Community Sharpening Journal

[MFlovejp]

My diamond sharpmaker rods came from Dack yesterday—24 day shipping gives me empathy for the overseas members of the forum :o I spent the last two evenings reprofiling my KnifeJoy Endura. One side was about 25 degrees and the other was spot on at 15, so it was an interesting job taking it down to 15 DPS. Once I apexed on the diamonds I worked the edge up to the fine rods. How much pressure are you guys using on the diamond/CBN rods? I shied to the side of hardly-any-pressure-at-all and it took quite a bit longer than I anticipated.

Side note: I love how easy it is to get VG-10 sticky-sharp once you hit the apex.

With a plain-edged VG-10 I’d say don’t be too shy with the diamond rods, that steel grinds pretty easily. I’m careful with serrated edges on the corners of the rods because I’ve seen a little tear out when I went too hard. The diamonds are fixed to the rods pretty solidly, but like the other rods they will wear out eventually and that’s okay.

[Jared]

I’m sure the answers are in this thread, but maybe someone will be willing to save me a little reading time...

How are y’all serrated edge junkies sharpening the serrations? I watched the Sharpmaker DVD, so I know that’s an option. I’ve read about cone shaped Han held sharpeners. What works best? I have a Sharpmaker with Diamond and Ultra Fine rods to go along with what came with it. I’m not shy about ordering one of the diamond cones I’ve seen if that’s faster.

[bbturbodad]

I’m sure the answers are in this thread, but maybe someone will be willing to save me a little reading time...

How are y’all serrated edge junkies sharpening the serrations? I watched the Sharpmaker DVD, so I know that’s an option. I’ve read about cone shaped Han held sharpeners. What works best? I have a Sharpmaker with Diamond and Ultra Fine rods to go along with what came with it. I’m not shy about ordering one of the diamond cones I’ve seen if that’s faster.

I use a Sharpmaker with the brown rods for touch-ups and CBN (or diamond) for reprofiling.

[MFlovejp]

I’m sure the answers are in this thread, but maybe someone will be willing to save me a little reading time...

How are y’all serrated edge junkies sharpening the serrations? I watched the Sharpmaker DVD, so I know that’s an option. I’ve read about cone shaped Han held sharpeners. What works best? I have a Sharpmaker with Diamond and Ultra Fine rods to go along with what came with it. I’m not shy about ordering one of the diamond cones I’ve seen if that’s faster.

I use a Sharpmaker with the brown rods for touch-ups and CBN (or diamond) for reprofiling.

I will second this. It works so well that no other method really even makes sense.

[vivi]

I’m sure the answers are in this thread, but maybe someone will be willing to save me a little reading time...

How are y’all serrated edge junkies sharpening the serrations? I watched the Sharpmaker DVD, so I know that’s an option. I’ve read about cone shaped Han held sharpeners. What works best? I have a Sharpmaker with Diamond and Ultra Fine rods to go along with what came with it. I’m not shy about ordering one of the diamond cones I’ve seen if that’s faster.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=84544 - All your questions should be answered by this post.

[Jared]

I’m sure the answers are in this thread, but maybe someone will be willing to save me a little reading time...

How are y’all serrated edge junkies sharpening the serrations? I watched the Sharpmaker DVD, so I know that’s an option. I’ve read about cone shaped Han held sharpeners. What works best? I have a Sharpmaker with Diamond and Ultra Fine rods to go along with what came with it. I’m not shy about ordering one of the diamond cones I’ve seen if that’s faster.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=84544 - All your questions should be answered by this post.

Thank you, very helpful.

[TkoK83Spy]

I'm thinking of thinning out my M4 Para 3 later this week. I've never done anything besides touchups on it, ready for some new steel though! Any advice on what works best with M4? Nothing crazy, maybe down to the 15-17 dps. I've been loving coarser grits recently, anybody have any feedback on coarse finishes with M4?

Thanks in advance!

[vivi]

I'm thinking of thinning out my M4 Para 3 later this week. I've never done anything besides touchups on it, ready for some new steel though! Any advice on what works best with M4? Nothing crazy, maybe down to the 15-17 dps. I've been loving coarser grits recently, anybody have any feedback on coarse finishes with M4?

Thanks in advance!

I took my Manix XL down to the 10-12dps range with a 15 degree microbevel off the brown rods. I've been happy with that edge. Haven't tried one of my really coarse edges on that steel yet.



The Military I carried yesterday wasn't very sharp. The bevels were kind of uneven from factory (It was a second to be fair) so I did a hasty reprofiling job at 15 degrees with the diamond rods, then gave it 2 strokes per side on the brown rods at 20 degrees. Not as thin as I usually run my knives but it went from scrape shaving to hair popping sharp, so it'll do for now.

[Steeltoez83]

Put on the Beatles this morning while sharpening my manix. Used the double sided cbn benchstone which is 400/800 on this m390. Song of choice was "baby you can drive my car". Estimated time was about 2 and a half minutes, that's with cutting the edge off. No hiccups when testing sharpness on newspaper either. Cuts cleanly thru without any snags or noticeable micro burrs. I usually make 3-5 cuts when I'm in the mood to actually test sharpness.

[SG89]

My vg10 RockJumper se was giving me fits tonight trying to sharpen the 1" pe portion... Upon closer inspection the very tip was rolled and that was causing me to not get the results i wanted. The sharpie trick really is undefeated. Diamond rod fixed it. Touched up my endela K390 on the brown rods and I was so happy with the way that steel responded.

