How I Sharpen Wensel Woodsmans

[Curtiss Cardinal]

[FONT=Times New Roman]I see many posts talking about the difficulty of sharpening WWs. I thought I'd try to help out. I get WWs so sharp that at the MHHs I am asked to sharpen everyone's WW's and TradTech (Roger Yenn) had me show him how I do it. Many can attest to the edge I put on these heads. You need a very good bastard mill file and a diamond hone. Step 1: Make sure the heads are clean outside and inside the ferrule before mounting them. Do not get them too hot when mounting them and it is imperative that the inside of the ferrule is clean. Mount them to straight arrows and spin test to assure they are properly aligned. Let the glue set overnight. Step 2: Hold the arrow in your weak hand place the mill file flat against two blades at the same time and using medium to light force make your strokes, sharpening two edges at each stroke. Remember don’t apply too much pressure to the file. Count your strokes I do 12 - 14 and then turn the head so that the next two blade edges present themselves for the same routine and then do the next two edges. Now give each set of edges one or two very light strokes. This will de-burr the edges. Now test for sharpness. I do this be trying to shave the hair off my forearm. I test each edge this way. If each edge cuts hair, albeit roughly, I give each pair edges several (4-6) more strokes with medium pressure, I then give each pair of edges de-burring strokes with light pressure. Test for sharpness again. This time you should think that the head is good enough to hunt with; but there are two more stages for hair popping sharpness. Stage 3: Now use the diamond hone (I have one of the two sided hand hones from Helle Knives a Bowsite/Stickbow sponsor.) medium coarseness and give each pair of blades 3-4 stroke with medium pressure. Test the edges......you will be surprised that while the edges appear sharp they will barely cut hair. you have completely de-burred the edges and smoothed them out to uniform thickness. Stage 4: Now with the mill file using very light pressure and I mean very light pressure give each set of blades 3-4 more strokes and test for sharpness. You should discover that they are scary sharp. Tips- A file card (a type of wire brush) comes in handy for cleaning the file as needed. I can not emphasize enough how important it is to not put too much pressure on the file during your strokes. I believe this is the biggest reason most people fail to get Woodsmans sharp like they want. This is certainly not the only way to do it; but it is a simple and fast way to put a lethal edge on any three blade head. I hope you find this helpful. God Bless and Good Hunting, Curtiss

[Bill Carlsen]

Curtiss: Many years ago I had the pleasure of spending some time with Roger Rotthhaar, inventor of the snuffer. He taught me how to sharpen them. His system is very similar to yours, especially the part about deburring the edges with light stroke of the file. What he did that was different is to use only the weight of the arrow on the file to draw the blades across the back end of the file. He would also rotate to the next two blades after each single stroke. The file, closest to your hand, hardly ever gets used so is the sharpest part, and is perfect for this step. He would go on to further hone his heads on a piece of leather, cardboard or a hardwood block after honing them on a diamond stone. His process was 4 steps: 1: file the edges with a turn to the next two blades after each stoke. He did 30 turns, 10 strokes per two blades. 2: Deburr using the same alternating two blade stroke using only the weight of the head on the very back end of the file. 3: Hone the blades in the same manner on the diamond hone. 4: If possible strop the blades. He always did two blades at a time. :cheers:

[Curtiss Cardinal]

Bill: I do strop but I didn't include it in my post because most people don't do it correctly and I had some trouble deciding how to word the proper technique. It's interesting to me that in my experimentation in sharpening I come across a technique of a master. I put file to head instead of head to file because for me that offers the best control of angel of the dangle and pressure. I don't see any reason it couldn't be done the other way around if that works best for someone. I recently watched the G5 Montec sharpening video and cringed as the worked the heads back and forth laterally on the diamond hone. While that will sharpen a head I like to sharpen things with an eye on the way the item will do its cutting. I align my micro-serrations to aid in that action. Working from base to tip aligns the micro-serration to make a broadhead fearsomely sharp. A back and forth action removes excessive material and eliminates micro-serrations or reduces them significantly. I learned with knives something can be sharp but be ineffecient at cutting.
The difference is in micro-serations.


:bow2: :jesus: :amen:

[waterone]

Curtis: I use very much the same method for sharpening Woodsmans and Snuffers, but last year or so, I remember reading somehting from a bowyer or someone else, who had another method of sharpening three bladed heads. He was stating that he used a piece of 4" PVC pipe (probably schedule 40) that he glued abrasive paper of various grades to, and used them to hollow ground his heads. I have access to lots of waste pieces of PVC pipe so I tried it and it worked pretty well. The side benefit for him was that he used home-made PVC cases for his bows and arrows while travelling and he simply glued the paper on the outside of the cases and had ready made sharpeing devices. I tried 3", 4", 6" and even 8" pipe for the different hollow ground angles and all but the 3" worked, but the 4" was better.

BTW, if you haven't tried them, 4" PVC makes really pretty durable travelling bow cases, arrow cases and rod cases. Schedule 40 is about as heavy as I'd want to get to for a 6" dia. case, over 6' long, but you can go to a lighter weight PVC pipe.

Chuck