Community Sharpening Journal

[Wandering_About]

I like the Naniwa Professional (formerly called Chosera) stones. The 800 and 3000 grit stones are particularly nice. If you don't like going high grit, the 800 alone will put an excellent edge on a knife. They are also "splash and go" so you can just spray the surface with a bit of water. They do not need to be soaked in a bucket to be used (and in fact should not be soaked like that).

[Eli Chaps]

I think you have that swapped. 2k JIS I believe is more like 1k ANSI.

Have you ever checked out Michael Christy on YouTube? He's a phenomenal sharpener who sharpens with stone in hand.

Yes, my bad I was wrong on this !
And yes again, I've seen numerous videos he made. It is not my inspiration to sharpen this way, more like the only effective way I found but it's pretty similar !
He's just ten times better than me at it lol.

Absolutely!! I actually use his method with my DMT Diasharp stone when I'm really hogging off some steel. I get great results, and in far less time than the standard sharpening practices. Very happy I came across his videos a couple years ago. It seems like a "messy" way to sharpen, kind of going against other methods...but it really works!

I do the exact same thing even with my Diasharp fine ^^ It helps me seeing my edge bevel better and not losing track of my angle, by eye like my muscle.
When seen from the outside, it seems like a bad way to sharpen because one could easily lose the angle. But it is for me the best way to not lose my angle mid pass.

Btw : when checking the prices for ceramic stones, rods and everything, I saw that one of my dealers had the Sharpmaker on sale. I ended up buying it anyway cause it'll certainly end up at my parents house one day, and it lets me try the rods for not that much more money.

I'm pretty sure that i can get a good edge with medium and fine rods on my SE knives, and if it's not enough long term, I'll buy diamond or CBN rods.

Are the diamonds and CBN rods of the same grit?

If you prefer sharpening that way, then you might want to reconsider water stones. That would be messy and challenging I think.

Sorry, I have no first-hand experience with the Sharpmaker so can't help there.

Waterstones are one of the very few types of sharpening tools that I haven't fully checked out yet. Now I have heard that the Japanese Waterstones are the best. I can't argue the point because I've never done a side by side test with any of them.

I'm wondering which Waterstones would be ideal for testing? I've also heard that Norton sells a nice set of Waterstones which are probably more easily available here in the USA. And I've never had any complaints with any of NORTON's great sharpening tools.

"I'm wondering which Waterstones would be ideal for testing?..."

That's an extremely difficult question to answer well. There are sooooooo many choices out there and even with a brand name there are lot of choices. And within those choices are stones that are well regarded and others that are not. Then there are those that some love and some hate. And to further complicate the subject, a lot of folks may like a certain grit from a specific line but not the others. There's also different attributes to appreciate.

Chosera were mentioned. These are a good example of fairly polarizing stones. Some folks love some their offerings. Others say they are terrible. They were super popular at one time but a lot of others have come along since.

Norton's water stones have a pretty good reputation but so do the Shapton Pro and Glass lines.

I don't have a ton of varied experience with water stones as I did a lot of research and settled on the line for me early on and have had no regrets. For me, as I said, it's the Shapton Glass series (readily available). Why? Splash and go was top priority for me. I don't have a lot of room so storing stones in water was unappealing. If you're going to soak before use then you have to plan for that and you also have to plan for slow drying before putting away. Not for me, so S-n-G is what I wanted. The Glass line is also comparably slow wearing in the mid-upper grits. Again, these will almost always be in JIS not ANSI. It's really crude but for a quick mental reference, ANSI will be very loosely half of JIS. The Glass line is also known for leaving very good edges. The downside to them is the feedback isn't the best but that doesn't bother me at all.

For me personally, if I was wanting to try water stones mainly for EDC/Sporting blades and softer kitchen cutlery I would go with a Shapton Glass 500 double thick and a 2k. Paired with a Spyderco ceramic for fine finishing if desired would be nice.

But, there are a ton of options and I think there are more good then bad so it lowers the risk of disappointment.

I personally don't go lower than around 500 JIS for water stones as below that they start wearing away pretty quickly. And I have ample other stones down there like Crystolons, India, diamond, etc. And for aggressive thinning I turn to sandpaper.

Keep in mind, these types of stones are for low vanadium alloys. I wouldn't apply them to anything above 4%. Yes, many, many people will say they do just fine and up to a point that might be true but at the very least you will be eroding and glazing your stones at a much faster rate. There are diamond/CBN water stones out there.

A good lapping plate was recommended and I agree. Some folks will say don't worry about it as you can flatten on sandpaper or what have you and if you want to mess with that, be my guest. There is a popular Japanese knife "sharpener" on YouTube whose name rhymes with icky who professes you don't have to flatten your stones. I strongly disagree and flatten mine before every use. With a good lapping stone it only takes a minute. I lucked into a Nanohone NL4 at a very good price but the Atoma 140 is the most popular.

Japanese water stones are are very easy to acquire here in the US and I can help via PM if you need some starting points.

I know that is a lot of words and not sure how much I helped but I hope some. I'll do my best to answer any questions you might have.

[Wandering_About]

Decided to reprofile these two today. A serious drawback to being both a steel nerd and a sharpening nerd is that you end up doing things like this. Thinned and sharpened these Para 3s, one in S110V and one in Maxamet. Took about an hour total to do both.







S110V works surprisingly quickly. It's still a highly wear resistant steel, but by what you read on the internet you'd think it was beastly difficult to work with. I did not find that to be the case. S110V does fight a little more when you are putting the final edge on though. Need some concentration to properly remove the burr and get a good apex. Maxamet is not as bad as I thought it would be on the reprofile but the Atoma 140 met a fair match. Once you get to the final sharpening though Maxamet behaves surprisingly well. No stubborn burr and it gets sharp pretty quickly. Overall the final sharpening on Maxamet was probably slightly easier than S110V, although thinning it to the extent I did takes some work.

[Eli Chaps]

Decided to reprofile these two today. A serious drawback to being both a steel nerd and a sharpening nerd is that you end up doing things like this. Thinned and sharpened these Para 3s, one in S110V and one in Maxamet. Took about an hour total to do both.







S110V works surprisingly quickly. It's still a highly wear resistant steel, but by what you read on the internet you'd think it was beastly difficult to work with. I did not find that to be the case. S110V does fight a little more when you are putting the final edge on though. Need some concentration to properly remove the burr and get a good apex. Maxamet is not as bad as I thought it would be on the reprofile but the Atoma 140 met a fair match. Once you get to the final sharpening though Maxamet behaves surprisingly well. No stubborn burr and it gets sharp pretty quickly. Overall the final sharpening on Maxamet was probably slightly easier than S110V, although thinning it to the extent I did takes some work.

When you say you thinned these, is that the "dull" line I'm seeing just above the edge bevel?

[Wandering_About]

Yeah the edges are a little tough to see in that lighting. Edge shows best on the Maxamet knife. The S110V has a similar edge.

And to be clear all the sharpening was done with diamond on these knives. Took the picture with them on the Naniwa stones just because they were sitting out and convenient (and dry).

[Eli Chaps]

Yeah the edges are a little tough to see in that lighting. Edge shows best on the Maxamet knife. The S110V has a similar edge.

And to be clear all the sharpening was done with diamond on these knives. Took the picture with them on the Naniwa stones just because they were sitting out and convenient (and dry).

Thank you. Curious, was this done with a jigged system?

[Wandering_About]

Yeah the edges are a little tough to see in that lighting. Edge shows best on the Maxamet knife. The S110V has a similar edge.

And to be clear all the sharpening was done with diamond on these knives. Took the picture with them on the Naniwa stones just because they were sitting out and convenient (and dry).

Thank you. Curious, was this done with a jigged system?

All done freehand. The edges i put on end up a bit convex, which is fine with me. Maybe not the best for ultimate sharpness but they end up a bit more durable in my opinion.

Will try to get pics of the edges in better light another day.

[Eli Chaps]

Yeah the edges are a little tough to see in that lighting. Edge shows best on the Maxamet knife. The S110V has a similar edge.

And to be clear all the sharpening was done with diamond on these knives. Took the picture with them on the Naniwa stones just because they were sitting out and convenient (and dry).

Thank you. Curious, was this done with a jigged system?

All done freehand. The edges i put on end up a bit convex, which is fine with me. Maybe not the best for ultimate sharpness but they end up a bit more durable in my opinion.

Will try to get pics of the edges in better light another day.

