sharpening cts 204p / 20cv / m390 on sharpmaker? sharpening tantos?

[Mugman16]

is it appropriate to sharpen these steels on the sharpmaker? i hear mixed things such as the ceramic not being able to cut through some of the carbides or something along those lines. also, is it possible to sharpen the tip part of a tanto with the sharpmaker? thanks for any help.

[vivi]

I had no issues sharpening my CTS204P Military on the medium sharpmaker stones.

I wouldn't want to reprofile this steel with a sharpmaker, but I can say that about any steel.

You can use the sharpmaker for tantos. Just angle the tip of the knife like you're laying that part of the edge on a flat surface.

[Mugman16]

I had no issues sharpening my CTS204P Military on the medium sharpmaker stones.

I wouldn't want to reprofile this steel with a sharpmaker, but I can say that about any steel.

You can use the sharpmaker for tantos. Just angle the tip of the knife like you're laying that part of the edge on a flat surface.

thanks for the response vivi, do you bother with the ceramic stones? are we talking sharp, or hair popping sharp? im wondering if im doing myself a disservice by not shelling out for more diamond stones

[Bdubs808]

If you spend enough time on the medium triangle stones any steel will get sharp. As long as the technique, angle, pressure, etc. are correct the Sharpmaker will get it done.

[soc_monki]

The ceramics work just fine for any steel. Don't worry too much about "carbide tear out" or if ceramic stones work properly. They work just fine! Carbides are very small, and unless you get down to abrasives that are very close to the same size as the Carbides they just get scraped out with the steel matrix. Now, if you went to strops with 1 to 3 micron abrasive or smaller, you want diamonds. Anything from low grit (like a Norton 220 grit crystolon) to an ultra fine spyderco stone is good to go. Michael Christy even tested ceramics vs diamond and found no difference in the tests.

Now, if you want to reprofile on the sharpmaker get the diamond or cbn rods. The browns just won't cut it!

By the way, I use my spyderco medium and fine stones on s90v, which has a LOT of vanadium carbides. I do most of the work with my diamond stone, and finish the edge with the ceramics. Works great and gets hair popping sharp!

[Pokey]

I've sharpened 20CV and M390 on the SharpMaker without any trouble.

I re-profiled a co-workers SOG tanto, (AUS-8,) using a SharpMaker after someone used some sort of electric sharpener. They rounded the angle between the two edges and leaned on the sharpener while sharpening the longer edge. The long edge ended up being slightly concave. I treated the long and short edges as if they were two different knives and brought the original edges/angles back from the dead.

[Mugman16]

thanks a ton for the answers guys, especially that thorough one soc_monki, glad to know i dont have to buy anymore stones!

[Evil D]

With diamond or CBN rods you can reprofile any steel, but like with any other sharpening system it's going to take more time with certain steels. This is just an inevitable truth about sharpening, it's just the same with S30V vs H1 as it is with Maxamet vs VG10.

As for tantos, I generally don't like them anyway but the ones I've had I deliberately blend out that hard kink in the edge and make them more like a traditional tanto. This way they sharpen up like anything else but still retain the strong tip. Read up on traditional tantos vs Westernized tantos.

[GarageBoy]

I've owned a tanto that someone wasn't the most careful and rounded the transition - like evil d says - it's actually worked pretty well. A lot aren't ground perfectly anyways

[Mugman16]

With diamond or CBN rods you can reprofile any steel, but like with any other sharpening system it's going to take more time with certain steels. This is just an inevitable truth about sharpening, it's just the same with S30V vs H1 as it is with Maxamet vs VG10.

As for tantos, I generally don't like them anyway but the ones I've had I deliberately blend out that hard kink in the edge and make them more like a traditional tanto. This way they sharpen up like anything else but still retain the strong tip. Read up on traditional tantos vs Westernized tantos.

been thinking about doing this since you said it, sorry to res a dead thread but can i bug you for pics of tantos youve done this to? take a lot of effort?

[mb1]

Keep digging Mugman. There’s always debate on this question, and everyone is convinced they’re right.

I’ve been convinced with evidence and personal experience that you can get most steels sharp on the ceramic rods, but you won’t get the “super steel” performance sharpening high vanadium content steels on them. (S30V level and above)

[Mugman16]

yeah after checking this video https://youtu.be/WBoA8VI6koE im thinking that i might need some better stones after all :/

[Evil D]

With diamond or CBN rods you can reprofile any steel, but like with any other sharpening system it's going to take more time with certain steels. This is just an inevitable truth about sharpening, it's just the same with S30V vs H1 as it is with Maxamet vs VG10.

As for tantos, I generally don't like them anyway but the ones I've had I deliberately blend out that hard kink in the edge and make them more like a traditional tanto. This way they sharpen up like anything else but still retain the strong tip. Read up on traditional tantos vs Westernized tantos.

been thinking about doing this since you said it, sorry to res a dead thread but can i bug you for pics of tantos youve done this to? take a lot of effort?

I used an Edge Pro so it wasn't so much about effort as it was about time, because on this particular knife the grind is really thick and the part that gets blended out becomes a very wide bevel. On a knife like the tanto Para 2 I don't think it would be quite as bad as this Wildsteer but the bevel will definitely get wider at that transition between the two edges/grinds.





On that knife I was also trying to thin out the edge as much as I could so that bevel is a lot wider than it would be on a Para 2, and then future sharpening has been done at 40 degrees on the Sharpmaker (because honestly the steel doesn't really hold an edge very well despite being super tough).

[Mugman16]

With diamond or CBN rods you can reprofile any steel, but like with any other sharpening system it's going to take more time with certain steels. This is just an inevitable truth about sharpening, it's just the same with S30V vs H1 as it is with Maxamet vs VG10.

As for tantos, I generally don't like them anyway but the ones I've had I deliberately blend out that hard kink in the edge and make them more like a traditional tanto. This way they sharpen up like anything else but still retain the strong tip. Read up on traditional tantos vs Westernized tantos.

been thinking about doing this since you said it, sorry to res a dead thread but can i bug you for pics of tantos youve done this to? take a lot of effort?

I used an Edge Pro so it wasn't so much about effort as it was about time, because on this particular knife the grind is really thick and the part that gets blended out becomes a very wide bevel. On a knife like the tanto Para 2 I don't think it would be quite as bad as this Wildsteer but the bevel will definitely get wider at that transition between the two edges/grinds.





On that knife I was also trying to thin out the edge as much as I could so that bevel is a lot wider than it would be on a Para 2, and then future sharpening has been done at 40 degrees on the Sharpmaker (because honestly the steel doesn't really hold an edge very well despite being super tough).

thanks a ton for the photos. very helpful!

[jpm2]

yeah after checking this video https://youtu.be/WBoA8VI6koE im thinking that i might need some better stones after all :/

This might also be of interest, if you haven't already seen it.

https://scienceofsharp.com/2019/11/03/c ... n-maxamet/