Affording the Necessary Stones for Super Steels

[Josh1973]

I gave up stones and went to Worksharp Ken Onion edition. Slap that knife in them belts on slow speed. Take your time and don't overheat the edge. And Viola! Done and razor sharp.

Have you purchased the blade grinding attachment? It is pretty impressive!

I been meaning to. I just found out about their attachment. I sharpen a lot of garden tools and even do minor grinding. What I did was buy a spare band attachment that came with my unit and stripped the guides off. To make it easier to use for oddball stuff. But that attachment you mention seems a lot better. I may try it out one day when I got the cash for it.

[prndltech]

I gave up stones and went to Worksharp Ken Onion edition. Slap that knife in them belts on slow speed. Take your time and don't overheat the edge. And Viola! Done and razor sharp.

Have you purchased the blade grinding attachment? It is pretty impressive!

I been meaning to. I just found out about their attachment. I sharpen a lot of garden tools and even do minor grinding. What I did was buy a spare band attachment that came with my unit and stripped the guides off. To make it easier to use for oddball stuff. But that attachment you mention seems a lot better. I may try it out one day when I got the cash for it.

It’s phenomenal. You can sharpen anything on it. It’s my go to tool now, except for serrated blades of course or quick touch ups. Sure I can do “better” with stones but for me the time isn’t worth the trade out. I want shaving sharp as fast as possible and it does it extremely well, very quickly.

[Josh1973]

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[Josh1973]

I gave up stones and went to Worksharp Ken Onion edition. Slap that knife in them belts on slow speed. Take your time and don't overheat the edge. And Viola! Done and razor sharp.

Have you purchased the blade grinding attachment? It is pretty impressive!

I been meaning to. I just found out about their attachment. I sharpen a lot of garden tools and even do minor grinding. What I did was buy a spare band attachment that came with my unit and stripped the guides off. To make it easier to use for oddball stuff. But that attachment you mention seems a lot better. I may try it out one day when I got the cash for it.

It’s phenomenal. You can sharpen anything on it. It’s my go to tool now, except for serrated blades of course or quick touch ups. Sure I can do “better” with stones but for me the time isn’t worth the trade out. I want shaving sharp as fast as possible and it does it extremely well, very quickly.

What got me into the work sharp was my godmothers kitchen knives that she can't properly sharpen with stone. And me getting tired of spending hours on using stones. Fixing her mistakes lol. I taught her and her husband how to use the worksharp in 10 minutes.

And I can do like 10 kitchen knives in 30 minutes or less. Now I got em to where a quick leather strop on the worksharp and proper upkeep once a month keeps em sharp without having to use course, medium, fine grit.

I even re profiled a few of her broken tip knives to where you can't tell they ever been broke. She was using one of those horrible kitchen electric pull through sharpeners and just making them harder to properly sharpen.

I also find it useful for my machetes. And the speed of sharpening is a plus. Not to mention that good quality stones start to get expensive and need to be re profiled often.

[sbaker345]

Ankerson, and probably some new member's have likely long sense rewritten the "book" on sharpening super steels I felt like my extensive testing of s110v did by learning how to sharpen it well enough I could comfortably shave my face with it. The other posters however are spot on, with standard alumina abrasives you will rip certain harder carbides such as vanadium ones out rather than cut them as desired. Diamond, CBN and even silicon carbide will cut these harder carbides leading to a more truly sharp edge.

Despite being a welder, or maybe because of it I'm a perfectionist who can't stand the thought of freehanding anything so I'm in a unique situation.

[Deadboxhero]

Customer messaged me this.



Glad to see the Super Vitrified Diamond Waterstones doing exactly what they are designed to do.

[Josh1973]

Customer messaged me this.



Glad to see the Super Vitrified Diamond Waterstones doing exactly what they are designed to do.

I will be the first one to admit when something is impressive. And that is impressive.

[sbaker345]

Speaking of, what does the finish of a well used CBN or diamond stone look like anyhow? It's been a long time since I've had either and I'm curious if I'd be satisfied with 400 grit or not.

[Steeltoez83]

Customer messaged me this.



Glad to see the Super Vitrified Diamond Waterstones doing exactly what they are designed to do.

