Elmax Advice

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Jun 25, 2012
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Ok, so I recently picked up a 2/2014 Microtech Ultratech single edge drop point in satin finish Elmax. I love everything about the knife so far, and this is my first knife with an Elmax blade. The first thing I did was reprofile to roughly 20 degrees per side, maybe a little less, with my extra course DMT diafold (200 mesh), then worked my way through the course (325 mesh) and fine (600 mesh) diafolds. I decided to stop after a careful, light pressure run with the extra fine (1200 mesh) diafold rather than move on to the extra extra fine (8000 mesh) diafold for two reasons: (1) the blade was already scary sharp by then, and (2) the extra fine diafold seems to give me a better polish than the extra extra fine for some weird reason. I have several homemade bench strops (HA Bark tanned cowhide mounted to 3x11 MDF), one with HA 1 micron boron carbide paste, one with HA 0.25 micron 21 carat diamond spray, one with Ken's 0.125 micron CBN spray, and one with Ken's 0.025 polydiamond spray, however I decided not to strop because I liked the way the edge felt just the way it was. Anyway, this morning at work I pulled out the knife and cut a piece of regular copy paper with it just for fun. When I cut the paper a second time, there was a barely noticeable difference in drag near the top portion of the blade. I stopped, felt the edge, and found what I can only desribe as a burr or roll on a small section of the edge. I couldn't help but think, are you kidding me? Copy paper? What gives? At the risk of sounding inexperienced, did I perhaps reprofile at too acute of an angle or is Elmax just that fragile? I can't imagine it would be, even at more acute angles than that. Almost a year ago I reprofiled my S30V L.U.D.T. to like 11 degrees per side, then stropped it all the way to 0.025 polydiamond and never once had anything like this happen. Anyone have any experiences like this or know what's going on here? Thanks in advance.
 
Just de-burr/wire-edge and enjoy. Elmax can easily take angle as low as 12.5dps. Sure, you can take angle down to 10-12dps but it won't be durable for edc.
 
I thought so! I knew I wasn't going crazy. Considering the tools I have, would you recommend I strop with with 1 mic BC paste to deburr or should I go finer?
 
Not much to lose (but burr - hahaha), yeah try 1um then progress to finer if needed. I prefer a deterministic route to deburr & remove wire-edge. I fold the burr/wire-edge over then cut it off use edge-leading stroke. Here is my video posted while back - http://youtu.be/l2ynSDYEUYI
 
Elmax produces a very small burr so as been said it was likely the issue.

I would recommend the fine or EFine with just a light strop, this steel seems to like a medium-fine edge best and I also find it responds a bit better to waterstones. Remember, a light touch is your best friend in minimizing burr formation.
 
Also sounds like your EEF isn't broken in yet which is why the EF produces a nicer finish. It's not unheard of for people to find this as a problem until they break it in.
 
I agree with Bob6794. I have the EEF, and those things are a bastard to get broken in. It seems to be getting gradually better as I use it, but it still produces rough looking edges. Anyways, I have noticed that elmax can take an extremely fine edge, but it also has a tendency to develop a near invisible burr.
 
knifenut1013 said:
Elmax produces a very small burr so as been said it was likely the issue.

I would recommend the fine or EFine with just a light strop, this steel seems to like a medium-fine edge best and I also find it responds a bit better to waterstones. Remember, a light touch is your best friend in minimizing burr formation.
Click to expand...

My results seem to agree, all I finish my custom Elmax blade on is a 600 mesh DMT and a light stropping and it's excellent.
 
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