Two-blade or multi-blade broadheads?

Sharpening broadheas is a job.        Multi-blade inserts often break off in deer.

Most bow hunters feel the blades on a factory-sharpened broadhead are sharp enough, right out of the package. So much for that thought.

For years people have manufactured broadheads. Many are sharp when when they come off the factory machine that put an edge on each blade.

As good as those heads are, I can make them even sharper by hand. And therein is a lesson that many hunters should learn. Once in my life I was a barber, and at that time more than 50 years ago, giving shaves in a barbershop was something we did. I know how to sharpen a straight razor, and also know how to sharpen a two-blade broadhead.

Broadhead or razor, learning to sharpen one to a keen edge requires practice.

A guy told me the other day that he shoots a four-blade replaceable blade broadhead. He maintained it was sharp enough to cut hair off his arm. That was enough for me to challenge him to a friendly duel of broadhead sharpness: mine against his.

We conducted a small experiment. He with his factory edge on the replaceable blades and me with my hand-sharpened two-blade head. It wasn't much of a contest.

He tried all four blades of his factory broadhead, and the forearm hair rolled over but none of the blades would cut hair. Well, he said, I shoot enough poundage to blow this broadhead through a deer. He maintained it would cut under the sheer force of the arrow passing through a buck's body.

And, up to a point, he was correct. However, I took my two-blade broadhead and used one edge to shave hairs off my arm with ease. I offered him the other side, and he cut hair from his arm. Slick and easy, and just like using a barber's razor.

"So, why is your broadhead sharper than mine?" he asked. "Why don't they make these replaceable blades sharper?"

Two good questions, and only one good answer. Many broadhead companies have stopped making broadheads because the machining process was far too expensive to use, took too much time, and the heads were too expensive. Hunters would buy the cheaper broadheads.

One company had to charge $30 for a three-pack of heads, and most people didn't want to spend that much money. Ten dollars each for a single broadhead was more than most hunters wanted to pay. It was cheaper for some companies to stop making them than sell them at a lesser price and lose money.

The other problem was that most people never go the extra distance to make their blades as sharp as possible. There are several broadhead sharpening kits on the market, and they are expensive as well. Hunters usually gravitate toward the factory sharpened broadheads simply because they don’t want to put in the time to make a head sharp. I’ve yet to learn how to sharpen a multi-blade or mechanical head effectively..

Once the rough-sharpening process is done on factory heads, most people think they are done. But factory heads have a slight burr on the edge, and it inhibits a really sharp cutting edge.

After I got my two-blade broadhead quite sharp, I take this sharpening process two steps further. I run the blades two or three times over a butcher’s steel, and then strop the edge on my old leather barber strop in much the same way I did with a razor, and it puts the finishing touches on a sharp broadhead. It removes the burr on the blades. These blades are really sharp.

Archers know that arrows kill deer and other game as the broadhead cuts through the skin, begins to cut arteries, capillaries, flesh and veins, and causes massive destruction of internal organs through hemmorhage. A less-sharp broadhead may kill but it takes longer, and that is a serious strike against any bow hunter.

As supreme predators, it is our responsibility to kill game as quickly and humanely as possible.

TITLE: Two-blade or multi-blade broadheads?

TAGS: ((Dave, Richey, Michigan, outdoors, broadheads, multi-, blade, mechanical, two-blade, sharpness, counts, ethics))

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors