Community Sharpening Journal

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

They don't lose their entire coating. When you make the bevel wider sharpening at a more acute angle, you'll take a little off in the process.

Thanks Vivi this was the exact picture I was thinking of and also what has gotten me looking at hand sharpening versus guided systems.

This looks very nice and flat without the step or ledge as I call it where the bevel transitions to the flats.

Would you mind sharing the Grits and tools used to produce such a nice looking edge. I understand what you mean by more acute angle to mean removing that ledge.

Is their a set procedure like for instance lets say I want the bevel to be at 15 degrees so I first re-profile to 15 degrees. This however leaves an ledge at the transition to the flats so after getting the angle I want would I then lay the blade closer to the stone not flat but at a lower angel and just keep going until everything blends into the flats?

Thank you for advice.

https://youtu.be/rnuY-Ib2jVg

That's how I applied that edge to the Manix. That's a worn DMT X coarse.

It sounds like what you're after is a V edge with a convexed shoulder. It'd be less work to go full convex. I'd try the sandpaper and mousepad technique. Get a clamp, and clamp down a low grit piece of sandpaper to a mousepad or piece of dense foam. Use edge trailing strokes.

Thank you very much Vivi. Wish I had seen this video a long time ago. There is no arguing that the simplicity of your sharpening yields terrific results. All the grit progressions I have done all the way to mirror edges never really made knives cut any better in fact too smooth will slide off of things.

I am surprised you are using that stone. All this time I thought you were talking about the more solid diamond plates they sell.

Also very surprised this one held up so well for you for some reason I thought these stones with the dot pattern were the kind that worked well but did not hold up for long, mostly because I had a small one of these in the 1980’s I wore out on a balisong tanto blade. Guess allot has changed since then.

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

Decided to look into this stone further. I can hold off on Venev stone and use the ones I purchased with the Hapstone 7.

Vivi if I recall correctly your grit progression with these stones goes from extra coarse followed by coarse and that is it.

Currently looking at these stones as a combo package of extra coarse & coarse any needed to go further?

[Pelagic]

I own all 4 of those stones from extra coarse to extra fine. The extra coarse and coarse have been used a lot more than the fine and extra fine. Just FYI. But if you wanted a truly fine edge you could go through all the DMT's then jump to the spyderco ceramic stones, then strop. I almost always go for coarser edges though.

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

I own all 4 of those stones from extra coarse to extra fine. The extra coarse and coarse have been used a lot more than the fine and extra fine. Just FYI. But if you wanted a truly fine edge you could go through all the DMT's then jump to the spyderco ceramic stones, then strop. I almost always go for coarser edges though.

Thanks Pelagic, BTW I apologize for being a jerk in the past, you’ve become a somebody in my book, thanks for all the help.

[Pelagic]

I own all 4 of those stones from extra coarse to extra fine. The extra coarse and coarse have been used a lot more than the fine and extra fine. Just FYI. But if you wanted a truly fine edge you could go through all the DMT's then jump to the spyderco ceramic stones, then strop. I almost always go for coarser edges though.

Thanks Pelagic, BTW I apologize for being a jerk in the past, you’ve become a somebody in my book, thanks for all the help.

It's ok buddy. All is well. Putting quotes in my sig isn't indicative of me holding a grudge or anything, just a moment of humor.

I want to stress that while DMT's do have a break-in period, if you sharpen enough knives you will definitely see a drop in performance over the years. They continue to work but hair whittling sharpness will gradually become harder to attain. I feel like the stones are perfect after sharpening 20-30 knives.

[vivi]

They don't lose their entire coating. When you make the bevel wider sharpening at a more acute angle, you'll take a little off in the process.

Thanks Vivi this was the exact picture I was thinking of and also what has gotten me looking at hand sharpening versus guided systems.

This looks very nice and flat without the step or ledge as I call it where the bevel transitions to the flats.

Would you mind sharing the Grits and tools used to produce such a nice looking edge. I understand what you mean by more acute angle to mean removing that ledge.

Is their a set procedure like for instance lets say I want the bevel to be at 15 degrees so I first re-profile to 15 degrees. This however leaves an ledge at the transition to the flats so after getting the angle I want would I then lay the blade closer to the stone not flat but at a lower angel and just keep going until everything blends into the flats?

Thank you for advice.

https://youtu.be/rnuY-Ib2jVg

That's how I applied that edge to the Manix. That's a worn DMT X coarse.

It sounds like what you're after is a V edge with a convexed shoulder. It'd be less work to go full convex. I'd try the sandpaper and mousepad technique. Get a clamp, and clamp down a low grit piece of sandpaper to a mousepad or piece of dense foam. Use edge trailing strokes.

