CTS-XHP sharpening experience?

[OhioApexing]

I’ve sharpened it before using Shapton Glass, but I’ve recently grown rather fond of my diamond water stones. Considering its relatively high hardness (I think Spyderco has been taking theirs to 61-63), I think diamonds may work well on it. But it certainly isn’t necessary with its low vanadium content.

From what I’ve gathered through reading and personal experience, XHP’s fine grain structure causes it to really enjoy a high polished edge.

What have you all noticed? How has it performed for you?

 

[l1ranger]

i've got a spyderco domino in XHP as my daily and typically use my lansky to sharpen.

it likes the diamonds and did well with a fairly polished edge - stones up to 2000 grit with 5 and 1 micron strops

the last time, i was short on time, and only run the medium and find diamond stones and then a 5 micron strop and I'm digging the edge it has.
I'm not gonna try to shave with it, but for daily cutting I like it a lot

 

[Wowbagger]

One of my favorite hard use blade alloys
I don't intentionally mirror polish it but I take it to Shapton Glass 4,000 because I like that kind of edge for my use. One of those uses is my Razelized (modded) blade that I use often to shave curls of metal off mild steel and heat treated aluminum parts that have gotten beat up and burred. Smooth / refined edge surfaces push cut metal better for me.

I wouldn't even consider taking diamonds to the steel to SHARPEN it though I have spent a fair amount of time thinning and shaping the blades using crazy coarse diamond.
crazy coarse that's a technical engineering term referring to diamond grit that is a bit more coarse than extra, extra coarse.
Link>>> to Crazy Coarse in use
If you page down you will see a Shapton Pro 120 hogging off metal to help remove the scratch pattern from Crazy Coarse.

But nah, Shapton Glass does it for me nicely as far as sharpening.
PS : the Razelized work knife is a different project than I have linked to above.

 

[Chris "Anagarika"]

I have Cold Steel Broken Skull, no info on hardness but it went well with DMT C, F, EF, EEF up to Spyderco UF. Polished with 1 µ diamond strop. Shave really well.

 

[Minnesota Man]

I have a Cold Steel Recon1 with carpenter steel. I'm not an expert sharpener and was intimidated when it came time to sharpen it. I spent ten minutes with a work sharp (diamond/ceramic) field sharpener. I was whittling hair. I find that it sharpens easily and retains it's edge.

 

[samuraistuart]

One of my favorite hard use blade alloys
I don't intentionally mirror polish it but I take it to Shapton Glass 4,000 because I like that kind of edge for my use. One of those uses is my Razelized (modded) blade that I use often to shave curls of metal off mild steel and heat treated aluminum parts that have gotten beat up and burred. Smooth / refined edge surfaces push cut metal better for me.

I wouldn't even consider taking diamonds to the steel to SHARPEN it though I have spent a fair amount of time thinning and shaping the blades using crazy coarse diamond.
crazy coarse that's a technical engineering term referring to diamond grit that is a bit more coarse than extra, extra coarse.
Link>>> to Crazy Coarse in use
If you page down you will see a Shapton Pro 120 hogging off metal to help remove the scratch pattern from Crazy Coarse.

But nah, Shapton Glass does it for me nicely as far as sharpening.
PS : the Razelized work knife is a different project than I have linked to above.

Wow. Coherent and informative.

 

[eugenechia1989]

I sharpened my Cold Steel Code 4 spear-point in CTS-XHP recently. The edge was reflecting light when illuminated with a torchlight.

I started with the Spyderco medium ceramic, sharpening using alternating strokes (the slowest sharpening method known to man!) and it didn't take long before the edge stopped reflecting light completely. That was my cue to switch stones.

On to the Spyderco ultra-fine ceramic. I didn't spend a lot of time on this stone. Alternating strokes, once again.

The edge developed a rather stubborn burr which I removed with Murray Carter's method of lightly drawing the edge through wood a couple of times and then a few stropping strokes on the stone.

For extra measure, I finished with a few light strokes on my Garos Goods paddle strop loaded with their green and then red compounds.

Just sharing my most recent experience with sharpening a CTS-XHP blade. The result was a hair-popping edge, very happy with it and despite my slow sharpening method, it didn't take a lot of time at all.