Community Sharpening Journal

[Bolster]

Could it be from a contaminated rag?...

Now that you mention it, I *do* wipe the blade down between grits. And I have *not* been careful to use new parts of the cloth. Wow. It makes so much more sense that it would be the wipe cloth, than the rig itself.

Here's another idea: Might the stones "shed" more when they're new? Even though I tape now, there's always a tiny margin that's untaped, and I've noticed I'm not getting scratches in that margin, now that I've sharpened a dozen knives or so.

Could be a combination of both!

Re the blade block: Yes. I bought the little spring loaded stop-block for the Hapstone and it works well.

Thanks guys! I will be much more careful with my wipe cloth from here on out.

[horzuff]

These scratches look much too deep and regular to be just from the diamond dust or the rag. They look as if You have too big of a range of motion on the stone and it runs off the edge and onto the side of the blade.

Maybe with normal stones (plastic frame, diamond-plated steel insert) it was the plastic frame that contacted the blade. Or maybe the venevs are shorter than Your previous stones? Or if You have a version with limiting collars on both ends, the stone-side one loosened and moved?

[Bolster]

These scratches look much too deep and regular to be just from the diamond dust or the rag. They look as if You have too big of a range of motion on the stone and it runs off the edge and onto the side of the blade.

Maybe with normal stones (plastic frame, diamond-plated steel insert) it was the plastic frame that contacted the blade. Or maybe the venevs are shorter than Your previous stones? Or if You have a version with limiting collars on both ends, the stone-side one loosened and moved?

Thanks for the input. (1) I took the photo with the light accentuating the scratches. From some angles they are not very visible. (2) No, the stones did not run off the blade. (3) No, the Venevs are longer than my previous system, they are 6" stones. (4) There is no plastic frame for Venevs, they are a diamond matrix 'stone' bonded to an aluminum slab on top. (5) Yes, I do have range-limiting collars, which don't allow the stones to contact anything but the edge of the knife. (They did not loosen.) This is what made the scratches so puzzling...there was no contact of the stones with the sides of the knife.

I will add that the problem seems to be less with each knife sharpened. The worst scratches came when the stones were new. I suspect a shedding of diamond particles from new stones. I may not have been careful with the swarf, and I know I was not careful with the cleaning rag.

[horzuff]

Then I'm shocked at the impact of those loose particles. I had something similar happen to me, but it was WAAAAAY less pronounced, but this might be the light as You've written. Yet another thing to fear when sharpening

[kennethsime]

I carried my S35VN Tenacious all of last week, and man do I like that knife.

A few months back, I plunged it through some sheet metal exhaust ducting, and took a few chips out of the edge. Rather than sharpen them out entirely, I decided to let it ride. Took it down to 15° on the CBN rods and left it there.

At the end of last week, I felt it was starting to dull a bit, so I took it back to the CBN rods this morning before work. About 50 strokes per side, and the chips are smaller (but still there). I also did about 10 strokes per side on my strop loaded up with black compound, and man is it sharp! Made for an excellent box breaker-downer today.

[vivi]

that reminds me, my chipped & rolled Pacific Salt edge I've been rocking for the past 45 days is still going strong. definitely not as sharp as im used to but it still cuts the things i need to cut.

[tcarltonw]

Recently got around to sharpening my factory 2nd ZDP-189 mule after getting it back from cerakote(if a steel is susceptible to rusting I'm going to have it coated, have a rex 76 mule coated as well). I had taken it to 300 grit(on a kme sharpening with their diamond stone set) before dropping it off and left the angle guide locked in the same position(sharpened a cpl other knives in the same position to make this process easier) until I got it back/had time to sharpen it. The trick was placing it in the same position in the jaws. I had taken a picture & measurements(although I left my calipers @ a friend's place) so I had something to work off of. Decided to go with the 600 grit stone seeing that was next step in the progression. The original DPS was ~17° and after re setting it was ~16.8 or so. In hindsight I should have started with the 300 grit stone to get everything uniform again before moving on, would have saved me some time. The 600 grit stone ate up the cerakote pretty easily... I'd say 10 strokes(if up & down is two strokes) or so before I started seeing steel. ZDP was definitely hard and formed a nice burr. After deburring @ 600 grit I took it through a quick strop progression w/3mic then 1 mic gunny juice on a homemade cow hide bat strop. First pic is of the the original setting in the jaws, second is before resharpening, and third is doneskiies. I will probably repost this is the mule forum. Hope all is well yall.

