Ffg bk15?

[daizee]

That's darn acute. I'm not opposed to a micro bevel or small secondary, but I certainly wasn't thinking 4 degrees. I wouldn't be opposed to 10-12 degrees.

Well, I think there are two approaches to achieve 10-12.
One: simply sharpen the shoulder at that angle until you achieve a wider, more acute edge bevel (both sides, of course)
Two: do what you propose: flat-grind until zero and then whack a small 10-12deg edge bevel on both sides.

#1 is easy and quick.
#2 will require a LOT of grinding on hardened steel

#2 will produce a finer *edge* at the cost of a more obtuse primary grind (you'd essentially be making the blade narrower)

#1 will be a bit thicker in the lower half of the blade, but will increase its thickness more gradually

Ultimately they'd be the same thickness at the spine/swedge/max-thickness point.

Personally, I'd make an entirely new knife from scratch before attempting to FFG that much hardened steel, but I'm obtuse like that.

 

[Brew-Jitsu]

Well, I think there are two approaches to achieve 10-12.
One: simply sharpen the shoulder at that angle until you achieve a wider, more acute edge bevel (both sides, of course)
Two: do what you propose: flat-grind until zero and then whack a small 10-12deg edge bevel on both sides.

#1 is easy and quick.
#2 will require a LOT of grinding on hardened steel

#2 will produce a finer *edge* at the cost of a more obtuse primary grind (you'd essentially be making the blade narrower)

#1 will be a bit thicker in the lower half of the blade, but will increase its thickness more gradually

Ultimately they'd be the same thickness at the spine/swedge/max-thickness point.

Personally, I'd make an entirely new knife from scratch before attempting to FFG that much hardened steel, but I'm obtuse like that.

Guess it doomed from the start. C'est la vie....

 

[inkynate]

I've brought my 15 down significantly by hand using various coarse stones and some 100 grit sandpaper on the back of an old DMT plate.

It takes some time, but nothing crazy and well worth it, imo. I am not trying to plane down the whole swedge though, just zero it down from the swedge thickness to the edge. It is mostly there now, but it has some slight convexing down to the 15 dps bevel I put on it.

 

[Brew-Jitsu]

I've brought my 15 down significantly by hand using various coarse stones and some 100 grit sandpaper on the back of an old DMT plate.

It takes some time, but nothing crazy and well worth it, imo. I am not trying to plane down the whole swedge though, just zero it down from the swedge thickness to the edge. It is mostly there now, but it has some slight convexing down to the 15 dps bevel I put on it.

That does look sweet. How much better is the performance?

 

[inkynate]

It is hard to quantify the performance vs. stock as I removed the coating immediately and didn't have calipers at the time I got it.

Right now, it is 0.008"-0.010" behind the edge pretty much the whole way, but it does thicken up a little at the tip. For perspective, this is about half the thickness on my stock Spyderco South Fork. The SF's s90v might have the upper hand in pure edge retention, but the 15 now exceeds it in cutting performance in terms of drag/force to make cuts. I did some quick comparisons on paper an cardboard and it wasn't close. To be fair, the Becker is also sharper right now since I just did the work on it.

 

[Brew-Jitsu]

It is hard to quantify the performance vs. stock as I removed the coating immediately and didn't have calipers at the time I got it.

Right now, it is 0.008"-0.010" behind the edge pretty much the whole way, but it does thicken up a little at the tip. For perspective, this is about half the thickness on my stock Spyderco South Fork. The SF's s90v might have the upper hand in pure edge retention, but the 15 now exceeds it in cutting performance in terms of drag/force to make cuts. I did some quick comparisons on paper an cardboard and it wasn't close. To be fair, the Becker is also sharper right now since I just did the work on it.

Awesome. Thank you for sharing. It's great to get some info on the comparison, too. I appreciate everyone's redirection on the concept and can now see what limitations are at hand based on the profile.

Nice South Fork, too. :thumbup: