800-561-4339
The World's Most Advanced
Sharpening Tools
Product Video
Sharpening How to . . .
Different broadhead styles require slightly different techniques, especially for the initial out
of the box sharpening.

There are three basic broadhead/blade designs.  Some brands are combinations of these, and some
brands have a chisel tip resulting in a double angle blade- you can sharpen any of these by tailoring
your sharpening technique to your particular broadhead style.
Sharpening Techniques
Plain Straight edge- Steel Force, Zephyr, Stinger, Tusker, Phantom, Ribtek and Cheetah.

These are the simplest blades to sharpen. Always Color both sides of the factory bevel with a magic
marker before you start. This will enable you to see exactly where you are sharpening, and enable you
to track your progress at a glance.  

  1. Install the angle jaws in the clamp assembly.
  2. Place the broadhead in the clamp with the ferrule resting against the front edge of the jaws,
    and the tip of the broadhead sticking out about 3/8” beyond the side of the jaws. (see drawing
    in your written instructions that came with the sharpener)
  3. Screw the bass slack adjuster fully into the frame. Not tightly!
  4. insert the clamp assembly into the frame.
  5. back the slack adjuster out slightly to remove any play between the camp and the frame. You
    want the clamp to spin freely, but it should not have more than 1/32” of in/out travel. This
    should require less than one full turn of the slack adjuster.
  6. Place the sharpener on the stone, roller first and tip the sharpener forward. The clamp will
    automatically rotate and align the blade with the stone.
  7. For initial, out of the box sharpening we suggest that you use a very coarse stone and run the
    sharpener forward and backward up and down the stone. Flip the clamp frequently to give equal
    treatment to both sides of the blade. This will quickly grind the bevel.
    Now switch to a fine grit stone and finish with the same
    technique - one forward stroke, flip the clamp, one
    forward stroke, flip and so on. About one minute or less of
    this will get the blade truly sharp. To get the blade “hair
    mowing sharp” finish with an extra fine grit stone like a
    soft Arkansas or extra fine diamond, or India stone,
    whichever you prefer.
Plain straight edge with laminated tip- Original Magnus, Zwicky Delta, Stos, Grizzly, etc.

This type of broadhead is also very simple to sharpen. The only difference is that the
laminated tip requires some special attention on the initial sharpening.

  1. Install the angle jaws in the clamp assembly.
  2. Place the broadhead in the clamp with the ferrule resting against the front edge
    of the jaws, and the tip of the broadhead sticking out about 3/8” beyond the side
    of the jaws. (See drawing in your written instructions that came with the
    sharpener)
  3. Screw the bass slack adjuster fully into the frame. Not tightly!
  4. insert the clamp assembly into the frame.
  5. back the slack adjuster out slightly to remove any play between the camp and the
    frame. You want the clamp to spin freely, but it should not have more than 1/32”
    of in/out travel. This should require less than one full turn of the slack adjuster.
  6. Place the sharpener on the stone, roller first and tip the sharpener forward. The
    clamp will automatically rotate and align the blade with the stone.
    Use a very coarse stone and keep the stone flooded with lubricant. Roll the
    sharpener forward and backward on the stone. Use short strokes and keep your
    finger on the clamp to favor the tip and just work it. Flip the clamp frequently to
    give equal treatment to both sides of the tip. This will quickly grind the tip down to
    match the bevel of the main blade. About 1 minute of this technique should be
    adequate.
    Now that the tip has been ground down to match the main blade, take your
    finger off of the clamp and let the clamp rotate and align the blade from tip to
    heel. Roll the sharpener forward and backward up and down the stone. Flip
    the clamp frequently to give equal treatment to both sides of the blade. This
    will quickly grind the bevel. About 1 minute or less of this technique should be
    adequate. Before switching to a finer grit stone, make a series of Forward only
    passes up the stone, rotating the clamp between each pass. This will remove
    the burr from the edge. At this point the blade should feel slightly sharp.

