How fine is fine enough?

I like to stop at around 600 grit(DMT fine). That edge seems to work the best for my work and edc knives. I have tried to go significantly finer but find that the more polished edge doesn't cut as well and doesn't stay sharp as long. I know a lot of guys like the polished edge for edc but it just doesn't work for me.
 
General maintenance , Norton fine silicon Carbide or a 1000 g. waterstone and a few strokes on the strop.
Redoing an edge I use a 1" belt sander.

I gave up on spending hours and hours sharpening. High polished edges are a waste of time for me.
 
I sharpen primarily using a DMT Fine stone (600 grit). I have the extra fine, but it does not see the use the fine does. I also have finer grits available to me, but seldom employ them.

I understand folks wanting "shaving" sharp, but from a practical perspective, fine is very good for a knife used day to day.
 
I stop at my 1000 grit waterstone, but that's mostly beacuse that's all I've got right now.

Still, I couldn't really imagine that the higher grits really make an edge a whole lot sharper than what I can get with the 1000 grit. Half the time an edge I can get with the 220 is just as sharp, just a little rougher on the cut. When it comes down to, "What can you do with an edge off an 8000 grit waterstone you can't with one off 1000 grit?" it basically comes down to whittling hair, cutting toilet paper and shaving your face with it. Realistically this doesn't really help that much when you actually want to cut something and I've noticed even an edge finished on 1000 grit feels like some kind of laser the way it glides through most material and I can't really tell the difference between that and one done on a fine diamond ( 750 mesh ) hone except the slightly coarser edge seems to cut on a slicing cut better.
 
The edge quality depends on what you will be cutting. For a pocket knife, the finest stone I go to is a fine Spyderco Ceramic, followed by stropping. I use a 1200 grit compound on one side of the strop and 1 micron on the other.
For woodworking tools, like plane irons and chisels, I go to finer stones. I will normally go to a Norton Black or Translucent stone, followed by
stropping. In terms of waterstones, it is usually enough to go to a 5000 grit stone for chisels. For working endgrain on a difficult wood with a plane iron, I might go to an 8000 grit stone followed by the finest strop.
 
All of the folders I carry are in 63HRC and above. So I take the advantage of the thin edges and for me 0.25mic edges work the best. Given sharp enough edge, I don't find advantage in coarse edges. Well, depends on the steel too, e.g CPM 10V apparently doesn't like polished edge, but lots of others are just fine.
 
Gator97 said:
All of the folders I carry are in 63HRC and above. So I take the advantage of the thin edges and for me 0.25mic edges work the best. Given sharp enough edge, I don't find advantage in coarse edges. Well, depends on the steel too, e.g CPM 10V apparently doesn't like polished edge, but lots of others are just fine.
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I actually did a lot of testing with different edge finishes using Phils Knives in different steels using my rope cutting testing method.

What I found was 14-16 Microns works the best..... Slices with the lowest pressure using the same blades, more efficient AND holds an edge longer in the end.

I have documented as much as a 4+ pound swing in downforce between edge finishes.

If a blade will slice through rope at a very low downforce it will sail right through cardboard and most other things like it's not even there.
 
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And much faster to sharpen ;) Going through all the steps from 120x to 0.25 mic takes quite a bit of time.
BTW,I was curious, if you had the same result for CPM M4? After bunch of experiments switching back and forth between high/medium/no polish, I've settled for more coarse edges on CPM 10V, 110V and 125V, but M4 does appear to sustain polished edges better.
 
Gator97 said:
And much faster to sharpen ;) Going through all the steps from 120x to 0.25 mic takes quite a bit of time.
BTW,I was curious, if you had the same result for CPM M4? After bunch of experiments switching back and forth between high/medium/no polish, I've settled for more coarse edges on CPM 10V, 110V and 125V, but M4 does appear to sustain polished edges better.
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I really don't mess with M4 much, I only have 1 knife in M4 and it did the same from what I remember.
 
I finish at 0.5 micron diamond. My cutting is almost exclusively push cutting, and I use knives with fairly high carbide fraction steels. I can't remember the last time I cut manila rope outside of playing around, and paracord is small diameter and not abrasive.
 
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