Community Sharpening Journal

[TkoK83Spy]

Excited to put this to work! DMT Diasharp diamond stone. Extra Coarse and Coarse grits. I'm going to break it in on some dull kitchen knives first.

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

Excited to put this to work! DMT Diasharp diamond stone. Extra Coarse and Coarse grits. I'm going to break it in on some dull kitchen knives first.


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Cool, cant wait for the pics.

[attila]

I sharpened my Mantra 2 for the first time this morning. I realize that CPM M4 is old hat to many, if not most, members here, but it’s new to me, and I thought I’d share a bit.

Firstly, I was surprised that the factory edge was 18° and 23° on the show and lockbar sides respectively. This was surprising because it’s a Taichung knife. Taichung is touted as the best, or tied as the best Spyderco factory, and this gross edge angle inconsistency is a bummer, but it’s not a huge deal after reprofiling.

With Venev diamond in my Hapstone V7, I brought both sides down to 17°. It took me quite a long time, even with diamond, partly because I was being cautious to not mess up the tip, the edge right at the ricasso, or the titanium handle at the ricasso.

I started with the 240 grit, and that was fine for the 18° side. I then discovered the 23° of the other side and downshifted to the 150 grit stone. I didn’t dare use the 80 grit (my coarsest), and it fortunately wasn’t necessary.

This reprofile felt like it took longer than both my M390 PM2 and Cruwear Shaman, each of which went from about 17° down to 15° per side. I’m not sure if that’s due to the hardness/carbides of the M4 or having to drop that 23° all the way down to 17°. I think both were factors.

I only took the edge up to the 400 grit stone and followed that up with a 1μ diamond strop. I’m quite pleased with the edge, and I look forward to experiencing what this first use of M4 has in store for me.

Jump forward a few hours:
I was soon possessed to cut a couple of XL pizza boxes into as small pieces as I could. For reference, these boxes seem to me to be slightly less “heavy” than a standard Amazon box. I estimate 160-170 feet cut when I ran out of pizza box. At this point, I could feel some apex damage, but I couldn’t see it. Also, printer paper cuts were louder than with the initial 1μ edge, but it still sliced cleanly.

After a 20μ strop (~400 grit), the edge is back to a pleasant level of sharpness. I wonder how long this will last with M4. I’ve been experimenting with 10μ and 20μ stropping for a few months, and I like it. I can get an arm-hair shaving sharp edge back even after a blade doesn’t reliably cut paper anymore. I doubt it’s a truly healthy edge, because it is repairing a used/worn edge, and not establishing a new edge. Time will tell how well it works for me.

[Baron Mind]

For the diamond plate fans here, I recently picked up some paddles for the Wicked Edge to freehand on. I sharpen stone in hand. I got the 400/600 grit set and I think they compare favorably to the comparable DMT plates. They seem to have better diamond coverage and less issues with diamond clustering or rogue oversized diamonds, at least in my examples. The feel and feedback is a little different than DMTs. A little more grippy I'd say. Not quite as smooth. But I feel this is the result of having more diamonds on their surface.

They only come in roughly 1 in x 5.5 in sizes, but if you can work with that I think they're worth checking out.

[The Meat man]

I sharpened my Mantra 2 for the first time this morning. I realize that CPM M4 is old hat to many, if not most, members here, but it’s new to me, and I thought I’d share a bit.

Firstly, I was surprised that the factory edge was 18° and 23° on the show and lockbar sides respectively. This was surprising because it’s a Taichung knife. Taichung is touted as the best, or tied as the best Spyderco factory, and this gross edge angle inconsistency is a bummer, but it’s not a huge deal after reprofiling.

With Venev diamond in my Hapstone V7, I brought both sides down to 17°. It took me quite a long time, even with diamond, partly because I was being cautious to not mess up the tip, the edge right at the ricasso, or the titanium handle at the ricasso.

