Community Sharpening Journal

[Scandi Grind]

Sharpened my Vg-10 Endura recently on my #1000 Cerax whetstone and got an edge I am very happy with. I rarely get hair shaving edges, no different with this one, but it feels like a nice balance of refinement and aggression for me. Went through cardboard with very little resistance. A #1000 grit whetstone is about 600 grit ANSI, and this seems to be my favored spot for pocket knife edges at this point. I tried a coarser edge, around 320 ANSI, but I just couldn't seem to get the result I was looking for off my EZE-lap diamond plate, I want to experiment with that more though.

Oddly enough I got a killer edge almost accidentally off that diamond plate on my Mora Robust. I just wanted to get a decent edge on it real quick, didn't even bother testing it until a couple days later. I was surprised to find it easily slicing receipt paper with that edge. I use the same edge on my cheap Dexter boning knife to great effect. I'm not exactly sure why I couldn't get similar results on my Endura, but I'll definitely try it again some time. I'm hoping maybe the coarse edge will offer better aggression for a longer period of time, as I don't find Vg-10 to be very wear resistant. It is pleasant to sharpen though, so I'm not complaining.

[BearShark44]

Endela K390 - first sharpening last night freehand on CGS 40, 20, 10m diamond stones and stropped with gunny juice 6m on leather. Came back screaming sharp, ghost-like. Thanks to everyone on this forum for sharing advice and feedback, quite cool, quite helpful.

[vivi]

knocked out two knives in under 10 minutes that would have taken hours on stones.

#1 - SOG Seal Pup Elite. Scored this for $15 and got a sheath on sale so maybe $30 into it total. Came with an edge so bad I couldn't accurately photograph it, so I took a video.

Before:

https://streamlala.com/IaSyQ/







After:

https://streamlala.com/gY2Cw/




Turned out pretty good. Gonna give it a 20dps diamond rod microbevel, slide a Leatherman BO PST into the sheath pouch, and make it my new glove box knife.




#2 - Scrapyard Dogfather. I've owned this thing for ages. Modded it by enlarging the choil, flattening and sharpening the spine, thinning the primary grind and stripping the blade. It's been used a lot since then and I mostly touch it up in the field with a DMT diafold.


Before:






The edge had gotten thick and dull. I've been wanting to use this to work on a new lakeside trail I've been building but dreaded re-edging it. Took less than five minutes. Gonna polish up the belly for deeper cuts on a chop but leave the mid section and ricasso area very coarse for utility cutting. Taking this out to work on my trails as soon as I submit this post!

After:






https://streamlala.com/G13SF/

Lastly I put a fresh bevel on my SR1 folder.




Been carrying it a lot since I got it. It's pretty neat. Kept the edge thick for now, about 20dps, which is actually a bit thinner than it came. Took it up to the fine rods and it'll whittle hairs. The cold steel heat treat on 8Cr seems pretty good. We'll see how it holds up over time.

[wrdwrght]

This link (https://www.reddit.com/r/sharpening/s/8C3ucZkptv) belongs here.

[vivi]

^ Cliff also had a shaving sharpness from a brick video I used to love showing people.

https://streamlala.com/A0RPW/ - Dogfather edge test.

How I sharpened this knife isn't too far from from what cliff showed. I shaped the edge with a belt sander instead of by hand. Then I apexed with light diamond stone sharpmaker strokes.
Then used extremely light strokes on the medium rods until it was cleanly sending arm hairs flying.

All said and done I did about 10 strokes per side on the sharpmaker to apex the knife. About 5 or 6 diamond rod strokes to get rid of the burr from the sander and establish an edge, then around 4 to 5 strokes per side on the medium rods to refine it.

Using a more obtuse angle to apex VS set the bevel is a massive time shaver like Cliff shows. I do the same thing with my knives.

In fact with many knives I'll go straight from the belt sander with 120 grit belts to the sharpmaker with fine rods, especially if I'm going for an edge that doesn't have the microserrations totally polished out. You don't need a ten step grit progression when working such a thin strip of steel.

[vivi]

Wasn't happy with how the SR1 did today breaking down big cardboard boxes so gave it a fresh edge. Bit thinner as I went to the trouble of removing the studs. Kind of annoying having to do that. Also left is coarser to give it more of a bite. 3 strokes per side on SM medium rods after setting the edge on a 120 grit belt.

also knocked out some santokus and goofed up my old Squirts edge pretty good. Ah well, it's sharper. Tiny knives are so much tougher for me than chef knives etc.

