Three days ago my brother came over and handed me his Spyderco Salt in H1 steel to resharpen. The poor Salt was mucked up in tar and the edge was dulled and edge near the tip near destroyed. I could tell it was going to need to be reprofiled.
Turns out my bro had used it to cut tar shingles at a job he was doing after he realized he hadn't had a utility knife with him. The thing is a friend had put a razor sharp convex edge on the Salt a year ago but those stony tar shingles had torn the heck out of the blade. I remembered how last year my brother had told me, "you put a good edge on a knife but my buddy made this Salt wicked razor-sharp". So i set to resharpening the Salt but i wasn't confident that I could restore that wicked edge.
It wasn't as bad once i got the tar off with brake cleaner. The edge was dulled and micro notched but 3/8" of the edge near the tip was gone and would have to be reprofiled.
So i sat at my desk with my book-lamp on and holding my DMT Red/Green folding diamond stone and started pulling my stone 90 degrees to the edge while rocking the stone to follow the convex contour. Then I'd flip the knife over and give a few strokes of the stone to the other side using the same method. This worked OK and got the least damaged area razor-sharp again, but then i found myself doing something different.
I dont know why but as i worked my way towards the tip of the blade, into the more heavily damaged sections of the edge, i started to run the stone lengthwise along the blade as i pulled it while following the convex contour. I was delighted to find that the razor edge was coming back! It was sooo hair popping sharp, too.
To repair the edge near the tip i had to resort to a Blue DMT folding stone to thin out the blade. I used the same rocking/length-wise stroke with the Blue stone trying only to stay over the necessary portion to reprofile. Once it seemed thin enough i switched to the Red DMT.
Honestly, I couldn't quite get that reprofiled edge quite as sharp but it could to take off hairs, just not as easily. But the rest of the edge was razor-sharp again!
So last night i applied the same techniques to my old CRKT 3 inch Mirage, which i had got hair nipping sharp with a stepped or bevelled contour. After a few minutes, with a convex contour, that Mirage has become scary hair popping sharp.
I'm sorry for the long story but I really enjoy applying convex grind now!
Turns out my bro had used it to cut tar shingles at a job he was doing after he realized he hadn't had a utility knife with him. The thing is a friend had put a razor sharp convex edge on the Salt a year ago but those stony tar shingles had torn the heck out of the blade. I remembered how last year my brother had told me, "you put a good edge on a knife but my buddy made this Salt wicked razor-sharp". So i set to resharpening the Salt but i wasn't confident that I could restore that wicked edge.
It wasn't as bad once i got the tar off with brake cleaner. The edge was dulled and micro notched but 3/8" of the edge near the tip was gone and would have to be reprofiled.
So i sat at my desk with my book-lamp on and holding my DMT Red/Green folding diamond stone and started pulling my stone 90 degrees to the edge while rocking the stone to follow the convex contour. Then I'd flip the knife over and give a few strokes of the stone to the other side using the same method. This worked OK and got the least damaged area razor-sharp again, but then i found myself doing something different.
I dont know why but as i worked my way towards the tip of the blade, into the more heavily damaged sections of the edge, i started to run the stone lengthwise along the blade as i pulled it while following the convex contour. I was delighted to find that the razor edge was coming back! It was sooo hair popping sharp, too.
To repair the edge near the tip i had to resort to a Blue DMT folding stone to thin out the blade. I used the same rocking/length-wise stroke with the Blue stone trying only to stay over the necessary portion to reprofile. Once it seemed thin enough i switched to the Red DMT.
Honestly, I couldn't quite get that reprofiled edge quite as sharp but it could to take off hairs, just not as easily. But the rest of the edge was razor-sharp again!
So last night i applied the same techniques to my old CRKT 3 inch Mirage, which i had got hair nipping sharp with a stepped or bevelled contour. After a few minutes, with a convex contour, that Mirage has become scary hair popping sharp.
I'm sorry for the long story but I really enjoy applying convex grind now!
