I have since added choils to a couple Spyderco knives in the same way. Makes sharpening these knives so much easier on a Wicked Edge.
Anarchy84
,
"The image you are requesting does not exist or is no longer available."
I never liked the original "complicated" geometry of the heel area on my brand-new pm2 camo, out of the box. The tolerances of the heel geometry milling didn't look right. Apart from that, the grinding of the bevel was not carried out to the very corner of the heel ... this is common/typical with all similar blades i've seen so far which do not come with a sharpening choil (endura, firebird, pm2, delica, tis). On my tis and firebird i already corrected the heel corner such that no further mod (like adding a sharpening choil notch) would be needed.
So after sharpening my pm2 on my Triangle Sharpmaker a couple of times i did notice the formation of a growing tiny recurved millimeter. And I recognize very well from experience the growing of recurved sections when there is no sharpening notch available!
If one uses the Sharpmaker only and wants to preserve a 100% convex blade shape (i don't mean a 'convex apex'), i.e. a blade with 100% no recurved sections, not even a millimeter, from tip to the
very heel corner, and the knife is the pm2, then there is no way around a DIY sharpening choil. (And that's why my liner lock ganzo does come with a sharpening choil, out of the box.)
I know that pm2's can cost hundreds of bucks and, as collectibles, are kept in mint condition with unused factory edges. Or other pm2 owners simply use the knife and don't care about the aforementioned 100% complete grind. But i felt bothered by the original geometry and by the incomplete grind, so i fixed both issues by filing the heel and the heel corner with a Spyderco 204M hone.
Now the entire(!) blade length is 100% convex and there is a sharpening choil, perfectly matching the 204 profile. With this diy mod the blade is, finally!, prepared optimally for long-term sharpening on the 204MF; no recurved section, no concave section can form!
However, as i told in my last post, I am drifiting away from guided-rod sharpeners (Exduct, Ruixin) or other guided sharpeners (V-sharpeners like Sharpmaker) towards freehanding on tiny stones, which i call "Ruixin-freehanding". There, too, a completed grind of the bevel is needed (as now my firebird and tis have) or a sharpening choil instead (as now my modded pm2 has).
Today i successfully ruixin-freehanded the pm2 S30V on the tiny Ruby3000 and the experience was so satisfactory and convincing that in future i will make less and less use of the Sharpmaker (which i bought
not too long ago and have been trying to use heavily ever since because i believed that it could become my goto sharpening solution ... oh boy was i wrong!).
I am excited about my personal transition to freehanding .. but i also don't intend to go any further than ruixin-freehanding, i.e. i don't intend to buy more stuff in future (like bench stones or whatnot) than i already have. Some folks own 1 or 2 Shapton or Norton or Chosera stones. I own
16 stones; they are all small and mostly inexpensive but they are sufficient for freehanding. The best sharpening experts on youtube (Michael Christy, Outdoors55, a.o.) do their sharpenings on surprisingly small stones. Such small stones also have the advantage that they don't need frequent dressing, and when they do need it, it's done super fast and easy.
Anyhow, this post is about my success report of modding my pm2 S30V solely with the 204M. Took hours and sweat. But the filing did get the job done.
Finally i am satisfied with the everything about my pm2 (ti screws, ti back spine, youtube paracord lanyard, deployment smoothness, nice looking heel geometry, existence of sharpening choil,
perfect sharpening experience now).
Btw i also own a Dremel-like tool, but i was in no hurry and prefered work control over work speed. I also need more practice with the rotary tool. My endura has been in the closet for months, i bought it, put it away, never used it, unused factory edge. Upon magnification of its VG10 heel area one would see imperfections in the milling, tolerances and the grinding, too! But maybe i shouldn't bother as most owners, and simply leave the knife unused in the closet. Then i won't need to resharpen it, and then the question of fixing the heel area issues (with a 204M or a rotary tool) will never arise. Avoiding. That's the most pragmatic way of handling a (potential) situation/problem. lol
No doubt though, in some future i am going to make a sharpening notch on the endura, too.
