The 32 Degree Sharpener: A Game-Changer for Hunting Heads

As I sat down to work on this test head, I couldn't help but feel a sense of trepidation. The material was embedded with scratches and scuffs, and it looked like it had been through a war. But I was determined to restore it to its former glory, no matter what it took. First, I turned the head over and gave it a good cleaning, removing all the debris that had accumulated on its surface.

Next, I attached the single bevel guide and began the sharpening process. The 32 degree sharpener was set to the correct angle, and I started with 250 grit sandpaper. Most people would stop at this point and call it a day, but I knew better. I wanted to remove any imperfections that might have caused the head to dull prematurely.

As I progressed through the grits, I could see the head starting to come back together. The scratches began to smooth out, and the surface started to look like new again. But I wasn't done yet. I had to get rid of the burr that was hiding in the grooves of the blade. This was a crucial step, as it would prevent any uneven edge or poor sharpness.

To remove the burr, I used a combination of sandpaper and elbow grease. I ran each piece of sandpaper along the edge of the guide, using a gentle but firm touch to coax out the imperfections. The process was time-consuming, but it was essential for achieving true sharpness.

Once the burr was gone, I switched to higher grits, progressing from 400 to 1200. Each stage required more finesse and patience, as I worked to smooth out every edge and corner of the blade. It was a meditative process, almost hypnotic in its repetition. As I advanced through each grit, I could feel the head becoming sharper and sharper, until it finally reached its full potential.

The ferrule, which held the blade in place, also required some attention. A quick clean and sprucing up brought out its sleek, metallic sheen. The tondo tip, which was a feature of this particular head, would be free-handed if desired. However, I opted to leave it alone, knowing that it added a touch of elegance to the overall design.

Finally, with all the sharpening complete, I attached the head back into its jig and gave it a final inspection. The 32 degree guide had worked its magic once again, restoring the head to its former glory. It spun smoothly through the air, a testament to the sharpness and edge retention that this tool provided.

But how did it perform in the field? I decided to put it through its paces with two tests: shaving a fingernail and glancing off a gladiatorial blow. The first test revealed true sharpness, as the blade effortlessly sliced through the nail without leaving a mark. The second test showed that this head was even sharper, biting into the nail on a glancing blow.

