Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Resharpening blades

I shoot slick tricks almost exclusive now days, and they are all I could hope for with a couple minor exceptions. But I can live with the little issues they fall a bit short on.

I have a pretty big herd of Corsican sheep and a nearby landowner trades me alfalfa in the fall for a couple of the young rams. This way they provide the winter feed for all the rest at no cost to me.

He asked me to shoot gut and skin them for him and he would pick up the meat and drop off the alfalfa. So I decided to make it a bit more interesting and shoot them with my bow. Not hunting of course, but these corsican sheep are by no means tame. Your lucky to get within 50 yards of them!

Anyhow, I shot a 2 year old ram tonight and the brand new 125 grain Slick Trick really did the job as usual. The blades when new were sharp, not as sharp as some blades when new but pretty nice. However that Corsican hair is thick and tough on the blades, especially when they hit the exit side shoulder blade!

I thought rather then just chuck these blades I would sharpen them up and use them on the next sheep. However they are so tiny they don't handle well to sharpen. So how does one sharpen these tiny blades?

cardboard wheels on a grinder and be careful. Thats how I sharpen anything including resharpen scalpel blades.

I use a little ez-lap diamond sharpener. It looks like a wrighting pen when closed up. Just go slow and use the same angle as the original. My broadheads have always cleaned up nice and can be reused. Unless of course they hit a rock etc and are totaled.

I use two different ones together that have given me excellent better than factory sharp blades.
Have been using them for around 12 years now so they work and will last and last.

Sharpener No# one is made by DMT and it is for sharprning broad heads only. It is 100% adjustable for angle and width and will work with any type fixed blade broad head. You can even leave them attached to your arrow, and actually it works best if you do. I use this sharpener (600 grit diamond sharpeners) to get them from dull to razor sharp, then I use sharpener #2 to get them hair poping sharp.

Sharpener No# is made by "Firestone Sherpeners" and it is also spacificly for sharpening FB BHs, but it will also work extreamly well on knives. This is a ceramic sharpener that has two sets (a total of four) of ceramic wheels that you push the blades through. I like this system because it is as close to Arthur proof as I could find and it will get undammaged blades at least as if not sharper than factory sharp. I have resharpened blades to hunting sharpness, that I shot into the dirt and shot countless times in to my HM closed cell foam target.

I wish I knew where you could buy them both, but I bought mine from Cabelas and I dont recall seeing eithor in their 08 archery catalog.

I like to use a fine diamond stone followed by a piece of ceramic.

You are right, it's hard to sharpen the little blades. I like a small pair of vice grips of a small pair of pliers to hold the blades.

The grinder method mentioned is the best way. A polishing wheel with jewelers rouge or polish will make a blade very sharp. It's probably the best method if you have a bench grinder on hand.

Have a Good One,

loder

I like the bench grinder paper wheel idea a lot. I just keep visualizing myself at the emergency room with the blade stuck in my forehead!

Those things are dangerous. Make sure the blades spin away from you so it flips anything you are working on away from you instead of into you. But truth be told I can get a razors edge on a 50 cent chinese pocket knife with one in less than a minute basically... can't ask for anymore than that.

Though we had a thread once, they make these wheels in diamond that doesn't wear down but are way more expensive than the cheap sets.. one of these days I'm going to buy a good set and mount up my sharpener correctly.

You do NOT want to use the sharpener to grind down the correct angle though, that wears the grit out too fast... you may have to file some knives first to get the angle nice.

Once I found this method I have no clue where 3 lansky type kits are anymore, and none of my other sharpeners other than my mini diamond steel I keep in my pack just in case.

And talk about quick on 2 blade heads...

This system works well http://www.kmesharp.com/broadhead_detail2.html

I use one of these and it gets them blades as sharp as I want them to be........

$7.99 at Cabela's

Those get em sharp, but not hair splitting razor sharp.. I'm of the mind set that we've had much better blood trails if the head starts out able to shave strips of hair off my arm with ease... just a different view.

I don't think there is any argument about that razor sharp philosophy. I've had hunters in Africa that had some sick sharp broadheads the kind I'm afraid to touch or handle in any way. These things have blood spout as the game runs off. VS normal sharp, or what many people unfortunately think is sharp because it came from the factory this way.

The difference in performance is significant. I have often wondered why people put so much importance on FPS and don't put equal importance on the sharpness of the broadheads. Just because it came from the factory, or the MFG claims some level of sharpness with the marketing name they use for the design. This means nothing to the reality of the sharpness of the blades.

I shoot slicktricks and they are "factory" sharp. but not the sick scary "sticky" sharp I like. I have to lightly touch the blades a bit with a diamond steel before I'm satisfied. You can use a whole lot less draw weight to drive a scary sharp head through the same game a dull head will need.

Archery kills with hemorrhage only. Even a slight push of the tissue that does not slice through is a failure. This topic should be equal in passion to the bullets debates so many people have with firearms. The sharpest edge possible is the minimum hunting quality broadhead needed.

Arrows don't always need to go clean through either. It's okay when they do, but a broadhead inside an animal that is stirring around with that razor on the end when they take off running is also a good thing! Every time the animals leg moves while running, that razor goes around in circles slicing and dicing all the important stuff inside.

