KME Grit: How High?

T

The Mighty Ginsu

Joined
Aug 11, 2016
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I am getting to know my KME. Today I used it to fix up my Lionsteel M1. The factory edge was disappointing.

The KME comes with stones up to 1500 grit. I have been going to 1500 and then using a ceramic hone and a leather strop with diamond spray. My knives are getting sharp, and the edges are very regular and pretty, but I want to find out if most people consider 1500 adequate. I am not looking to set a world sharpness record, but I would like to do reasonably well without too much work.

The KME seems to reveal the problems with factory edges. The edge on my Gerber 154CM Gator had a pretty big ripple in it.
 
When I had my KME, one of my favorite finishes was going to 600 then finishing with the 4 micron CBN emulsion.

Taking it to 1500 is more than enough if you are not chasing mirror finishes.
 
Yep, the edge isn't going to get much sharper than 1,500 grit, so beyond that you're mostly looking at aesthetics. If you want to take it a little further, the "Dan's Hard Arkansas Translucent" stone provides a nice, near-mirror finish. It is thicker than the KME Gold plates, though, so you'd either have to sharpie, or invest in the stone thickness compensator.
 
1500 is really going to already produce a great result. I might even skip the ceramic hone especially for the harder stuff since you are already using diamond spray on the strops. Just keep the diamond abrasive going from stones to finishing. 1500 followed by diamond strops has been my primary finisher and you can get all the mirror you are ever going to want out of that setup.
 
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