[Sharp24/7]

Endela K390 - first sharpening last night freehand on CGS 40, 20, 10m diamond stones and stropped with gunny juice 6m on leather. Came back screaming sharp, ghost-like. Thanks to everyone on this forum for sharing advice and feedback, quite cool, quite helpful.

I’ve got the edge pro version of the 20 & 40 micron stones. I think they leave a nice fine toothy edge compared to the old 35 and 17 micron stones, which left the edge finer but less aggressive imo. What do you think so far?

[kennethsime]

Time to sharpen the Sebbie again. It still cuts boxes, but not as well as I’d like, so I haven’t been carrying it.

Normally I’d use the sharpmaker, but I’ve been having great luck with quick edges on the double stuff lately.

[kennethsime]

Well, that didn’t last long.

There was a section in the belly that I missed, so I took it back to CBN rods at 15dps. Sharpies up the edge and kept going on one side until I had it all removed and a nice burr formed. Then hit the reverse, and a little bit of back and forth. Then took it through the full progression: medium, fine, ultra fine. I was pretty sure I still had a small burr, so I stropped a bit on black, then green compound which cleaned up the edge a bit.

Pretty happy with the results - I sliced about halfway through a freestanding sheet of REI’s catalogue before knocking it over - the knife is just too thick, or I lack the dexterity, I think. Have only ever performed that trick with a thin kitchen knife.

[Mage7]

Just breaking in some new diamond plates I got for my birthday.

Don't worry, that's not a real Gerber Strongarm. It's just some knock-off I bought on Temu for $1.48. What better sacrificial lamb?

I got...

Atoma 400
Atoma 1200
DMT D3C
DMT D3F
DMT D3E

I really like the credit-card sized DMT DiaSharp hones. I have a D3F (a 600 mesh, 25 micron "Fine") that I got probably about 15 years ago that is still going strong that I use for most of my touch-ups, and even most of my finishing. I have kind of an unorthodox way of doing finishing of an apex, where I like to look down the surface of the hone, and visually confirm that the apex is making contact with the hone surface. More on that later.

The Atoma plates I really like with my experience with the 140, so I decided to get a couple of others to kind of round out the set. I decided I would skip the 600, and go from the 400 straight to the 1200, basically because of what I mentioned previously where I use the DMT hones for finishing work. I mainly wanted a set of larger plates from Atoma to remove scratch patterns from the 140, since the little credit-card sized hones aren't really ideal for that. So if/when I have a need to finish at 25 micron, I can just go from the Atoma 400 that's about 45 micron, to the 25 micron DMT hone. If I want to finish a little finer, the 1200 is at about 15 micron, and so I can transition from that to the DMT EF that's at 9 micron. I might decide to fill out the set with an Atoma 600 later, but I'll see how this works out first.

One reason I wanted to expand my set of diamond plates is because of some experiences with micro-chipping that I have been getting with high-vanadium, high-hardness steels. Previously, I used the Atoma 140 to set the bevel, and then would jump to a Shapton Kuromaku 120, and then a 2k, in order to polish that bevel. I would then usually refine the apex on the DMT D3F at 25 microns, which stepping down in the abrasive size, but the main reason I was using the Shaptons at all was to remove the very large scratch patterns from the Atoma 140. Under 120x magnification, I was noticing a lot of micro-chipping on the edges I was getting on 10v, K294, 15v, etc. Many had suggested that it could be from using a very coarse hone like the Atoma 140, and I also wondered if it could be from the burnishing-rather-than-cutting action that the Shaptons imparted causing a fatigued apex. So I really wanted to a full set of diamonds to use for setting the bevel, to polishing, to refinement, etc.

Well, so I reset the bevel on my Manix 2 in 15V with the Atoma 400. That's 45 micron... I basically just raised a burr on each side, then moved on to the Atoma 1200 that's at 15 micron, and finished on the DMT D3E at 9 micron. It was a wonderfully sharp edge, with the same level of sticky-sharp finger-pad-biting that I would get from the D3F at 25 micron, but I did notice the slightest bit of extra polish on the bevel face. To be fair, I have a feeling that the D3F that has been broken in over 15 years is out-performing the brand-new D3E, but that is beside the point. The main goal was to see if it remedied the micro-chipping...

