Community Sharpening Journal

[horzuff]

Is there a consensus on how to go through sharpening exactly for particular types of steel? Not getting too granular, just simple low carbide / high carbide would be enough, maybe something in between.

What prompted the question is I recently sharpened a Kershaw in MagnaCut to 13dps, full mirror with leather stropping, at the end the edge was perfectly smooth on the fingernail and no burr evident on the fingernail as well. Then first time I used the knife to cut some soft stuff on a bamboo board, no whacking the board, low pressure the whole time, the whole belly was micro-chipped, visibly, afterwards. Definitely feels as if I did something wrong.

My setup is a sharpening system like a TS-Prof and the like, metal-bonded diamond stones 200, 600, 1500, 3000 grit then leather strops with 5 and 1 micron diamond paste. My process:
1. Decide on an angle (using an electronic angle meter, pretty accurate) with the lowest grit diamond stone installed, make a note of it
2. Sharpen one side until I get a burr on the edge, back and forth passes. Then the same on the other side. Sometimes I alternate sides every couple minutes before I get a burr to avoid having an off-center apex
3. After getting the burr on both sides I go to edge leading passes only, in descending numbers, alternating (so 10 per side, 7 per side, etc, ending with a couple alternating singles)
4. Then I up the grit, double check the angle (I set it to the same or 0,05 dps higher, depending on how stubborn the burr seemed on the previous grit) and repeat with steps 2-3 on the higher grit, through the whole grit progression
5. Lastly I put on the first strop, set the angle to about 0,1-0,3dps higher again, edge trailing passes only, an arbitrary number per side, then second strop with same angle

[vivi]

Is there a consensus on how to go through sharpening exactly for particular types of steel? Not getting too granular, just simple low carbide / high carbide would be enough, maybe something in between.

Not really.

There's a subset of people that will say low carbide steels like higher polish edges and high carbide steels like toothier edges, but I don't think that's grounded in scientific reasoning, but more a lack of skill or patience in polishing wear resistant steels.

K390 works well with a toothy edge. It also works well with a polished edge.

Victorinox's mid 50's rc low carbide stainless steel works well with a toothy edge. It also works well with a polished edge.

Mid 60's rc Aogami Super works well with a toothy edge. It also works well with a polished edge.

See where I'm going with this?

I haven't found a steel that only worked well with one of these edge types. On most steels I've used, whether mid 50's rc, mid 60's, SE, PE, FFG, Hollow ground, high carbide, low carbide, stainless, carbon, etc., I've tried both types and they both work fine.

In general the lower the grit, the longer the edge retention, but this won't hold true 100% of the time.

Edge damage also affects low grit edges less, my Pacific Salt being a good example. It's chipped and the apex rolled nearly the full length of the blade from impacting metal, but it'll break down boxes fine.

As far as your Kershaw I can't think of anything you did that should cause that behavior. I have not personally used magnacut yet but 13dps isn't so thin the edge should crumble like that. I wouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion of a faulty heat treat but that is one possibility.

[Brock O Lee]

...first time I used the knife to cut some soft stuff on a bamboo board, no whacking the board, low pressure the whole time, the whole belly was micro-chipped, visibly, afterwards...

Guessing here, but that sounds to me like a perfectly aligned burr crumbling during the first cut.

[horzuff]

I was also thinking that's burr related, but was thrown for a loop by it being so smooth both in parallel and perpendicular so to speak. I was doing edge passes through softish plastic to attempt breaking it away but I must have not been successful apparently ^^

Any surefire ways of getting rid of the burr? Especially at the later stages of sharpening? I must say the burr here was quite stubborn and it did take quite a bit of effort to feel as if it's gone

[vivi]

Sharpening day at work



Similar method as my pocket knives.

Reset the edge on 200 grit, refine all the way up to 300 grit until they roughly shave, then 1-2 strokes per side on the fine ceramic so they pop hairs.

The damascus one is VG10, the gyuto is Aogami Super, and the other two are white #1.

