esee/rat knives hard to sharpen

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nc527

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Mar 22, 2009
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I have 2 rat knives, a rc-3 and rc-6. I also have a knife in just about every other steel, from aus-8 to 440v. In my experience, the esee 1095 is alot harder to sharpen then even the 440v. I use a spyderco sharpmaker, and even after perhaps spending 30 min on my rc-3 with it, it isnt nearly as sharp as my spyderco native in 440v that I sharpened 2 days ago. Any hints for me as to sharpening rats/esee knives with a sharpmaker?
 
ESEE knives are sharpened by hand at the factory and therefore may not be exact angles. Blacken the edge with a sharpie pen and take a few swipes on the Spyderco. Check if you are actually getting the edge or just the shoulder. You might have to reprofile one side or both to get the angle that you want.
 
smustian said:
ESEE knives are sharpened by hand at the factory and therefore may not be exact angles. Blacken the edge with a sharpie pen and take a few swipes on the Spyderco. Check if you are actually getting the edge or just the shoulder. You might have to reprofile one side or both to get the angle that you want.
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great idea about the sharpie.. thank you, i should have thought of that
 
440v is sooooo much harder to sharpen than 1095, so something has to be going wrong. In fact, 1095 is pretty easy IMO. Definitely try what smustian said :thumbup:
 
Well, I must be lucky because my HEST, IZULA and RC-3 all mate up perfectly to the angle of my Spyderco Sharpmaker. I use the brown rods.
 
nc527, I originally had the same experience as you, now I can get my RATs just as sharp as anything else. I apply less pressure on the 1095 than I do on the other steels (S30V, D2, etc.) and that seemed to make all the difference.
 
smustian said:
ESEE knives are sharpened by hand at the factory and therefore may not be exact angles. Blacken the edge with a sharpie pen and take a few swipes on the Spyderco. Check if you are actually getting the edge or just the shoulder. You might have to reprofile one side or both to get the angle that you want.
Click to expand...

Great idea!
 
I have sharpened my RAT's by hand using either an EZ Lap bench stone, 3x12 inches, 600 or 1200 grit, as well as a handheld Norton stone ever since I started using RAT's.

I have had zero problems entirely.

Gadgets will never teach you how to sharpen your knife and in the event you find yourself traveling with one of those DMT flip-over keychain thingies and a dull knife, what are you supposed to do then?

Make the edge bevel YOURS. Find something which works for you, which YOU can replicate by hand using a rock if you have to.

Smustian is entirely correct about the sharpie idea.

I learned this after taking a rather expensive blade back in my "youth" and "sharpening" above the edge bevel, but leaving a dull blade.

I do have an APEX edge-pro, which works well assuming you can determine where you want to set the blade each and every time. Expensive gizmo, works well if you can leave it set up all the time, else, it's a PITA.

1095 is really one of the easiest steels of knife grade to sharpen, it just takes some practice.

Learning how to do it by hand was entirely liberating and it is not something you force, it is something which happens thru proper mechanics.

Another way to get em clean and fast is to do the sandpaper and strop thing that all the bushcraft guys do, but it's just another tool. It works well, but assumes I'll be traveling with a mousepad or dedicated stick, some sandpaper and a leather strop, some compound.....the pocket Norton stone or EZ Lap hone are very easy and portable with more practice, and if you have to re-bevel your knife, it is yours, right?
 
yep it works for me as well. i also use a plastic 30X jewelers loop to check the edge, along with a black felt tip pen . Sometimes your knife seems super sharp but it turns out to be a wire edge when you use it. Also try stropping your knife.
 
One of the things I have always liked about 1095 steel is its ease of sharpening. It's the hard stainless ones like S30V, ATS-34, and 154CM that give me fits hand sharpening. Maybe J_Roc is on to something. Maybe you're using too much pressure on the RC blades.
 
My ESEE knives are very easy to sharpen. Not sure why you are having trouble. I don't have the factory V grinds anymore though.
 
Does the powder coat finish at the edge of the bevel give you any trouble...gum up the stone or anything like that?
 
i use the DMT 2-sided butterfly. it works fine for me, although it took me awhile to get the hang of hand sharpening. But now I use it for every blade in the house, from the kitchen paring knives to the large kabar.
Just started learning how to use the leather hone to finish the blade off. it did a fantastic job on my -3 (and my paring knives) yesterday. I was having so much fun learning how to use it that I almost used it on my new Izula, which shipped with the hone, but the factory edge looks to pretty....
need to go and use it hard so I can sharpen it...
 
I just did the sharpie trick and after 5 swipes on each side, it had removed all the coating. Im gonna try applieing less pressure and report back.
 
The 1095 used by ESEE and TOPS is the hardest to sharpen 1095 I have ever seen. Even using my full set of DMT stones it can take some time, IMO its more like sharpening O1. I would still consider it easy to sharpen but its not like any 1095 I've seen before.
 
I wonder what went wrong with you but it only took me 5-10 minutes to get a 2 week old edge to razor sharp on a mouse pad and sand paper.
 
Like the others:

Sharpmaker @ 40* will get my RC3, 4, 6 and Izula literally hair-splitting.

I find 1095 easier to sharpen than VG10, CPM 3V, S30V and Infi. Only steel that takes a better edge is SR101...
 
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