And, well... Not really. After that progression, and looking at the edge under 120x, I could still see quite a few little micro-chips. Now, this is an edge at 14 dps, and the magnification is at 120x, so maybe I am being expecting too much? I also wonder if perhaps raising a burr on the Atoma 400 wasn't enough to remove the old micro-chips, and they were left over. Who knows... Frankly, they're not really large enough to affect performance, so I am really only mentioning this for observation and academic's sake. These edges still cut and hold very well despite this; and, honestly, maybe because of it creating a "micro-serration" effect.

Now, about that unorthodox method of refining the apex that I mentioned earlier... It's hard to describe, but essentially I just hold the hone in front of my face, look down the surface, and then put the blade on the surface. I angle the knife until I can see that the very apex of the edge is making contact with the hone surface, and that's how I control the angle and pressure. I have long suspected that this is basically creating a bit of a microbevel, because I don't think my eye-sight is good enough to really discern when the very apex is in contact with the hone to a very fine level. So I have long expected that I am over-shooting the original angle by some amount of degrees, and now I have finally confirmed it thanks to using my laser goniometer. However, I am also kind of surprised by how little I have been over-shooting the original angle. When setting the bevel by hand using an angle wedge on a benchstone, I set my Manix 2 to 14 dps. The primary blade grind is 2.5 degrees, and the wedge I was using was 12 degrees, so I was under-shooting the angle by .5 degrees. However, after I used my unorthodox visual-apexing method, the edge measured 15-16 dps. Which is really not that bad at all! However, I have been doing this for close to two decades, and I know that the extra 1-2 degrees that I am over-shooting by increases over time, and so I can only do so many touch-ups by that visual-apexing method before I need to take it back to a benchstone and reset the bevel. My prior experience lines up pretty perfectly with these results, since I tend to find I can do about 5 touch-ups before I need to go back to the bench-stone, lest I end up with a microbevel from the angle being increased.

Which brings me to what I have wondered many times before... What exactly defines a microbevel? Is it the width of the bevel, or the angle of it? For example, if you put a .005" wide bevel on a .050" bevel, that could be considered a micro-bevel. However, if you create a new bevel that is only 1 degree more obtuse than the primary bevel, is that not also a 'micro' increase?

I did some fiddling with some trig functions on a calculator, and basically found that the bevel width of a micro-bevel could be quite similar, even with much different angles. In other words, a 5 degree micro-bevel could end up practically the same width as a 1 degree micro-bevel. The main difference was that the 1-degree micro-bevel ends up a little thinner at the shoulder of the micro-bevel. How much thinner? Well, with the numbers I was working with--a .050" wide bevel at 20 dps and .035" inches at the shoulders, with a 21 vs 25 degree micro-bevel--I pretty much found that the 21 degree microbevel would be about 25% thinner at the shoulders than the 25 degree microbevel. Which sounds like a lot, but (and I forget the exact numbers now) but it's like talking about a difference of .0042" at the shoulders of the microbevel, and .0035".

So, given that... Which type of micro-beveling is better? Generally, there's always two recognized virtues of micro-beveling:

1) You can quickly apex the edge even on a very acute edge bevel that it may be difficult to remove that much metal on otherwise
2) You can strengthen the apex by adding structural integrity by creating that extra angle behind the apex, while also minimizing the width of the cutting edge

So I think that in the end, my unorthodox "visual-apexing" method is essentially just micro-beveling, but I also wonder if it's better than traditional micro-beveling, or worse. On the one hand, it creates a thinner BTE dimension, but on the other hand, that's exactly what creates the 2nd virtue of micro-beveling, so that being thinner might not necessarily by better. On the other hand, I think doing this the way I have been doing by holding the hone in hand, and visually confirming the apex is in contact with the hone allows me to use much finer corrections in terms of pressure and angle difference than if I was using a benchstone--just speaking personally of course, maybe others might be better the other way around--which allows for a much more refined apex with less effort/work.

Anyway, this post got a little long, but I have been having fun playing with new sharpening gadgets. I have gone a long, long time just basically using the try-it-and-see approach where I try to base my observations on the results of my methods, but adding in a laser goniometer and pocket microscope really illuminate what's going on in a more measurable way.

[imyavetra]

I've been going through our scissors - some very dull - and sharpening them. Mostly sewing scissors and shears, including Fiskars and vintage Wiss. But I have questions about fine vs coarse grits. I sharpened a small orange-handled Fiskars on a 250-grit DMT plate. The scissors then cut my test fabric easily, really grabbing the fabric.

