Happyness is a 204 with ultrafine rods, and a dull knife...

[Muppet]

Just finished touching up my S30V Native. Wasn't very dull. Tried the ultra fine rods at 30 degrees to finish up, rather than the usual forty degrees, so now the entire edge of the blade, a good 2mm of steel has this gorgeous mirror finish.

Needless to say it cuts rather well too.

It's the simple things in life, let me tell you.

 

[Hateman]

No $#^!!, you're right. I got some UF rods a while ago and I've been touching up a lot of my blades just for the mirror polish and that higher level of sharpness the rods bring. Wait until you get an old beater an bring it back to a scary sharpeness with a mirror polish.

 

[Lost Jaguar]

I learned a valuable lesson when I got the UF rods. I was often frustrated by the length of time it took to complete the sharpening process. Having the UF and diamond rods made me realize I was moving too soon to the finer rods in the sharpening sequence. Now I get the best edge I can on the coarse rods before moving on to the finer ones. I reserve the UF rods for the final dressing, or for maintaining edges that are just short of "scary."

 

[Muppet]

Yeah, there's a lot to this 204 business. I haven't watched the video (no VHS) but I keep learning new stuff, like how different steels seem to behave really differently.

AUS 8 seems to form burrs that never go away for me, they just bend back and forward and back and forward. S30V gets these tiny, tiny burrs, just visible in the glint of the light on one side of the blade and they won't go until I clean the rods... stuff like that.

Some people would say I need a hobby, but y'all know I already have one ;-)

 

[JD Spydo]

Say Muppet I got a cure for your burrs. Just get you a good quality ( barber grade) leather strop. When I get a burr on any of my blades during or after the sharpening process I just strop them very heartily and usually they go away. Also you can get your blade to where it will either shave hair off your arms or slice through paper easily and then go full bore on the Ultra Fine stones. I do recommend that everyone who has this kit get the Diamond and Ultra Fine both to go with it. This is undoubtedly the very best knife sharpening kit on the market barr-none. Hope that helps.