How do you sharpen your S30V Para2??

B

Brad the Blade

Joined
Jan 21, 2013
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First post here. Let me introduce myself..."My name is Brad and I'm new to knives"

That being said, take it easy on me if I ask questions that have been covered here.

After not playing with knives since I was a youngster I bought a SOG seal pup elite satin plain edge just cause it looked/looks bad ass! My buddy had the older version 10 years back and I really liked it, I guess that's why I picked it. Countless hours/days/weeks later of online shopping and one at a time I ended up with a CS Recon1, FFG Endura 4, FFG Delica 4, and most recently a Para2 satin plain S30V.

Now to cut to the chase. All other knives came what I would call "pretty sharp". Not the Para2:confused:

How do I sharpen it?

Any suggestions would greatly improve my little to no knowledge on the topic.

Thanks!

Oh and I have a triangle Sharpmaker and ultra fine stones on the way. Good choice??
 
Their are many options, edge pro, wicked edge, worksharp, spyderco sharpmaker, lanksky. Id suggest the sharpmaker, its relatively cheap and gets really great results. Ive never used one, but people rave about the results. Maybe get a few stones and also try practicing freehand. Its worth looking into.
 
FTR-14c I don't have a strop yet but I will be making one soon. Jastab Which angle on Sharpmaker would you use? 30 or 40?
 
A majority of the threads on this forum are about some aspect of getting a knife sharp. There are several stickies at the top that are well worth reading.

Since you are getting a sharpmaker, you will want to watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MHe_8wTHmg

I used this technique to get my first really sharp edges. A word of caution, this can get really addictive. :)

Allen
 
I use my Sharpmaker and just keep it sharp. If you let it get to dull then it's kind of a pain in the butt to put an edge back on S30v steel with the sharpmaker. It took me lots of practice to get good with the sharpmaker just don't give up and I wouldn't practice on your Para 2. Be very careful with the tip on the sharpmaker also. Unless you get the diamond stones the Sharpmaker really should be called the Sharpkeeper. You can put a very sharp edge on even the dullest of knives using the stones it comes with but it will take you a while.
 
Brad the Blade said:
FTR-14c I don't have a strop yet but I will be making one soon. Jastab Which angle on Sharpmaker would you use? 30 or 40?
Click to expand...

Whatever suits your knife needs best. I use a wicked edge and put most of my knives around 18º per side. Just depends on what you want.
 
Brad the Blade said:
First post here. Let me introduce myself..."My name is Brad and I'm new to knives"

That being said, take it easy on me if I ask questions that have been covered here.

After not playing with knives since I was a youngster I bought a SOG seal pup elite satin plain edge just cause it looked/looks bad ass! My buddy had the older version 10 years back and I really liked it, I guess that's why I picked it. Countless hours/days/weeks later of online shopping and one at a time I ended up with a CS Recon1, FFG Endura 4, FFG Delica 4, and most recently a Para2 satin plain S30V.

Now to cut to the chase. All other knives came what I would call "pretty sharp". Not the Para2:confused:

How do I sharpen it?

Any suggestions would greatly improve my little to no knowledge on the topic.

Thanks!

Oh and I have a triangle Sharpmaker and ultra fine stones on the way. Good choice??
Click to expand...

The sharpmaker is better known to most of us here as a tool that helps more toward the finishing side of sharpening. Most sharpening problems for a beginner happen when coarse grinding is skipped and attempts are made to fix a poor base edge with fine stones or strops. Get something coarse to set uniform edge then refine to your liking.
 
Funny story. Big Spyderco fan here. Para II is one of their best designs. When mine came is was flawless...perfect...beautiful...but for one thing. It was without a doubt, the dullest Spyderco I've ever purchased. Right there in the middle of the belly it was just simply not sharp.

I was a little cheesed but a) absolutely everything else was flawless, even the digital camo was cut from a nice piece visually, and b) I always reprofile everything anyway.

So I used my DMT diamond stones and reprofiled the bevel down to 25 degrees inclusive. Then I used the Sharpmaker to give a 40 degree microbevel. Good as gold.
 
If I were to start all over again, with the knowledge I have now, my 'sharpening kit' for S30V might look something like this, shown in order from most important to least:

  • A double-sided Coarse/Fine DMT Duo-Sharp bench hone for setting new bevels (this'll do about 95% of the major work). The larger the better.

  • If not fully comfortable with freehand sharpening, an angle-guided clamp could be used with the bench hone. A DMT Aligner clamp works great in this capacity.

  • A very firm or hard stropping surface (hardwood, or cardboard/paper over glass/stone) and some fairly aggressive compound like diamond or silicon carbide.

