Just the brown SM flats

[TkoK83Spy]

Just finishing up reprofiling my S30V PM2 using the 30 degree settings with the CBN stones. Still working at that chip/roll over from that screw head but the rest of the bevel looks great and even.

Creating a microbevel is really THAT easy?? Simply switch back to the 40 degree setting, a few light passes on the CBN, browns, fine stones and you're good to go?

Last time I did this with my M390 Para 3 didn't do a microbevel and just maintain it at 30 degrees.

[soc_monki]

I wouldn't even use the cbn. I go by feel, and do about 10 strokes on the corners, then check, and do more if need be. Then the flats, etc just like Sal shows.

[mpgtsm]

Well I was lucky. The knife already had a good, 30 deg factory edge. 10 minutes on the flats of the med stones at 40 deg, and it’s sharper than ever.

[Bloke]

Creating a microbevel is really THAT easy?? Simply switch back to the 40 degree setting, a few light passes on the CBN, browns, fine stones and you're good to go?

If you’ve reprofiled the blade and your apex is clean and burr free you shouldn’t need anymore than two ultra light and deliberate passes each side at 40deg with medium rods to set a micro bevel.

I’m of the impression if you take a few passes, particularly on CBN rods, a few passes on medium rods, a few passes on fine rods you’ll likely end up with a small 40deg secondary bevel. Your blade may well be sharp but will perform like a hairy goat. :eek:

[TkoK83Spy]

Thanks for the heads up Bloke! Will give just the mediums a shot once I'm ready.

[vivi]

Creating a microbevel is really THAT easy?? Simply switch back to the 40 degree setting, a few light passes on the CBN, browns, fine stones and you're good to go?

If you’ve reprofiled the blade and your apex is clean and burr free you shouldn’t need anymore than two ultra light and deliberate passes each side at 40deg with medium rods to set a micro bevel.

I’m of the impression if you take a few passes, particularly on CBN rods, a few passes on medium rods, a few passes on fine rods you’ll likely end up with a small 40deg secondary bevel. Your blade may well be sharp but will perform like a hairy goat. :eek:

Spot on. You want to use the fewest strokes possible to apply a microbevel, regardless of the angle / grit used.

[BLUETYPEII]

I want to thank you all for the advice :D


I think what I’ve been doing in my ignorance is micro-beveling the heck out of my knives when sharpening. I was under the assumption that almost all knives were 40°inclusive from the factory. (never assume it will get you in trouble every time)

I think what I’m going to end up doing is getting the Sharpmaker diamond or CBN rods and reprofiling all my Spydercos to 30° inclusive with no micro-bevel.

Does anyone have a preference about diamond vs CBN rods?

I’m kinda leaning toward the diamond rods but I want to get some opinions from the forum.

Thanks again!

[TkoK83Spy]

I've never used the diamond rods, but I've reprofiled 3 knives now with the CBN rods. 3 different steels (8cr13mov, S30V, M390) It takes some time, definitely not a sit down and do it in one session, but it can definitely be done with a bit of patience and free time. Using pretty light pressure, my stones still have plenty of grit left after reprofiling these 3 knives on the 30 degree settings.

But...seeing as you have 13 knives and want to reprofile ALL of them, maybe one of the guided systems would be better for you? They cost more, but you would save A TON of time, and have all sorts of options of stones, angles at your disposal as well. Just another thought.

[vivi]

I use diamond stones and I'm happy with them. They're very coarse and cut fast.

Using a longer, wide bench stone is faster. DMT 8-11" stones in XX coarse is the ticket. Sharpmaker rods are ideal for serrated knives, or anyone not comfortable free handing.

[soc_monki]

I've reprofiled a few knives with the diamonds, but I generally get it done with my lansky. Depends on how much metal needs to be removed, and what steel. 8cr? The sharpmaker does a fine job, and pretty quick. 20cv at 20 dps? I'll take the lansky (with diamonds).

As long as you're close to the 30 degrees reprofiling with the diamonds is easily doable. Trying to bring a 40 or more inclusive edge... That would take a while!

[vivi]

I've reprofiled a few knives with the diamonds, but I generally get it done with my lansky. Depends on how much metal needs to be removed, and what steel. 8cr? The sharpmaker does a fine job, and pretty quick. 20cv at 20 dps? I'll take the lansky (with diamonds).

As long as you're close to the 30 degrees reprofiling with the diamonds is easily doable. Trying to bring a 40 or more inclusive edge... That would take a while!

Got it backwards :) The more acute the angle, the more steel needs to be removed. 40 degree edge takes less time.

[soc_monki]

I've reprofiled a few knives with the diamonds, but I generally get it done with my lansky. Depends on how much metal needs to be removed, and what steel. 8cr? The sharpmaker does a fine job, and pretty quick. 20cv at 20 dps? I'll take the lansky (with diamonds).

As long as you're close to the 30 degrees reprofiling with the diamonds is easily doable. Trying to bring a 40 or more inclusive edge... That would take a while!

Got it backwards :) The more acute the angle, the more steel needs to be removed. 40 degree edge takes less time.

Sorry, didn't elaborate. Taking a blade in 20cv from 20 dps to 15 dps I'll go for the lansky! Typing faster than I'm thinking and trying to take care of a sick kid at the same time haha!

[Wartstein]

I've reprofiled a few knives with the diamonds, but I generally get it done with my lansky. Depends on how much metal needs to be removed, and what steel. 8cr? The sharpmaker does a fine job, and pretty quick. 20cv at 20 dps? I'll take the lansky (with diamonds).

As long as you're close to the 30 degrees reprofiling with the diamonds is easily doable. Trying to bring a 40 or more inclusive edge... That would take a while!