*One thing I noticed in the initial sharpening was that the ZDP seemed to really sing(more so than other steels ive sharpened) a high note when working towards the tip. This was muted some after being cerakoted.

[kennethsime]

Very nice work, especially at the heel. I’ve had a lot of trouble working the heel on guided systems.

[TkoK83Spy]

Better watch out for those naked toes when setting up! But, I also agree...nice work!

[tcarltonw]

Better watch out for those naked toes when setting up! But, I also agree...nice work!

Trying to earn the nickname "Ol' Nine Toe Travis"

[Spyderfreek]

I carried my S35VN Tenacious all of last week, and man do I like that knife.

A few months back, I plunged it through some sheet metal exhaust ducting, and took a few chips out of the edge. Rather than sharpen them out entirely, I decided to let it ride. Took it down to 15° on the CBN rods and left it there.

At the end of last week, I felt it was starting to dull a bit, so I took it back to the CBN rods this morning before work. About 50 strokes per side, and the chips are smaller (but still there). I also did about 10 strokes per side on my strop loaded up with black compound, and man is it sharp! Made for an excellent box breaker-downer today.

That's what the K390 is for. Just today I used my Dragonfly 2 to cut a metal zip tie with only minor blunting. No chips.

[kennethsime]

I carried my S35VN Tenacious all of last week, and man do I like that knife.

A few months back, I plunged it through some sheet metal exhaust ducting, and took a few chips out of the edge. Rather than sharpen them out entirely, I decided to let it ride. Took it down to 15° on the CBN rods and left it there.

At the end of last week, I felt it was starting to dull a bit, so I took it back to the CBN rods this morning before work. About 50 strokes per side, and the chips are smaller (but still there). I also did about 10 strokes per side on my strop loaded up with black compound, and man is it sharp! Made for an excellent box breaker-downer today.

That's what the K390 is for. Just today I used my Dragonfly 2 to cut a metal zip tie with only minor blunting. No chips.

Yeah, that’s a good point. If I had been carrying multiple knives, maybe that would’ve happened. Definitely learned a lesson, anyway.

[TkoK83Spy]

Fresh compound and a little love at around 12dps. Always been a great knife.

[vivi]

^ looks clean. those blacked out cruwear blades + green handles look great too.

I reset the edge on my leftovers Resilience tonight. Satin blade & hardware with FRN scales, the leftovers from swapping the G10 scales on my blacked out CE Resilience.



Set the bevel on 140 grit, then polished it all the way up to 260 grit. Stropped twice per side on 7 micron diamond paste loaded leather. It'll cleanly shave but it's very toothy. Should be a long lasting edge despite the steel being 8Cr.

[olywa]

The OD Cruwear combo was the reason I finally felt the need to pick up my first Endela. I'm a sucker for Enduras and love the thin blade stock on the Delica, just never felt the need for the in-between. However, I find the Endela makes a pretty good case for itself once you get it in-hand. The only thing I'd change would be to have the thinner blade stock of the Delica. In my mind that would be the true in-between.

[TkoK83Spy]

Definitely a sweet Delica. That's the keeper Delica for my collection. It's a very thin and sticky sharp

Dinged the edge on the PMA11 Mule doing landscape work today. About to take it to the DMT Diasharp stone, should make quick work of the dings.

[vivi]

At the beginning of April I put a fresh coarse edge on my favorite Pacific Salt 1.

