Community Sharpening Journal

[Ramonade]

I have both Chris Reeve knives and two Spyderco PM2 in S45VN Spyderco S45 VN is without a doubt ran much harder and retains a truly sharp edge much longer. You can feel the difference on the TS Prof while reprofiling which is a must on the large Sebenza 31 to get performance out of it. I blew the tip off one of my PM2's in S45VN so that was another reprofile job.

The diamonds dug in easier on the Sebenza but tended to have a more glassy feed back skating more on the PM2 the harder the steel the more this feedback is noticed. Try the old spyderco 440V stuff sometime if you want to see what really hard stuff to reprofile is is. I had a Military in this stuff. I was so much happier when S30V came out.

Thanks for the feedback ! I've struggled finding 440V. I4ve found an old Native 1 for 40 bucks but it was an SE version and the teeth are gone, certainly by means of a bench grinder or something like that. It's not worth it (especially since I've got the same model new and recently got one in S30V for 10 bucks with just a broken tip).

I've reprofiled Maxamet, S110V, S90V and such steels already, but CPM 440V still interests me a lot, even if I have similar steels in my roster. I don't really have the "glassy" feel on hard steels, but I almost exclusively use resin bonded diamond stones. I get what you're saying though. From the random comments I've seen online (and that a GOOD source ), CRK's S45VN seems to be ran better than their S35VN, but still not what I would like to see on such a steel.

ETA : here's the state of the 40 bucks 440V knife i've found the reste of the knife is ok, but the desciption says "Average state, the blade has been sharpened but the lock is ok and the rest of the body too":

[cabfrank]

Wow, I wonder what below average would be.

[BeggarSo]

I'll take a look tonight when I get home. The best out of my collection is the Inkosi drop point I will look at all 4 knives cards and post the dates later.

[BeggarSo]

I have both Chris Reeve knives and two Spyderco PM2 in S45VN Spyderco S45 VN is without a doubt ran much harder and retains a truly sharp edge much longer. You can feel the difference on the TS Prof while reprofiling which is a must on the large Sebenza 31 to get performance out of it. I blew the tip off one of my PM2's in S45VN so that was another reprofile job.

The diamonds dug in easier on the Sebenza but tended to have a more glassy feed back skating more on the PM2 the harder the steel the more this feedback is noticed. Try the old spyderco 440V stuff sometime if you want to see what really hard stuff to reprofile is is. I had a Military in this stuff. I was so much happier when S30V came out.

Whats the manufacture date of your Sebenza?

I have an Inkosi from after they bumped up the hardness, and my experience has been the exact opposite of yours.

Sorry should have hit the quote button wanted to make sure you saw my reply it is the one right before this one. Thanks.

[BeggarSo]

Ok here are the Birthday cards for each of the Chris Reeve Knives. What date did they start going harder on the heat treatment?

Out of all 4 the Inkosi Drop point is the best slicer and holds an edge the longest followed by the Inkos Insingo. Chances are I will by a Magnacut Inkosi in both Drop Point and Insingo but I am done with Sebenzas and the rest.

[RustyIron]

Rubbing rocks on metal today, doing a kitchen knife for my sister in law. My Cruwear PM2 was in my pocket, so when I was done with the kitchen knife, it was time to touch up the Spydie. I've been experimenting with this one, and the edge was blunter than I like. A bit of material had to be removed to restore the desired angle, so I got out a CGSW 160 micron stone. It removed a lot of material quickly. Instead of going to a finer stone, I just started going gentler and gentler, until I had a sharp, but coarse, edge. It should do nicely when put to work.

[Wandering_About]

Nice work RustyIron. CruWear is quite nice to sharpen.

[TkoK83Spy]

It really is. I have a small chip in my DLT Cruwear Delica. Excited to come around to that sharpening session.

I'm one that never caught onto the MAJOR Cruwear craze, because of my love of the high edge retention steels. But, I've always enjoyed sharpening the steel.

[vivi]

touched up some of my more frequently carried knives tonight.



4V Manix XL - Just stropped it. The edge was still pretty sharp. 300 grit, very toothy.

Yojumbo - 260 grit diamond edge followed by one stroke per side at 15 degrees on the sharpmaker with ultrafine rods.

Yellow Pacific 1 - Came with an absolutely MASSIVE burr. Gave it about 12 strokes per side on the 260 grit diamond stone to give it an edge that'll cut.

Rastasalt - Thinned the edge out a bit more on the 260 grit stone, then gave it a 15dps microbevel on the medium sharpmaker stones for a hair popping sharp polished edge.

Waved Pacific 2 - 20 dps on the brown rods until it cleanly shaved. Think I'm going to carry this tomorrow.

