D2 is tuff stuff

I've reprofiled a couple of Queens recently - #9 stockman and #48 whittler - and I can testify that their D2 is some hard stuff! Once you get that edge set though, you can get it SHARP and it stays sharp for a long time. I used the hones and carrier from a DMT aligner (Coarse, Fine, Extra Fine) and a Lansky clamp (with duct tape along the spine of the blade to give better grip). I prefer the clamping system because I can attach it to the blade and then just file away, almost like a fiddle player bowing the strings, without having to devote all my attention to keeping the angle. I just stop every once in a while to check progress. The the coarse DMT works pretty slow, but steady - and once I've pushed the bur from one side to the other then I move through the other hones and then a trip to the strop.

All of my Queens have had poor factory edges, and some of them have been atrocious - unevenly ground and requiring a LOT of work to properly set the bevel - but once corrected they take a great edge. I haven't tried it with stones yet, but I suspect it would be pretty tedious. Diamonds work reasonably fast - I have an extra-coarse DMT hone but I haven't used that yet on D2 because it is so coarse that it tends to gouge out grooves in the edge that require almost as much time on the normal coarse hone to smooth out as it would take just to set the bevel using the normal coarse. Either way it seems to take me an hour or better per blade to get it all squared away. Well worth it for the result though, IMO.
 
yeah i spent hours with my new country cousin and a mousepad and sandpaper trying to convex the edge, i finally gave up and went to the diamonds, so much simpler and easier.
 
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