  • A ceramic hone would be optional, but could be somewhat useful for very light, quick touch-ups after a good bevel is set. Either medium or fine ceramic would do, and the Sharpmaker could function well in this role.

As mentioned, the Sharpmaker by itself can only do so much (easily or quickly). If the edge bevels aren't in good shape, restoring them on the SM is going to be a very slow & tedious process with S30V, especially if one isn't very comfortable with sharpening in general. I recommended the large diamond bench hone above especially when used with the angle guide, because it'll save a HUGE amount of time & effort in re-bevelling jobs, especially with steels like S30V.


David
 
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I personally don't have any use with a sharpmaker but seeing that EVERYONE has one (except me) and I've never heard anything bad about them, I'd say its a wonderful choice. I don't think that it would be good for reprofiling an edge though. I could be wrong. For keeping a knife sharp though I don't see anything wrong at all with that choice.
I started with a lansky and I had pretty decent results with that, I've since moved to free hand and I'm getting better with that.
One thing I will say is with S30V it has a much higher wear resistance than VG-10 or Aus 8. My para came flawless as well just like HoosierQ's but the knife's sharpeness only rivaled my butter knives. It wouldn't cut anything, a good portion of the edge wasn't even apexed and was reflecting light. So I just reprofiled it that day. I normally dull the factory edge then reprofile. The thing I will note is after being used to sharpening Aus 8 and 8Cr13MoV type steels, I had trouble with S30 because it is a more wear resistant and harder steel. I wasn't staying on one side long enough and starting with a rough enough stone.

-Make sure you start with a rougher stone, then go up to medium and then fine and so on if you please to with whatever system you decide to sharpen with.
-Form a burr along the entire edge of the opposite side you're sharpening but not too big of a burr, that will give you a headache with S30V as I also learned
-Do the same for the other side and once you have a burr on the other side now, move up the grits refining the edge and removing the burr.
-Get the burr off with the stones before stropping too, light pressure with whatever stones you're using. That way you're not tearing up your leather and it makes life easier, the strop will get that last tiny bit of a wire edge off which I've noticed S30 likes to form, in the knives I have at least.

This is just the way I go about it, it may be the worst way to attack it but it works for me. I thought I'd share my learnings with you, being that you say you're kinda new to knives. I hope you enjoy your knives and that they give you many years of usefulness and welcome to the forums!! It is a wonderful place here, I'm fairly new here myself but you will learn so so much if you stay and visit often.
 
I agree with most of what the other folks are saying. With a couple of comments:

- The SharpMaker is definitely a great tool for maintaining already sharp edges - as long as the main bevel on the knife is set at one of the SharpMaker's preset angles (30 or 40 degrees).

- Reprofiling with the SharpMaker isn't really that big of a deal as long as you have the right abrasives and think about what you are doing. Personally, I have purchased a couple of inexpensive 1"x6" sharpening stones (mine are MoldMasters from Congress Tools). I use binder clips to fasten them to the tri-angle stones (flat side up). That gives me an "ultra coarse" surface which is set at the right angle - and reprofiling is quick and easy on most steels.

- On my "user" Para2, I set my main bevel at slightly under 30 degrees (close to 27 degrees) and polished that bevel out to make it look very nice and shiny (I use a WEPS system). Then I went back to the SharpMaker and used the fine white stones at 40 degrees to cut a very small edge bevel. This accomplished two things. First, it gave me a really nice robust edge bevel that doesn't roll easily. Second, it enables me to re-sharpen the Para on the SharpMaker with just a few strokes on the white stone set at 40 degrees. Works like a charm and I can easily touch it up in the field with either the SharpMaker, or one of the other Spyderco tools (like the Golden Stone).

TedP
 
I use a sharpmaker, and can get my para2 sharp enough to cut hair off my arm with 10-20 minutes of sharpening. I'm not a great sharpener at all, so someone with some natural skill can probably do it even faster.
 
The sharp maker is a perfect starting point IMHO. Follow the instructions just as they're recommended in the video and you'll do fine. If you want to further razor up the edge on the cheap, find your angle and strop on flat plain newspaper. Even though I've progressed to free hand sharpening on water stones, I still use newspaper as a step in sharpening the majority of my knives. On some, I stop there, and on others I move on to a loaded strop with green compound and even red on others.

Sharpening can be really fun once you experience a hair popping edge and start chasing further perfection. Good luck!
 
Anyone use a lansky to reprofile a para or military? Im wondering how to clamp it down straight since the blade stock tapers down pretty fast. The clamp would be very uneven and leave a changing angle the entire length of the blade right?
 
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