Spyderco Forums

Well, I got it. My Serrated Military!



I just returned from picking the knife up at my local shop. It is truly beautiful. This new model (black lettered blade) version feels as though it may have a slightly more precise (or perhaps tighter) lockup somehow than my plain edged one, although there is nothing wrong with my older one.



It is really smooth right out of the box, and has a somewhat different sound when locking up...kind of a less-hollow click than my other. Interesting.



Anyhow, now I can truly comment upon the differences between the diamond engraved style and laser cut style Militaries; at least as observed with my two specimens.



I am just looking around for something to cut now. Man, is this knife sharp. It is MUCH sharper than the plain edged one was when received, although that knife had been on display and perhaps "played with" some. I realize that much has been written about sharpening the CPM-440V blades, but i'd like to know how to get my plain edged model to shave like this serrated ones front section will easily do. Guess I'll just keep on working on it with the 204...



Anyway, great knives!



Jeff/1911.

You will just have to introduce your PE to the sharpmaker.
- My PE mil was the sharpest knife right of the box that I've ever owned.

Another Sypdie, Gotta love it .....

Tom,

I was a little disappointed to find that my plain edged Military was not super sharp when I bought it, although it still cut things extremely well.

I currently have it sharpened (using the 204 Sharpmaker) to a full 30 degree edge, and finishing on the corners of the white stone. I have tried the flats of the white stone, and it seems that perhaps the "step 3" finish cuts better. Sal suggested I try this awhile back.

Anyway, the knife is very sharp but I still can't shave with it. I just thought this was a characteristic of CPM-440V steel.

Jeff/1911.

Hi Jeff,

I had the same problem with my Native (440V). It came pretty darn sharp from the factory (I don't know if I could shave with it). However, my attempts to reprofile at 15 degrees did not garner any performance gain; rather, I made my knife dull as a butter knife!

The solution - buy some low-grit sandpaper with SiC embedded and wrap it around the rods of the Sharpmaker (see Shmackey's post in BFC for pics). Do your standard sharpening technique, i.e., sharpen one side (use the flats for the sandpaper) until you raise a burr, sharpen the other side until you raise a burr, and then switch to the coarse stones (no sandpaper) and start grinding the burr off (i.e., like the instructions in the video)

I just did this last weekend, and boy! My knife is shaving sharp - not smooth shaving, since I prefer not to polish the edge). Give that a try, if you haven't already.

Good luck,

Matthew

mpclb - That is a very interesting idea about wrapping the rods with sandpaper...

In my case I believe that I was successful in reprofiling my Military because it seems quite sharp at this 30 degree angle. I was at it for a long time, and cleaned the rods of my Sharpmaker several times during the job. I waited until I felt the burr before proceeding to the next level, etc.

Where exactly is Shmackey's post on bladeforums? Which forum?

Jeff/1911.

Jeff - the thread is here:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showt ... did=159855

I am not sure why this worked, when all other methods failed for me. But it did work, and work quickly too <img src="smile.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle>

By the way, how do you tell when you've raised a burr? I can't seem to detect the burr reliably...

Congratulations, Jeff. Am glad you're so happy with your new knife. Somebody has to say this, so it might as well be me -- that's a real pair to draw to!

There, it's done.

Stare

I wonder if this method would work on my Gerber Guardian Backup, Im about to throw the bloody thing in the bin.
Ive been trying to sharpen it for over a year now!!!!!
It just refuses to get a edge.
I do a 30 or 40 degree and once Im done it looks like it has a sharp edge, but I can literally try to cut my hand off and it dont do nothing.

Really gettin on my nerves, and to make things worse this seems to be a typical habit of Gerbers knives which really P's me off, all of the daggers Ive ordered from them have arrived in this disgusting state.

Well Ill give this a try, thanx for the post guys, wish me luck..

MaNcEr

It's Time To Kick @$$ 'N Chew Bubble Gum

Jeff,

I havn't tried to sharpen mine yet. It so sharp out of the box that it dosn't pull the hair as it cuts.
It would be interesting to here from those that have experience sharpening the CPM-440

Thanks Stare.

Tom - It sounds as though you are fortunate to have acquired one of these "shaving capable" Militaries. I have heard others write about how they seem to find CPM-440V to be a great cutting steel, but one that it is hard to attain a shaving sharp edge with.

Jeff/1911.

Jeff,

I had a little trouble getting my plain-edged, 440V Military razor sharp at first. What works for me now is going through the reccomended sharpening steps on the gray stones at 40 deg. and then 6 - 10 strokes on both white edges. These final strokes need to be very light and with a deliberate cutting motion on the stones.

This has worked best for me so far, I am still experimenting.

Take care,

stu

Stu,

Thanks. I have just been talking back and forth with DePaul on the Bladeforums Spyderco page and he had similar recommendations for me. I'm going to play around with my technique tonight and see what I can learn.

Jeff/1911.