Thank you very much Vivi. Wish I had seen this video a long time ago. There is no arguing that the simplicity of your sharpening yields terrific results. All the grit progressions I have done all the way to mirror edges never really made knives cut any better in fact too smooth will slide off of things.

I am surprised you are using that stone. All this time I thought you were talking about the more solid diamond plates they sell.

Also very surprised this one held up so well for you for some reason I thought these stones with the dot pattern were the kind that worked well but did not hold up for long, mostly because I had a small one of these in the 1980’s I wore out on a balisong tanto blade. Guess allot has changed since then.

I was using a DMT XX Coarse, a larger stone than this one, but I gave it to a friend to use. I like those better, sometimes tips get caught on the one in the video when I use edge leading strokes.

[vivi]

I own all 4 of those stones from extra coarse to extra fine. The extra coarse and coarse have been used a lot more than the fine and extra fine. Just FYI. But if you wanted a truly fine edge you could go through all the DMT's then jump to the spyderco ceramic stones, then strop. I almost always go for coarser edges though.

Same here except up to fine.

For a long time I'd set my bevel with an extra coarse, then jump to the fine to polish up my bevel. Once things looked good and the edge shaved, I'd microbevel at 15 degrees using the sharp maker fine or ultrafine rods. I'd keep touching up on the sharp maker, and break out the DMT's when the edge started to feel thick.

These days I am using the DMT extra coarse only for some knives, like my Manix. Others, like an Aqua Salt I'll post about later and my Izula 2, I use the DMT XC then microbevel at 15 degrees using the brown sharp maker stones.

I generally don't polish bevels anymore. An exception would be one of my SE Pacific Salts that I've always sharpened at 15 degrees. No microbevel on that one. I had another SE Pacific where I'll sharpen it at 15 degrees on the diamond rods, then microbevel at 20 using the medium rods. The first one tends to be a little sharper, but touching up the second is faster.

I like playing around with different types of edges and seeing what works best.

[vivi]

double post

[vivi]

I worked on one of my Pacific Salts today:



The edge was feeling a little thick so I ground it at 15 degrees using the diamond rods until I raised a burr on the back side. Did some back and forth strokes to minimize the burr, then went to the medium rods at 15 degrees. Got the presentation side polished up a bit and tightened up the edge.

It was pretty sharp, but I knew it could be sharper. So I cleaned off the medium stones and did a few more strokes, followed by stropping once per side to check for a burr.

It's sharper than its ever been now. Managed to whittle a few hairs with it

[Hobnob]

Vivi, sounds like you were using the corners of the diamond and medium SM stones on the Pacific Salt. Didn't I read somewhere that the edges of the SM rods should be used on the fine rods only? Any damage to the diamond and medium rods?

[vivi]

Vivi, sounds like you were using the corners of the diamond and medium SM stones on the Pacific Salt. Didn't I read somewhere that the edges of the SM rods should be used on the fine rods only? Any damage to the diamond and medium rods?

I've never had any issues using the corners of the lower grit stones.

[Pelagic]

Yesterday I had to cut some tough rubber gasket material. It comes in a large 4 foot roll and is 1/4" thick. We roll it out on a STEEL floor and I have to cut 2 squares which will later be trimmed to be used as gaskets on 25 inch pipe (main pipe for pumps on dredge).

Me: Do we have a piece of wood or something? This is going to tear this knife UP!
Captain: (halfway jokingly) You gonna cut the b**** or not?
Me: Alright, here we go.

Lost 1mm of my tip and severely blunted the first 1/4 inch of the blade, and the whole knife was dull by the end of all the trimming. During lunch I looked in my bag and to my dismay I only had my DMT coarse diamond sharpening rod for serrated knives. I used it as a normal sharpening rod, but since it is tapered, I could not avoid convexing the bevel somewhat. I got the knife very sharp but for my standards it was not a good job.

Later when I got back to the hotel, I broke out the Coarse DMT stone and locked it into my stone holder. I did 3 destressing passes (where you essentially intentionally dull the blade by lightly slicing directly into the stone) to remove fatigued steel. I then started reprofiling, dropping the apex angle back another degree or 2, using back and forth motions while constantly working the entire blade. This involves gradually moving from the heel to the tip and barely tilting the handle of the blade upward as I get closer to the tip to account for the small amount of belly on the Shaman. I wasn't concerned about fixing the tip as I decided to allow the problem to fix itself organically through future sharpenings. I was exhausted and didn't pay full attention, and realized I had raised a hefty burr (but not too bad; at least I knew the fatigued steel was fully gone). I switched to the other side and did the exact same thing, using both hands very similarly to how Vivi used his left hand to steady the tip in his recent video of sharpening on his reprofiling stone, but with back and forth motions. Once the burr was fully transferred to the other side, I transitioned to 2 regular full passes per side, using lighter pressure than before. After about 2 minutes I started with alternating passes. Kept going until I couldn't see any burr. A loaded 3 micron leather strop revealed there was still some burr left, but 2 passes per side fully eliminated it. I ended on 5 passes per side at 0.1 micron on leather. The 325 grit teeth were still fully intact, which I prefer, and it treetops hairs well above the skin. She's back and ready for action. Maybe 5 more sharpenings before the tip is fully restored.

