Finally got my Large Insingo fully sharp

[Muaddib1116]

I got my Large Insingo second hand, so I don't know how the edge is from the factory, but when I got it, the 3rd of the blade near the tip was pretty dull. I couldn't get it sharp with my sharpmaker, nor with my new leather strop. I realized that the tip of the Insingo is noticeably thicker blade stock near the tip than the rest of the blade. I decided to try something more aggressive, so I put a strip of 800 grit automotive sandpaper on my strop and went to work on the tip 3rd of the blade. It took some work to thin out that section properly, and once it could cut paper decently, I took it all back to the strop and refined it up. It can of course be sharper (my standards are lower than some people's), but I'm happy with it for now, finally.

 

[unit]

Congrats!

800 is pretty aggressive and heading straight to a strop will leave a really toothy edge. Not bad if you like that. Personally, I think CRKs do a little better with a finer grit finish. If you'd like some help, I'd donate the work.

 

[victorf]

My new large Insingo came really dull, 3rd of the blade from tip especially as well! It had an polished convex/inconsistent edge, looked nice but couldn't even cut paper. Probably production line person had spent some time on using the strop after belt sanding the final edge - but who knows.

Knowing base steel is on the soft side, 58/59 of RC, wanted to preserve base steel, so I bypass using my Wicked Edge to re-profile. Using Sharpmaker F then followed with UF ceramic, gentle blade weight pressure only, followed by hand, using WEP diamond paste/balsa strop, edge is still inconsistent but is razor sharp now. Steel is so soft, I found keen edge is easy to get as long as very light pressure is used.

 

[Muaddib1116]

Congrats!

800 is pretty aggressive and heading straight to a strop will leave a really toothy edge. Not bad if you like that. Personally, I think CRKs do a little better with a finer grit finish. If you'd like some help, I'd donate the work.

Thanks Unit. I went from the 800 grit to the rough leather strop loaded with green formax and then finished on the smooth leather strop with green formax. It's maybe a little toothier than I would normally get after using the UF rods on my sharpmaker, but it's fine with me.

My new large Insingo came really dull, 3rd of the blade from tip especially as well! It had an polished convex/inconsistent edge, looked nice but couldn't even cut paper. Probably production line person had spent some time on using the strop after belt sanding the final edge - but who knows.

Knowing base steel is on the soft side, 58/59 of RC, wanted to preserve base steel, so I bypass using my Wicked Edge to re-profile. Using Sharpmaker F then followed with UF ceramic, gentle blade weight pressure only, followed by hand, using WEP diamond paste/balsa strop, edge is still inconsistent but is razor sharp now. Steel is so soft, I found keen edge is easy to get as long as very light pressure is used.

That's really strange, because I couldn't make any progress using the Medium rods on my sharpmaker. I was about to try my diamond rods, but I decided to try out the sandpaper/strop first.

 

[victorf]

My Insingo steel is really soft with its claimed 58/59 RC. That was the reason I avoid WEP to get a better accurate reprofile, but then, I would remove more edge steel then with using the simple SM. I treat soft steel with an light touch, start/test with as aggressive a grit as needed, to avoid pushing bur back and forth - basically get me nowhere - other then unnecessary steel removal. The edge on mine was factory, although dull but took little effort to turn it around.

On my William Henry, with its 67 HRC, laminated ZDP-189, that is another story. But once established angle and lightly done on WEP, its sharp edge just last and last.

Good luck with your sharpening.

 

[FordFan]

My large Insigno was very sharp from the factory. I sharpened it once on my Sharpmaker with good results. Next time I re-profiled on my Wicked Edge. I set the bevel at 19 degrees per side starting with the 600 stones and then went up through 2500 with 1500, 2000 and 2500 being sandpaper taped to the stones. It was very sharp and even a sharper than it was from the factory.

 

[tomsch]

My small insingo needed a reprofile with my edge pro so I could do touch ups on my my Sharpmaker. The steel is similar to 1095 in terms of edge holding with the advantage of being able to touch up very quickly about once a week. My large insingo was ground at < 40 degrees inclusive so no reprofiling needed.