I started with the 240 grit, and that was fine for the 18° side. I then discovered the 23° of the other side and downshifted to the 150 grit stone. I didn’t dare use the 80 grit (my coarsest), and it fortunately wasn’t necessary.

This reprofile felt like it took longer than both my M390 PM2 and Cruwear Shaman, each of which went from about 17° down to 15° per side. I’m not sure if that’s due to the hardness/carbides of the M4 or having to drop that 23° all the way down to 17°. I think both were factors.

I only took the edge up to the 400 grit stone and followed that up with a 1μ diamond strop. I’m quite pleased with the edge, and I look forward to experiencing what this first use of M4 has in store for me.


Jump forward a few hours:
I was soon possessed to cut a couple of XL pizza boxes into as small pieces as I could. For reference, these boxes seem to me to be slightly less “heavy” than a standard Amazon box. I estimate 160-170 feet cut when I ran out of pizza box. At this point, I could feel some apex damage, but I couldn’t see it. Also, printer paper cuts were louder than with the initial 1μ edge, but it still sliced cleanly.

After a 20μ strop (~400 grit), the edge is back to a pleasant level of sharpness. I wonder how long this will last with M4. I’ve been experimenting with 10μ and 20μ stropping for a few months, and I like it. I can get an arm-hair shaving sharp edge back even after a blade doesn’t reliably cut paper anymore. I doubt it’s a truly healthy edge, because it is repairing a used/worn edge, and not establishing a new edge. Time will tell how well it works for me.

Nice work Attila!

[TkoK83Spy]

Indeed!! I actually forgot about this thread as it's been awhile since it's been bumped. Just earlier this week I finished thinning down my ZT 0460 on that DMT stone I posted above. It was so obtuse it was ridiculous! I thinned it to around 20 dps (checked it against the Sharpmaker) it took me a few hours, even on the extra coarse side...which was extremely rough! With light pressure, the blade bounced around a bit.

After a while though, good ole muscle memory kicked in and I ended up finishing on the Sharpmaker fines with a few passes on my strop and its such a noticeable difference. 20dps for a ZT is like 10dps for a Spyderco :p

Turned out very even and clean, pretty satisfied with my results.

[Mike Slayer]

I carry a Spydiechef. I use a King Neo 800 grit stone to establish the edge and develop a burr. I had to change the angle because it was too obtuse for me. It should be around 15-17 degrees now. I strop on the 800 grit stone for a bit then I switch to a leather strop with 1 micron diamond spray. On LC200N you get a polished edge with some serious bite when using this combo. It’s impressive how sharp LC200N is with this simple sharpening combo.

[willc]

Today I touched up the edge on my Hap40 Delica.
Used a Naniwa combo stone and just used the 1K side.

[DOUBLE D]

Has anybody else noticed, that ever since Vivi left us... sharpening threads have really taken a nose dive? The community lost a lot of knowledge and experience.

Where did he go?

[attila]

Has anybody else noticed, that ever since Vivi left us... sharpening threads have really taken a nose dive? The community lost a lot of knowledge and experience.

Where did he go?

It seems as if he has some sort of new year’s resolution. He had his name removed and his account deactivated.

[TkoK83Spy]

I do recall him and Ankerson getting into it in a thread about flashlights. I think that was his last thread.

[ThomC]

So, I had a little accident yesterday. I dropped my new ZT 0640 when opening it, and I chipped the tip pretty badly on the tile. I was gutted.
The tip was chipped on the show side only, and it looked pretty ugly.
Spent some time researching how to fix it, and today I decided to try my hand with my DMT extra coarse. Finished it on the Spyderco medium stone.
Turns out 20CV is really easy to fix. The stock on the 640 is relaltively thicker than on the PM2, and in about 5 minutes I managed to reshape the tip and 10 minutes later I had resharpened the whole edge.
While it's not as pointy as before, it still pierces very well and took a great edge.

