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.

Hmmm, and I thought it was just me.

one thing is for sure...the more i sharpen, the duller it gets!

yep, that's the road it seems I'm always headed down. Since I posted this thread, I have purchased a SnapOn sharpener, the carbide ones. That doesn't seem to be working, could be that I haven't created the SnapOn angle yet though. I'm going to look into the ceramic sharpeners as mentioned earlier and go back to the file. Thanks for all the input. I'll get there eventually.

you should make a couple of these and sell them on the fire, I just might buy one

Thsoe have been sold commercially for years.

Unless they are no longer in business. I have all kinds of sets of crap like that and i'll go back to a big file in a vise and then a set of paper wheels on a grinder for 2 blade every last damn time for speed and hair shaving sharp quicker than any other method.

I use a file to set the edge.
Then diamond stones
ceramic stick
Last, leather strop
This produces a scary sharp scalpel edge

In the field, I use a file and ceramic stick to get a scary sharp serrated edge.

I have found Bear razorheads to be soft, making them easy to sharpen, which is good because they lose their edge just as easy also.

I use three stones to get mine shaving sharp.Fine India,fine Arkansas and a black surgical stone.

I really need to dig out some Zwickey and film hitting em with a file and then the wheels as to how fast this is. Vs all this other stuff that I too, used to do, to get them sharper...

Just the file, you'll get a toothy, ripped tin can edge in just a few strokes. That's what you want, save the stones and the strops for your scalpels and surgery. Destruction is what you're after here.

I've always done the file/rock/strop thing, but this looks like it would be just the ticket for somebody that doean't like sharpening stuff.

http://www.worksharptools.com/knife...mpaign=WST%20Search%20Branded&source

I use this and it works great

http://www.3riversarchery.com/KME+Self-Aligning+Broadhead+Sharpening+Kit_i7257-1_baseitem.html

You could kill 'em with a wiffle ball.

I couldn't really......but that sharpener works with replaceable slick trick blades so it's paid for itself already

I use the tru-angle file and finish with an accusharp. This vid shows the Fred Bear method.

That seems to be the same thought process, by use of power tools, as paper wheels on a grinder. Paper wheels used to be 25 bucks a set, put on a 19 buck bench grinder life was great, fast and cheap.....

But then again as noted, a good file, and peel the feather edge off and stuff dies pretty dang quick too.

I use paper wheel to resharpen scalpel blades and replaceable bhead blades for years.

Very wrong answer.

+1 you want surgically sharp

Howard Hill seemed to do pretty just fine with a file and a somewhat serrated edge,but what would he know !!

I've killed over 100 animals with a bow. Various bows. Various heads. Quit bowhunting many years ago mostly due to time constraints.

Lets just say while I prefer razor edge, I have no qualms at all hitting it with a file and going. I've NEVER seen a loss from a head that only had a file hit it.

There are two types of sharp edges.
1. scalpel sharp
2. serrated sharp

I prefer the scalpel sharp. Serrated cuts clot easier, and heal ugly. Scalpel sharp bleeds freely and heals cleanly.
Scalpel sharp will penetrate deeper as they cut easier.

rost,
Do you use any grinding compound on the paper wheels?

Yes, the paper wheels come set up with diamond grit on one, cover with wax to keep it cooler.

The other gets rouge, I even forget the color of the stick, but maybe white, I ran out, and have a black stick right now.

But since I mostly quit bowhunting due to a fire injury and I only use Havels Piranta knives, about all we sharpen are meat processing knives a few times a year... so I"m not currently up to date on all that... I suspect google paper wheels would answer too.

When doing taxidermy used to use them all the time to get 2-3 uses out of a scalpel blade... shaving sharp.

I agree on the razor sharp but as noted, have killed a lot of things in a hurry on a touched up filed edge.

Yep, they both work, just prefer the scalpel edge.

Something about a scary sharp shaving edge that will slice paper and pop hairs.

Shooting traditional equipment, I want every advantage for maximum penetration.

One of my friends killed a deer with a fishing arrow from the boat one night. Illegally of course. It didn't go very far shot through the lungs. Good penetration, but not the ideal setup or deer. My point is that shot placement is vital, but bleeding is what causes an arrow to kill quickly. Sharp is the key, a rough edge simply does not promote as much blood loss. Every animal that was ever killed with a rough edged broadhead would have died faster with a keen edge.

There is the argument that a not quite razor edge, IE not so fine and fragile, might hold up better through ribs, than the razor edge

And I think I"ve actually seen that a time or two. But no way to prove it.

The few that I'd used filed heads on, typically pigs where we've used the arrow more than a few times... well they didn't really need to die any faster than they did I mean they didn't go far and didn't live long.

BUt as I've noted I still try to start shaving sharp. But I have no qualms at all about hitting a head on a pig hunt wiht a file and rocking on after peeling the feather off, and hitting it on my jeans or boots a few times....