In conclusion, the 32 degree sharpener has proven itself to be an indispensable tool for any serious hunter or outdoorsman. Its ability to restore even the most abused heads to their former glory is truly remarkable. Whether you're hunting deer or simply want to keep your knife in top condition, this tool is a must-have.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso here in order to clean up the back side because on a single bevel the back of the blade is still a cutting edge i cleaned it up a bit it's kind of hard to get focus it's getting the scale on the ceiling and my bow and from it but cleaning up the back side of a single bevel is also sharpening the other side of the blade okay so this blade was really necked up you saw pictures earlier and because this steel is so hard i start with a 240 grit diamond plate i won't even attempt to sharpen this type of head without diamonds the sandpaper just you'll eat it up it's a waste of time so how do i know when i've got um a full clean up a good edge well there's a burr on the back that i can feel and that you can probably see it's that bright white line because this is 240 grit it's a pretty big bur as you get through the smaller grits you won't be able to feel the burr so i take a piece of post-it note if it runs into a brick wall if it cannot pass it's running into that burr so as i push on here see how the paper bends it doesn't even want to go any further if i flip it over it slides right off it now you can see i still have some nicks on this leading edge of the blade right here that i need to get rid of so i'm going to keep going on that all right so now i've got the bulk of that um mix in there gone again you can see the paper is running up against the burr now that i've got this burr what do you do with it right well you can use the same grit plate that you're sharpening on lay it flat pinch it and just give it a couple of strokes to get rid of that burr on the back side remember even though it's a single bevel you still have to sharpen both sides as if it were a double bevel now that i've done that you'll see that the paper slides right off so now that i've gotten a burr and a good cleaned up edge with 240 grit and again i'm sharpening at 32 degrees with this sharpener because that's the bevel for this blade 32 degrees now i'm going to go through 400 800 1200 2500 and buffing compound but at each grit you're going to get a burr you're going to feel the burr at 240. you're going to feel it at 400 certainly with the paper at 800 and the paper at 12 and 2500 when you get to the buffing compound you're not going to be able to feel a burr on the back side but if you've got number at every grit you will be sharp so i'm going to keep going on this and then i'll come back when i've gone through all the grits all right so now i've gone through all the grits including 2500 the last grit that i used i said that at 2500 grit it's kind of hard to feel the burr so here is our finish at 2500 grit so it'll be hard to feel the burr with your finger print but again the paper runs right up against it so you'll know you have a bur this is key if you don't get a burr at every grit you'll never get a head sharp so again the last step is lay it on the edge of a plate that you sharpen or not the same grit here this 2500 grit lay it smooth do not create a bevel on the backside again you only want a single bevel you're just breaking the burr off here so a couple of strokes and you've gotten rid of the burr let's try it with the paper slides right off now we have chased a little bit of the burr to this side it's hard to feel but it is still there and from here we're gonna go to buffing compound next but as of right now that is the edge that we've restored so i'll do buffing compound for buffing compound this just happens to be an old piece of cardboard i've coated it with buffing compounds several times i've done several heads on it you only want on the bevel side you only want to do a pull stroke don't push in because all you're going to do is it'll be like a putty knife scraping off the bumping compound use a pull stroke and just keep repeating that now when we get to the end of the buffing compound strokes i'll show you how to break the burr off then so i'll be right back now that i've gone through all my buffing compound backward strokes this is the edge that we're dealing with now on the back side there will be a small micro burr but at this point it's time for me to take it out of the guide anyway so to break off that small very small micro bur on the flat side i take the blade out of the holder now you can literally lick the tip of your finger to get it moist get the blade to stick hold it for a second and then you can slide the blade back and forth under your finger on the buffing compound we've pushed a small bur of buffing compound size burr from the tapered edge the beveled edge to the flat side we need to get rid of that the best way to get rid of it is with the same grit that you created it with in this case buffing compound so we will give it several strokes get rid of that bur see how it clings to my finger now let's inspect that edge again i had to take it out to do the tonneau tip anyway i had to reposition it so we will have a blade that will bite into my fingernail won't glance off and i'll do a little bit of sharpening well we can actually try it right now let me grab a rubber band i have one here you give it a try plain old rubber band let's see what happens so right away we're pretty sharp here i don't have to slice i just have to push the blade right we've taken a pretty destroyed edge and restored it tonneau tip is next stay tuned now let's look at the tonneau tip after going through all the grits as well as buffing the same thing were removed we had position for that move you can see the un touched version that was pretty abused and so that's the position to do the tonneau tip if you value a tonneau tip i don't necessarily do but i wanted to keep it the same for this particular head welcome back to this old broadhead in this episode we are taking a new to the market broadhead that was tested and abused and shot through a variety of materials really messing it up but that's what tests are all about earlier i showed you that i cleaned up this edge so we're going to kind of inspect what we've got going on here so this is the portion that i still need to restore this is the edge that i've already cleaned up so it looks like this head can be restored and turned to service still spins true there's nothing really wrong with it a lot of the material during the tests are embedded into the metal but once i clean it up and hit it with the 32 degree sharpener which is what this single bevel is sharpened at we will be back to a pretty good blade almost like new so i'm going to clean up the other side and then i will be back as i begin the process of restoring the other side of this head again i've started with 250 grit now most people would look at this and say yep i think i'm