Green Pacific 2 - Sharpened on the 260 grit stone until the burr was minimized and it could cleanly shave. This one had gotten pretty dull so I look forward to carrying it again - miss using it.


Blacked out Pacific 1 - I had been touching this up on the sharpmaker fine rods at 15dps mostly out of laziness. Reset the edge to 260 grit with no microbevel - very thin and toothy.

Got a nice assortment of Pacifics to choose from now. Polished & toothy.

[Ramonade]

I reprofiled the tip on my rescue Native 1.
Gotta say, that S30V goes away very, very fast on 36 grit ceramic belts.
The thing did not even have the time to heat up, except when going up to 320 grit just right at the tip (you can't stay a second on that spot without risks).





I might use a bigger radius for the curve of the now drop point Native. Just to give it a pointier tip. Sharpening this knife took a long time, I had to remove a lot of material and didn't want to risk heating it up on the belt sander, even if I had sucess setting edges with it.

What is weird is that a chip occured almost immediately after finishing (F80/F150/F240/F400 Venev then Gunny Juice 3micron). I cut cigarette paper and hairs, I don't think that is the reason of the chipping .
It never happened with my other Native 1 but maybe the blade can hit the spring ? I'll remove that chip just to see if this occurs again at the exact same spot.


By the way, now that I've found a place to buy this infamous Gunny Juice I've seen a lot of people using with great results I can say : this is an excellent product.
I've used diamond sprays like the one from DMT, but the one offered by Scott Gunn has nothing to do with these ! It really works wonders from the 10 or 15 knives I've used it with for now.

[KingShapton]

Shout out to the Spyderco ceramic bench stones. No dishing. No oil required. No soaking in water for 10 minutes when you have some prep to handle now.

I keep a fine bench stone in my knife roll and it's the only thing I use to maintain the edges on my work knives. The 10" gyuto pictured is Aogami Super @ 65rc - I also have work knives in VG10, White #1, and whatever soft stainless Victorinox and Kiwi use. This stone handles them all perfectly.

Makes me laugh seeing folks with four step strop progressions for their pocket knives. Meanwhile I don't even strop the knives I use for presentation grade culinary cuts at a fine dining establishment.

Pictured above is some Peruvian inspired salsa criolla. I always grill some shrimp and snack on some when I make a fresh batch.

The Spyderco ceramic bench stone fine is stunningly good!

I've built up a **** of a collection of synthetic waterstones and natural whetstones over the last 10 years and some of them are really, really, really good.

But in the end I keep coming back to the Spyderco ceramic bench stones for finishing or touch ups very often and I'm totally happy with them.

For some time now I have been working more and more with plateau sharpening according to Cliff Stamp/Stefan Wolf and the Spyderco ceramic bench stones are unbelievably good for the final apexing!

In the end I use (besides King stones and Shapton stones) more and more preferably the sharpening tools with which I have worked with the Sharpmaker for over 15 years - my wife jokes that I could have saved myself everything else. Just a good diamond plate and the Spyderco bench stones, that's all you need for scary sharp edges - although experimenting with new stones is also a lot of fun!

Btw., your posts about coarse edges really impressed me!

[Michael Janich]

Dear KingShapton:

Welcome to the Spyderco Forum.

Stay safe,

Mike

[olywa]

That's a mighty handsome Gyoto you've got there Vivi.

[KingShapton]

Dear KingShapton:

Welcome to the Spyderco Forum.

Stay safe,

Mike

Thank you very much

[vivi]

reset the edge on a 300 grit diamond stone then did one stroke per side at a more obtuse angle on a 5,000 grit shapton. Hair popping sharp but rough and gritty feeling if I run my nail down the edge - should cut well.

[Bolster]

Question:

Is there a rule of thumb on how far apart your grit progression should be--traditionally? (Not asking about the "big jump" progression that gives a fine but toothy edge--looking for a very fine edge here.) In particular, I have a gap in my guided stone system that jumps from 29 microns to 7 microns and I'm wondering if that gap is too large.

[Soanso McMasters]

I personally would want something in between that jump.

[Wandering_About]

Yeah that's a pretty big jump. I say split it, 15ish microns should do well.

[Bolster]

I personally would want something in between that jump.

Yeah that's a pretty big jump. I say split it, 15ish microns should do well.

Thanks. Just ordered 17 micron Venev Orion.

[Steeltoez83]

Sharpened up both these today on my sharp pebble 400/1k stone. The s35vn factory edge held up better than I predicted it would be. I have only used 8cr on the tenacious so this model and the upgrade in steel have been a refreshing endeavor to explore. The lil Temperance 3 lightweight in vg10 was also Sharpened on that same stone.