Delta 3V: Honing

[Richard338]

Thank God that crisis was averted. We wouldn't want you to loose lose your mind over it.


(Maybe send a PM next time. Might as well get something out of that gold membership. )

I "no" right. My mailbox is nearly full even though I rarely PM...

 

[Blues]

There was a post on this forum previously about using diamond paste for stropping. Apparently Delta 3V may loose some of its edge retention if you don’t use some kind of diamond past or spray on the strop. Nathan posted an explanation, and described the paste that he formulates for his knives. Maybe someone can find the post. I’m sorry I don’t have time, I have to go to work.

@jus_gus

I found a few things of interest...and I think the first two quotes below may be what you were referring to earlier regarding stropping method, and as I suspected, the questioner was referring to the alleged / dreaded carbide tear out...

Question for the expert sharpeners:

3V is generally grouped with the carbon steels and, like those, responds very well to stropping using regular compounds. At least initially.
My understanding is that the regular compounds (i.e. black and green) will remove the softer material but aren’t able to cut the vanadium carbides. The result is that you get a sharp edge at first but, with continued stropping, the softer material is slowly taken away and the (uncut) vanadium carbides remain without anything to hold them in the matrix so that they easily tear out, quickly leaving a dull edge. For this reason, I remember reading somewhere that diamond paste or other similar compound is better to use as it is able to also cut the hard vanadium carbides - thus avoiding quick/sudden edge degradation as described.
Experiences/thoughts?

I blend some 2 micron diamond powder into my green stropping shmoo to address that issue

real stropping compound (look at straight razor sites) works better than buffing compound block.

You don't want to build it up too thick, but it does glaze and dull like any abrasive, so I refresh it with a thinned out mixture made with compound and alcohol to mix it up with a finger tip and get some fresh particles onto the surface without building it up.

I sharpen my own knives by hand on oil stones.

Then a quote from Nate back a couple, three years where he says:

For hand sharpening I use a big diamond plate to do most of the work and follow it with a fine stone. A dull knife with minor damage can be restored in 5-10 minutes.

When asked in another thread by a forum member if diamond hones are "pretty much required"...Nathan's reply was "no".

So, the bottom line, (carbide tear out notwithstanding), appears to be that there are many roads to Dublin.

 

[Gusbuster]

Question for the expert sharpeners:

3V is generally grouped with the carbon steels and, like those, responds very well to stropping using regular compounds. At least initially.
My understanding is that the regular compounds (i.e. black and green) will remove the softer material but aren’t able to cut the vanadium carbides. The result is that you get a sharp edge at first but, with continued stropping, the softer material is slowly taken away and the (uncut) vanadium carbides remain without anything to hold them in the matrix so that they easily tear out, quickly leaving a dull edge. For this reason, I remember reading somewhere that diamond paste or other similar compound is better to use as it is able to also cut the hard vanadium carbides - thus avoiding quick/sudden edge degradation as described.
Experiences/thoughts?

I blend some 2 micron diamond powder into my green stropping shmoo to address that issue

real stropping compound (look at straight razor sites) works better than buffing compound block.

You don't want to build it up too thick, but it does glaze and dull like any abrasive, so I refresh it with a thinned out mixture made with compound and alcohol to mix it up with a finger tip and get some fresh particles onto the surface without building it up.

I sharpen my own knives by hand on oil stones. You guys get a low speed powered sharpening on ceramic belts under flood coolant, and then two big Arkansas stones before some light stropping and cut tests. The stones are dressed daily on silicon carbide paper.

I had a little down time at work and found the posts I was referring to. @Blues

 

[Gusbuster]

@jus_gus

I found a few things of interest...and I think the first two quotes below may be what you were referring to earlier regarding stropping method, and as I suspected, the questioner was referring to the alleged / dreaded carbide tear out...





Then a quote from Nate back a couple, three years where he says:



When asked in another thread by a forum member if diamond hones are "pretty much required"...Nathan's reply was "no".

So, the bottom line, (carbide tear out notwithstanding), appears to be that there are many roads to Dublin. Exactly! That’s what I was referring to. You beat me to it.

Exactly! You beat me to it.