional archery and am curious what has worked best for sharpening broadheads for fellow campfire members. I currently am using 2 blade Zwickey Eskimos.

Call Ron @ http://www.kmesharp.com/ Ron's a great guy and will set you up with the equipment needed to get them scary sharp. The challenge with the Eskimos is they have a convex blade shape so it takes a little technique to get them real sharp the whole length of the blade.

Zwickey's are pretty frustrating to sharpen because the steel is so damn hard. I switched to Bear Razorheads mostly because they're really easy to sharpen.

Good luck.

I've never tried the zwickeys but I also use the bear razors. I must have 80 of them. Many never been shot. When folks started "dumping" them for the latest and greatest, I grabbed up all I could. Most of em for free! I will never have a need to buy or use any other broadhead.

I just carry a small stone with me if I need to touch them up. I have literally cleaned squirrels and gutted fish with the bear razorheads.

KME is great by pricey. Hard to beat that rada wheelie sharpener for the price.

I have not sharpened Zwicky BHs but have sharpened many other fixed heads with a Lansky sharpener. These days I shoot slick tricks and Magnus heads and every one gets a Lansky sharpening before being used. They are extremely sharp off the Lanky.
I shot a lot of Bear Razor heads in the day and it worked well on them also.

Zwickeys are simple. Clamp in a vise and carefully change the angle some wiht a big file. Be careful you don't slip.

Then when you have a feather edge on both sides go to a grinder with paper wheels on it. Couple swipes on the diamond wheel and couple on the rouge wheel and its shaving sharp.

Warning on the setup... turn grinder around so it turns away from you, and sharpen on top of wheel so if the tip catches in the wheel it will flip it away from you. I used a short stub of an arrow to hold the heads while on the wheels.

Any other way takes a lot more time IMHO.

I like the Tru-angle hones - the model that uses flat files on an angled block of wood. I made a larger version of it 20 years ago and it's all I've used since. I don't see it listed on the 3 Rivers Archery site, but see they sell an instruction kit to make your own.

I use a Lansky on my Magnus two-blades and it works well. Mhy buddy has a double angled diamond stone that works pretty good too.

Just like a knife. Start coarse and work fine. I rub a little petroleum jelly on them when done to prevent rust.

chapstick works too

Stones take so long, compared to files.

Files plus a cardboard wheel... WOW thats fast and easy.

Put the head in a vise, have a handle on a big mil bastard file, and hit it. Change the angle to good, get a feather edge, couple of swipes on the wheel and you'll have a bald arm like I used to when I bowhunted as much as I could.

When I was heavily into bowhunting in the 1980's I mostly shot Zwickeys, and also used a file, but did the final with a round ceramic sharpener. Didn't take long either, and got them very sharp.

^^^Exactly how I do my Zwickeys...after the ceramic finish, they are easily sharp enough to shave with.

Wow, Pat. Nice to see you over here. I used to run Simmons Tree Sharks. Sharpened with a file and finished with a stone

This one worked pretty good on a 386" bull elk last September...

This is the file jig I was referring to that I made - holds a constant angle and sharpens two edges at the same time. Usually shaves hair right off the files, but sometimes I'll strop on leather...

I always wished I had kept the Zwickey that made supper here. I sleuced this grouse on the ground; the arrow went through and hit a good sized rock beyond the grouse. The Zwick curled into a perfect fish-hook form. That made me think they are of pretty "soft steel."

I"ve seen same with them on rocks. Never seen them fail when hitting bone though.

Wife drove them through some big pigs with 40ish pound draw weights too...

I have curled a bit of the tip of a snuffer a few times, but it was never slowed to speak of as the few times on heavy bone they completely penetrated anyway. Was more common to bend the blades on the snuffers since they were vented.

I have seen the 4 blade Zwickeys split a few times where the bleeder was, and had gone to 2 blade only when still shooting them.

George, nope the Zwickeys have the hardest steel of any 'trad' head out there.

As I said earlier, that's why they're a PITA to sharpen.