D2 is tuff stuff

cgmblade

cgmblade

Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
1,358
So, a long series of events has led me to this not so dark and dreary place.

I'll skip over most of it, but suffice it to say that I bought a Queen Stockman and Country Cousin sodbuster, nice knives both. But neither came with a good edge.

I use a Sharpmaker and the normal brown and white stones didn't stand a chance against the D2 blades. So I got the Spyderco diamond rods 204D for my Sharpmaker. They arrived today and I put them to work on the two Queen knives using very light pressure so as not to dislodge the diamonds.

Wow, AUS-8 is like butter compared to D2, that is some tough metal. Even with the diamond stones it is slow going. I think the knives came with edge angles just shy of 90 degrees (I'm exaggerating) :rolleyes: and I was trying to reprofile down to 30 degrees and thinking of maybe adding a microbevel at 40 degrees.

Does anyone have any suggestions or should I just be patient and keep at it?

Thanks
Chris
 
If you don't want to invest in some nice coarse diamond stones (the diamond Sharpmaker rods aren't all that coarse, as I understand it) to lean against the ceramic rods, I'd suggest going down to the home despot or what-have-you and picking up some super-coarse (somewhere between 80 and 150 grit would probably be my choice) wet-dry sandpaper and wrap it around the sharpmaker rods, securing it either with rubber bands top and bottom or bulldog clips opposite to the flat (you don't want to use the corner with sandpaper, you'll rip the grit right off) you're sharpening on.

Wow, that's one long sentence! Hope it makes sense, though.
 
Patience will reward you in the end but it can take a while. A long while.

And it can be frustrating. Why certain factories are unable to ship out a knife with a useful edge is just beoynd me. :rolleyes:
 
It depends on whether or not you want the knife to be good looking when you get done with this. You can either get a diamond benchstone (a dmt duofold will work), or just get a cheap coarse stone from Home Depot for $10. Either will work, the dmt will be a little faster.

Then you can take the edge down quickly. Lay the blade down flat, raise it up slightly, and start grinding. Circles, back and forth, doesn't matter. You want to knock that shoulder off, and get the bevel thinned. Once that's done, the sharpmaker will work quickly.

I promise you 2 things. First, your knife will cut 1000 times better. Second, the scratches will completely ruin the looks of your knife.

Or you can get an Edgepro, which will do this quickly also, and preserve the looks of your knife. If you are good with a belt grinder, that will work quickly also.

It's good to have choices! :D
 
sodak said:
It's good to have choices! :D
Click to expand...

Choices are good.

I do have a flat stone that is about 2" X 6" I picked it up at Ace Hardware. I think it is either 400/600 grit or 600/800. I threw the wrapper away and don't remember. I guess I could go back by the store and look at the ones on the shelf.

I've used it some. It is more aggressive than the spyderco rods. I know that with flat stones it is virtually impossible to get exact edge angles, but the main problem I have is that I have trouble matching one side to the other.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

I set the stone on the table in front of me and starting at the far end pull the knife toward me. I usually do that about ten times then I turn the knife over and push it away from me for ten times.

When I'm pulling the knife toward me I can see where the edge meets the stone and am able to maintain a consistent angle. But it feels much less natural pushing it away and I'm not confident in my ability to keep the edge steady.

Any suggestions?
 
Ive struggled with the same issue brother. I have to really concentrate to get both sides equal. Something that has helped me is to turn the stone itself 45 to 90 deg. It takes some getting used to but this helped me out tremendously. It seems I can eye up the angle better doing it this way. If I put the stone strait out (forming a T with my torso so to speak) I will almost always put a slightly shallower angle on the right side of the blade. Mind you, I can still get a tree topper of an edge as such, but its just the point of the matter to me. I've almost eliminated the issue, but as soon as I get careless and don't watch out for it, I'll end up a tad bit off. Ive learned to check it frequently on the X coarse stone, as of course its the one that sets the bevel, and correct as I go. Hope that helps.
 
I use one of these: http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=60964-10803-DPSKP&lpage=none
The diamond hones work very well for me to get even bevels and cut metal fairly quickly. I like it better than Lansky for ease of use and it is less expensive. I have used them for years without wearing out, it just takes a little longer. Queen does a great job with their D2, but it is a given that you will have to reprofile them. My only Queen knives are fixed blade and I have reprofiled 4 Premium Hunters with the Smith system. But then again I eventually reprofile all of my knives. Have used it on S110V and ZDP189 with great results. Usually follow up with ceramics and stropping and use the Sharpmaker for touch ups.
 