I can speak from my own experience how awesome the 400 stone is. Worth every Penny in my book. Its such a workhorse at that grit, leaves a great edge too. Your older cbn stone loads up more, however the new stuff the swarf just washes off with water. I might throw some maxamet at it this weekend. Need to correct some uneven bevel issues which is the perfect stone to use imo.

[Grizzly]

https://www.bestsharpeningstones.com/pr ... uct_id=140

I went with the Ultra Sharp diamond plates. 300,600, 1200 and the holder for $128.95
There are other combinations available as well as double sided plates. I'm thinking of getting their 3000 plate. These are supposed to be similar to the DMT plates but a little less money.

I've never enjoyed sharpening so much.

Years ago I tried the 3 pack diamond stones ? from Harbor Freight and found that the diamonds came off very easily and wound up scratching the sides of the blades. They wore out fairly fast but were fine for axes, machetes and the like. I'd be afraid to use them on a nice blade ever again. They were about $10 or so back then.

[Bolster]

A little OT, but I stumbled onto this solution recently. When trying to flatten a traditional water or oil stone, have been trying the "fancy" method of flattening it with silicone carbide powder on a glass surface. Precise, but very slow. Out of frustration one day I rubbed a dished stone on the concrete curb outside my house. Got it to rough flat very quickly, then followed up with the silicone carbide powder on glass. Got it flat in maybe 1/4 of the time.

Who knew??

[sbaker345]

One way or another, with all these carbide rich super steels, diamond is the way to go. Some steels literally require diamond or something harder than alumina ceramic, but even if you own nothing more exotic than VG-10 diamond is always going to be the fastest option.

However, the Ken Onion workshop still intrigues me, it's a seemingly too perfect solution, and years ago I decided against picking one up out of fear the heat generated at the very edge would impact edge retention. Now somewhat wiser as a welder I realize that rapidly heating the very edge would only leave it even harder as the surrounding metal immediately drew heat away, though that itself could impact edge retention.

Has Ankerson or someone with extremely reliable and repeatable sharpening skills compared the edge retention between manual sharpening and belt sharpening?

It's looking like either a sharpmaker and being happy with the CBN,diamond 400 grit edge. Or jumping off the deep end and getting a wicked edge and trying to make up for it by offering a sharpening service to hopefully slowly ofset the cost. But investing that much cash when I'm specifically trying to get swole again and been saving up for a nice power rack and barbell doesn't sit right either.

Sal if you're here I don't suppose you have any prototype higher grit CBN or diamond stones for the sharp maker you'd like put through their paces would you? :D :spyder:

[Bloke]

A little OT, but ...

Hey Bolster, I’m anal when it comes to flat stones and use SiC loose grit on glass to flatten all mine. I think the secret is not to let them dish in the first place.

I use SiC stones for just about everything. When I set up to reprofile I flatten the stone before I start and depending on the steel I’ll flatten/freshen the stone as I go. I find taking the stone outside to hose it off takes way longer than flattening it did. Just my $AU0.02c worth. :)

[Bolster]

Hey Bolster, I’m anal when it comes to flat stones and use SiC loose grit on glass to flatten all mine. I think the secret is not to let them dish in the first place.

Agree. We just need to convince my dad of that, whose stone collection I inhereted.

[Bolster]

Update: Took delivery of a Hapstone R2 Standard unit (After owning an EdgePro, I can definitively state I prefer clamps to tables). Currently using the stones that came with the EdgePro (I think they are Boride, perhaps some mix of SiC and AlOx), plus the 150 and 800 Venev Orion diamonds. Sharpened a SPY27 Manix last night.

Can I just say to Hapstone: "Where have you been all my life?"

Not sure I need to go any finer than the 800 diamond.

[Airlsee]

A little OT, but ...

Hey Bolster, I’m anal when it comes to flat stones and use SiC loose grit on glass to flatten all mine. I think the secret is not to let them dish in the first place.

I use SiC stones for just about everything. When I set up to reprofile I flatten the stone before I start and depending on the steel I’ll flatten/freshen the stone as I go. I find taking the stone outside to hose it off takes way longer than flattening it did. Just my $AU0.02c worth. :)

I know that this is the correct way, but seeing all that swarf on the glass bothers me more than it should, haha! I never let a stone get visibly dished though.

[ikaretababy]

Customer messaged me this.



Glad to see the Super Vitrified Diamond Waterstones doing exactly what they are designed to do.

is there another run of them on the horizon soon?