    Now switch to a fine grit stone and finish with the same - one forward stroke,
    flip the clamp, one forward stroke, flip and so on. About one minute or less of
    this will get the blade truly sharp. To get the blade “hair mowing sharp” finish
    with an extra fine grit stone like a hard Arkansas or extra fine diamond, or India
    stone, whichever you prefer.
Curved (convex) edge- Bear Razorheads, Wolverine, MA-2, Tusker “Aztec”, and the
combination heads which have curved blades and laminated tips-
Zwicky “Eskimo, All Ace broadheads, Eclipse 2 blade, etc.

For combination broadheads which have curved blades and laminated tips see the
section on sharpening straight blades with laminated tips. The procedure for the
initial sharpening of both styles of broadheads is the same. After you have
machined the laminated tip bevel to match the main blade bevel sharpen the
broadhead as outlined below    

These broadheads are also pretty simple to sharpen but require a slightly different
technique.

  1. Install the angle jaws in the clamp assembly.
  2. Place the broadhead in the clamp with the ferrule resting against the front
    edge of the jaws, and the tip of the broadhead sticking out about 3/8”
    beyond the side of the jaws. (See drawing in your written instructions that
    came with the sharpener)
  3. Screw the bass slack adjuster fully into the frame. Not tightly!
  4. Insert the clamp assembly into the frame.
  5. Back the slack adjuster out slightly to remove any play between the camp
    and the frame. You want the clamp to spin freely, but it should not have
    more than 1/32” of in/out travel. This should require less than one full turn
    of the slack adjuster.
  6. Place the sharpener on the stone, roller first and tip the sharpener
    forward. The clamp will automatically rotate and align the blade with the
    stone.
  7. Start with your finger resting on the top of the clamp at one side or the
    other. Roll the sharpener forward down the stone. At the end of this pass
    tilt the sharpener back to raise the blade off of the stone, and roll the
    sharpener back to the starting point.
    Next tip the sharpener forward to again bring the blade into contact with
    the stone. Now shift your index finger to the center of the clamp and make
    another forward pass.

    Repeat the process but this time shift your finger to the opposite end of
    the clamp from where you started. Make another pass.

    Each time you make a pass shift the position of your finger slightly. First
    pass one end, next pass center, next pass other end, and so on. The result
    will be a perfectly uniform bevel from end to end because the passes
    overlap each other. Additionally, since this technique results in less surface
    area contacting the stone curved blades will actually sharpen faster than
    straight edged blades.

    Curved blades rarely require a coarse stone, even for the initial sharpening.
    Start with a medium grit and finish with a fine or extra fine stone like a
    hard Arkansas, or an extra fine diamond or India stone for “hair mowing”
    sharpness.
Bleeder blades and replacement blades

These are absolute simplicity to sharpen in less than one minute each.

  1. Install the straight jaws in the clamp assembly.
  2. Place the blade in the clamp with the edge to be sharpened positioned
    roughly parallel with the front edge of the jaws sticking out about 3/16”
    beyond the edge  of the jaws (see drawing in your written instructions
    that came with the sharpener)
  3. Screw the bass slack adjuster fully into the frame. Not tightly!
  4. Insert the clamp assembly into the frame.
  5. Back the slack adjuster out slightly to remove any play between the
    camp and the frame. You want the clamp to spin freely, but it should
    not have more than 1/32” of in/out travel. This should require less than
    one full turn of the slack adjuster.
  6. Place the sharpener on the stone, roller first and tip the sharpener
    forward. The clamp will automatically rotate and align the blade with the
    stone.
  7. For sharpening very dull or damaged blades we suggest that you use a
    very coarse stone and run the sharpener forward and backward up and
    down the stone. Flip the clamp frequently to give equal treatment to
    both sides of the blade. This will quickly grind the bevel. About 1 minute
    of this technique should be adequate. Before switching to a finer grit
    stone, make a series of Forward only passes up the stone, rotating the
    clamp between each pass. This will remove the burr from the edge. At
    this point the blade should feel slightly sharp.
    Now switch to a fine grit stone and finish with the same technique - one
    forward stroke, flip the clamp, one forward stroke, flip and so on. About
    one minute or less of this will get the blade truly sharp. To get the blade
    “hair mowing sharp” finish with an extra fine grit stone like a hard
    Arkansas or extra fine diamond, or India stone, whichever you prefer.
TIP- Before you begin sharpening any
broadhead take a magic marker and color
the factory bevel on both sides of your
broadhead from end to end. This will
allow you to see exactly where you are
working the blade.  We recommend dark
blue but, black or even dark red will work.
  • Plain Straight edge - Steel Force, Zephyr,
    Stinger, Tusker, Phantom, Ribtek, and Cheetah.
    These are the simplest blades to sharpen.