[kobold]

After about two weeks of use (bailing twine, animal feed bags, woody weeds, vines, packagin, paper and a few kitchen tasks) the Spy27 Native stopped shaving and barely managed even paper. The bevel was not rolled or chipped, it was looking ok.
My first sharpening was a positive experience. I already decided it would be unnecessary to use diamonds or CBN on this steel. I used the medium ceramic bench stone without water and the burr came up extremely quickly. Moved to the UF and repeated the process. The knife was already shaving sharp at this point, but I went on to strop with 6, 3, 1, and 0,5 micron strops. It is definitely one of my sharper knives at the moment.

I think even just stropping would do the trick on a dull, but otherwise undamaged bevel. So yeah, I like the steel!

[Josh Crutchley]

Has anyone tried ocb diamond waterstones? I've always wanted to but the cost was too high. That's until I was on Gritomatics site and came across the Venev Dog series set for 15usd. It has 2 small double sided stones 98 x 17 x 10 mm for use with an Edge pro. The course one isn't ocb but resin bonded but they both have 1mm of abrasive material per side. They're only 25% diamond concentration, they say the lower concentration produces a finer scratch pattern. I think it's worth it just to try the ocb stone so I bought a set. The set contains the following 2 stones;
F100 + F240 25%
F400 OCB + F800 OCB 25%

pictures are from Gritomatics site.
gritomatic.com/collections/all/products/venev-4-dog-series-dual-side-diamond-set

[bbturbodad]

Yep. I have a set of those and the 3x8" Phoenix stones from 80 through 1200 grit.

Venev stones leave a very fine finish, even the 400 gives a fairly polished finish.

They don't come flat and dish pretty quickly so I recommend getting some Silicon carbide powder to keep them flat.

Very easy to get tree topping and hair whittling edges with the 400 grit and up.





160 grit finish on Rex45

[TkoK83Spy]

That's just silly, some of you guys have some amazing skills in this thread.

[vivi]

Took my Military a touch thinner. About 12dps.

Just used my 180 grit diamond stone and 40 micron strop twice per side. Cleanly shaves.

I think a coarse edge will be fun with the Militarys negative blade angle. I think the coarsest I ever went was brown rods on my last one, a 204P sprint I traded for my Police 4.

[GarageBoy]

Yep. I have a set of those and the 3x8" Phoenix stones from 80 through 1200 grit.

Venev stones leave a very fine finish, even the 400 gives a fairly polished finish.

They don't come flat and dish pretty quickly so I recommend getting some Silicon carbide powder to keep them flat.

Very easy to get tree topping and hair whittling edges with the 400 grit and up.

I know these are slower compared to plated/metallic bonded diamonds and cbn, but how slow are they (specifically the coarser stones)

Trying to plan out my diamond benchstones for higher carbide steels

[bbturbodad]

Yep. I have a set of those and the 3x8" Phoenix stones from 80 through 1200 grit.

Venev stones leave a very fine finish, even the 400 gives a fairly polished finish.

They don't come flat and dish pretty quickly so I recommend getting some Silicon carbide powder to keep them flat.

Very easy to get tree topping and hair whittling edges with the 400 grit and up.

I know these are slower compared to plated/metallic bonded diamonds and cbn, but how slow are they (specifically the coarser stones)

Trying to plan out my diamond benchstones for higher carbide steels

I don't own any plated/metallic bonded stones so I can't compare the two but I can sharpen a knife in any steel in just a couple of minutes with the Venev stones and not much longer for a full reprofile. Plenty fast for me.

[ThomC]

Decided to stop chickening out and reprofile my M4 Millie tonight. Couldn't stand not wanting to carry it because of its too-shiny-and-slippery edge
Knocked the edge a couple degrees back and did away with the microbevel. The factory needle tip too.
All in all, it didn't take me as long as I though it would. The DMT XC helps a lot. 15 to 20 minutes and it feels great.
Nothing further apart from cutting through cork for deburring and 3 passes per side on the back of my belt.
Around 13 dps judging by the width of the new bevel ? It's far from perfect but I'll work on it with subsequent sharpenings.

(White spot near the tip is skin :D )

[TkoK83Spy]

Decided to stop chickening out and reprofile my M4 Millie tonight. Couldn't stand not wanting to carry it because of its too-shiny-and-slippery edge
Knocked the edge a couple degrees back and did away with the microbevel. The factory needle tip too.
All in all, it didn't take me as long as I though it would. The DMT XC helps a lot. 15 to 20 minutes and it feels great.
Nothing further apart from cutting through cork for deburring and 3 passes per side on the back of my belt.
Around 13 dps judging by the width of the new bevel ? It's far from perfect but I'll work on it with subsequent sharpenings.

(White spot near the tip is skin :D )

Looks good to me! I have the DMT Diasharp stone with the X Coarse/Coarse sides. That stone is no joke! When it was new the first blade I tried to sharpen felt like it was bouncing around the stone because the X coarse was so coarse haha. Great stone for reprofiling. Does the job quick that's for sure.

[ThomC]

Looks good to me! I have the DMT Diasharp stone with the X Coarse/Coarse sides. That stone is no joke! When it was new the first blade I tried to sharpen felt like it was bouncing around the stone because the X coarse was so coarse haha. Great stone for reprofiling. Does the job quick that's for sure.

The one with its own stand ? I've been looking at them too, they seem quite nice to use.
The XC took me by surprise at first too, finding the right amount of pressure for a smooth motion was tricky.