Hard to sharpen

Walt2

Walt2

Joined
Mar 13, 2001
Messages
1,157
I thought I had gotten hold of some tough knives to sharpen before, but I recently completed a small fixed blade in 5160 and sent it to a maker who does heat treat/temper for other people. He said it is in the 58-59RC range. Boy this stuff is h*ll to profile the edge for the first time, even using diamond stones. It is a lot worse than S60V and S90V. This is my first blade to sharpen out of this steel. I hope that how hard it is indicates how it will hold an edge.
 
5160 should not be hard to sharpen. Either the edge profile that he gave you is very obtuse (and you are having to remove an unusually large amount of material) or the edge region of your blade is a lot harder than 58-59RC. If your edge is up above 62 it would really give you a work out (and potentially be brittle). If you got a new Nicholson 6" bastard file you might just be able to get it to bite on your edge bevel at 58-59 RC. If it won't bite at all on the edge try a little on the back of the blade. Look for signs that either the edge or the whole blade is harder than expected. Did your maker actually test the blade or just estimate based on experience?
 
I'm not sure what he did, test it or guess by experience. I left the edge a little thicker than I had intended which made me have to remove quite a bit of metal, but it is hard. A file will bite into it. The fellow who did it does all of TKS carbon steel tempering.
 
If you aren't done yet you might look for a belt sander to rough down your edge. Once you have the angle that you want it should be easy to maintain. It sounds like it is just a profile issue.
 
Jeff, thanks for the link. Interesting reading. I had read some comments by Ed Caffrey in the past and that is what made me try that steel for my first try at making a blade. I finally got it completed and sharpened. I should have thinned it down just a tad more before I sent it for tempering. The blade is slightly convexed and I probably should have put a convex edge, instead of a flat grind bevel. Oh well, try and learn I guess.

Me and my typing errors!!@#%&#$
 
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