[HolySteel]

Spyderco Whet Stones

I picked up a used set of Spyderco Whet Stones the other day, and just now tried them for the first time. It's possible I will never sharpen with anything else. My guinea pig was an old Stretch Clipit that I got off of ebay and arrived in really abused condition. I watched three videos on the Spyderco Whet Stones and decided to take it through the entire 3-stone progression. I used some Trader Joe's Multi-purpose cleaner to wet the stones. The 'Fine' did well, but I saw noticeable improvement with each of the harder stones. I stropped at the end with the black compound and I'm very pleased with the results.

They were easy and fun to use - now I'm looking around the house for other knives to sharpen, just for fun.

[tcarltonw]

Question for you guys: I recently purchased Venev cerebus dog series stones and I was wondering if using sic sandpaper on top of a slab granite w/water would suffice for dressing them.

Appreciate it

[Bemo]

I would hazard a guess that the answer is yes. Sic powder is used to dress other bonded diamond stones. Loose or affixed to paper (i.e. sandpaper) not sure that's the most important factor. I'm awaiting other responses as well.

[Pacu0420]

I love sharpening my knives. I Get something good on tv and go to it. I have a Worksharp Precision Adjust because I suck at freehand. But it does the job just fine. I usually start with the 400 grit stone (unless I'm sharpening Maxamet or some other super hard steel) then move up through the progression to the ceramic. I finish with a good strop loaded with green polishing compound.

This method works great for me. If I'm just touching up a dull blade it usually only takes about 20 minutes. On the other hand, when I reprofiled my Manix2 Maxamet, it took a couple hours. My knives go through phone book paper like it's not even there and shave hair with ease.

I'd like to get some decent bench stones and learn to free hand sharpen. Any suggestions on a good set to learn on?

[kennethsime]

This looks interesting.

[kitanis]

the New Work Sharp.. I am wondering how much they will be charging for it..

I have the KME, and TSPROF Blitz PRo and the TSPROF Kadet Pro.. As well as the Work Sharp Precision.. So far, I have had great results with KME and the TSPROFS.. but a friend of mine is picking on me and trying to convince me to go to Edge Pro model... but I can not justify it..

[Deadboxhero]

It's the stones guys, not the systems.

Buy the system that gets you the most access to high performance stones.

Don't put the cart before the horse.

[HolySteel]

I'd like to get some decent bench stones and learn to free hand sharpen. Any suggestions on a good set to learn on?

I always used an Arkansas stone - the Spydercos were the first I have tried since. The 2-sided King stone gets good reviews from people in other forums, and it's also ceramic and not expensive. I only got the Spydercos because they were used and didn't cost much.

[Guts]

Repaired a damaged edge on my dad's Native 5 LW in SPY27. Not sure what he was cutting but there was about a 1" section on the edge where the damage was pretty bad. Blunted the entire edge first, then went to sharpening at 17dps with a DMT extra coarse plate, then finished on the coarse side. Deburred with some edge trailing strokes, then a light strop on 5->3->1um diamond paste on leather.

[cabfrank]

kitanis, the video said $300 msrp. It sounds reasonable to me.

[Wandering_About]

That's some impressive edge damage, Guts. Nice work on the repair.

[jwbnyc]

Your dad is hard on his knife!

Great job fixing it up.

[TkoK83Spy]

He F'd that thing up!! Nice job on the repair though, looks great.

[troutinCO]

Lol Guts... My dad came in town last week. Mentioned his PM2 s45v was dull. Yea he had rolled the edge in one spot, let it get dull everywhere else, but no chips some how though.
I took it, put the CBN rods into the Sharpmaker and after fewer strokes than I really should have, got the edge back to working order. Gave it a bit on the brown rods then gave it back to him. Told him next time I'm in town visiting I will bring the hapstone and put a good fresh edge on it that he can then maintain on his Sharpmaker, that I had him buy that he hasn't used obviously...

[Guts]

Thanks guys. My dad is pretty hard on all his knives. If I had to guess, he was probably clearing some debris from or cutting some line off a crab pot or something and just didn't care if the edge hit the metal cage lol. I could certainly see that causing the type of damage shown in the photos. I did end up getting him a Salt 2 with the LC200N steel for when he goes out fishing and crabbing so we'll see how that holds up.