Reprofiling CPM Cru-Wear

[anagarika]

David,

Thanks for sharing. I got a Cara2 with quite even grind from ricasso to belly but the tip is uneven like this was. 8Cr and approx 0.02" BET hopefully not that hard to fix.

Good work, it really looks nice! :cool:

[Donut]

I picked up the Chef Knives to Go diamond stones. They were rediculously good priced.

http://www.chefknivestogo.com/edprolowgrpl.html

The finer one is fine enough to use a knife right off of it.

*edit* I don't even touch the Edge Pro stones that came with it.

I had the Atoma's and in the end felt they were a total rip off unfortunately. They wore out in less than 3 years and for $75 each they were not worth it. The best thing about them was that they didn't need lapping and were always flat, it's too bad they didn't wear longer. I wish the Shapton stones came in grits lower than 220, but for the most part the Moldmasters usually cut through anything.

Have you tried the Ruby stones?

I've had reasonably good luck with those and I hear Ruby is supposed to be harder than Silicone Carbide.

I was trying to grind something off a copper heatsink and SiC wasn't removing anything, Ruby worked MUCH better for that, but it doesn't seem to do much better at everything.

[Holland]

Nicely done David! looks great

[palonej]

Beautiful edge Dave!!
Real nice work brother!!
Joe

[Brock O Lee]

Especially this wee little bit at the tip

Yes, I can relate. I remember both my Manix and PM2 in Cruwear took their time to reprofile. That last 5% of a wide bevel takes a looong time to remove, especially since you don't want to chew away steel with a coarse stone so close to the apex.

[awa54]

Interesting, I did a bevel re-set on my CruWear PM2 and it didn't really cause any problems. I used an EZE-LAP coarse plate for the initial stage and followed it with a progression of the bonded diamond hones from Gritomatic.

It wasn't the amount of stock removal you had to do, but with the stones I used it really felt similar to other HC steels.

[ZrowsN1s]

How would you guys rate cru-wear vs. ZDP and HAP 40?

[farnorthdan]

Cru-Wear is in my top 3 favorite steels. :)

[Bloke]

Nice work mate!

I don't have any Cru-Wear but I wouldn't have thought It'd be so tough to grind. Either way it looks great. :)

[The Mastiff]

That is a lot of steel to remove by hand. I've done it but not with Cruwear. Wouldn't want to either. :)

joe

[Evil D]

How would you guys rate cru-wear vs. ZDP and HAP 40?

I can't comment on use since I only sharpened it, but I still think it's easier to reprofile than ZDP.

Well, then again maybe that's only because of how much steel I removed on this Delica. I took it down to about 20 inclusive with a Lansky and it took forever.




But then again I've done my Ladybug and it was a breeze since the blade is so thin and the same with my Caly 3. The biggest difference with ZDP is it seems to be less forgiving when it comes to burrs and not removing burrs. Cru-Wear seems to be really good at not burring up, though I do make it a point to minimize burr formation as much as I can. With ZDP if you leave a burr and expect it to just hone away or strip off it will never get sharp.

Overall Cru-Wear reminds me a lot of M4 (in sharpening that is). Both are really wear resistant and Spyderco seem to run them pretty hard, neither seemed very chippy (or rather neither made a lot of burr) and both will take a very clean edge with little effort once the profile work is done. I don't have any HAP-40 so I can't help ya there.

[ZrowsN1s]

That's half-way to a scandi grind on the delica. Bet it's super sharp. Thanks for the info.

[Evil D]

That's half-way to a scandi grind on the delica. Bet it's super sharp. Thanks for the info.

It was only​ a few degrees off that's for sure. I sold it to a co-worker who thoroughly destroyed that edge.

[ZrowsN1s]

Some people just don't know how to take care of a nice knife. Oh well, at least it was his dime. :D

[RLDubbya]

You might consider picking up a WorkSharp Ken Onion with the Blade Grinding Attachment. Essentially this gives you a "hobbyist" level belt grinder, and makes reprofiling work a breeze.

[Evil D]

You might consider picking up a WorkSharp Ken Onion with the Blade Grinding Attachment. Essentially this gives you a "hobbyist" level belt grinder, and makes reprofiling work a breeze.

I'm really weary of any powered sharpening device. Having screwed up blades with my Edge Pro I imagine it would be even worse with a belt. I also like to avoid burred edges.

[mattman]

You might consider picking up a WorkSharp Ken Onion with the Blade Grinding Attachment. Essentially this gives you a "hobbyist" level belt grinder, and makes reprofiling work a breeze.

It also makes it easy to compromise the excellent heat treatment at the edge. I didn't spend good money on Spydies to not take advantage of their HT skills. Preserve the steel!

Edit
P.S. nice work, Evil!

[wrdwrght]

David, a factory grind that uneven would have had me send it back for a do-over. I admire your skill and patience.

[Evil D]

David, a factory grind that uneven would have had me send it back for a do-over. I admire your skill and patience.

The only reason I wouldn't is because I'm pretty picky about my bevels so I tend to reprofile brand new knives anyway and I would probably do it again "my way" after I got it back from Spyderco so that would end up being a lot of metal getting removed. Plus this was a good opportunity to see how the steel behaves during sharpening.

[RLDubbya]

You might consider picking up a WorkSharp Ken Onion with the Blade Grinding Attachment. Essentially this gives you a "hobbyist" level belt grinder, and makes reprofiling work a breeze.

I'm really weary of any powered sharpening device. Having screwed up blades with my Edge Pro I imagine it would be even worse with a belt. I also like to avoid burred edges.

Fair enough; you certainly have done simply stellar work on this blade with all manual work. The WorkSharp [any belt grinder] takes practice, and until you develop your skills, muscle memory, and central nervous system traits, it requires ongoing refresher work.