If you have a coarse (non-Japanese, non-slurry-requiring) stone, be it diamond or Norton-style, you can just lean it up against the flats of the sharpmaker sticks in the 30 degree setting, et voila, you have a much coarser surface that you can use just like you use the flats at exactly the same angle.
 
For me, the angle isn't that important, as long as it is less than the final angle you are using to get the edge, be it sharpmaker or whatever. If you are using the 30 side, than just make sure the coarse stone is less than that, and when you use the sharpmaker, it will reach the edge and sharpen quickly.
 
I appreciate everyone's comments. There's a lot of good advice that's been shared and it's nice to know I'm not the only one in this predicament.
 
Well, I picked up some 100 grit sandpaper at Lowe's today. I haven't had a chance to use it yet. I'll post the results later.

Of the two Queens (stockman and sodbuster) I've been concentrating most of my efforts on the sodbuster. It's a less expensive knife and I won't mind as much if the blade gets all scratched up. It's also thicker blade stock which probably makes my job harder.

I've been using a combination of flat stones and the Sharpmaker diamond rods. I wish I had a camera that could show the blade at the micro level. When I first got the knife and tried the fingernail test it wouldn't bite into the nail at all. It just slide off about as easily as if I were using the spine of the blade instead of the edge.

I've made remarkable progress so far. I've been using a black marker to show where the rod/stone was meeting the edge. By holding the blade up to a bright light and using a magnifying glass I could see that at first I was only taking the marker off the shoulder and wasn't touching the edge at all. Now I've got both sides of the edge meeting along most of the edge. The 1/2" to 3/4" closest the the handle still needs a little work. We'll see how the sandpaper works. So far I've got hours into this one knife.

Had I just gone with 20 degrees per side I'd probably be finished now, but I think I'll get a better performing knife if I can get it down to 15 degrees per side. Originally I was planning on putting a 20 micro-bevel on it later, but seeing as how hard this D2 blade is turning out to be I think I'll just keep it at 15 per side and see how it does. I have a feeling this blade is going to stand up to any normal use I put it to.
 
It will be a bit of work, but well worth it! :)

D-2 is one of the truly all time great cutlery steels. :thumbup:
 
I bought a Queen County Cousin over the weekend because I was impressed with blade action and shape over a CASE sodbuster. I'd like to tell you I got it sharpened with a few strokes on a fine stone, but the truth is it took about an hour and a half on a medium diamond stone to begin to feel sharp:o An extra fine oil stone finished it off very very nicely from there--it's now wicked sharp, but I didn't think I'd ever get there:mad:
 
For D2 I use an old medium grit Carborundum stone. For me, diamond seems too fragile, and the ceramic Sharpmaker rods are not aggressive enough.
 
for doing initial bevel setting and repairs on the really wear resistant stuff aka zdp189/cowry x/d2 skd/gokinko etc I use a 8x3 dmt xxc it really moves metal fast compared to most everything else that isn't powered.


I sharpen a fair amount of kitchen knives as well as the occasional edc type knife as I am a knife and sharpening enthusiast as well as a professional chef. So I spend quality time with a bucket of water stones and a couple dmts pretty regularly.
 
In my opinion, any hand sharpening system will take a long time. I love the Sharpmaker and I have the full set of stones from the Diamond Stones to the Ultra Fine stones. The diamond rods are well worth the investment if all you have is the regular Sharpmaker set. They will save you a ton of time when compared to the brown stones. As mentioned above, there are more coarse abrasive media available in the market compared to the Sharpmaker diamond rods.

The last D2 knife I sharpened was a Tom Krein TK-4 (bowie shaped) and I used a belt grinder followed by a paper wheel charged with compound as promoted by richard j on this forum site. It sharpened up very quickly (less than 2 mins) to a very sharp but coarse edge.

I also have a Queen Sod buster country cousin with the darker handle (not yellow) that I sharpened on my Sharpmaker Diamond rods. It took some time but was time well spent getting to know the knife, steel and heat treatment. Once I reprofiled the edge, that knife went into a fire making kit that rides in our car for emergencies.
 
cgmblade said:
Choices are good.



When I'm pulling the knife toward me I can see where the edge meets the stone and am able to maintain a consistent angle. But it feels much less natural pushing it away and I'm not confident in my ability to keep the edge steady.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Try using a mirror on the push stroke so you can see when the edge meets the stone. After some practice you will get the angle without a mirror.
 
You will also develop a feel for it. When you are hitting the shoulder, there isn't much resistance, but once you lock in the angle, the resistance increases dramatically.
 
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