Community Sharpening Journal

[Ramonade]

Just received my first k390 knife, never tried the "little" offerings of spyderco, and I thought the k390 Ladybug would be a perfect way to start !

However, I'm a bit disappointed to have to sharpen the knife upon receival. This thing has a gigantic burr that can whittle wood.

Believe me when I say : It's not a micro bevel ! Since it's k390, i'll still try to remove the burr but this might not be as easy, I do not know this steel at all (that was the whole point of buying the knife).

[Senfkarte]

...
However, I'm a bit disappointed to have to sharpen the knife upon receival. This thing has a gigantic burr that can whittle wood.

Believe me when I say : It's not a micro bevel ! Since it's k390, i'll still try to remove the burr but this might not be as easy, I do not know this steel at all (that was the whole point of buying the knife).

Mine Stretch 2 in K390 had a burr, too. Not one I would call gigantic, and it was not all the way along the edge, but it was there.

[Wandering_About]

Had a man bug K390 that had a nasty burr. Other K390 knives I have came with great edges.

[vivi]

Just received my first k390 knife, never tried the "little" offerings of spyderco, and I thought the k390 Ladybug would be a perfect way to start !

However, I'm a bit disappointed to have to sharpen the knife upon receival. This thing has a gigantic burr that can whittle wood.

Believe me when I say : It's not a micro bevel ! Since it's k390, i'll still try to remove the burr but this might not be as easy, I do not know this steel at all (that was the whole point of buying the knife).

4 or 5 strokes on the sharpmaker at 40 degrees should clean that right up. No fun having to touch up a brand new knife, but K390 isn't terribly difficult to sharpen. It's reprofiling where the real joy is

[Ramonade]

I sadly do not own the sharpmaker, I have japanese alumine whetstones, diamond stones (DMT, Venev, WorkSharp) and the WorkSharp precision adjust.

I started to reduce it by using the Ceramic rod of the work sharp guided field sharpener :

I might take it to the diamond, but I wanted to preserve the "factory edge" as much as I could, to see how long it would last. Smallest knife I've ever owned that isn't a sak, not that used to that small of an edge ^^

[Senfkarte]

Just received my first k390 knife, never tried the "little" offerings of spyderco, and I thought the k390 Ladybug would be a perfect way to start !

However, I'm a bit disappointed to have to sharpen the knife upon receival. This thing has a gigantic burr that can whittle wood.

Believe me when I say : It's not a micro bevel ! Since it's k390, i'll still try to remove the burr but this might not be as easy, I do not know this steel at all (that was the whole point of buying the knife).

4 or 5 strokes on the sharpmaker at 40 degrees should clean that right up. No fun having to touch up a brand new knife, but K390 isn't terribly difficult to sharpen. It's reprofiling where the real joy is

This was my solution, too. Worked fine.

[Ramonade]

I've reclaimed ~90% of the cutting edge, the heel is more difficult since I have a ceramic cylinder and there's this unsharpened part blocking me.

[vivi]

Touched up four knives last night.



1. M4 DLC Chief. All this one needed was a few strokes on the medium rods and it was aggressively shaving again.



2. H1 Pacific Salt. It had been dulled some at work. Gave it about ten strokes per side on a 180 grit diamond stone, alternating sides every stroke. Cleanly shaved after that so didn't bother stropping.



3. Rex45 Chief. Same as above, gave it about ten strokes per side on 180 grit. Even better edge than the Pacific Salt - I'd be happy seeing a knife shave this well off the brown sharpmaker rods, much less 180 grit.



4. LC200N Pacific Salt. This one has a very thin bevel, but its kind of uneven. I smoothed it out a little in the process of trying to grind off the microbevel. Still needs work. The apex is extremely sharp - did the 180 grit plate again and I'd say this is the sharpest edge I've gotten from it. Somehow it shaves almost as cleanly as the much more polished M4 Chief. Dunno how I managed that, but I'm excited to try this edge out!

Afterward I gave them all a pivot adjustment and some loctite.

Told myself I'd be carrying one of these today. Only question is which one? Leaning towards one of the Chiefs.

[silverhays]

How do you guys sharpen smaller knives?

I learned to free hand larger kitchen knives pretty well but can't sharpen smaller knives like the ladybugs, dragonfly, my small victorinox utility etc. to save my life. I currently only have Shapton 320/1000 stones and some leather/balsa wood strops with different compounds. I've been thinking about upgrading to the KME or Worksharp Precision(w/ gritomatic upgrade) but I'm not sure. Can these guided systems do these tiny knives? Also, are the Shapton stones even good for harder steels or should I upgrade to diamond stones if I stick with bench stones? I have a bunch of 20cv, K390 etc.

[TkoK83Spy]

How do you guys sharpen smaller knives?

I learned to free hand larger kitchen knives pretty well but can't sharpen smaller knives like the ladybugs, dragonfly, my small victorinox utility etc. to save my life. I currently only have Shapton 320/1000 stones and some leather/balsa wood strops with different compounds. I've been thinking about upgrading to the KME or Worksharp Precision(w/ gritomatic upgrade) but I'm not sure. Can these guided systems do these tiny knives? Also, are the Shapton stones even good for harder steels or should I upgrade to diamond stones if I stick with bench stones? I have a bunch of 20cv, K390 etc.

Back on page 45 I talked about sharpening my Dragonfly.

I really like the Precision Adjust. I use it for the final touches on freehand jobs that need a little refinement. I've also reprofiled a few knives with it as well, it's the best sharpener out there for the price.