[Sharp Guy]

As some of you know I've been making Sharpmaker (V) style bases with different angles for 1/2" triangle and 1" flat stones. I decided that I'd also like to have one for my double-sided Venev bonded diamond stones. I didn't want to buy another set of stones so I just made one slot at 15° and the other slot at 20°. I just work one side of the edge and then spin the whole thing around to do the other. It actually works out pretty good. Since I only needed the two slots I made it smaller to save material and print time. I think I'm going to screw it to a 6" board to keep my fingers out of harms way when I'm using the stone on the left side.

[Bloke]

As some of you know I've been making Sharpmaker (V) style bases with different angles for 1/2" triangle and 1" flat stones. I decided that I'd also like to have one for my double-sided Venev bonded diamond stones. I didn't want to buy another set of stones so I just made one slot at 15° and the other slot at 20°. I just work one side of the edge and then spin the whole thing around to do the other. It actually works out pretty good. Since I only needed the two slots I made it smaller to save material and print time. I think I'm going to screw it to a 6" board to keep my fingers out of harms way when I'm using the stone on the left side.

Cool set up Pat! :)

I have a coarse Venev hone the same. I lapped it flat when I first got it and haven’t been able to find it since. :rolleyes:

[Sharp Guy]

Cool set up Pat! :)

I have a coarse Venev hone the same. I lapped it flat when I first got it and haven’t been able to find it since. :rolleyes:

Thanks Alex! It'll work

I have 3 for a total of 6 grits. Until now I've only used them in the Hapstone. I thought it would be nice to use them for touching up harder steels. I used the 400/800 grit (pictured) last night to touch up my S110V Manix 2 LW. It did fine but the Venev bonded diamonds seem to load up pretty fast. I may look into getting some DMT stones at some point. Not sure it would be worth it since I really won't use them that much. I use the Moldmaster stones much more often and I'm pretty well set on those.

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

Looking good!

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

Finally did it, ordered the Spyderco Diamond rods for the sharpmaker.

After that looking at Atoma.

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

Had a bit of a set back had to buy a new, new stove really screwed up situation delivery never happened and went to a local store (Lowes) saying hey Bub ya got anything I can put on my truck and take home? The old lady is climbing my backside after the BestBuy Fiasco. Long unbelievable story a true comedy of errors... I am being nice, Gross neglegence and incompetence are two minor words to cover what I suffered.

In the end though saved $400.00 due to rebates etc...

So tonight purchased Atoma 400 and 600 as well as Universal Stone holder and sink bridge.

Will be certain to update along with the new incoming sharp maker diamond stones.

[The Meat man]

I've been working at reprofiling my Pacific Salt SE over the last few days.
Initially, I had been using strips of 320 grit sandpaper clipped to the Sharpmaker rods. However, this method, while inexpensive, had some problems. First, the paper wore out fairly quickly. Second, the increased radius due to the paper's thickness made it difficult to hit the small scallops properly. Third, the small amount of flex in the sandpaper caused slight convexing - not a huge concern but it wasn't something I really wanted.

So using some points accrued on Amazon, I bought a set of CBN Sharpmaker rods.
These worked a lot better than sandpaper. It took me a few minutes to straighten up the angle from the sandpaper.



As you can see, I still have not hit the apex yet:



Even this method got tedious though, so I cheated and used my Hapstone sharpener. Now I was able to focus in on each particular serration and work on it until I hit the apex.



After about 10 minutes of this I had pretty much the entire edge properly apexed. However I still had trouble getting into the small scallops. I think maybe because of the fixed horizontal angle of approach of my guided system.

You can see I still have some work to do on the small scallops:


I have switched back to using the CBN on the Sharpmaker in the hope that I'll eventually get those small serrations worked out properly. It's a work in progress.

I'm pleased with the performance of the CBN rods so far. On the Hapstone I used just one corner for the entire edge and it worked great. I have been very careful throughout to not put any extra pressure on them and I have not noticed any drop in performance or aggression.

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

Excellent thanks for the write up and the pics. Please describe how you worked the scallops, is it like Sal shows on the sharpmaker video or within each one working back and forth within the small dish of the scallop while using the hapstone.