Fast reprofiling with a diamond benchstone on regular steels?

Push harder.

I have not used the Norton but from what I hear it work well despite dishing quickly. Not my first choice of waterstones though.
 
knifenut1013 said:
Push harder.

I have not used the Norton but from what I hear it work well despite dishing quickly. Not my first choice of waterstones though.
Click to expand...

+1

Also using a diamond plate to raise a slihtly slurry can help make a slower grit stone slightly more aggresive. Id suggest rinising the slurry off and going with pure stone and lots of water for the last couple passes though.
 
knifenut1013 said:
Push harder.

I have not used the Norton but from what I hear it work well despite dishing quickly. Not my first choice of waterstones though.
Click to expand...

Well, I think this is the first time I have seen someone be told to use more pressure when sharpening. I will try it out and let you guys know.
Thanks for the response on the Norton. I happened to see it when I was looking at the Crystolon. The water was in my price range. Maybe someday I will have enough money to try out a couple of good water stones. But for now, I can't see myself dropping $100+ per stone.

Sadden, would you mind explaining the slurry process in more detail.
 
Well, interestingly, I tried out what you said Knifenut. I had a Pakistan knife as the test subject. My fingers hurt but, wow, that cut a bevel quickly. I mean 15 minutes and I have an almost finished bevel. The bevel is not finished but it is as close to finished as the Moki.
 
Slurry is something that helps in waterstone sharpening. You can use the slurry/mud to polish the sharpened bevel and a skilled sharpener can use it to refine the scratch pattern further than the stones grit rating.
 
knifenut1013 said:
Slurry is something that helps in waterstone sharpening. You can use the slurry/mud to polish the sharpened bevel and a skilled sharpener can use it to refine the scratch pattern further than the stones grit rating.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I know one of the guys on this forum is myedgy on youtube. Can't remember who it is though. One of the first videos I watched when I started freehanding was his video on reprofiling a Three Sister Forge Beast on water stones. Got a little bit of an introduction to water stone from him.
 
Bugout Bill said:
What would make a Norton Waterstone (or Crystolon) better for reprofiling AUS-8 than a XC DMT?
Click to expand...

It's the mixing of stone and steel, some steels don't play well with some "stones". For a steel with high wear resistance diamonds are great and cut the steel quickly, for softer steels its always been my experience that the diamond "clog" and are simply slow at removing metal on simple steels.

Having a coarse stone is important but just any coarse stone doesn't mean you will remove metal quickly. If one size fit all we wouldn't have so many stones to pick from :)
 
Squashfan said:
Thanks. I know one of the guys on this forum is myedgy on youtube. Can't remember who it is though. One of the first videos I watched when I started freehanding was his video on reprofiling a Three Sister Forge Beast on water stones. Got a little bit of an introduction to water stone from him.
Click to expand...


That would be me.
 
One more question. Would you get the SiC stone or just stick to the Alum Oxide? I am thinking really hard about sticking with the Alum Oxide stone.
 
If you can afford a knife to sharpen, you can afford a silicon carbide two-sided hone to re-bevel it with. I have two no-namers I paid $3 apiece for that have rebevelled thick bladed 440C(old HT Buck), 1095, and 154CM, all in a few minutes apiece. There is not a knife steel I'm acquainted with they won't cut. You can splurge and blow $20 or so for a Norton SiC, if you like. You should be able to rebevel the steels you mentioned with the coarse side of your AlO hone. It is, BTW, called an oilstone for a reason. The people who made it know that oil will float metal swarf better than water, preventing the stone from clogging, or , at least, slowing the clogging process. Use what you like. I dislike snorting metal particles, so I use a lubricant. As far as your short-stroking on the stone, if you're rolling the blade as much as you indicate, it is too early to lengthen your stride. Short strokes are easier to control, IMO, because they introduce a minimum of the inescapable body geometry. Your body parts move in arcs. This is why hand sharpening yields some degree of convexity. There are several pros here that use short strokes in their videos. They seem unbothered. Work on controlling your movements and minimizing the unintentional curvature you described. And, as has already been mentioned, the low-carbide, finer-grained steels you have definitely seem to prefer stones over diamonds, which seem to tear the metal to shreds. As always, feel absolutely free to disbelieve any and all opinions you find here and elsewhere. Experiment for yourself and tell us what happens. That's how we learned, be it a little or a lot. Have fun; it ain't life or death.
 
Last edited:
Squashfan said:
Do you have any technique suggestions for making a alum oxide stone work faster? Also, is the Norton 220/1000 grit water stone any good?

Thanks,
Charles
Click to expand...


The first thing that comes to mind reading the OP is that your alumOx stone might be getting clogged or glazed. In 3-5 hours you could likely not only do a serious angle change, but convert a sabre grind to a full convex by hand, at least on the listed steels. I highly recommend using mineral oil or some other medium to light weight oil. If the stone soaks it up too fast rub a thin amount of vaseline into the surface first.

Also agree with DM, the alumox stone can do it on those steels, but a silicon carbide stone, used with oil, will work faster. For this sort of work, even an ACE hardware stone will work well - they are of good quality and a bit more coarse than the Norton. I also agree with some of the sentiments cautioning about deeper gouges. I have a big Norton machine stone that looks to be about 60 grit but I seldom use it as it makes too many of those deeper scratches, even if used with oil.

I also use a short pass with a scrubbing motion and can remove plenty of steel with speed if need be. Obsessed has good advice about working on a 45 rake angle across the stone.

I like my Norton waterstones, but the 220 not so much. It releases so much grit and holds no water - is for lighter work than this IMHO. When I use mine, I make sure its completely dry and just dust it off from time to time.

You could also go the sandpaper route. Wrapped tight around a hard surface it will work very aggressively - could even wrap it around the fine side of your alumox stone. On my Washboard I've converted a Fiskars hatchet from a shallow V bevel to a full convex starting with 180 sandpaper - would have preferred 120 but hardware store didn't have any in stock. Made sure to use a pink eraser on the paper every dozen-twenty passes - about as often as I'd splash a waterstone to remove the swarf and loose binder/abrasive. Paper still looks like new and entire job took under 45 minutes from first pass to stropping on paper. Also lower the angle on a D2 blade in about 25 minutes from start to strop, starting with 325 grit paper. A good progression of wet/dry can do a lot of work and clean it up very quickly. Key is to use a coarse enough sheet that you can keep your pressure fairly light, and clean it often - this the key to doing lots of work with any media - keep it clean. That removed steel (and to a lesser extent removed bits of abrasive) are having an effect, often negative when it comes to fastest grinding.

Martin
 
I reprofiled few of my cold steel folders really fast with folding dmt coarse grit.Got shaving sharp tothy edge just using light strokes.took me about 20 min.Light pressure is the key with diamonds.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top