That said, on smaller knives I think it would be difficult to use. Not only because of the size of the clamp, but with the Precision Adjust it's also hard to get right down to the ricasso.

[bbturbodad]

How do you guys sharpen smaller knives?

I learned to free hand larger kitchen knives pretty well but can't sharpen smaller knives like the ladybugs, dragonfly, my small victorinox utility etc. to save my life. I currently only have Shapton 320/1000 stones and some leather/balsa wood strops with different compounds. I've been thinking about upgrading to the KME or Worksharp Precision(w/ gritomatic upgrade) but I'm not sure. Can these guided systems do these tiny knives? Also, are the Shapton stones even good for harder steels or should I upgrade to diamond stones if I stick with bench stones? I have a bunch of 20cv, K390 etc.

What kind of issues are you running into with smaller knives? I mostly carry small knives and freehand them on Venev diamond stones with good results.

[Ramonade]

How do you guys sharpen smaller knives?

I learned to free hand larger kitchen knives pretty well but can't sharpen smaller knives like the ladybugs, dragonfly, my small victorinox utility etc. to save my life. I currently only have Shapton 320/1000 stones and some leather/balsa wood strops with different compounds. I've been thinking about upgrading to the KME or Worksharp Precision(w/ gritomatic upgrade) but I'm not sure. Can these guided systems do these tiny knives? Also, are the Shapton stones even good for harder steels or should I upgrade to diamond stones if I stick with bench stones? I have a bunch of 20cv, K390 etc.

I usually do small knives free hand, but I can already tell you that the Ladybug easily fits on the Work Sharp Precision Adjust. Just had it but had some trouble with the factory edge, saved it but it performed poorly, just did put a 600 edge on it this afternoon. Didn't bother using the venev stones with the gritomatic holder. 320 > 600 > stropping.

It's perfectly aggressive still at 600 :)

PS : However, Victorinox 58mm SAKs do not fit this sytem, the 91mm and Cadet-size fits, the others way to small in terms of blade height.

[Manixguy@1994]

Do anyone has tips sharpening S90V steel ? Thank you MG2

[vivi]

those $52 sharpmakers at dack sure were tempting, but I find myself using them for PE less and less as the months go on. Touched up my yojumbo on a 200 grit diamond stone last night and it cleanly shaves. These low grit edges are the truth. Spending so much less time sharpening. Touching up the yojumbo only took 3 strokes per side.

[TkoK83Spy]

those $52 sharpmakers at dack sure were tempting, but I find myself using them for PE less and less as the months go on. Touched up my yojumbo on a 200 grit diamond stone last night and it cleanly shaves. These low grit edges are the truth. Spending so much less time sharpening. Touching up the yojumbo only took 3 strokes per side.

I haven't touched my standard Sharpmaker in months! Free hand or Precision Adjust for me. Though I do use the custom Sharpmaker that Pat 3D printed for me for touchups. 17dps slots are PERFECT for many knives in general and microbevels as well.

[Ramonade]

those $52 sharpmakers at dack sure were tempting, but I find myself using them for PE less and less as the months go on. Touched up my yojumbo on a 200 grit diamond stone last night and it cleanly shaves. These low grit edges are the truth. Spending so much less time sharpening. Touching up the yojumbo only took 3 strokes per side.

I've found that it also greatly improves the quality of the sharpening. There is a ton less marging for error when you only do some strokes on one stone vs a full set of stones.

[bbturbodad]

those $52 sharpmakers at dack sure were tempting, but I find myself using them for PE less and less as the months go on. Touched up my yojumbo on a 200 grit diamond stone last night and it cleanly shaves. These low grit edges are the truth. Spending so much less time sharpening. Touching up the yojumbo only took 3 strokes per side.

I've found that it also greatly improves the quality of the sharpening. There is a ton less marging for error when you only do some strokes on one stone vs a full set of stones.

Agreed! Unless I'm reprofiling a blade I almost always sharpen on a single stone/grit. Fast and as mentioned less chance to mess up the angle.

[ThomC]

Got my Rex 45 Chief in the mail, and in comparison I found my Millie not as sharp as I liked.
A few passes on the black DMT, followed by two on each side on the Spyderco medium ceramic changed that in a hurry.
I think I'll do those finishing passes in the future, it doesn't kill the micro serrations and the edge feels very clean and crisp.

[Ramonade]

those $52 sharpmakers at dack sure were tempting, but I find myself using them for PE less and less as the months go on. Touched up my yojumbo on a 200 grit diamond stone last night and it cleanly shaves. These low grit edges are the truth. Spending so much less time sharpening. Touching up the yojumbo only took 3 strokes per side.

I haven't touched my standard Sharpmaker in months! Free hand or Precision Adjust for me. Though I do use the custom Sharpmaker that Pat 3D printed for me for touchups. 17dps slots are PERFECT for many knives in general and microbevels as well.

Now that I stabilized the rod and tribrasive on the precision adjust I find that i use it more. Its this product and freehand for me.

[vivi]

the thing that's wild about my low grit edges is how long they're holding shaving sharpness.

since I touched up my yojumbo I've broken down some large boxes for recycling, cut a knot out of my girlfriends dog's fur, cut bread and sliced tomatoes and other misc food prep, sliced up an old foam mattress topper to stuff a punching bag, trimmed some carpet while helping a friend renovate, opened a lot of mail (christmas presents etc.), cut up some paper to make flash cards and other misc. tasks.

that 200 grit edge still cleanly shaves,and hasn't slowed down one bit when it comes to cutting performance.