First time reprofiliing a knife~sebenza, need advice & tips

Bladenoobie1

Bladenoobie1

Joined
Jul 20, 2012
Messages
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Tomorrow, I will be receiving a set of shapton glass stones to replace my sandpaper and glass rig I have going.

The main reason behind buying them, to have a better set of sharpening gear and to reprofile my sebenza. Now don't get me wrong, I'm no stranger to freehand sharpening its I have never actually found the need to reprofile a knife.

That said, is there anything I need to care for or tips to aid me in my reprofiling endeavor? The sebenza at the moment has a slight convex factory bevel and its my aim to give it somewhere in the 35-40 degrees inclusive V-ground edge.

The starbenza being a relatively pricey knife, is something I don't want to mess up the edge on. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


- Bladenoobie1
 
Does it look convex? Every CRK I have seen just has a normal V grind. Yes, I know they say its convex but I have yet to see it.
 
When I put the edge to a 2000 grit sandpaper it feels slightly convex and when I reflect light against the bevel, light doesn't catch the entire bevel at once
 
You're a braver man than me. Well, maybe not, it just took me a lot of hand wringing to finally bring a stone to that perfect edge.

If you otherwise know what you're doing, you'll be fine. Though I think you'll be surprised at how easy it is to sharpen that s35vn if you've never done it. Feels more like carbon steel than Spyderco to me.
 
There is a chance that you will find the slightly convex factory edge to vary in sharpening angle, that is it will be around 30 (ish) degrees at the heel of the blade and turn into around 35 (ish) degrees from the belly to the tip.
At least that has been my experience when reprofiling & sharpening Sebenza's for various Dutch forum members, as i measure each one before and after sharpening with my Tormek angle gauge.
Most of the time i reprofile them to an also slightly convex +/- 25 degrees inclusive edge from heel to tip with my grit 60 Rubber Wheel, refine with grit 180 Rubber Wheel, and then remove the burr on the Tormek leather wheel, and according to the feedback i get the owners seem happy with the resulting edges.

This is a left-hand Sebenza with it's new edge i did a few months ago.
These kind of narrow edges are notoriously difficult to photograph with my cheapie camera, but at least it should give you some idea.



 
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Well without much advice I just dove into reprofiling once I received the stones. With the 500, 1k, 4k grit progression I'm moderately pleased as I produced a slightly toothy edge that can push cut and definitely slice phone book paper. I'm unable to get a hair whittling edge though. And the difference of the edge with and without the strop is immense to say the least.

My only questions are:

1) Whats a good diamond strop paste & strop to use following the 4k shapton glass
~After stropping on a stropman strop + the green compound they have on their site, the finish of the edge goes from near mirror, to polished satin
2) How do you clean the high grit glass stones
~ With the 500, and 1k metal swarf is easily washed off. On the 4k, if I just the same pressure as I used on the 500 and 1k, I get some glazing.
 
1) 4k = about 3micron. So to do a proper progression you would want to do 1 micron formula on a strop. Cow leather is not really an ideal strop. It is often time too thick and can wrap up over the edge and round it off. I would get some 1.0 micron cbn spray or emulsion from ken schwartz and use that on kangaroo leather or balsa.

2) You need either the shapton diamond lapping plate $$$$$$$$$$$
or another diamond plate system , say an atoma 140 or dmt xxc
 
A cheaper alternative is the diamond film from ken schwartz. You can get those in a 1 micron variation on 3x8. No idea how they last though.
If you want to go sharper why not the 8k shapton glass?
 
Cost is a factor, and I could use a better strop. Anyhow, the edge from the 1k, 4k glass is good enough, I just need a strop that can finish it well.
 
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