Has anyone else gotten a Stay Sharp 344 sharpener for one piece 3 blade heads? Mine came in yesterday, but all I had on hand was a Sonic from 20 years ago, and a cheapo off amazon. The cheapo is bad metal and edge just rolled with the new angle. The sonic would grab nail, but wasn't quite shaving sharp. Has anyone tried one yet with a quality head? I've been debating getting a pack of M3s to mess around with, but MIM still makes me flinch... guess I could order some VPAs, but before doing that I wanted to see if anyone else had luck with it. So far I'm not convinced, but I don't have a good quality head to really check.
Stay Sharp 344
LoneAggie
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Has anyone else gotten a Stay Sharp 344 sharpener for one piece 3 blade heads? Mine came in yesterday, but all I had on hand was a Sonic from 20 years ago, and a cheapo off amazon. The cheapo is bad metal and edge just rolled with the new angle. The sonic would grab nail, but wasn't quite shaving sharp. Has anyone tried one yet with a quality head? I've been debating getting a pack of M3s to mess around with, but MIM still makes me flinch... guess I could order some VPAs, but before doing that I wanted to see if anyone else had luck with it. So far I'm not convinced, but I don't have a good quality head to really check.
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Mine just came in the mail 2 days ago. Haven’t had a chance to play with it yet, but have VPA’s, montecs and a couple hell razors to try out on it. Will probably get some time this weekend to try it out and will let you know how the 344 works
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Bit the bullet and ordered some Montec M3's as sacrificial heads to test. Supposedly new and improved, so guess I'll find out. Let me know how the VPAs come out.
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Got a chance to work some heads with the 344 yesterday. The VPAs came out great. So did each head I tried actually. Definitely has a learning curve to the amount of pressure needed. The curved metal that makes up the 344 can and will move/bend if you push too hard. I had to use my DMT sharpener to bring a head back from the dead with some bad edges from hitting something in the dirt. Couldn’t do that with the 344, but after the dmt, I used the 344 to get its sharpness back. Dull to very light blade damage the 344 is great.
Got each head to pop hair fairly easily but legit shaving sharp took many more passes with very light pressure on the 2000 grit and card stock without then with the buffing compound. As most sharpeners do. The 344 certainly gets the one piece heads sharper with the angle over what my DMTs can do for sure. Hope that helps
Got each head to pop hair fairly easily but legit shaving sharp took many more passes with very light pressure on the 2000 grit and card stock without then with the buffing compound. As most sharpeners do. The 344 certainly gets the one piece heads sharper with the angle over what my DMTs can do for sure. Hope that helps
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Good to know, thanks. I bought some M3s to test it on. They are impressively sharp out of package which is encouraging to see if the 344 will enhance it.
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Didn't the inventor just bring back to life a Tuffhead Evolution 3-Blade with the 344. The 3 blade was the same one John Lusk sent through the ringer with concrete and steel. Pretty good video.
Have been playing with one of these on a VPA 150. There must be a leaning curve. Because I cant seem to get them sharper than the original VPA flat stone process. I can shave hair easily with most of my VPAs after finishing them with a ceramic. Only ones I couldnt were the older shorter 125s. In all fairness the one broadhead Ive used the 344 on was very dull because it was a practice head. Its very sharp now. But it took quite a while and still doesent seem as sharp as it should be. I think I have to work with it a bit more. Its probably me because the bevels are definitely a bit wider and shallower.
I'm about to try this with my VPA 125 3 blades and the 344. How many passes on each grit sandpaper did you do?
I dont know the total passes on each grit. I just counted to keep it even. I started with 10 passes on each broadhead side with the coarser grits. I worked at it for a good while. And I did it multiple times. So the count was well up there Im sure. The bevel looks very clean and smooth. But its not to my satisfaction yet.
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I know it’s best to start with a really course grit like 240. It’s best to remember that with the 344 you’re changing the total bevel from a 60° to a 44°, so it’s going to require a lot of effort at first.
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Like Thumbs said, if you're re-setting a bevel or removing damage you start with a course grit. He sends 220 with the kits for the course stage. On the strokes, in this case of a total re-worked edge, I go 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, each side. Then double the grit (approximately), each stage as you go. So, go to 400. Then 800, 1500, 2500, then cardboard/strop at the end with jeweler's compound.
On blade touch-ups like on Sevr's or my brother's Rage blades out of the package, I start with 800 and strokes go 5-4-3-2-1 each side.
There's 1000 ways to do it but that's my "system" and it works very well.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
On blade touch-ups like on Sevr's or my brother's Rage blades out of the package, I start with 800 and strokes go 5-4-3-2-1 each side.
There's 1000 ways to do it but that's my "system" and it works very well.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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