done with 250 grit looks like it's cleaned up pretty well and that's where most people fall short and get frustrated they call me and say man i spent a lot of minutes on it and a bunch of strokes and i can't seem to get a sharp and i say did you get a bur and they either say no or they say i don't know so while this looks like boy i should be able to go to the next grit 400 let me see if i'm there yet no so i haven't achieved a bur yet so i have to still keep going even though it looks like boy i got it all done i should be able to switch over nope without a bur you are not done i could go through all the other grits and buffing compound and this head would look spectacular it would still be dull because i haven't reached the burn as i advance through the grits on the second side of this head i'll again talk about getting rid of the burr so this happened to be 1200 grit when i get done and i've got a bur i can leave it in the jig i run it right up against the edge of the guide and i tip it until i don't see daylight and then i give it a stroke this means you need a flat surface if you're trying to do this with sandpaper it better be on a piece of plexiglass or something rigid that allows you to have some backing this piece of sandpaper won't be strong enough that's all you want to do you do not want to create a bevel on the backside so the burr is gone now and now i can go to the next grit as i progress through here is the ferrule before cleaning it up since it was also part of the test i'll give it a little bit of sprucing up as well here it is after a little bit of cleanup the slicker things are the easier they pass through an animal if things are smooth they slide through with ease now i've got the head put back together after all of the sharpening is done and you can see that the 32 degree angled guide was able to bring back all the edges what i didn't talk about was the tertiary edge which is this fine little point here with the tonto tip if you don't do that you aren't going to end up with a a sharp tip so that's it's free handed if you value a tonto tip you're going to have to do that but at any rate we've got a great finish all the way through head spins through we took it from basically a destroyed head and turned it back into something that is again usable and let's do a little bit of look at sharpness now seems that everybody's favorite test seems to be shaving so let's give that a try that's just one pass not a lot of pressure so clearly it shaves the fingernail test is my favorite does it bite into a fingernail on a glancing blow if it skips off it's not very sharp this one is obviously very sharp i contend sharper than it even came from the factory so you don't have to dispose of a head just because it's dull and this is a high end head an expensive head there's no reason to turn this into a a practice point it's certainly huntable again would i hunt with it heck yeah i mean it's just like new so the 32 degree bevel sharpener is what you would use for this particular head being sharpened at that bevel and that's for all the back the main blade the tonto tip again the tertiary tip that you will freehand while it's in the guide if you value that again i don't even value a tonto tip but it came with that so let's restore it to the way it was this is a fantastic head made of fantastic steel and even though it was really abused in testing through steel wood concrete a lot of guys would have thrown it away and said no way not going to fix that head we were able to restore it so i had that simply been shot through an animal maybe hit the dirt um there will be no issues returning it back to the quiver with the 32 degree guide from stay sharp youso here in order to clean up the back side because on a single bevel the back of the blade is still a cutting edge i cleaned it up a bit it's kind of hard to get focus it's getting the scale on the ceiling and my bow and from it but cleaning up the back side of a single bevel is also sharpening the other side of the blade okay so this blade was really necked up you saw pictures earlier and because this steel is so hard i start with a 240 grit diamond plate i won't even attempt to sharpen this type of head without diamonds the sandpaper just you'll eat it up it's a waste of time so how do i know when i've got um a full clean up a good edge well there's a burr on the back that i can feel and that you can probably see it's that bright white line because this is 240 grit it's a pretty big bur as you get through the smaller grits you won't be able to feel the burr so i take a piece of post-it note if it runs into a brick wall if it cannot pass it's running into that burr so as i push on here see how the paper bends it doesn't even want to go any further if i flip it over it slides right off it now you can see i still have some nicks on this leading edge of the blade right here that i need to get rid of so i'm going to keep going on that all right so now i've got the bulk of that um mix in there gone again you can see the paper is running up against the burr now that i've got this burr what do you do with it right well you can use the same grit plate that you're sharpening on lay it flat pinch it and just give it a couple of strokes to get rid of that burr on the back side remember even though it's a single bevel you still have to sharpen both sides as if it were a double bevel now that i've done that you'll see that the paper slides right off so now that i've gotten a burr and a good cleaned up edge with 240 grit and again i'm sharpening at 32 degrees with this sharpener because that's the bevel for this blade 32 degrees now i'm going to go through 400 800 1200 2500 and buffing compound but at each grit you're going to get a burr you're going to feel the burr at 240. you're going to feel it at 400 certainly with the paper at 800 and the paper at 12 and 2500 when you get to the buffing compound you're not going to be able to feel a burr on the back side but if you've got number at every grit you will be sharp so i'm going to keep going on this and then i'll come back when i've gone through all the grits all right so now i've gone through all the grits including 2500 the last grit that i used i said that at 2500 grit it's kind of hard to feel the burr so here is our finish at 2500 grit so it'll be hard to feel the burr with your finger print but again the paper runs right up against it so you'll know you have a bur this is key if you don't get a burr at every grit you'll never get a head sharp so again the last step is lay it on the edge of a plate that you sharpen or not the same grit here this 2500 grit lay it smooth do not create a bevel on the backside again you only want a single bevel you're just breaking the burr off here so a couple of strokes and you've gotten rid of the burr let's try it with the paper slides right off now we have chased a little bit of the burr to this side it's hard to feel but it is still there and from here we're gonna go to buffing compound next but as of right