Is there anyone here smarter than I am who can explain how this could possibly work:
I get how it could work on a knife with axe-like geometry (like the ER he demonstrates it on), but Im not seeing how it could work on a knife meant to function like a knife.
Bonus video of Eric showing the SpyMyto, for the 6 people other than me who are excited for it:
I see two big problems with that system. The biggest one, is that the clamp wouldn't work with a full-flat-grind. There would need to be some part of the blade that is squared, or else there will be movement within the clamp.
Second problem is the amount of pressure that gets put on the stone to pull the vertical rod up and form the angle. It's basically treating the edge like a fulcrum. That is going to make refinement much more challenging because you won't be able to feather the tone on the edge, it will always be a constant amount of pressure that is imparted by the weight of the knife, stone-holder, and vertical rod being levered up.
I have been trying to learn to free-hand sharpen on diamond stones. For that I decided to start on the cheap Ultrasharp stones. I gradually progressed from cheap knives laying around the house to various models from my usual rotation. I was finally "brave enough" to free-hand my Sage 5 Maxamet.
There were few tries with crap results, but after playing around with my technique and angle I finally got it to hair-popping sharp. Decided to take some micrographs at work and share one of them here along with regular pic.
What do you guys think?
Looks to be a bit excessive in convexity, along with an additional bevel being formed, where somewhere in your sharpening progression you made your bevel a bit too obtuse, deviating from the originally intended angle, which didn't quite get convexed all the way. This can happen if you aren't diligent in checking your movements/progress, or you become impatient, which can become a bigger detriment when you're dealing with this class of super steel.
My honest recommendation would be to sharpen the secondary bevels to a more consistent angle (more "lock" in your wrist when holding the knife during sharpening). At your current rate, it will become excessively hard to sharpen to the apex upon further sharpenings, as you will be motivated to sharpen the entire bevel, eventually finding yourself perpetually chasing that convexity. This can lead to over-sharpening and the inability to establish a clean apex without doing-so (continued sharpening); giving you the illusion (and effect) that you cannot get the knife sharp and will ultimately discourage further progress with the steel. Perhaps this is what happened when you had a few "crap results" from previous sharpenings?
I would recommend a coarse electro-plated diamond stone to correct this, as they are aggressive cutters and can sort-out any bevel issues with a bit of patience. Just be diligent on how much of the bevel that you're removing, and exactly where the bevel is being corrected in doing so. The Sharpie trick can help sort you out with a better visual if you need it.
Of course, this is just my opinion. If you're happy with the performance, along with the adeptness and comfort in sharpening with that level of covexity; by all means, do your thing. Otherwise, the apex looks clean. Good job.
Thank you for the feedback!
I think you are correct, I am definitely becoming less diligent/impatient as I keep going. Something I definitely have to work on.
Also, I do my sharpening on a slightly elevated bench. I think with my elbows being in slightly higher position than natural, I may be loosing some of my wrist lock, especially the longer I go.
I put back the UF stones, I touched my Para 3 BD1N with the UF and after that stropping the blade with green compound and at last with clean leather and I have to tell I guess it's one of best results I had with a reasonable effort and just few minutes of work. In my opinion BD1N it's a very good steel easy to sharp, I put away the UF because i used to care in last years VG 10 steel and the UF on that steel in my experience was not working good, I had the feeling the steel was very slippery (but in my experience VG 10 it's like that always) maybe I underrated for many years the ultra fine rods. I will try to use them again.
I mentioned in a different thread about using s60v with triple B heat treat. In that same thread Shawn agreed to send Sal a test sample. I'm assuming the heat treat will be similar if not the same as this piece he graciously gifted to me years ago. Here's a comparison pic with my leafjumper. Sal seems interested in possibly making a mule team in s60v with what I assume is Shawn's help. That's if all the necessary boxes are able to be checked off. I'm not part of that decision process, but I can test the sample I own already. I do plenty of testing so I feel it's my civic duty to assist wherever I can to make s60v a mule team. Obviously it's a custom heat treat thats been dialed in thru trial and error to hit 65. I can say it apexed rather effortlessly and cut for a long time in my tests.
"Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone."
Interesting comparison and very close up videos of cuts. The grit progression didn’t matter as much. More about getting a correct apex with the coarse stone. Stropping is optional but can be good.
Interesting comparison and very close up videos of cuts. The grit progression didn’t matter as much. More about getting a correct apex with the coarse stone. Stropping is optional but can be good.
Stropping gives that extra "Zing" to the Zang of your sharpening. Ultimately, for the edge "geeks", or "junkies".
Interesting comparison and very close up videos of cuts. The grit progression didn’t matter as much. More about getting a correct apex with the coarse stone. Stropping is optional but can be good.
I don't think it's really an accurate comparison given he stropped the coarse edge with 30 micron & 1 micron compound after the 600 grit diamond.
It would be interesting to see the test straight off the stones with no stropping.
Does anyone have a good source for an after market Sharp Maker base with different angles? I have 2 Sharpmakers and all of the stones offered by Spyderco already. Hopefully a tighter fit so the stones don’t move around in the base. For example 15 and 17 would be useful for me as I don’t use the 20.
I’m also looking for a aftermarket Gauntlet base that does 15 dps if available. Love the Gauntlet stones I but need it to do 15.
Thanks,
Bruce
I have a question concerning sharpening Super Blue blades. I have a Dragonfly sprint run with that blade steel as a laminate with another steel. I don’t recall the other steel but that is not the problem.
Is there any trick or special sharpening equipment to sharpen the Super Blue steel? I have sharpen s30, s35, VG-10 and a few others without any issues but I cannot get this Super Blue steel to sharpen up. It feels like the entire edge is chipped. A very ragged feeling edge. I use either my Sharpmaker or my ceramic Spyderco benchstones. I have the medium, fine and ultrafine rods and stones.
Any ideas or tips?
I am getting very close to sending it back to Spyderco for them to sharpen and see how it turns out.
I will try to use them again.
What's the knife?