I intended to carry it for two months to see if the edge would last that long for me.

Well, two weeks into that experiment I chipped and rolled the edge, impacting it against metal fencing by accident:

I sharpened my pocket knife tonight.




Reset the edge on an 80 grit diamond flattening stone. Refined it on a 300 grit diamond stone.
Finished with very light strokes until I minimized the burr enough to cleanly shave off the 300 grit stone. Did two strokes per side at 15 degrees with the fine sharpmaker stones using the least amount of pressure I could manage.

Managed to chip the edge today.

Not sure how. I did use this knife to chop through some briars today. Maybe I hit some metal fencing and didn't realize it?



Oh well. Knife still cuts ok so no touch-ups. Leaving the edge as is.

Still cut ok so I carried it another month and a half.

Today I checked the knife out. It was dirty, dull, damaged, lost the very tip and had lost all scrape shaving ability well over a month ago.








Sharpening method: $3 harbor freight 260 grit diamond plate. Free hand. Ten strokes per side flat to the edge bevel. Then another ten strokes per side flat to the edge bevel, this time alternating every stroke. Followed up by ten total strokes, or five strokes per side, at a slightly more obtuse angle to hit the apex, alternating sides every stroke. The last ten strokes were with the lightest touch I could manage.

That was it. One stone, no clean up required due to so few strokes needed, no stropping or follow up.

Result:






Is it my sharpest edge ever? Nope. The most even? No. Will it send arm hairs flying without touching the skin? Nah.

But every part of the edge shaves, and the entire sharpening process took this long:





Yep, less than two minutes to take a very dull and damaged edge back to shaving sharp. I know a lot of folks out there spend much longer than that just setting up their equipment. To each their own, but I think I'm on to something here.

[Ramonade]

Here's another idea: Might the stones "shed" more when they're new? Even though I tape now, there's always a tiny margin that's untaped, and I've noticed I'm not getting scratches in that margin, now that I've sharpened a dozen knives or so.

Thanks guys! I will be much more careful with my wipe cloth from here on out.

On electroplated stuff I've seen it happen way more when it's new. I don't know if it's due to the process, or that I used too much pressure back then.

As for resin bonded stuff, It's hard to tell what the slur contains !

When you're free-hand sharpening it's pretty ok, but if you use a guided system you're putting the stuff everywhere on the blade

[Bemo]

Hey Vivi if I haven't thanked you for your contributions to low-grit sharpening I will do so now. I'm definitely the type of guy that can make things really complicated for myself the more I study it. Your approach is so refreshing and minimalist. I just wish I could get the same results with your methods as you do. My edges don't seem to get shaving sharp. I think it's a pressure thing. But I'll keep trying and persevere. Again thanks for contributing.

[Bolster]

I'm reposting a BBB post from another thread (on S90V) because it's a valuable post and of interest to the sharpeners among us. Maybe it will find additional readers here in the Sharpening Journal thread:

How does S90V respond to the Spyderco ultra fine ceramics?

It's not going to be as sharp as it could be compared to if you use diamond or cBN.

The hardness of the ceramic abrasive is 79rc
The hardness of the chromium carbide in S90V is 81rc
The hardness of the vanadium carbide in S90V is 87rc
The hardness of cBN and diamond is 94 and 100rc respectively.

So 22% of the matrix is carbide that is harder than the ceramic abrasive.

The remaining 78% of the steel is mostly tempered martensite (65rc) and some retained austenite (15rc) which is significantly softer than the ceramic abrasive.

That's why it seems like you can get away with using ceramic but just won't be as sharp if you do a side by side with a quality diamond/cBN abrasive and your technique is solid.

This is one reason out of many why we have people complain that they can't seem to get the knife as sharp or that the edge retention is not as good as they had hoped is people refusing to accept the reality that you should use an abrasive harder than all of the constituents in the matrix If you are trying to shape the apex as sharp as possible.