First time resharpening griptillian need advice

D

dumbass

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May 1, 2015
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So ive worn down the edge on my griptillian. A week ago i tried to resharpen it. I used sandpaper, 320 grit if i recall correctly. I feel as if i made the half front of the plain edge too thin. The edge still cuts but not as well as the back half of the plain edge. I did use the sharpie method but since im a dumbass i problably didnt get it right and fucked up the profile.

I do have a chip from hammering the blade to cut a 20g piece of galvanized ducting so i need some advice.

Should i try honing my skills and resharpening the blade myself using a tool(under$30) to profile the blade angles to the back half of the plain edge.
Should i send it back to benchmade and lifesharp it?If so do they use preset angles or will they go off of each individual blade sent?
Should i use recommended angles from someone here?

Looks like either way i will eventually have to learn how to sharpen it correctly. So any tool recommendations are welcomed.
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You could always send it out to be professionally sharpened by one of us here or use BM's life sharp service but learning to do it yourself will allow you to always have a sharp knife.

If you have an Ace hardware near you, you can find a standard Coarse/Fine oil stone that will easily handle that knife and its chip. It will yield a coarser edge finish but IMO that works best for that steel. Get a piece of balsa wood, Poplar, or strip of leather and apply Mothers Mag polish (light coat). Makes for a very good and cost effective strop. Denim tacked to a board and covered in Mothers works very well too.

Most areas also have a Woodcraft store which sells a wider range of stones. Mainly Japanese waterstones and DMT diamond plates.
 
Nfd538 said:
Send it to Josh at Razor Edge Knives [emoji106]
Click to expand...

Yea, it will be worth it to have a pro bring it back to life. That's a pretty big chip and being new to sharpening will likely bring problems and a lot of time spent.
 
Personally, I wouldn't want to remove the amount of metal that would be needed to eliminate that chip. That's how blades can disappear quickly.
Angle depends on what you are using it for. Lower angle can yield wicked sharpness but can sacrifice durability.
You probably want to go with 25-30 degrees, but if you've never sharpened before, you should pick up some kitchen knives at Goodwill and practice a good amount on them.

Another good option is to get a mechanical system that allows you to sharpen at a precise & fixed angle.
You can get them for under $30 on the major auction and sales sites.
 
The steel needs to be removed in order to remove the chip, no way around it, the damage is done and it now needs to be repaired.

25-30 inclusive is ok but pretty low, 25-30 degrees per side is too obtuse for any cutting tool. As a general guideline you should always stick around 15-20 degrees per side or 30-40 degrees inclusive. This is the sweet spot of edge geometry.
 
Jason B. said:
You could always send it out to be professionally sharpened by one of us here or use BM's life sharp service but learning to do it yourself will allow you to always have a sharp knife.

If you have an Ace hardware near you, you can find a standard Coarse/Fine oil stone that will easily handle that knife and its chip. It will yield a coarser edge finish but IMO that works best for that steel. Get a piece of balsa wood, Poplar, or strip of leather and apply Mothers Mag polish (light coat). Makes for a very good and cost effective strop. Denim tacked to a board and covered in Mothers works very well too.

Most areas also have a Woodcraft store which sells a wider range of stones. Mainly Japanese waterstones and DMT diamond plates.
Click to expand...

I kind of want to send it back to benchmade and then work with whatever profile they send me back. I figure they know more about knives than i do.

Are there any "value" sharpening tools that have adjustable angles? Those seem kind of foolproof, like i cant fuck it up more.

chopsaki said:
Yea, it will be worth it to have a pro bring it back to life. That's a pretty big chip and being new to sharpening will likely bring problems and a lot of time spent.
Click to expand...

robgmn said:
Personally, I wouldn't want to remove the amount of metal that would be needed to eliminate that chip. That's how blades can disappear quickly.
Angle depends on what you are using it for. Lower angle can yield wicked sharpness but can sacrifice durability.
You probably want to go with 25-30 degrees, but if you've never sharpened before, you should pick up some kitchen knives at Goodwill and practice a good amount on them.

