Sharpening Speartips

Bench grinder is fine. I like to use a disk sander now if I don't have to take off too much, it's more precise. For most spearfishing situations the spear tip doesn't have to be very sharp. The increased possibility of poking yourself and penetrating the skin is usually not worth the advantages of a very sharp spear tip. A sharp tip can help in those rare situations where the scales of a turning fish could deflect a spear, or with very big fish where every bit of penetration counts.

I have to disagree (again :rolleyes1:) with Dan. The spear tip must alway be VERY sharp. If you keep your spear tip where it is supposed to be you will never poke yourself.

A hand file is more than enough.

Quote from Marco

I have to disagree (again :rolleyes1:) with Dan. The spear tip must alway be VERY sharp. If you keep your spear tip where it is supposed to be you will never poke yourself.

A hand file is more than enough.

Hand files are great,I keep one in my Bag.

papaa, what is it made out of? how does it not rust near all your salty gear?

Here's a great way I've found to make a laser sharp & perfectly symmetrical cone-tip.

Taped barb down flush to shaft.
Made a jig - 2 pieces of wood with semi-circles on top of it.
Put back of shaft in a hand drill.
Middle of shaft resting on one block.
Other block supporting between tip & board.
Have someone work drill or if you're dumb, use a stiff rubber band like me.
Grind tip by simply holding abrasive surface to tip.
Start with hand file, then rough sanding block, then fine sanding block.

Voila - perfectly symmetrical, sticky sharp, & nice & polished!

Just tried it recently & did about a dozen shafts in 20 min - future sharpenings will definitely be faster. Results were amazing compared to my normal bench grinder & sanding wheel process. I'm going to change setup a bit, but sold on the end product.

fuzz, can I see a picture of your wood block setup please..sounds quite ingenious

wouldn't work for tri tips

Quote from LunkerBuster

fuzz, can I see a picture of your wood block setup please..sounds quite ingenious

wouldn't work for tri tips

Would love to, but left it on bench & someone used it as scrap. :laughing3:

Just think of a rod-wrapping jig:

When I make another set (takes about 5min.), I'll snap some pics.

Nope, won't work for tri-tips - I made note that it's for conical in my initial post. A buddy was trying to make a bench grinder bracket for tri-tips. Idea being that every grind would be 120degrees offset, so it'd be consistent in both angle offset & angle of grind.

Of course he mentioned this first 2years ago... so I'm not holding my breath. :rolleyes1:

Quote from Marco

I have to disagree (again :rolleyes1:) with Dan. The spear tip must alway be VERY sharp. If you keep your spear tip where it is supposed to be you will never poke yourself.

A hand file is more than enough.

i agree with marco on that point. a friend of mine and a damn good spearo told me once :
"a sharp tip is like adding an extra band to the gun".
but i dont like using files, and i dont have a grinder.anyhow, thats sharp enuff for me.

Quote from LunkerBuster

papaa, what is it made out of? how does it not rust near all your salty gear?

Gear is washed off and dry before being put back into bag,(take off gear by the back of truck,throw in truck bed and rinse in yard when I get home).file is 30yrs old or more.get one you'll like it.Just takes a min.to sharpen tips.

Quote

sharp enough.

:thumbsup2:

These fish hook hones work well. Small enough to keep with you on a dive if needed.

good thinking...I had though about those but only seemed to find the much larger versions with handles and they didn't seem very diver friendly