I had a fella shoot a wildebeest a couple years ago. The arrow stuck inside and he ran. About 20 minutes later we followed up and saw him standing. The arrow was broken off now and about 3" was sticking out. We were 50 yards away and I could see him clearly in the field glasses. As he milled around I could see blood pumping out the end of the arrow shaft! The shot was a bit far back and the broadhead had broken off inside. That left this short piece of arrow in the body like a siphon. Each time the bull would take a deep breath and exhale the blood would pump out the end of the shaft. We sat for about 2-3 minutes and that bull laid down there and died. Even though the shot was far back, the running anima stirred up a lot of damage when running.

I tried one of those camo sharpeners Cabelas sells. The thing made the blades more dull than they were to start with and changed the angle.

The best demonstration I know of to see how a sharp blade is better than a dull blade is by placing two long nails in a board about 4" apart(Just drive them in about 1/2-3/4", place a bunch of rubber bands on the nails, then slide your broadhead through the small gap in the rubber bands down to the wood. The rubber bands simulate vessels. A dull head will just pass by the rubber bands, but a very sharp head will slice through them. That is somewhat similar to the effect a dull vs sharp head acts inside an animal when passing by vessels. You want to sever as many vessels as possible for a quick kill.

Have a Good One,

loder

The one negative to razor sharp vs file sharp "they say" is bone... that file sharp will stay fairly sharp, while razor can be really dull.

I don't know, I don't shoot through bones otehr than ribs. Razor has been much more impressive than what my first mentor taught which was file sharpen and touch up. They would grab at the hair, but not shave it.

I changed my mind...

Talk about zip through... Every so often I get the urge to go back to my favorite Zwickey heads. Big 2 blades. File em a bit, run em on the wheels and the edges are like a mirror. Take a wide sharpie and dull the shine for reflection issues, and they'll blow through something so fast its not even funny. Wife used em at 56 pounds on a boar hog that bottomed our 350 pound scales, and that head on a 2016 or similar shaft went through the shield(IIRC it was over 2 inches thick) through the heart and through the other shield and was sticking out the side before it stopped...

Razor is better than not IMHO. And if you want to test, cut yourself with a sharp knife, and then with a razor.... see which bleeds quickest and longest... and hardest to stop.

Don't all broadheads wounds bleed the same way?

Having had success with Magnuss Snuffer broadheads, they recomed leaving a burr on them. Untill my understanding improves, this dose seem to be the most humane kill.

From Magniss

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...dex&indexId=cat601233&hasJS=true

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...dex&indexId=cat600307&hasJS=true

Do all knife cuts bleed the same? LIke I said, it takes no rocket scientist, just recall (this is assuming you've ever had a razor sharp knife) how fast and much you bleed from a dull pocket knife cut vs a sharp knife.

You take them out, throw them in the trash, and replace them with replacement blades, and go kill more stuff. I cant ever get them to the original sharpness of new, so Im not taking the chance.

Toby Joe

Well then Toby.... I've been doing it right cause that is the way it has been for me too! I wanted to see if they could be made usable again but could not manage it. Guess I'm not alone!

That is what I would like to find out?

My bow draws 85# , not worried about needing a mirror sharp broadhead.

My question is how the blood clots on a mirror sharp cutting edge vs a burred cutting edge?

Every cut I ever had, the worst ones were from something naghrly-burred sharp, and they don't quit bleeding. But razor cuts seem to stop bleeding rather quickly?

They can be made sharp again on the wheels I've mentioned. But not too many folks are aware of the wheels or use them. Kits were around 50 bucks plus you provide a grinder.... to say they cannot be resharpened sharper than they were is wrong. And it doesn't take that much work either.

K-
First good luck on the 85 pounds, I was that young once too, actually shot 92 for a time. YOu'll regret it later in life... and its not really needed for US type game.

Ok, blood wise, first your arteries/veins are like a rubber band. Tension that and cut it with a file sharpened blade or a razor sharp knife and see which cuts quickest. Then think about the cut, if its jagged and rough, it has a surface to grab on and build and clot. VS like a shaving cut, and you know how hard it can be to stop the razor cut.... A smooth mirror type cut has nothing to grab hold of for the blood to stop and build on.
Weirdly enough all my cut experiences are EXACTLY opposite of yours. Dull cuts stop pretty quick, sharp do not. Sharp heal a lot quicker though vs the rough dull ones.

A quick story, I was young and dumb... and the future wife was bowhunting with me. I had just shot my first deer ever, and she was along, and for some reason I didn't want to put one of my arrows back in the quiver, but put it point UP(didn't want to dull it....) in a 5 gallon bucket in the bed of the truck. SHort story, she somehow ran her hand up against the blades getting out of the bed and never knew it. I did some stuff and finally saw these drips of blood going to the house, followed a trail in the house, in and out of the kitchen and caught her in teh bedroom and she still didn't realize she was bleeding and it took some light pressure and a bandaid to stop the bleeding. We thought we could just put a rag on it and stop it, yet when she moved it would open up again.....

I'll never use a "dull" head again, not when I can use razor sharp ones. Just my take on what I've seen having watched me and many others kill lots of stuff with bows(arrows- actually broadheads....) And I don't feel that factory heads are ever all that sharp, IE you can get em sharper. I touch all my muzzy blades up first. I've never done Slik Triks though keep threatening to from all the good I've read... just don't bowhunt much anymore. But if I were to start up again.... I'd try them and see if they were sharper than normal.

Good luck, Jeff