now that is the edge that we've restored so i'll do buffing compound for buffing compound this just happens to be an old piece of cardboard i've coated it with buffing compounds several times i've done several heads on it you only want on the bevel side you only want to do a pull stroke don't push in because all you're going to do is it'll be like a putty knife scraping off the bumping compound use a pull stroke and just keep repeating that now when we get to the end of the buffing compound strokes i'll show you how to break the burr off then so i'll be right back now that i've gone through all my buffing compound backward strokes this is the edge that we're dealing with now on the back side there will be a small micro burr but at this point it's time for me to take it out of the guide anyway so to break off that small very small micro bur on the flat side i take the blade out of the holder now you can literally lick the tip of your finger to get it moist get the blade to stick hold it for a second and then you can slide the blade back and forth under your finger on the buffing compound we've pushed a small bur of buffing compound size burr from the tapered edge the beveled edge to the flat side we need to get rid of that the best way to get rid of it is with the same grit that you created it with in this case buffing compound so we will give it several strokes get rid of that bur see how it clings to my finger now let's inspect that edge again i had to take it out to do the tonneau tip anyway i had to reposition it so we will have a blade that will bite into my fingernail won't glance off and i'll do a little bit of sharpening well we can actually try it right now let me grab a rubber band i have one here you give it a try plain old rubber band let's see what happens so right away we're pretty sharp here i don't have to slice i just have to push the blade right we've taken a pretty destroyed edge and restored it tonneau tip is next stay tuned now let's look at the tonneau tip after going through all the grits as well as buffing the same thing were removed we had position for that move you can see the un touched version that was pretty abused and so that's the position to do the tonneau tip if you value a tonneau tip i don't necessarily do but i wanted to keep it the same for this particular head welcome back to this old broadhead in this episode we are taking a new to the market broadhead that was tested and abused and shot through a variety of materials really messing it up but that's what tests are all about earlier i showed you that i cleaned up this edge so we're going to kind of inspect what we've got going on here so this is the portion that i still need to restore this is the edge that i've already cleaned up so it looks like this head can be restored and turned to service still spins true there's nothing really wrong with it a lot of the material during the tests are embedded into the metal but once i clean it up and hit it with the 32 degree sharpener which is what this single bevel is sharpened at we will be back to a pretty good blade almost like new so i'm going to clean up the other side and then i will be back as i begin the process of restoring the other side of this head again i've started with 250 grit now most people would look at this and say yep i think i'm done with 250 grit looks like it's cleaned up pretty well and that's where most people fall short and get frustrated they call me and say man i spent a lot of minutes on it and a bunch of strokes and i can't seem to get a sharp and i say did you get a bur and they either say no or they say i don't know so while this looks like boy i should be able to go to the next grit 400 let me see if i'm there yet no so i haven't achieved a bur yet so i have to still keep going even though it looks like boy i got it all done i should be able to switch over nope without a bur you are not done i could go through all the other grits and buffing compound and this head would look spectacular it would still be dull because i haven't reached the burn as i advance through the grits on the second side of this head i'll again talk about getting rid of the burr so this happened to be 1200 grit when i get done and i've got a bur i can leave it in the jig i run it right up against the edge of the guide and i tip it until i don't see daylight and then i give it a stroke this means you need a flat surface if you're trying to do this with sandpaper it better be on a piece of plexiglass or something rigid that allows you to have some backing this piece of sandpaper won't be strong enough that's all you want to do you do not want to create a bevel on the backside so the burr is gone now and now i can go to the next grit as i progress through here is the ferrule before cleaning it up since it was also part of the test i'll give it a little bit of sprucing up as well here it is after a little bit of cleanup the slicker things are the easier they pass through an animal if things are smooth they slide through with ease now i've got the head put back together after all of the sharpening is done and you can see that the 32 degree angled guide was able to bring back all the edges what i didn't talk about was the tertiary edge which is this fine little point here with the tonto tip if you don't do that you aren't going to end up with a a sharp tip so that's it's free handed if you value a tonto tip you're going to have to do that but at any rate we've got a great finish all the way through head spins through we took it from basically a destroyed head and turned it back into something that is again usable and let's do a little bit of look at sharpness now seems that everybody's favorite test seems to be shaving so let's give that a try that's just one pass not a lot of pressure so clearly it shaves the fingernail test is my favorite does it bite into a fingernail on a glancing blow if it skips off it's not very sharp this one is obviously very sharp i contend sharper than it even came from the factory so you don't have to dispose of a head just because it's dull and this is a high end head an expensive head there's no reason to turn this into a a practice point it's certainly huntable again would i hunt with it heck yeah i mean it's just like new so the 32 degree bevel sharpener is what you would use for this particular head being sharpened at that bevel and that's for all the back the main blade the tonto tip again the tertiary tip that you will freehand while it's in the guide if you value that again i don't even value a tonto tip but it came with that so let's restore it to the way it was this is a fantastic head made of fantastic steel and even though it was really abused in testing through steel wood concrete a lot of guys would have thrown it away and said no way not going to fix that head we were able to restore it so i had that simply been shot through an animal maybe hit the dirt um there will be no issues returning it back to the quiver with the 32 degree guide from stay sharp you\n"