doggone M2HS

N

notos&w

Joined
Jul 17, 2002
Messages
650
ive got a BM 910 w/ M2HS that i cannot, for the life of me, get hair popping sharp. i have no trouble w/ VG10 and 154CM or less steels but this knife has me confounded. i hate to send it in for sharpening (and be w/o it for so long) but i cant get what i consider a satisfactory edge.
my question: is there something peculiar about M2 that prevents it from taking a great edge or is the fault in my sharpening? ive spent quite a lot of time working this on both the grey and whites stones of the Sharpmaker 204. i have no trouble w/ other steels as previously mentioned. i have it shaving sharp but it pulls and does not stop on a fingernail like a really sharp knife does.
any other suggestions about this steel?
thanks for your input.
 
The M2 High Speed is really hard to sharpen..

This doesn't look sound but I usually get a hair shaving sharpness with the gray profile than the white one.

I usually just use the gray profile stone and be satisfied with the sharpness, meaning it can shave hair and it also bites on the nails.

When I use the white profile stone, I get nothing, it seems that it dulls the knife evenmore.
 
Did you spend a long time working it on the Sharpmaker? My new Queen pen knife with a D2 blade seemed impossible to get sharp with the sharpmaker too. Trying the "Sharpie" test of coloring the blade bevel with a black marker showed me one edge was ground at a wider angle and my strokes on the Sharpmaker had been spent trying to reprofile that side. Without the diamond rods for the Sharpmaker, it took a LOT of strokes to get to where I was sharpening down to the edge of the D2.


I'm still waiting for a set of diamond rods I ordered for the Sharpmaker. At first, I thought they were too pricey, but now I can see how handy they'll be for the tougher steels.

Take it easy,
Bob
 
It's off the topic of this thread but I've had trouble getting my new Queen sharp too. :(
 
For very hard steels like S60V, S90V, D2, you may be better off using a diamond hone. They are available from numerous companies such as DMT. If you already have a sharpmaker, you can buy the diamond triangular sticks for the sharpmaker as well. They are a bit pricey though. The fine (white stones) are not going to take off as much steel as the medium (grey stones) on the sharpmaker especially with really hard D2.

Check out the latest blade magazine (blade show issue) and you will see some of the diamond hones available. Some of the newer ones have preset angles and are really easy to use.

Good Luck.
 
thanks for the help. i have spent a lot of time on the stones but i was using the white ones. ill try the grey ones next time. the knife is pretty sharp now but not 'scary sharp.'
i did not keep the BM angle, knowing i wanted to use the 204. i understand this should take time but ive spent at least 2 hours working on it.
oh well, ill try the grey. thanks
 
Look on the bright side, when you do get it reprofiled you'll be in business. I use the Edgepro to reprofile all my knives and the two I own with M2 took a bit longer to initially sharpen. Now that it's sharpened it keeps a wicked egde. :D

Bruce
 
3M makes SiC lapping film that can be had at http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/indextool.mvc?prodid=ST-MAF.XX for around 2 bucks a sheet. With its pressure sensitive adhesive, you can stick it to a Sharpmaker rod instead of paying $50-80 for the diamond ones. It'll feel slick quickly, but there will still be plenty of carbides left to cut down your steel.

M2 will sharpen quickly with a flat stone, but takes seemingly forever to reprofile with the Sharpmaker. That said, M2 steel that's been highly polished on the Sharpmaker's UF hones is a great, long-lasting edge.
 
I've been using plain old sandpaper wrapped around a Sharpmaker rod for a while now. I've been experimenting with grits, and I've found that 100-grit paper can greatly speed up establishment of the bevel, but often leaves the edge in a poor condition that takes a while to fix with higher grits of sandpaper.

I'm starting to use 220 grit to keep the edge from getting all chipped, and pulling up the stone to keep the edge from slicing off the abrasive stuff on the sandpaper.

I mainly use the flats since the high pressure at the corners will quickly remove the abrasive material.
 
so what would you suggest i buy? 220 to start and 400 to finish? or do i need a finer grit than that?
thanks
 
I just use the 220-wrapped Sharpmaker rod as a poor-man's diamond rod. Works quickly, but not as quickly as say, 150-grit. However I don't like how the grits lower than 220 will flake and kind of scuff up the shoulder area right above the bevel grind, so I tend to sacrifice a bit of speed for a nice-looking bevel.

Once the bevel has been established, I use the grey stone, white stone, then strop. I've noticed that even 2000-grit sandpaper wrapped around a stone gives a more toothy edge than an edge finished with the Sharpmaker whites. It also feels qualitatively different from finishing on the grey rods. Try it out though, you might like how it feels.

With cheap sandpaper, there's no more worrying about screwing up diamond stones.
 
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