But after finishing on Spyderco medium and fine stones, the edge didn't cut much better than after the coarse DMT diamond stone. Thoughts? Is there something I could change in my technique?

[cabfrank]

Probably good enough?

[BearShark44]

Endela K390 - first sharpening last night freehand on CGS 40, 20, 10m diamond stones and stropped with gunny juice 6m on leather. Came back screaming sharp, ghost-like. Thanks to everyone on this forum for sharing advice and feedback, quite cool, quite helpful.

I’ve got the edge pro version of the 20 & 40 micron stones. I think they leave a nice fine toothy edge compared to the old 35 and 17 micron stones, which left the edge finer but less aggressive imo. What do you think so far?

Hey Sharp24/7, yep- the CGS stones work well for me. After 10+ sharpenings, feedback is good and they cut efficiently without being too fast/aggressive. Tried several PM steels and found resulting edges to be very sharp, keen (aka slightly toothy), and hard-wearing / tough. With that config in edge-pro for consistent angles, you should get great results. I can't speak to the comparison of older versions of the stones or other grits.

[Sharp24/7]

[quote=Sharp24/7 post_id=1757561 time=1702040664 user_id=1008992]
[quote=BearShark44 post_id=1756158 time=1701374557 user_id=1008267]
Endela K390 - first sharpening last night freehand on CGS 40, 20, 10m diamond stones and stropped with gunny juice 6m on leather. Came back screaming sharp, ghost-like. Thanks to everyone on this forum for sharing advice and feedback, quite cool, quite helpful.

I’ve got the edge pro version of the 20 & 40 micron stones. I think they leave a nice fine toothy edge compared to the old 35 and 17 micron stones, which left the edge finer but less aggressive imo. What do you think so far?
[/quote]
[/size]

Hey Sharp24/7, yep- the CGS stones work well for me. After 10+ sharpenings, feedback is good and they cut efficiently without being too fast/aggressive. Tried several PM steels and found resulting edges to be very sharp, keen (aka slightly toothy), and hard-wearing / tough. With that config in edge-pro for consistent angles, you should get great results. I can't speak to the comparison of older versions of the stones or other grits.
[/quote]

I’m happy with my results, especially after resurfacing. It took me a few months to get a handle on how much pressure was needed.

[Sharp24/7]

Which is to say I’m naturally heavy handed.

[DavidNM]

Do I need one of those newfangled diamond or CBN rods for my Sharpmaker to sharpen my laminated blade steel of SUS 410/Superblue? Will the everyday ceramics rods be sufficient to keep my Spyderco sharp?

[Guts]

Do I need one of those newfangled diamond or CBN rods for my Sharpmaker to sharpen my laminated blade steel of SUS 410/Superblue? Will the everyday ceramics rods be sufficient to keep my Spyderco sharp?

Looking at the composition of the steel, I think you'll be fine without diamond or CBN. The ceramic sharpmaker rods would work perfectly. If you ever need to reprofile however, the diamond or CBN would save you a lot of time.

[DavidNM]

Do I need one of those newfangled diamond or CBN rods for my Sharpmaker to sharpen my laminated blade steel of SUS 410/Superblue? Will the everyday ceramics rods be sufficient to keep my Spyderco sharp?

Looking at the composition of the steel, I think you'll be fine without diamond or CBN. The ceramic sharpmaker rods would work perfectly. If you ever need to reprofile however, the diamond or CBN would save you a lot of time however.

Thank you very much. You saved me some money!

[vivi]

Do I need one of those newfangled diamond or CBN rods for my Sharpmaker to sharpen my laminated blade steel of SUS 410/Superblue? Will the everyday ceramics rods be sufficient to keep my Spyderco sharp?

no. I have a few super blue kitchen knives that I believe are run slightly harder, and I use ceramics on them without issues.

[vivi]

I used my loupe to inspect the edge on today's carry, a Cold Steel SR1 Lite.

I had batoned some seasoned wood with it and did some chopping on different types of wood, and wanted to see how the reprofiled edge held up.




The edge was reprofiled to a ballpark of 14-16 degrees per side on a belt sander then microbeveled at 20dps on brown rods with the sharpmaker fyi. steel is 8Cr14MoV





Small chip visible here. Very very small though, it'll sharpen out easily. (FYI those dark red / brown lines along the bevel are from sharpening my kids colored pencil.)

I'm gonna play around with photographing edges this way some more. Seems like it'd get a lot more detail than my phone by itself once I get the hang of it.