[RustyIron]

I've had my new Native 5 G10 REX 45 for almost a week and have been carrying it after work and on weekends. She hasn't seen much use, other than opening the occasional box or envelope. Last night I thought it would be fun to use it in preparing dinner, but when slicing ripe tomatoes, it just didn't cut the mustard. [Obligatory knife pun] That was fine, as I'm always eager to put my own edge onto a knife. Now I had an excuse.

For REX 45, I like the EdgePro Diamond Matrix Stones. Mine go 250 to 4k. They don't cut very fast for reprofiling, so I started off with some junky diamond plates. I have to be careful with them, though, as they'll tear up the edge pretty easily. Light pressure and discretion are definitely warranted.

It required just a little work to even up the edges satisfactorily. If you look closely at the picture, you'll see some irregularity at the tip. Maybe I'm frugal with the steel, maybe I'm lazy, but that will have to be cleaned up over the next several sharpenings. Then I ran through the progression of diamond matrix stones, which are the shizz for fancy, newfangled steel. I finished with a couple passes of 1 micron CBN on nanocloth. I didn't need to strop it, but I was just playing around.

[gundamaniac]

I keep unintentionally lowering the edge angle as I freehand, so I decided to try to do it intentionally and consistently. Freehanded on DMT "Fine" to reprofile, then went through DMT Extra Fine and Extra Extra Fine, then to Spyderco ceramic in Medium, Fine, and Ultrafine. I probably didn't spend enough time working out the DMT Fine scratches, because I have a mirror-ish finish but also some scratches from the diamond plates that I wasn't able to work out (in a reasonable amount of time) with the ceramics. Based on the height of the spine when I was sharpening, and the width of the blade, I estimate the edge is about 10dps for 20 inclusive. It's the sharpest I've ever gotten an edge straight off stones with no strop, so I'm learning and making some progress!

Unfortunately, yesterday I noticed a chip near the tip, which could have been from stabbing a wooden post or dropping it the day before, I'm not sure which. It was bothering me, so I worked out the chip going through the DMTs and Spyderco ceramics, and finished with a ~30 degree microbevel on the edge. I'm not sure how much the microbevel will help, since the chip was taller than the microbevel that is now on the edge. I microbeveled with the DMT EEF plate, since the edge off that seems to bite more aggressively than it does off the Fine or Ultrafine ceramics. I've always finished the actual cutting edge with the Spyderco ceramics; this will be my first time using S30V off of diamond. I'm looking forward to seeing how this edge performs.

[Cambertree]

Very nice edge, Gundamaniac - I’ll be interested to hear how it performs in use.

[The Meat man]

Beautiful edge gundamaniac! Love it! :cool:

[Wartstein]

.........
Unfortunately, yesterday I noticed a chip near the tip, which could have been from stabbing a wooden post or dropping it the day before, I'm not sure which. It was bothering me, so I worked out the chip going through the DMTs and Spyderco ceramics, and finished with a ~30 degree microbevel on the edge. I'm not sure how much the microbevel will help, since the chip was taller than the microbevel that is now on the edge. I microbeveled with the DMT EEF plate, since the edge off that seems to bite more aggressively than it does off the Fine or Ultrafine ceramics. I've always finished the actual cutting edge with the Spyderco ceramics; this will be my first time using S30V off of diamond. I'm looking forward to seeing how this edge performs.

First: Very nice edge, looks good and scary sharp! :)

/ On the highlighted part of your post: That´s actually an interesting question:

- I a knife gets a chip in an NOT microbevelled edge, and that chip is taller than a microbevel would have been, one might assume the microbevel would not have helped with that
- But I don´t think that this is necessarely true: Probably a microbevel, and the by that more robust, a bit more "flat" (and less acute angled) very edge could have helped preventing the chip to to happen at all or to be "initiated" in the first place?

[gundamaniac]

That is a good point and makes sense when you put it that way. I certainly hope that's the case! This is my first experience with microbeveling, and I couldn't believe how fast and easy it was to sharpen the microbevel. This feels like it could be a game changer for my sharpening process.

