Bark River and ceramic

I have a few Barkies with convex primary grinds and am quite happy with their performance using flat benchstones. My Aurora has an 8 degree per side highly polished V bevel on it which is easy to maintain and cuts like the dickens. I do round the portion of the bevel where it meets the primary grind, which is quick and easy to do just using a flat bench stone, but only do that after a few regular v grind sharpenings to keep the edge geometry nice and thin. I also periodically strop with sandpaper or loaded leather the whole width of the primary grind also to help maintain the overall geometry. Maybe I'm offending the convex gods doing this but I will say I'm very happy with the performance I get and the Aurora gets hard use in the woods on a regular basis.

Even after it gets fairly dull, 5 or 10 minutes on a DMT Fine Diamond hone followed by a Spyderco ultra-fine ceramic, gets my Aurora sharp enough to do this:
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kthornbr said:
One quick thought, when skinning deer and such, how would you go about touching up the edge in the field? We go through many deer hides here in Alabama during a season and it's not uncommon for a few of us to tag several in a weekend. I often hit my other knives on an old steel during the process to keep the edge in shape. Would the old "chicken plant" steel my father-in-law gave me be OK for the convex edge?
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If you haven't already seen them, Check out the field sharpening hones at KSF. The full-size hone kit with the set of two field hones will keep you going for most of your natural life! :thumbup: :D
 
Well, I went down to the local autozone, picked up 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper. I got the wife's mousepad, (without her knowin), and set about sharpening an old CV Case sodbuster. Unfortunately, all I did was dull the darn thing. So I decided to hold off on the Highland.

I also picked up a ceramic (Spyderco?) stone from a local hunting/fishing store. I sharpened the Barkie first on a Norton India Fine, sorry knifenut, then polished the edge on the ceramic. About the sharpest darn edge I've ever been able to produce! I have no hair left on my arm and I can even cut out about any shape I want from a piece of copy paper.

I guess I wasn't doing something correctly with the sandpaper. I don't know. However, I have never been this pleased with an edge as I am with the one I got on the Highland.
 
Sorry to hear you turned a convex edge into a V edge. To much preasure was most likely your problem and if you would have tried it on the barkie your results would have been much different. Trying to create a convex edge on a blade that is not convex is much different than one that is. To each there own but I have always believed in using the right tool for the job.
 
Esav knows what he's talking about. The stop available from knives ship free is probably the best money I've ever spent on a sharpening device. I set the bevel on my edge pro and then just strop once and a while. It works great!:D:thumbup::cool:
 
I have never really tried stropping to touch up the edge while butchering deer. Deer tallow is different than lard; it gets rather hard much quicker when it cools. Basically by the time I'm done skinning, it's like I dipped the blade in candle wax, with big globs (mixed with blood) all over it. Yes, the stuff actually breaks and flakes off like candle wax. I still don't see how fine abrasive strops can do anything once thoroughly coated with that stuff, after just one swipe. Cleaning the blade first would take 20 times longer than "a quick touch up" should in the first place. That's why I stick with diamond and ceramic rods for that job.

Knifenut- I respect your stance and understand what you're getting at, but I don't see it as a big deal if I add a 0.3 mm wide microbevel that's less than half a degree steeper than the sweeping primary grind on my convex Blackjack knife.
 
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