Gave an old friend a facelift, SHINY!

jonnymac44

jonnymac44

Joined
Sep 27, 2007
Messages
7,680
Well, the Vapor II was the very first Kershaw I ever owned. It was given to me by my younger brother over 12 years ago, and it's the knife that started my passion for collecting Kershaws. Maybe since it was my first I should have left it alone, but the pimp was calling and I had to have some fun with it. I like beadblast, but thought I'd breath some shiny new life into this old workhorse.

I started by disassembling the knife and soaking all the spacers and screws in some solvent to clean off the many years of use, then went to work on the handle slabs, the blade, and the clip. Started with a wire brush on the dremel, then 400 grit, 800 grit, 1500 grit (just a mix of what was lying around the garage), then finished it off with some buffing compound on the felt wheel with the dremel and a wipedown with a soft cloth. It's not perfect yet, but you get the idea so far. I've never seen a shiny Vapor before, so this is new. I kinda like it.

Next, I'll begin the darksiding ritual on the old dog and see where it ends up:D

Whatcha guys think?
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That is looking good. The AUS 6A steel in that knife can get pretty sharp. It's got a pretty good grain structure. It's a better steel than some give it credit for.

I wouldn't get too far on the darkside with it as that can be hard on knives sometimes. This one has sentimental value to it so a good, hair popping sharpening should be about all it needs.

That wet/ dry sandpaper for cars is what I use on the knives. It looks good when you get it up to the finish you took it too. It makes me want to clean up some knives like that. but when I tried that last week on an old garage sale kitchen knife my shoulder reminded me I'm still not healed yet. Joe
 
The Vapor is such a beautiful design anyway, it really deserved the treatment you gave it, a really nice job for an excellent EDC.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
The Vapor is such a beautiful design anyway, it really deserved the treatment you gave it, a really nice job for an excellent EDC.
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Thanks everybody for the comments:thumbup: I've got many Kershaws that are "higher end", but I still love this old Vapor II.

Joe, thanks for the advice. I won't go too crazy with it;)
 
Looks good Johnnymac. This kind of stuff really makes me think that polishing a Leek is a good ideal, but not to sure my "pimp hand" is that strong. :D
 
Nice job.

BTW, Ken's only been w/Kershaw for about 10 years now. Nowhere near 12 years though.
 
I think it looks great JM! As Joe mentioned, AUS 6A is a very good steel, but I'd be careful about how far you go with this one...sentimental value and all that stuff. Personally, 30 primary with a 40 secondary would be all I'd do.

But the polish job looks beautiful! I'd be proud to carry that one in my Sunday go to meetin duds!
 
Looks great Johnny. I don't own a Vapor, but I think Kershaw's AUS-6 steel is one of the best. Nice user :thumbup:
 
imp said:
Nice job.

BTW, Ken's only been w/Kershaw for about 10 years now. Nowhere near 12 years though.
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:oI can remember when my lil brother gave it to me, and it sure seems like that long ago, but I could be wrong. I was working a couple jobs and starting to have kids at the time, so many things are a bit fuzzy from that era;)
 
"Darksiders" are those steel nuts that spend hours, even days, thinning out the blade edge geometry to get the sharpest possible edge. Most Kershaws come from the factory with a 40 degree inclusive edge angle (the CB Shallot came with a beautiful 30 degree bevel!). Depending on the properties of the steel, thinner cutting edges improve the performance of the blade. Steel such as ZDP and SG2 work a lot better with thinner edges. So a "re-profiling" on these blades just enhances their cutting ability.

A compound bevel is where you put two separate angles on the cutting edge. Assuming you use a Sharpmaker, start by taking the entire edge bevel to 30 degrees inclusive by using the 30 degree settings (15 degrees on each side), and then put a small secondary bevel of 40 degrees (20 degrees on each side) at the very edge of the cutting edge. This gives you a very thin yet durable cutting edge. The primary bevel is 30 degrees, and the secondary bevel is 40 degrees.

Take a look at this illustration on Wikipedia. It shows six common blade grinds. The compound or double bevel is shown as #5. It will give you a good idea of what the cutting edge looks like when a compound bevel is put on a blade.
 
SPXTrader said:
A compound bevel is where you put two separate angles on the cutting edge. Assuming you use a Sharpmaker, start by taking the entire edge bevel to 30 degrees inclusive by using the 30 degree settings (15 degrees on each side), and then put a small secondary bevel of 40 degrees (20 degrees on each side) at the very edge of the cutting edge. This gives you a very thin yet durable cutting edge. The primary bevel is 30 degrees, and the secondary bevel is 40 degrees.
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This is exactly what I did with my Sebbie. 30 on the Edgepro then a very fine 40 on the Sharpmaker. Finished off with some stropping on a course then fine leather strop, no compound.

This has produced a remarkably good slicing knife.
 
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