Community Sharpening Journal

[RugerNurse]

Making 2024 the year I try and learn to freehand sharpen.
I recently sharpened my VG10 Delica and it looked like it had a good scratch pattern all up the blade, even and clean, and I got a burr on each side on my 300 grit stone then felt like I deburred ok. I when to the 600 grit stone and it felt sharp when testing on my thumb nail but when I sliced paper it was dull.
I was careful to not alter the angle but maybe it changed too much. The scratch pattern looked really good, best I’ve done. So I was disappointed it was dull

[WilliamMunny]

Making 2024 the year I try and learn to freehand sharpen.
I recently sharpened my VG10 Delica and it looked like it had a good scratch pattern all up the blade, even and clean, and I got a burr on each side on my 300 grit stone then felt like I deburred ok. I when to the 600 grit stone and it felt sharp when testing on my thumb nail but when I sliced paper it was dull.
I was careful to not alter the angle but maybe it changed too much. The scratch pattern looked really good, best I’ve done. So I was disappointed it was dull

Have you tried stropping it? It might be enough to break off the bur.

Also try a loop for magnification to help identify the issue.

[RugerNurse]

Making 2024 the year I try and learn to freehand sharpen.
I recently sharpened my VG10 Delica and it looked like it had a good scratch pattern all up the blade, even and clean, and I got a burr on each side on my 300 grit stone then felt like I deburred ok. I when to the 600 grit stone and it felt sharp when testing on my thumb nail but when I sliced paper it was dull.
I was careful to not alter the angle but maybe it changed too much. The scratch pattern looked really good, best I’ve done. So I was disappointed it was dull

Have you tried stropping it? It might be enough to break off the bur.

Also try a loop for magnification to help identify the issue.

I stropped it some after but it was still bad. Felt like I got the burrs off after the coarse grit well, couldn’t feel anything. Maybe something was left from the 600 level. I was happy that my scratch pattern was as good as it was. That’s the first I was able to do that.

[vivi]

Making 2024 the year I try and learn to freehand sharpen.
I recently sharpened my VG10 Delica and it looked like it had a good scratch pattern all up the blade, even and clean, and I got a burr on each side on my 300 grit stone then felt like I deburred ok. I when to the 600 grit stone and it felt sharp when testing on my thumb nail but when I sliced paper it was dull.
I was careful to not alter the angle but maybe it changed too much. The scratch pattern looked really good, best I’ve done. So I was disappointed it was dull

slice paper cleanly before progressing off your coarsest stone. See my last post in this thread about the recon at 200 grit. you want a clean apex before progressing through grits, and should have shaving sharpness before thinking about strops.

[RugerNurse]

[/quote]

slice paper cleanly before progressing off your coarsest stone. See my last post in this thread about the recon at 200 grit. you want a clean apex before progressing through grits, and should have shaving sharpness before thinking about strops.


[/quote]

I’ll watch the video after work. Maybe I was pushing too hard as well. The scratch pattern was good and I got a burr on both sides decently. It sliced paper ok but then got worse lol. I’ll keep messing with it

[TkoK83Spy]

I think people tend to rush the final steps, because they know they are close to apexing and then get a little messy. Just keep taking your time and use light pressure.

[RugerNurse]

I think people tend to rush the final steps, because they know they are close to apexing and then get a little messy. Just keep taking your time and use light pressure.

Does it matter if you alternate strokes on each side to apex or just keep going on one till you get a burr?

[vivi]

I think people tend to rush the final steps, because they know they are close to apexing and then get a little messy. Just keep taking your time and use light pressure.

Does it matter if you alternate strokes on each side to apex or just keep going on one till you get a burr?

yes. raising a burr means you have to remove it, which means sharpening takes longer.

if you don't raise a burr sharpening takes much less time. But the newer you are to sharpening the more difficult you'll find it to see if you're apexed cleanly without raising one.

So, good move to try to raise one when you're learning, but eventually you'll want to learn to avoid raising one.

[TkoK83Spy]

Thanks vivi, I was debating what to tell him there after I first read his reply. I've gone both routes and had good results...eventually. As he's realizing, free hand is tough when first learning. Heck, still is now!

[RugerNurse]

Thought I’d try some H2 on my pacific salt. Ok scratch pattern after sharpening on 300 grit. Slices paper decently. I’ll see how it holds up

[Scandi Grind]

I touched up my VG-10 Endura's edge on my #1000 Cerax whetstone today and got a hair shaving edge. Maybe it is what people refer to as a scrape shaving edge, nothing crazy, but it can take hair off my arm. It has been working very pleasantly on useful cutting tasks too.

[zenith2]

Power sharpening today of some shop knives.

Heavily used Sebenza and Endura. I know the Sebenza is 14 years old and the Endura I have no idea, somewhere similar. The Endura is now a high hollow grind with a bead blasted finish.

