D2 Sharpening Issues

[Coonskinner]

While they are more expensive, Dozier grinds D2 perfectly, IMO, and they come super sharp right out of the box. But most of his are fixed blades.

I had a Dozier fixed blade some years ago.

Yes, it was sharp.

I'm not sure Queen is quite up to his level.

 

[sodak]

That's a fair statement. But think of the geometry - Dozier grinds the primary pretty thin, usually with a high hollow grind. The edge isn't a real thin one, but it cuts quite well. That's kind of what we're trying to do with our Queens.

 

[mycough]

Any or all of those will be plenty for the job. With Queen's D2, and in small blades such as on these traditional pocketknives, the main thing to focus on is maintaining a consistent angle and allowing yourself the patience and time to fully thin & apex the edge. Queen's blades are often thickly-ground at/behind the edge, so it takes a long time to thin it out to get it cutting well. This is also why it's important to maintain a consistent angle, because over the span of many, many, many sharpening passes needed to grind D2, an inconsistent angle on a thickly-ground edge will make for a very rounded-off and BLUNT edge. That's the main obstacle with such blades, in making them sharp. A small(ish) folding knife can be difficult to keep a solid grip on while sharpening over a long span of time, therefore difficult to maintain a steady angle.

The DMT Coarse (325) or the EZE-Lap 'Medium' (I believe that's 400) can work well on such smallish blades in D2. EZE-Lap's diamond is polycrystalline, so it's effectively more aggressive (faster) for it's rated grit size. I don't like using anything coarser on small blades like these, because they'll really tear up & scratch up the blades & edges if technique isn't perfectly stable; makes it harder to refine & finish the edges on them. I often prefer to use a DMT 'Fine' (600) for such tasks, for this reason.


David

More good stuff David! I agree with using the fine most often. When I was less experienced I found that plate kept me from screwing up a blade too quickly.
Now I just like that plate as my first and sometimes only tool in sharpening a wide variety of blades. It is the first one I bought many years ago and is the one I gift to my friends looking for a do it all sharpener.
Russ