Police4 Sharpening and re-profiling advice?

[Mystery Flavor]

Hey everyone,

I have a Police4 that had a pretty weird patina pattern until I took a long time scrubbing it away to start over. So what I have is pretty much a new Police4, but with a scoured blade. (It actually looks pretty cool now with a faded spyderco bug logo and wording on the blade. You can still clearly see them, but it's much more subtle than when it was new.) It still has the factory bevel on it (which doesn't come at the best angles, or sharpness.)

Some background info is that I am SUPER NEW to sharpening knives. I've had the Sharpmaker for a few months. I also recently got the medium grit bench stone from Spyderco, but I haven't used it yet.

My main question is: If you were in my shoes and have zero re-profiling experience (and very little sharpening experience) "who would you send this to for a re-profiling & sharpening job?"

A few ideas I've come to so far is to send it to Spyderco's Golden address to see what they will do to sharpen it, but I am assume they would absolutely not re-profile it to a more ideal bevel (such as what Sal has mentioned he prefers for this model in K390)

Or send it to Big Brown Bear, the awesome dude on this forum and youtube etc.. I know he has the Police4 and loves it from what I've seen. So for sure he would have experience with what an ideal bevel and edge would be.

or someone else ??? Vivi?? or ???

I have no issue paying for this service. I'm just REALLY hoping to get someone who will do a very good job.

(My plan is to be very mindful while I use it once it has a more extreme edge angle!)
Thanks for any advice on this guys.

[Pelagic]

Big Brown Bear would set you straight, as could Vivi and many others. K390 can handle some thin angles just fine, but make sure you inform whoever you send your knife to what you plan on cutting. They can always just do a general 12-15dps edge and it'll be screaming sharp, but sharpening should be purpose-driven and the best angle will certainly depend on what you plan on using the knife for. Not that big of an issue but something to consider. I'd do it for you myself for free but I am constantly on the road for work and cannot comfortably take the responsibility of receiving a $200 knife. I'm never in one place for very long.

You could always get some diamond rods for the Sharpmaker and reprofile to 15dps. It'll take a little while but as long as you hold the knife straight up and down your bevel will look perfect. 15dps is the go-to angle for edc (not dedicated slicers which are usually thinner) amongst the knife community, can't really go wrong.

[vivi]

Well, what I did with my Police 4 was reprofile to a more shallow angle on a DMT plate, polish the bevel a bit on my medium bench stone, then sharpen the apex at a slightly higher angle to form a microbevel using the same medium stone.

But, I've been reprofiling by hand for 20 years...

If I were in your shoes, I would consider the following options:

1. Send it out for a reprofiling.

2. Practice reprofiling on some <$20 knives, buying some if needed. Something like an FRN PE Cara Cara 2 would have a similar blade shape as the Police which could help, or an Opinel, SAK or cheap paring knife are always safe bets. They have steels that grind fast. Then, once you have the confidence, try it with your Police.

Either way, I'd attempt to sharpen it myself. Even with the impressive edge holding of K390, I would not want to rely on out-sourcing the simpler task.

Do you have anything in a coarser grit than your medium bench stone? That could reprofile a knife, but it would take a long time. Even buying some 120 grit sand paper would dramatically improve your efficiency.

If you've listed all of your equipment, then my gut tells me to send out the Police to be reprofiled, and in the meantime buy a bench stone sppecifically for reprofiling and one or two cheap knives if needed to practice with. That way short term you'll get the cutting improvements you desire, while long term you'll be able to do this sort of thing yourself.

You already have my favorite bench stone for dealing with the apex (Spyderco medium), so here's a link to my favorite for reprofiling: https://www.knifecenter.com/item/DMTD11 ... tra-Coarse

[Mystery Flavor]

Thanks so much for the very quick replies Pelagic and Vivi!! I really wasn't expecting any replies so fast. You guys are awesome. I will consider buying that DMT coarse diamond Vivi, but probably not right away. Thanks for the suggestions.

I do also have some Arkansas stones. One of them is a little bit coarser than my medium grit Spyderco, but not by much. I've heard the arkansas (novaculite) type of stones either will struggle with or can't effectively cut into something like K390. Is that not true?

I would prefer someone with experience handle this so I don't risk messing anything up. I think I'd want to practice for far too long on other knives before I'd feel confident with taking on this job.

[Pelagic]

It depends on the stone. The Arkansas would simply be refining the scratch pattern from the previous stone, a task it shouldn't have trouble accomplishing. But I always finish with a diamond or CBN stone or strop on high vanadium steels. I don't mind using something else as a finishing stone, as long as I'm stropping with diamond afterward. I feel it negates any potential negative effects of carbide tear out, however small. Just peace of mind.

[Mystery Flavor]

Here's a quote from Sal about his Police 4 prototype's custom edge:

Thanx for the edge Joris. What angle are you using? . I understand K390 will take and hold a very thin edge. I sharpened the proto to about 20 degrees inclusive with no problems.

sal

so it sounds like about 10 degrees per side is as extreme as Sal might have seen as ideal for this model????

I would love to know more from anyone who has done much experimenting with either this police or the Urban K390 version.

Would it be possible for Spyderco to re-sharpen mine to something like Sal's preferred specs? That's probably too much to ask for from them since it's probably way more of a custom job to do that??

[DBCOOPER]

I've taken mine down to 15dps and have had great luck with that so far, I'm generally pretty hard on my knives so I do like going less then that even tho I know it could handle it. I just feel better with it at 30° inclusive, it was pretty easy to do so on my wicked edge, took half the time as taking my zt 0393 in cpm20cv from 21dps to 18dps, when p4 was at about 19-20dps

[Mystery Flavor]

Any more advice on some good options that haven't been mentioned yet for where to send this for a re-profiling and sharpening?

I'd say I pretty much want to approach or push the limits of what K390 on this model can handle, so if I sent it to someone like BBB or vivi who already have been using their own that could be extra good.

but I'm open to all ideas and other people that I haven't heard of...

[DBCOOPER]

Any more advice on some good options that haven't been mentioned yet for where to send this for a re-profiling and sharpening?

I'd say I pretty much want to approach or push the limits of what K390 on this model can handle, so if I sent it to someone like BBB or vivi who already have been using their own that could be extra good.

but I'm open to all ideas and other people that I haven't heard of...

One option is you could spend a bit of $$$ and invest in your own sharpening skills, you could spend +-50$ for a lansky diamond set (you will want diamonds), or Spyderco sharpmaker with diamond rods, kme, or edge pro, wicked edge go, those are kinda placed cheapest to most expensive, as kme may be the best deal, as edge pro and wicked edge will most likely require extra stones, also are all guided systems, so it takes most of the skill out of sharpening while also teaching you how to a little better

[sal]

I'm currently using 30 degrees inclusive for my production P4. No micro bevel.

sal