Different Sharpening for Different Knives

M

me2

Joined
Oct 11, 2003
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Am I the only one that sharpens different knoves differently in terms of stone, procedure, angle, etc, even for the same use?

I have two different primary edc knives: a Delica and a Cold Steel Voyager. The Delica gets a 12 degree edge off of Naniwa water stones held on my angles sharpening block while my CS Voyager gets a 17 degree edge off a Norton Economy stone using a DMT Aligner clamp and finished in the Sharpmaker at 20 degrees. I have an Ontario knife that I plan to finish on a Hard Arkansas stone. I’m all over the place really. Is it just me?
 
Not at all!

I believe every steel has its stone! Synthetic, natural, or even blended. I have many I use for specific steels/brands and I'm always looking for the "next stone" that will unlock the ability of a specific steel. Edge angle depends on blade geometry and hardness, IMO. Personally, I find getting the edge geometry correct for the knife type and task means just as much.

I do it in all aspects of sharpening, from stones and hand sharpening to strops and compound. Even my Tormek or belt sander, I'm always trying to think of a way to get better results.
 
No!!!
Even different blades on the same knife, just yesterday I reground a case medium stockman.
The main blade got my now standard multipurpose edge, finished with light passes on a dmt coarse and 10 passes on a strop at around 15 dps
Sheepsfoot got a 10-12 dps finished on a Spyderco medium ceramic with none to minimal stropping
Modified Spey blade 7-10 dps polished with Spyderco fine ceramic and 15-20 passes on a strop for whittling and rounded shoulders of the bevel for better penetration on the wood.

If I’m at home I love the finish of a translucent Arkansas on my 1095 whittling blades or my taramundi carbon steel (even super blue too) any fine grained high achievable sharpness steel
Super blue shines on Japanese waterstone over 8000
154cm on a minigriptilian gained my respect once I reground the primary and finished off 325DMT without stropping
Case’s cv shines off of an Spyderco medium ceramic or a dc4 25micron diamond(although sometimes is hard to clean up the apex).
My leatherman wave that I use for dirty jobs at work usually gets a quick touch up at 15-18 degrees per side dmt coarse/fine quick 5 passes on the strop.

Cheers Mateo
 
All great comments and I couldn’t agree more. You probably wouldn’t want the same edge or angle on your camp knife as on your EDC or your favorite kitchen knife.… IMHO
All the possibilities is what keeps it interesting!
Al
 
It's not just you. I've been using different sharpening systems for a while. Bench stones, WorkSharp WSKTS, paper wheels, Kalamazoo 1SM belt sander, Edge Pro Professional, Edge Pro Apex, Edge Pro BevelTech. I've always had the idea in my head that I wanted to sharpen knives as a side business but I mainly do it for myself, family, and friends. Just not enough time. For thicker and longer blades, I like using my Kalamazoo 1x42 belt sander. It also makes fast work for cheap kitchen knives. For pocket folders, I like using my Edge Pro. For Japanese kitchen knives, I use my Shapton Glass Stones or Atoma diamond plates. This is where I get more enjoyment and I find it relaxing sharpening freehand. It's a never ending journey.
 
Not really and if the steel does not like the geometry I sharpen then I don't use that steel.

And while I do have a number of water stones that I like, but they don't like 10V, I have mainly been using diamond stones for a while now.

I do save the Venevs for my favorite personal knives.
 
I’d like to standardize but where’s the fun in that? I’m trying the DMT Aligner with bench stones with some success now.
 
me2 said:
I’d like to standardize but where’s the fun in that?
Click to expand...

Easy. It's in all the time and effort you save for other things by keeping it simple.
 
I try to get all my angles about the same, but my finishing stone will be different. If I am cutting a lot of zip ties or weed eater string I will only finish to 400 grit. If I am going to be cutting a lot of vegetables, around a 600 or 1000. A lot of meat 2500+. Sushi then 5000 or 8000. I have a 10000 stone but the sushi guy I sharpen for did not like it off that stone.
 
For years I played in the sharpening stone rabbit hole but eventually the thrill of sharpening knives lost its sparkle, now it feels like a job and I like to have the best edge in the least amount of time.

Also when I bought a BESS that eliminated many stones as I was able to put a quantitative number to keeness and eliminated stones that were not refining the edge to the level I felt they should.
 
I definitely use different angles. On my smaller and pocket knives, I go thin as I possibly can. When the edge doesn't hold up, I then try a micro bevel, and if that doesn't work, I'll thicken the edge angle slightly. I have found over the years that softer steels such as VG10 (in Cold Steel VG10) don't hold up well to low angles, but high hardness steels tend to do much better.
 
I use the same stones, strops, and procedure with all my knives. I do vary the angle based on the angle of the factory edge. I don't usually deviate much from the factory edge angle. I don't like big, wide cutting bevels and if the blade is thick behind edge, dropping the angle a bunch isn't going to make it "slicey".
 
Tensaw said:
if the blade is thick behind edge, dropping the angle a bunch isn't going to make it "slicey".
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A good observation. Knives like this will benefit more from regrinding the blade, which can be done either by reducing the shoulders on one's chosen stones (I'd prefer diamond for this, starting at no higher than 600 grit, preferably 400), or by taking it to the grinder and doing the whole bevel from the spine (or flats, such as in the case of a saber or scandi grind) to the edge.
 
I’ve reground a couple of knives and it helps a lot. My saber ground Delica was thin enough I was able to rebevel it to 12 dps frkm 17 dps with just a 1000 grit King stone.

Most of my knives are about 12 dps while my edc knives are split between 12/15 and 17/20 dps for main and microbevels. With these new Naniwa stones I’m trying out edc and kitchen knives without microbevels. If I wanted to standardize I’d lower all of them to the lowest angle I could with my DMT Aligner clamp on the Naniwa stones and call it a day. I am somewhat looking forward to resharpening my bush knife and evening out the bevel. I’ve been sharpening it freehand as it is too big for even sharpening on my sharpening blocks and Sharpmaker.
 
I got a couple knives re-ground from Tom Krein in the early 2000's. One is a Spyderdo Caly 3 in VG10. It does great, but because it's at about 58HRC, I have to be careful to not cut into hard things with too much force. Once I got the same knife in ZDP 189, I wanted to see how that would perform, as it should be much stronger. But by then, Tom was getting too busy to accept regrinds.
 
sodak said:
I got a couple knives re-ground from Tom Krein in the early 2000's. One is a Spyderdo Caly 3 in VG10. It does great, but because it's at about 58HRC, I have to be careful to not cut into hard things with too much force. Once I got the same knife in ZDP 189, I wanted to see how that would perform, as it should be much stronger. But by then, Tom was getting too busy to accept regrinds.
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Re: ZDP-189...

You might've dodged a bullet in not regrinding yours.

I learned the hard way, in making the edge grind thinner on a Kershaw Leek in ZDP-189. It's known for being very wear resistant with a ton of chromium carbides. But at the hardness levels it's typically taken to - at mid-60s HRC - it's also known to be more brittle. I broke the tip of my Leek on a strop after it dug into the substrate. And this was immediately after I'd reground the edge to narrower geometry on a DMT plate using an Aligner guide. Edge looked GREAT when I was finished with that. And minutes later, the tip broke. After seeing this happen and going to the trouble to regrind the tip profile, I'm now reluctant to use it for any hard use tasks. I think ZDP-189 is definitely one of those steels that needs its own sharpening strategy, keeping its unique limitations in mind.

With the broken tip:
Rl1NKOp.jpg


After regrinding the tip profile down from the spine side:
adywiOx.jpg
 
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