[vivi]

Bumping this thread with mini-reviews of some sharpening gear I've recently acquired:



Starting from the front....

1. Two new sets of sharpmaker rods, medium and fine. Replaced 5 year old medium rods and 10 year old fines. They both have more bite than their worn counterparts, and work faster and leave better edges.

2. Venev dual sided pocket stone. I think this was Lynx series 400/800. Both sides seem to leave a finer edge than my old, worn DMT fine. Their grit ratings are a little funny. The stone leaves a good edge, but it doesn't seem leaps and bounds better than other higher grit diamond stones I've used. The sharpening feel seems better than the DMT, but the edge doesn't. Could be the Venev stones aren't going to give me a better edge than the DMT, could be the short length makes it tougher. Either way I don't see myself paying the premiums they demand for their full sized stones, especially considering they'll eventually dish.

3. Boride 400 grit stone. This was just a couple bucks. I soak it in water for a minute before use. I've tried it out on PE knives like my Street Beat and the corners on my SE Pacific Salt 1 beater. I love the sharpening feel, but the edges I get from this stone are never very sharp, even for 400 grit. Seeing as it isn't aggressive enough for reprofiling, and I have other coarse stones that give me better edges, I don't see this stone getting much use going forward.

4. Congress EDM stones. I got 120, 400 and 600 grit. I bought these to try out some coarse edges on my beater Pacific Salt SE, and have tested them on the Street Beat PE as well. The 120 leaves a very aggressive edge, about what the Spyderco diamond rods leave. However the corners seem to chip out with edge leading strokes with a SE knife, so I use edge trailing strokes. The 400 is my favorite, I use it as my finishing stone for PE and SE knives I want to leave with a coarse edge. The 600 grit hasn't impressed me yet. It has a nice feel while sharpening but it doesn't seem to ever give me sharper edges than the 400 for some reason. All three stones get a water soak before use.

5. Norton medium crystalon triangle rod. This stone is awesome! It leaves an incredibly toothy, agressive edge. More aggressive than any other stone I've owned, including Spyderco diamond rods and DMT X Coarse stones. One corner has already worn a decent bit from using it on my serrated Tasman Salt, but at ~$6 a pop replacing it won't hurt. I would love to find these in a longer version.

6. New strop + Venev 7 micron diamond paste. The diamond paste gives me much better results than the green chromium oxide buffing compound I've used for years. Works great on both SE and PE. I'll never go back to the old craftsman buffing compound combo packs.

7. (left) Spyderco medium pocket stone. I've always loved the medium rods as a finishing stone, so thought I'd try this out as a travel stone. Noticeably coarser than my old worn medium rods, and even a touch coarser than my new medium rods. I've had a tough time getting shaving sharp edges with it on me PE knives, which surprised me. Haven't had much luck using the corners for SE knives....does not feel designed with that use in mind.

8. (right) Arkansas stone. Surface finish feels pretty close to the medium pocket stone I just mentioned. Doesn't seem to give me any better edges than my medium sharpmaker rods, but it does have a nice feel during use. I like using this stone on softer steels like Opinels, SAKs etc., gives me good results.

I don't want to sound like a shill, but at $10-12 a pop I really feel like the Spyderco sharpmaker rods are hard to beat. They work well on both PE and SE, hardly wear at all, give me a better edge than any other comparable grit stone, are longer than most stones, and are very economical. For certain knives I prefer the bite of a coarser diamond edge, but for most my knives the Spyderco ceramics are my go to finishing stones.





I also got this beefy ceramic rod for $7. It's about 10" long sharpening surface, 1" wide, and the surface feels a bit rougher than the Spyderco medium stones. The edge I get from it doesn't shave but it slices a tomato and dices onions just fine, so it fulfills its role.

[Wartstein]

Bumping this thread with mini-reviews of some sharpening gear I've recently acquired:



.....
4. Congress EDM stones. I got 120, 400 and 600 grit. ....

...

They don´t fit into the sharpmaker slots, do they?!