120 grit sharpening = hair wittling edge

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boosted1jz

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Mar 7, 2012
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hi guys today i did something i thought i coudnt do and idk if its common but i finished up my 2 custom knifes i made and decided to sharpen them since i had finished the heat treat so i put and edge on it with 120 grit fliped the burr couple times till it got smaller then i stropped it couple times and damn its sharp like really sharp it wittles hair effortlesly. i didnt know and edge can be refined so much o such low grit becouse i always see people with fancy jigs and wicked edge (i want one lol) and they take it up super high and polish edge in order to acheive such sharpness and it took me like 10min total to get this edge wich such low grit. .has this happend to anyone? thanks guys just thought id share as i was a bit surprised
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What kind of steel did you use?

How thick is your stock?

What is it's hardness at the edge?

What is your edge bevel set at?

All of these can make a difference. I believe the answer is some combination of the above.
 
I would say you have a very toothy edge, stropping a 120grit edge would I believe still leave it very toothy. That is probably what is grabbing the hairs. Good job!
 
Hmm. I've done some O1 by 1/4. I went to 320 on the edge. I'll have to try this....
 
thanks steve. . yes id imagine it has to be a bit toothy hard to tell becouse it push cuts phonebook paper too,prolly just the correct mix of smoothnes and toothyness at the edge lol 120 is favorite number now
 
Well one thing is for sure, If it will whittle hair at 120 degrees and a little stropping, it sure is gonna cut down on time spent at the stones and the amount of stones we need. Wish you would have done this before I bought stones from 120 to 6000 grit!!LOL:D
 
spydiesteve said:
Well one thing is for sure, If it will whittle hair at 120 degrees and a little stropping, it sure is gonna cut down on time spent at the stones and the amount of stones we need. Wish you would have done this before I bought stones from 120 to 6000 grit!!LOL:D
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lol yea i was like what the heck so soon. .my 6000 grit stone and nagura where still soaking and i had already wittled the first one hahah what a waste
 
Thanks for the post, OP. A propos, yesterday I sharpened my EDC Case Mini Copperlock and went through the entire grit progression: with DMT Duosharps (X-Coarse, Coarse, Fine, X-Fine) followed by the Spyderco Ultrafine bench stone and stropping. It cut newsprint cleanly. Then I sharpened an O1 Kephart, but I stopped at the Fine DMT stone. Knocked the burr off, stropped. It also cut newsprint cleanly! :D
 
Magnaminous_G said:
Thanks for the post, OP. A propos, yesterday I sharpened my EDC Case Mini Copperlock and went through the entire grit progression: with DMT Duosharps (X-Coarse, Coarse, Fine, X-Fine) followed by the Spyderco Ultrafine bench stone and stropping. It cut newsprint cleanly. Then I sharpened an O1 Kephart, but I stopped at the Fine DMT stone. Knocked the burr off, stropped. It also cut newsprint cleanly! :D
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thanks appreciate it. .yes me too ive come to the conclusion(my own conclusion idk others) that a toothy edge is better than a full polish. .yes i know an edge gets dull by edge degregation and a polish one last longer becouse of that but when it comes to cutting it cant cut with a toothy edge at the same level of sharpness atleast in my test and uses. i lay a toothy edge and a polished edge with the weight of the knife ontop of rope and pull back one stroke and the toothy one bites in deep while the polished one slides on the surface. both same level of sharpness
 
Each edge has it's place, but a toothy edge will serve well for everyday use especially food prep. IMO most people go with a mirror polished edge because it looks cool not because it holds it's edge better. If you are willing to take the time to sharpen a knife to a mirror polish then you really enjoy sharpening, and you look forward to the knife getting dull so you can sharpen it again. ha ha
 
I still like a full polish on my EDC's but when I anticipate a lot of cutting, I stop with a coarse edge. At the construction site where I'm building our new home, I have my GB at a 240 grit edge. My fixed VECP has a polished edge though. I find that a polished edge works better on wood which I also need to shape a lot of times.
 
yes i love sharpening too i have many knives with mirror edges but yea for edc stuff its not the best. ..+1 on the wood comment that is true polish excells for wood
 
I edc a large Sebenza, it has a 42 degree mirror polished edge down to 6000 grit. However I use it mainly for cutting paper and cardboard, if I were cutting things like food, rope, or anything I really needed the knife to grab I would use a toothy but still stropped edge. Everything has it''s place.
 
What did you sharpen with? I did it before with 100 grit Crystolon, and I recall gunmike treetopping hairs with XX DMT. Tom Krein regrinds would come with a belt finish at the same level and be very sharp.
 
One thing to note about O1 is that it takes an extremely keen edge. It is often used for straight razors because of this.

Another thing to note, is that coming off a 120 grit stone, there is no reason that hair whittling, or even tree topping sharp can't be achieved. As long as you have done your job apex wise, and removed the burr this is possible. Truthfully, your knives need to be coming off your lowest stone hair whittling sharp, as higher grit stones don't really add sharpness as much as they refine the edge. One reason people often think that the higher grit stones add sharpness is that they have an okay apex coming off their 200-400 grit stones and when they switch over to some higher grit some they may be reprofiling the apex a bit more to achieve a higher level of sharpness. Having a more polished bevel certainly helps out, but if your apex is perfect, the knife can be very scary levels of sharp coming off lower grit or even profiling stones.

I don't have anything lower than a 220 grit SiC stone, but my knives come off hair whittling sharp if I have done my job right. Tree topping is a level I cannot consistently hit, maybe 1/3 of my sharpening attempts or even less. I can raise that number a bit if I take my time and shoot for it, but I am satisfied with hair whittling most of the time. Don't get me wrong, if I could hit tree topping sharp every time I certainly would aim for it, but that is a level of sharpness that I will slowly work on.
 
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