Used VSM XK870F at 400 grit, slow speed, Unipol on a leather strop I made from an old undergroun mining belt and done. Can shave hand hair.

The other two are still WIP pieces I need to start hand sanding etc. Been a few months since I worked on them.

[Cycletroll]

Very cool! How thick behind the edge is that Endura?

[zenith2]

Very cool! How thick behind the edge is that Endura?

It was around 0.025-0.03mm/0.001-0.0012inch when it was originally reground to that high hollow.

It is now around 0.7mm/0.03inch.

[WilliamMunny]

Is there a mid priced ($150) fixed angle sharpening system? Seems like you are getting something cheap like the Work Sharp Precision Adjust Knife Sharpener for $60ish or you jump to $250+ for the KME Diamond set, Worksharp Professional or Wicked Sharp Go.

There is the Work Sharp Precision Adjust Knife Sharpener Elite buts is just the cheap $60 set with more stones. There is also the KME RPSH but with only one diamond stone it feels worthless for any hard tool steel like 15V, K390, maxamet or REX-121.

Is there something in the $150 range or is one of the $250 sets the only way to go for a solid fixed system. $250 is just more than I want to spend at this point as 9 times out of 10 the Sharpmaker works for me. It’s just when I have a chip once in awhile I want a fixed system.

[Guts]

Bought a cheap ceramic knife to practice sharpening on in anticipation of the HIC Mule. First time trying to sharpen a ceramic knife. Out of the box it wouldn't slice a paper towel and barely sliced into a regular piece of paper. Sharpening it was an interesting experience. Initially started on my Venev F400 resin bonded diamond stone since the documentation of the HIC mule mentioned 600grit for best results (F400 is roughly 1000grit) so figured I should do something similar. Definitely needed a lighter touch but it felt like I wasn't really getting anywhere with the Venev. Was cutting too slow.

Switched to a regular diamond plate that was 2200 grit and had better results. Again very light pressure. I figured it would be the case but there wasn't really any burr to speak of after apexing, which makes sense since it's ceramic and not metal. So basically you just sharpen until you've apexed the entire edge, do the same on the other side, then it's tehchnically done. I don't know if Spyderco's HIC Mule will behave the same but we'll see. Got the cheap ceramic knife slicing paper towel afterwards so I was satisfied with that. Might try some lower or higher grits and see how it does since I have a set of 300 grit through 3000 grit diamond plates. Looking forward to trying out that HIC Mule.

(the tip came rounded off like that btw )


Edge off the 2200 grit diamond plate.

[Wandering_About]

Nice work getting a ceramic knife sharp. Edge does look to have some roughness or microchips, but I'm assuming it's very difficult to avoid that on a ceramic blade, at least with the equipment and knowledge we have now for home sharpening.

[Guts]

Nice work getting a ceramic knife sharp. Edge does look to have some roughness or microchips, but I'm assuming it's very difficult to avoid that on a ceramic blade, at least with the equipment and knowledge we have now for home sharpening.

Yeah I was using very light pressure too and the edge still ended up looking like that off the 2200 grit plate. Would rather have a bit of bite than none, but I'll probably try out the 3000 grit when I get a chance.

[barnaclesonaboat]

Bought a cheap ceramic knife to practice sharpening on in anticipation of the HIC Mule. First time trying to sharpen a ceramic knife. Out of the box it wouldn't slice a paper towel and barely sliced into a regular piece of paper. Sharpening it was an interesting experience. Initially started on my Venev F400 resin bonded diamond stone since the documentation of the HIC mule mentioned 600grit for best results (F400 is roughly 1000grit) so figured I should do something similar. Definitely needed a lighter touch but it felt like I wasn't really getting anywhere with the Venev. Was cutting too slow.

Switched to a regular diamond plate that was 2200 grit and had better results. Again very light pressure. I figured it would be the case but there wasn't really any burr to speak of after apexing, which makes sense since it's ceramic and not metal. So basically you just sharpen until you've apexed the entire edge, do the same on the other side, then it's tehchnically done. I don't know if Spyderco's HIC Mule will behave the same but we'll see. Got the cheap ceramic knife slicing paper towel afterwards so I was satisfied with that. Might try some lower or higher grits and see how it does since I have a set of 300 grit through 3000 grit diamond plates. Looking forward to trying out that HIC Mule.

Very cool - thanks for sharing your details on stones, etc., and the edge image says a lot. It does look sharp/aggressive!

[Deadboxhero]

Spyderco Fine


Spyderco Ultra Fine


I thought this was very interesting,
The difference in abrasive size is basically the same.
Both the Ultra Fine and the fine both have larger ~15μm abrasive grains with smaller 5-10μm abrasive particles in between.

However, the ultra fine has a higher volume of 5-10μm abrasives, it is a denser stone and has a smoother surface RA texture on its surface.

It would be curious to quantitatively evaluate the scratch pattern between the fine and ultra fine and measure the BESS sharpeness between them.