Cool. That looks pretty consistent. I attack thinning a bit differently hence the curiosity. Pretty tough to not have convexity in freehand sharpening. Nothing wrong with that.

[Wandering_About]

Yeah the edges are a little tough to see in that lighting. Edge shows best on the Maxamet knife. The S110V has a similar edge.

And to be clear all the sharpening was done with diamond on these knives. Took the picture with them on the Naniwa stones just because they were sitting out and convenient (and dry).

Thank you. Curious, was this done with a jigged system?

All done freehand. The edges i put on end up a bit convex, which is fine with me. Maybe not the best for ultimate sharpness but they end up a bit more durable in my opinion.

Will try to get pics of the edges in better light another day.

Cool. That looks pretty consistent. I attack thinning a bit differently hence the curiosity. Pretty tough to not have convexity in freehand sharpening. Nothing wrong with that.

First started learning freehand sharpening maybe 15 years ago, so have a little practice. Still learning though-it never stops! That is part of the fun.

[Wandering_About]

Edge is just good enough to split a hair. Quite pleased with that.

[TkoK83Spy]

My wife already passed out haha!

So I've been working on the 31 with this new grit option from the upgrade kit. Takes the steel off pretty quickly with light passes. Going to leave it at 220 and see how it performs. May try the 400 grit for a couple passes. Quite a few options for $150 total for system that works very well as long as you don't use a heavy hand.

Hope you all are having a fun and safe New Year's!!

[TkoK83Spy]

Well done Wandering About!! Looks fairly coarse as well. Something I've grown to love myself.

[Eli Chaps]

Edge is just good enough to split a hair. Quite pleased with that.

Good job!

[Wandering_About]

Well done Wandering About!! Looks fairly coarse as well. Something I've grown to love myself.

Thanks! I do 1000 grit finished with 1 micron strop. It's a good balance between polished and coarse, for me. I don't like going much more coarse than this.

[Ramonade]

Edge is just good enough to split a hair. Quite pleased with that.

Really beautiful secondary bevel ! I still have to dull the first edge I did put on my Maxamet Para 3. These steels last so long that I have to ask friends and family for stuff to sharpen in between edges lol.

You took the edge to the Ricasso too I see. It's super clean !
I started doing that only recently but was a bit afraid of messing it up ^^. In the end, doing it on Para's or Native's plunge grinds works very well !

[olywa]

Happy New Year everyone. I just pulled the trigger on a CBN 3x8 stone and wondering if current owners of this stone can share their impressions and experience with it so far?

I use the heck out of my Spyderco Medium Benchstone and would love to see it in a 3x8 size as well, but I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.

[Ramonade]

My K390 Ladybug rolled again cutting something as simple as that :


It's not that hard to cut and it was only using vertical force. I'm starting to wonder what's the problem here. This knife rolls all the time and I know I've gotten rid of the burr. Is 15 dps too low for this knife? It came with that angle directly though.

[Steeltoez83]

Happy New Year everyone. I just pulled the trigger on a CBN 3x8 stone and wondering if current owners of this stone can share their impressions and experience with it so far?

I use the heck out of my Spyderco Medium Benchstone and would love to see it in a 3x8 size as well, but I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.

I have not used it enough to attest to the durability of the cbn stone. The stone does need a break in period when its fresh, so first few knives will have more aggression. The stone itself is very thin dimension wise. I think im only 30 knives into it thus far, but im happy with it. Today i used it on some xhp. Burr created and removed on the 400. And set the final scratch pattern on the 800. The edge has good balance of bite and polish at the 800 grit level imo.

[Steeltoez83]

My K390 Ladybug rolled again cutting something as simple as that :


It's not that hard to cut and it was only using vertical force. I'm starting to wonder what's the problem here. This knife rolls all the time and I know I've gotten rid of the burr. Is 15 dps too low for this knife? It came with that angle directly though.

What stones have you been using?

[Ramonade]

My K390 Ladybug rolled again cutting something as simple as that :

It's not that hard to cut and it was only using vertical force. I'm starting to wonder what's the problem here. This knife rolls all the time and I know I've gotten rid of the burr. Is 15 dps too low for this knife? It came with that angle directly though.

What stones have you been using?

I've been using the DMT Diasharp stones, and venev. I also did 2 edges with the work sharp precision adjust to see if it came for me. Same result !