Got it backwards :) The more acute the angle, the more steel needs to be removed. 40 degree edge takes less time.

Vivi, just to make sure I get this right:

You mean of course, sharpening an already existing 40 degree angle takes less time than sharpening an already existing 30 degree angle (on the exact same blade concerning thickness, height, primary grind, steel...)

But reprofliing to 30 degrees takes longer when starting from 40 degrees than let's say 33 degrees, right?

I think soc_monki was talking about the latter - ?

[soc_monki]

I've reprofiled a few knives with the diamonds, but I generally get it done with my lansky. Depends on how much metal needs to be removed, and what steel. 8cr? The sharpmaker does a fine job, and pretty quick. 20cv at 20 dps? I'll take the lansky (with diamonds).

As long as you're close to the 30 degrees reprofiling with the diamonds is easily doable. Trying to bring a 40 or more inclusive edge... That would take a while!

Got it backwards :) The more acute the angle, the more steel needs to be removed. 40 degree edge takes less time.

Vivi, just to make sure I get this right:

You mean of course, sharpening an already existing 40 degree angle takes less time than sharpening an already existing 30 degree angle (on the exact same blade concerning thickness, height, primary grind, steel...)

But reprofliing to 30 degrees takes longer when starting from 40 degrees than let's say 33 degrees, right?

I think soc_monki was talking about the latter - ?

Exactly. I just didn't fully elaborate on what I meant!

[Bloke]

I’m sure Vivi will reply. :)

Either ways, here’s my slant; if you have two identical blades one with a 30deg and one with a 40deg primary bevel and you put an identical chip in each blade, you’d have to remove more material from the 30deg bevel to remove the chip. You’d therefore have to assume the 40deg bevel takes less time to sharpen.

At extreme ends of the scale a Scandinavian ground blade with a small chip is plain time consuming to fix compared to a conventional blade because of the amount of material you need to remove.

You’d have to remove near ten times the amount of material from the Roselli that you’d need to remove from the Spyder to fix the same size chip. :eek:

[Wartstein]

I’m sure Vivi will reply. :)

Either ways, here’s my slant; if you have two identical blades one with a 30deg and one with a 40deg primary bevel and you put an identical chip in each blade, you’d have to remove more material from the 30deg bevel to remove the chip. You’d therefore have to assume the 40deg bevel takes less time to sharpen.

At extreme ends of the scale a Scandinavian ground blade with a small chip is plain time consuming to fix compared to a conventional blade because of the amount of material you need to remove.

You’d have to remove near ten times the amount of material from the Roselli that you’d need to remove from the Spyder to fix the same size chip. :eek:

You´ve said it much better than I in my previous post and it is exactly what I meant by " You mean of course, sharpening an already existing 40 degree angle takes less time than sharpening an already existing 30 degree angle (on the exact same blade concerning thickness, height, primary grind, steel...)"

I was just a bit confused at first cause I read Vivis post as if he was referring to reprofiling, and not to sharpening.

[vivi]

I've reprofiled a few knives with the diamonds, but I generally get it done with my lansky. Depends on how much metal needs to be removed, and what steel. 8cr? The sharpmaker does a fine job, and pretty quick. 20cv at 20 dps? I'll take the lansky (with diamonds).

As long as you're close to the 30 degrees reprofiling with the diamonds is easily doable. Trying to bring a 40 or more inclusive edge... That would take a while!

Got it backwards :) The more acute the angle, the more steel needs to be removed. 40 degree edge takes less time.

Vivi, just to make sure I get this right:

You mean of course, sharpening an already existing 40 degree angle takes less time than sharpening an already existing 30 degree angle (on the exact same blade concerning thickness, height, primary grind, steel...)

But reprofliing to 30 degrees takes longer when starting from 40 degrees than let's say 33 degrees, right?

I think soc_monki was talking about the latter - ?

The more acute angle you sharpen at, the wider your bevel, and the more steel has to be removed. So it will always take longer, whether sharpening an existing bevel or reprofiling a blade to a new angle.

Your second assumption is also correct. Say you want a PE Delica reprofiled to 10 degrees per side. It will take more time to get it there if you start with a 40 inclusive degree edge than if you start with a 30 degree inclusive edge. The 40 degree edge means more steel has to be removed.

This is one reason I advocate microbevels. Since I run very thin bevels, around 10-12 dps, my bevels are wide. Sharpening the entire bevel takes a while because of how much steel is being ground. It also takes a very long time to polish it all up if that's the edge you're gping for. So by sharpening the apex at a more obtuse angle, I am only grinding a fraction of a milimeter of steel rather than a full cm, which means it takes a fraction of the time.

[mpgtsm]

Thank you all for explaining this. It seems like common sense, but in fact, it is just starting to sink in. I'm sure this has been discussed in other threads, but some things are valuable enough that they bear repeating. This is an awesome forum.

[TkoK83Spy]

Thank you all for explaining this. It seems like common sense, but in fact, it is just starting to sink in. I'm sure this has been discussed in other threads, but some things are valuable enough that they bear repeating. This is an awesome forum.

No problem! I was in the same boat as you just last year and many of the members here were extremely helpful! I received some PM's with photos of ways to try and sharpen better, even a few people offered to sharpen a few knives for me if I sent them to them. Just takes some practice and sharpening becomes a lot easier.

[mpgtsm]

I had pretty good results using Worksharp guided systems, but the SM is so much easier and faster to use and this latest use of the SM really opened my eyes. Take a good 30 deg blade and ten min on SM med rods at 40 deg, and it's incredibly sharp; scary sharp. I believe in micro-bevels and in the SM 100%