KME order and the beast question

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timelinex

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Jul 30, 2020
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I've been using the KME for a few years now. My normal routine is just the regular stone progression through 1,500 and then a 4 micron CBN on a kangaroo strop. This gets the job done for most situations. I do have 2 questions though.

1. I purchased a pack of 3m PSA AO lapping fils (.3,1,3,9,12,30,40) for when I want a cleaner looking bevel. So far I've only used the 9 micron since it's the only one that fit between my last stone and the strop (grit-wise). It's worked well to shine things up a little bit more. I just purchased 1 micron gunny juice and another stop to be able to refine a bit more.

Using the tools I now have, what is the recommended order I should do after the 1,200 grit stone?

2.
Fixing chips on an edge have always taken forever, even with my 120 grit stone. So I just bought the 50 grit "the beast" to try and quicken things up. I've remember reading in the past that this stone in particular definitely needs a good breaking in.

Whats a nice quick way to break this bad boy in without sacrificing knives! Also, how do I know when it is sufficiently broken in and I can start using it on my nicer knives?

Thanks!
 
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1. I would go 12, 3, 1 after the 1200 grit stone.

2. Hate to say it, but I wouldn't use the Beast on nicer knives. It's just too coarse and leaves deep scratches. If you do use it, stop before you hit the apex, because it will produce a lot of micro-chips in the edge.
 
Blade Lab said:
1. I would go 12, 3, 1 after the 1200 grit stone.

2. Hate to say it, but I wouldn't use the Beast on nicer knives. It's just too coarse and leaves deep scratches. If you do use it, stop before you hit the apex, because it will produce a lot of micro-chips in the edge.
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1. I actually made a mistake on that. It's not a 1,200 grit stone, it is a 1,500 grit. Would you still recommend the 12 micron lapping when it is marked as 1,200 grit. That would be going backwards.

2. I've seen this mentioned in a few places. I'll keep this in mind and stay away from apex'ing with it. I do wonder why it is a problem though. If you are still going to 100, then 140, 220, etc.. Aren't the later progressions supposed to remove all those scratches and micro-chips.
 
timelinex said:
If you are still going to 100, then 140, 220, etc.. Aren't the later progressions supposed to remove all those scratches and micro-chips.
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Yes, eventually, but it takes a lot of time and work and will make you vow to look for a better tradeoff between speed and deep scratches next time. Also some stones will leave mostly grit-appropriate scratches, and a few stray REALLY DEEP scratches. It's possible that Blade Lab was hinting that the Beast is one of them.
 
Another question is if I just skip the 4 CBN strop from now on if I use the laps and 1 micron strop?
 
The coarsest diamond plate I have is #80. I can't imagine using it on my knives. Even #120 is just too rough.
Sometimes I use #180 on my kitchen knives for fast reprofiling or on those apartment knives without an edge I find there when I go to vacations.
The roughest plate I use on my EDC knives is #240.
 
I used the beast on a cold steel knife because the factory ground a 29 degree bevel on each side. It still took a long, long time to get down to 19 degrees. It will leave a nasty jagged edge on the blade. Plan on spending a lot of time on the 300 grit and then progressively higher grits multiple times. I really wouldn’t use the beast unless I had to do a hard core reprofile, and after all the work I had to do, I probably should have just returned the knife to the seller.

Use plenty of oil on it and frequently douse it with isopropyl alcohol and scrub the accumulated metal out of the stone. Try to ignore the loud crunching noise.
 
There is one thing bothering me.
I was looking my diamond plates under microscope (600 magnification).
For example, my #180 plate feels rough but those diamonds does not look so sharp. They have somehow rounded edges and it seems I need to put a little more pressure on the plate to dig in the steel to start cutting.
On the other hand, on my #400 plate diamonds are smaller but they look much sharper and have rough edges. This plate emediately grabs the steel and starts cutting aggresively.
If I use my #180 plate "lightly" it does not remove so much of material as it should according to grit number and does not leave very deep scratches. I could say it somehow glides across steel.
Still need to do some experiments though.
 
When I had a KME, I wanted the "Beast" stone but they were never in stock. I settled for their 100 grit stone and it was enough.
 
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