Best finds so far - Sharpening, YouTube, Value. June 2017

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Bang*Bang**

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Mar 26, 2017
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A new person made a post about best advice for a noob. There was a lot of great advice (safety, learn how to sharpen, buy what suits you, stick to cheap metals at first, etc).

It got me thinking about the purchases I'd made so far and thought it would be interesting to hear from others which purchases they've made that they absolutely love and would do again in a heartbeat. Also, if there was a certain thing you would avoid to put the money towards something else.

For me

Home Sharpening:
Free strop - Grab a free local newspaper. fold it length wise 4-times, loop it around a towel rod or lay on top of something flat (magazine, table, ect). Strop away while the lump of money you saved makes your wallet feel uncomfortably full.

Almost free strop/hone:
- Wood 2×4 with chromium or some other paste on it.
- MDF particle board with paste on it
- Found glass with sand paper taped to it
- "Custom" metal plates by Burrfection (cough, hacksaw, cough, metal pieces)

A great value honing kit suggestion:
https://youtu.be/jKMFPpNxIbM


If you have/get a table top circle grinder:
From dull to sharp in 60 seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdxqplP4LBI&t=75s

Kind of long, but interesting to see Shaptons vs a home made metal hone. His technique is interesting and the pretty Shaptons are so pretty!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge-rvSe0f6w
Here's how he made them. https://youtu.be/Pq_cToQjKDI

Paul Sellers demonstrating how he uses sand paper, glass, and a 2x4 hone to an amazing result! It's about a chisel and it's long but worth it -

Crazy sharp straight razor example featuring Cubic Boron Nitride ("CBN") https://youtu.be/PRMu-WEaFNE

Cheap leather strops - Cheap "shoulder leather" from your local leather shop (~ $30CDN a piece). Tandy or Whipped dog might be another starting point.
(Mods, let me know if I need to change this. I'm not associated with them, just sharing info)

DMT credit card 3 pack
[I can't get the image to insert properly]
MS-CCD_A_big.jpg

Quick to sharpen, small, portable, relatively cheap (~$40 CDN for all three), 325/600/1200 grit, diamond so it will sharpen anything. Wish I started with these instead of water stones. Take them with you, talk to your friends and family, and then sharpen any non-serrated knives you can get your hands on.
*update as of April 20th 2017 - I have been using the low grit 325 a lot and with water and it seems to be filling up. I might suggest finding one of these (I found one at Dollar Tree or Dollarama for $1.25 CDN) for preliminary restoration work BEFORE hitting the nice little diamond stones.
Or... a rock? I dunno, but here you go. https://youtu.be/cAfe8ZYnlSU

Serrated knives are a pain, avoid if possible. There are several inexpensive pencil shaped diamond stones. Buy and sharpen at your own risk.

Education:
Metallurgy/The gist on how knives are made and what HRC is
Walter Sorrells makes it so easy to understand.

Awesome way to find the angle of the bevel

Crazy sharp straight razor tutorial (featuring Cubic Boron Nitrate "CBN")
https://youtu.be/PRMu-WEaFNE

Entertaining knife reviews - Dutch Bushcraft Knives
Cold Steel Master Hunter CPM 3V video
https://youtu.be/q23lFwULSEo
Silky Gomboy 210 review
https://youtu.be/_EjtbP1kvus

Currently ongoing edge retention test with all the latest "super steels"
CedricAda - latest overall "roundup"
https://youtu.be/N9imRdIYL7I

Man vs. Machine Japnese style
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6UxmpbSQGU

Value blades:
Cold Steel Master Hunter CPM 3V - a fixed blade high end steel in the price range of a folder (~$150 CDN) that comes with a practical sheath and seems to get good reviews from most people.

Silky Gomboy 210 - A pull-stroke small/light/affordable hand saw that gets great reviews and apparently cuts through wood like butter (~$65 CDN)

Random Chinese folder that Cedric loves
https://youtu.be/VwAkzJrD1pM

My favorite sharpening EDC so far:
1. 2" square chunk of Chromium Oxide (CrOx)
2. Small Denim/leather home made strop, or newsprint
3. DMT 325/600/1200 credit card sized diamond flat stones

Blade choice is obviously super personal and purpose dependant. I just mention these as a starting point for comparison. Plus, I'll try to update this thread as time goes on. You know, until the next shiney thing grabs my attention.

What are your best finds so far?
 
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...finding the bevel angle was a very novel method. fun to watch. I don't have a laser pointer, but that could change with a few bucks.
My best find is to use Flitz Metal Polish as a strop media. I've tried a bunch of crayon-type media, but really have not had much luck. I read about
using Flitz here on BF and since I've used it as a metal polish before, I thought I'd try it. I did, and it worked great. If any of you guys have not had much luck in your stropping, just try Flitz and see what I mean.
 
Lapedog said:
What surface do you put the flitz on.
Click to expand...

Leather & Balsa Wood for me (re: stopping & polishing)

The 2012 Metal Polish contains Al2O3 (Aluminium oxide or Aluminum 'cause it's fun saying), and has corrosion inhibitors (use to remove oxidation and protect from same).
My notes from a few years back indicate at 3-3,5 µm (not super aggressive but still Al2O3 particle abrasive).
They make both a liquid and a paste, liquid being more or less a dilute of the paste.
 
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Lapedog said:
What surface do you put the flitz on.
Click to expand...

I put it on a strop from StropMan.com. That strop comes with both green and white "crayon" media, but it didn't work for me. So I figured I had nothing to lose, and just put the Flitz on the leather and rubbed it in with my fingers until it was sort of "dry" and then used it. Very, very sharp edge was my result...MUCH to my delight.
I had used a LOT to polish up Glock trigger and mechanism parts, but had not thought about using it as a strop media.
 
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marcinek said:
Here's some more great advice for a noob! Read this!

http://www.bladeforums.com/help/site-rules/

In fact, finding the FAQs here and reading them has been one of my best finds! :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Seriously important advice for a noob. It is amazing how many people don't read the rules they agree to follow.

Bang*Bang** said:
This link is broken. I will delete this post when it's corrected.
Click to expand...

You've got two links to non-paying dealers. You should be deleting those links.
 
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