ZDP Sharpening

maa14 · #1

Trying to sharpen my ZDP-189 Delica was getting on my nerves :mad: . I kept trying and kept trying but it just wouldn't get sharp(wouldn't cut paper!!). After a few hours of frustration, I got on to this forum and used the "Search Function"(very nice). I searched "ZDP sharpening" and a bunch of threads came up about it, many of them were people having trouble with it, like me. In almost all of the threads the sharpie trick was mentioned, so I tried it...I Immediately found out that i was hitting in the middle of the bevel!! so i clamped a coarse diamond stone to one of the sharpmaker stones and reprofiled on the 30 degree setting until all the sharpie was gone on both sides. once again, I put the sharpie on the edge and checked to make sure I was hitting the edge, I was. So i kept it on the 30 degree setting and sharpened with the medium stone, then the fine stone, and finally the UF stones. now i believe this is one of my sharpest blades!
A big thank you to this forum and all the extremely helpful people in it!!!
This shows how great this forum is :)

Thanks!

maa14 · #2

Also to the toughness of sharpening...it was harder than VG-10 but not by a whole lot.(after I got to the edge)

ReGZ_93 · #3

I found that the lighter the touch, the sharper the blade gets. ZDP is also very recceptive to stropping.

maa14 · #4

ReGZ_93 wrote:I found that the lighter the touch, the sharper the blade gets. ZDP is also very recceptive to stropping.

yes this also, i used a very light touch when sharpening

jackknifeh · #5

Glad to hear you have it sharp now. I had a terrible time with it on my first ZDP knife also. Like you I got tons of help here. Now that you have it profiled to 30 degrees you can set the sharpmaker to 40 degrees which will hit the edge every time and give you a nice micro-bevel right on the edge. This will toughen up the edge which will help prevent chipping which may happen especially to ZDP because it is so hard. It will also depend on how rough you use your knife. Be careful though. With a very small 40 degree micro-bevel you will remove steel quickly (even ZDP) because the stones will be hitting such a tiny amount of steel area. Or you can leave the entire bevel at 30 and see how you like it. Strop that edge a little bit and you better keep the fingers away from it. :D SCARY!

Jack

jacobwilson99 · #6

It took me about 2 hours on a Lansky to reprofile one side and mirror the entire blade. Now I just keep up on it with a strop system. Definitely one of my sharpest.

maa14 · #7

jackknifeh wrote:Glad to hear you have it sharp now. I had a terrible time with it on my first ZDP knife also. Like you I got tons of help here. Now that you have it profiled to 30 degrees you can set the sharpmaker to 40 degrees which will hit the edge every time and give you a nice micro-bevel right on the edge. This will toughen up the edge which will help prevent chipping which may happen especially to ZDP because it is so hard. It will also depend on how rough you use your knife. Be careful though. With a very small 40 degree micro-bevel you will remove steel quickly (even ZDP) because the stones will be hitting such a tiny amount of steel area. Or you can leave the entire bevel at 30 and see how you like it. Strop that edge a little bit and you better keep the fingers away from it. :D SCARY!

Jack

Alright! thanks for the advice! that is probably what i will do