  • Plain straight edge with laminated tip- Original
    Magnus, Zwicky Delta, Stos, Grizzly, etc.
    This type of broadhead is also very simple
    to sharpen. The only difference is that
    the laminated tip requires some special
    attention on the initial sharpening.

  • Curved (convex) edge- Bear Razorheads,
    Wolverine, MA-2, Tusker “Aztec”, and the
    combination heads which have curved blades
    and laminated tips - Zwicky “Eskimo, All Ace
    broadheads, Eclipse 2 blade, etc.
    These broadheads are also pretty simple
    to sharpen but require a slightly
    different technique.
TIP- Check your color line frequently! If either the tip or the heel of
the blade continues to show color, reach up with your index finger
and apply light, off center pressure to the clamp to favor the end of
the blade that needs more attention.
8.
About 1 minute of this technique should be adequate. Before
switching to a finer grit stone, make a series of Forward only
passes up the stone, rotating the clamp between each pass.
This will remove the burr from the edge. At this point the
blade should feel only slightly sharp.
TIP- At this point, because the laminated tip is double thick, only the tip and the heel of
the blade are actually touching the stone. Before you can sharpen the blade you have to
machine the laminated portion of the tip down to align with the main blade. Here’s how
to do it-

When sharpening a plain straight blade you keep your index finger on the frame. This
allows the clamp to rotate an automatically align the blade with the stone.
Always Color both sides of the factory bevel with a magic marker before you
start. This will enable you to see exactly where you are sharpening, and enable
you to track your progress at a glance.

On the initial sharpening of a laminated blade you want to concentrate on the
laminated portion of the tip, so move your index finger up onto the clamp and
apply light pressure to the side of the clamp that the tip is sticking out of. As you
do this, if you look you will see the heel and main blade lift off of the stone,
which is exactly what you want.
At first the color will be machined off of the tip. As you continue to
sharpen, the color will gradually be removed all the way to the heel of the
blade. That is when you know that you have a straight, uniform bevel from
end to end.
At this point, if you look closely at the blade you will see that the center section of the
blade is contacting the stone but, the tip and heel of the blade are actually held up above
the surface of the stone.

When sharpening a plain straight blade you keep your index finger on the frame. This
allows the clamp to rotate an automatically align the blade with the stone.
To sharpen a curved blade, rather than keeping your index finger back on the frame,
you reach up and place the finger tip on the top of the clamp and well off center and
apply light pressure. This will cause the clamp to rotate slightly and bring either the tip
section of the blade, or the heel section into contact with the stone., depending on which
side of the clamp you start. By shifting the position of your finger between passes along
the stone you can machine a uniform bevel from tip to heel.
For out of the box blades or for touching up, skip the coarse stone and go
directly to the fine stone and sharpen as outlined below,
We recommend coloring the factory bevels from end to end so that
you can tell exactly where you are sharpening, and track your
progress.
7.
8.
8.
9
9.
8.