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First time sharpening, overwhelmed by choices.

B

BaconButcher

Joined
Nov 20, 2014
Messages
54
So, I have a benchmade barrage 581 that I have had laying around since Christmas since I first got it, and it is in m390 steel. I know my knife steels very well, and know that m390 is a very wear resistant steel with a considerable amount of vanadium in it, which leads me to believe that ceramic/diamond stones are the best way to go, however, I dont know the first thing about sharpening. I was planning on getting a spyderco sharpmaker to learn the basics and get some sticks for sharpening various knives I own, then I planned on getting a Fallkniven DC3, as it seems a bang for your buck, and has both ceramic and diamond on different sides. I am planning on staying within a $100 budget (Cant tap into the gun funds!) and I am welcome to various opinions/recommendations to sharpening items good for steels with a high vanadium content (s110v, 10v, m390, etc...)
 
Read the stickies on top. Look for the links in member Jason B.'s sig line regarding first sharpening. Look for youtube videos lastly.

Specific to your post regarding the sharpmaker, make sure the bevel angle is the same as the sharpmaker. I think it has 15 and 20 degree settings. If not, I think you can still use it by offsetting the knife from the vertical as you hone it.
 
The Barrage has an acute blade grind. After reprofiling my Barrage 581 edge to 30 degrees inclusive, its edge shoulders are 0.020 inches wide on average. That acute of a grind, even with a vanadium-rich steel, is easy to sharpen and even reprofile.

Still, I'd recommend diamond stones. The Sharpmaker is not good for reprofiling (and you'll have to reprofile if the edge doesn't come at the proper angle, as Rey says) because it's going to be really, really slow, unless you use a diamond stone or wrap the stones with more aggressive sandpaper.

Although it would be well above your budge, the Wicked Edge system is excellent for reprofiling or fast resharpening.
 
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