• The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
    Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
    Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.

  • Today marks the 24th anniversary of 9/11. I pray that this nation does not forget the loss of lives from this horrible event. Yesterday conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was murdered, and I worry about what is to come. Please love one another and your family in these trying times - Spark

How to achieve mirror bevels

Shadow449

Shadow449

Gold Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2013
Messages
527
I've been free hand sharpening for a while now and am able to achieve super sharp edges, in fact, hair whittling at times and highly reflective. However, no matter how much time i spend polishing on an ultra fine stone then stroping i just can't seem to achieve those super mirror bevels. Mine are always slightly cloudy. I have a DMT course stone, spyderco medium, fine and ultra fine stone and a knives plus strop. Can someone offer me some advice on getting those super mirror finishes??
 
Free hand sharpening using DMT course, spyderco medium, fine, ultra fine and a knives plus strop i can achieve very sharp edges, hair whittling at times, that are highly reflective but i just can't seem to achieve those super shinny mirror finishes. No matter how much time i spend polishing on the ulta fine stone my bevels are always slightly cloudy. Can anyone give me some advise on getting those super shinny finishes?
 
If you are willing to cheat, you could always try a buffer wheel on a bench grinder. Light pressure is all that is needed though. Be very wary of the wheel grabbing and pulling the tool out your hand.

If that isn't your style, ignore my post.

EDIT: It sounds like you either aren't going high enough in grit or you are making to large of jumps in grit size or you just plain aren't working long enough on each stone to remove the scratches from the previous stone.
 
Makes sense. Maybe i should spend a little more time on my med and fine stones so I'm not knockin myself out on the ultra fine. Thanks
 
Shadow449 said:
Makes sense. Maybe i should spend a little more time on my med and fine stones so I'm not knockin myself out on the ultra fine. Thanks
Click to expand...

Spend longer than you think you need to on the fine stones before moving on. After the ultrafine, going to a paste loaded strop will help out enormously--I'd recommend 1 micron DMT paste.
 
i find i need a polishing paste of some kind on a strop to get mirror bevels, my ultra fine stones gets it close but not quite there. I made a leather strop "stone" for my gatco sharpener that i put a liquid green paste called "heavy metal polish" (i already had this stuff on hand so i figured i would try it and i was happy with the results, but there are probably better alternatives)
this gets the bevel to a mirror edge pretty easily. I put my micro bevel on after i get the edge to a mirror finish, i only use my finest or second finest stone when i make the micro bevel since i want a tiny bit of bite from the micro serrations created by stones. if i use the strop it tends to remove them,

I would also recommend getting a jewelers loupe to examine the edge while sharpening. i use mine to ensure ive removed all the previous stones scratches before moving on to the next finer stone, without it its very easy to move on to the next stone too early. its also very helpful to make sure you sharpen all the way to the apex when re-profiling an edge to a new angle. I noticed my edges are much better when i can examine the edge under high magnification during the sharpening process. I currently use a 10x but i just ordered myself a 30x. they dont have to be expensive, my first set was a $4.00 4 piece set from harbor freight
 
When I’ve finished with eef DMT, I use 3000 then 6000 diamond tape.Works a treat.
 
While working up a burr even on the coarser stones, I strive to get as even a cut pattern as possible as possible and continue that process all the way up through my finest stones and compounds/pastes, often stropping between coarser grits to keep everything clean and lightly polished to see areas that need more work.
 
Shadow449 said:
I've been free hand sharpening for a while now and am able to achieve super sharp edges, in fact, hair whittling at times and highly reflective. However, no matter how much time i spend polishing on an ultra fine stone then stroping i just can't seem to achieve those super mirror bevels. Mine are always slightly cloudy. I have a DMT course stone, spyderco medium, fine and ultra fine stone and a knives plus strop. Can someone offer me some advice on getting those super mirror finishes??
Click to expand...

The gap in grit between the DMT Coarse and the Spyderco medium is WAAAYY too wide. The medium Spyderco would have a difficult time erasing the deep scratches left by the Coarse DMT, and that's likely most of the trouble. If mirrored finish is the goal, you'd do better to include at least the DMT Fine and EF after the Coarse DMT, before using the medium Spyderco.

Depending on what steel you're sharpening, other compounds for your strop could also make it easier, AFTER refining as I mentioned above. For example, if polishing S30V, diamond compound at 3µ & 1µ grits works very well. Other compounds in AlOx or SiC or green will struggle in polishing the high vanadium carbide steels like S30V (leaves it 'cloudy').


David
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
The gap in grit between the DMT Coarse and the Spyderco medium is WAAAYY too wide. The medium Spyderco would have a difficult time erasing the deep scratches left by the Coarse DMT, and that's likely most of the trouble. If mirrored finish is the goal, you'd do better to include at least the DMT Fine and EF after the Coarse DMT, before using the medium Spyderco.

Depending on what steel you're sharpening, other compounds for your strop could also make it easier, AFTER refining as I mentioned above. For example, if polishing S30V, diamond compound at 3µ & 1µ grits works very well. Other compounds in AlOx or SiC or green will struggle in polishing the high vanadium carbide steels like S30V (leaves it 'cloudy').


David
Click to expand...
Thanks David, that's the kind of advice i was looking for. Perhaps it's time to add a few more steps and a couple stones to my process.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top