Ok my post in the General Discussion is not showing up (hasn't been approved by a moderator), so please indulge me as I post it here:
I just purchased my first spyderco this week, as well as a sharpmaker, and have been thoroughly enjoying them.
Also this week I got a little compulsive in reading about sharpening on this forum and others. I saw some interesting comments by Cliff Stamp around the relationship of a high degree of sharpness to edge longevity, and this has me wanting to experiment with an acute angle for my Delica 4. I also have a Japanese kitchen knife (Sha Ra Ku Mono) I would like to experiment with, but I unfortunately cannot tell what kind of steel it uses.
The approach I have in mind from those posts is:
(1)get the primary angle roughly correct, and go somewhat narrow (20* inclusive)
(2)brown/grey sharpmaker stones for < 5 swipes to get a microbevel
(3)white sharpmaker ceramics for ~2-5 swipes to hone the microbevel
I have been skipping the step of using the corners of the sharpeners and sticking with the flat sides. For whatever reason I just don't feel good about using the corners. It seems like it would be better to just move to a coarser grit if the flat edges are too slow.
I picked up some diamond hones from harbor freight yesterday and gave a go at this Japanese knife. I estimated (sin(10*) * 1.5" blade height) a 20* inclusive edge for a japanese kitchen knife I have to be about a 1/4" lift off of the stone; I believe I have this correct. I was free handing it trying to keep this angle, and using a marker to check my progress. It looked decent, but then when I tried a few medium sharpmaker swipes at 30* for the microbevel I found that fresh marker was showing I wasn't getting all the way to the edge at some spots. So it seems that I got at least one swipe on the diamond hone too high, and took some spots down > 15*. Maybe I did not go quite as slow as I should have, but I was making an attempt to be accurate. The knife ended up cutting at least as good as it ever has before, but I would like to get the process a little more under control.
I'm thinking now about hitting it with a belt grinder, as I feel like having less movement from my hands can only lead to greater consistency. A friend of mine has some basic belt grinder, and some 150 grain paper for it. I thought of googling around for a simple polar graph to print and found http://www.printfreegraphpaper.com/gp/p-m-10-c.pdf, but before I give this a go I was hoping you all could confirm for me that this is not insane.
I don't need some kind of special paper, right? As long as I'm paying attention to heat management, it's perfectly reasonable to use typical sandpaper for getting a somewhat consistent 10*/10* primary bevel?
I also have a bench grinder, but it seems to me that the flat working area of a belt sander would be easier to approximate angle on.
If the Japanese knife turns out well, I want to reprofile my new Delica 4. The understanding I have come to hold is that a high quality steel like this isn't showing you all of its benefits unless you bring it down to a narrow angle. I'm hoping it's hardness will mean that I can get a reasonable edge life out of it with a narrower angle. After googling around I haven't found any testimonials.. do you think a 20* (inclusive) primary and 30* secondary bevel would be aggressive yet long lived? Or maybe 15*/25*? Can anyone comment on a set of angles they have had a good experience with?
thanks!
Choosing angles for VG-10
That's what I do with vg10 and other supersteels, 20° edge with 30° microbevel, and it does fine for my daily use. There are guys who take their knife down to less than 20° and it hold up decently as well (obviously depends on what you cut with it).
As for belt sander, I would suggest start with a dollar store knife, it might be trickier than you think if you have never done it before.
As for belt sander, I would suggest start with a dollar store knife, it might be trickier than you think if you have never done it before.
20-24 degrees for backbevel and 30 for microbevel sound good for me. I would be extremely careful with bench grinders or belt sanders. Without developed good skills there is easy to ruin a blade, also 150 grit sandpaper can leave very deep grind marks and nasty burr on the edge, which would be very time consuming to remove with medium rods.
I use sharpmaker for all my needs with variety of coarse stones, as coarse as 80 grit. Still my setup is not fast as belt sander or bench grinder, but I am not reprofiling my knives every day. Do not hesitate to use corners, just do not apply a lot of pressure, not more than 2-5 lbs. Also I do more than five strokes on medium/fine/ultrafine. Probably about 10-15, starting with more pressure and last strokes are very light.
Good luck.
I use sharpmaker for all my needs with variety of coarse stones, as coarse as 80 grit. Still my setup is not fast as belt sander or bench grinder, but I am not reprofiling my knives every day. Do not hesitate to use corners, just do not apply a lot of pressure, not more than 2-5 lbs. Also I do more than five strokes on medium/fine/ultrafine. Probably about 10-15, starting with more pressure and last strokes are very light.
Good luck.
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf"
My top choices Natives5, Calys, C83 Persian
My top choices Natives5, Calys, C83 Persian
I did more searching and found a thread on this very question - http://www.spyderco.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25464
The general consensus there is that 30* for the microbevel is not a problem, and even as low as 20-25 may work well. I'm sure the specifics depend on the usage the blade sees.
The general consensus there is that 30* for the microbevel is not a problem, and even as low as 20-25 may work well. I'm sure the specifics depend on the usage the blade sees.