Another good option is to get a mechanical system that allows you to sharpen at a precise & fixed angle.
You can get them for under $30 on the major auction and sales sites.
Click to expand...

I really dont mind the chip all that much. Ill sharpen it as needed to remove the chip. I do not want to remove all the metal at once as there might be more chips in its future.

Im not looking for a razor fine edge. The reason i bought this was to have an all purpose utility knife. I would much rather have something that keeps the edge. With that being said the knife wasnt "super" sharp out of the box. So something equivalent to the factory edge if not just slightly sharper is what i want. I just dont want to sacrifice too much durability for sharpness.I would rather have a tool that will give me adjustable angles if its affordable.

Jason B. said:
The steel needs to be removed in order to remove the chip, no way around it, the damage is done and it now needs to be repaired.

25-30 inclusive is ok but pretty low, 25-30 degrees per side is too obtuse for any cutting tool. As a general guideline you should always stick around 15-20 degrees per side or 30-40 degrees inclusive. This is the sweet spot of edge geometry.
Click to expand...

What exactly do you mean by inclusive?
 
I never understood the "send it back to the maker" mentality, why would you want to send it back to the new guy that just started Monday? Benchmade is notorious for putting out the worst quality factory edges of almost any knife maker. It's a huge shot in the dark IMO.

The oil stone I mentioned can be found at most any hardware, add a DMT aligner clamp and bingo, you have a guided sharpening system that will also teach you the basic hand movements of hand sharpening.

Stone
http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=31986316


Aligner
http://www.amazon.com/DMT-ABG-Aligner-Blade-Guide/dp/B00004WFUR
 
Build a man a fire, he'll be warm for the the night, set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life...

You should sharpen it yourself :D
 
Get Norton Coarse-medium silicon carbide stone, and that is all you need.This stone is inexpensive around 10$ and it will get that chip in no time.
 
You could always have the blade replaced by benchmade. $30 for a satin blade and $40 for a black coated. And you could pick any blade shape you wanted if you wanted to change it up. You only have to pay shipping on the way there. So essentially you could have a new blade for $35 if you didn't mind a satin one. Just a thought.
 
Leave it and use it until it's so dull that you have no choice to sharpen it yourself.

At that point I'd decide whether I was going to sharpen it by taking the edge back thus removing the chip and start fresh or send it to one of the pros here, or benchmade for a reblade.

A chance to think about it I guess... :thumbup:
 
Jason B. said:
I never understood the "send it back to the maker" mentality, why would you want to send it back to the new guy that just started Monday? Benchmade is notorious for putting out the worst quality factory edges of almost any knife maker. It's a huge shot in the dark IMO.

The oil stone I mentioned can be found at most any hardware, add a DMT aligner clamp and bingo, you have a guided sharpening system that will also teach you the basic hand movements of hand sharpening.

Stone
http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=31986316


Aligner
http://www.amazon.com/DMT-ABG-Aligner-Blade-Guide/dp/B00004WFUR
Click to expand...
So you recommend this stone?
I'm tempted to buy one to sharpen up my knives mostly due to the price and having to learn how to freehand sharpen.
Wasn't thinking and ran my CS Recon Tanto through my dads Worksharp and lost that joint between the belly and the tip. >.>
 
Definitely for this one, send it to someone. BM life sharp is cheaper. But you will get better results (product) from someone like mentioned above, (razor edge knives, Jason b, or others).

But don't stop there, start reading about sharpening skills here in the forums. Pick a sharpening system, a bunch of ultra cheap knives to practice on, and start learning edge maintenance.

Anyone that uses their blades to cause the wear you have demonstrated, really should know how to maintain.

Fwiw, my preference is the KME Sharp System, and a Sharpmaker.
 
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