Kme reprofiling time?

[Skane24]

It’s been a long while since I reprofiled a knife to this degree, I bought a $2.47 pairing knife from Walmart to do some testing on, expected it to at least be usable out of the packaging. It most definitely was not, It wasn’t even apexed... it looks like when they tried to put an edge on it in the factory, it was at about 30-40 degrees per side.

I got my angle cube out, set my kme up so it would sharpen at 16 degrees per side, and got to work with a 50 grit diamond stone, making sure to clean it with an eraser often. An hour later, maybe an hour and a half, most of the sharpie is removed except for the very edge.

I use little to no pressure, just the weight of the stone and stone holder. Does an hour maybe an hour and a half even seem reasonable to take a knife from 40 degrees per side down to 16 with a 1”x4”x3/16” 50 grit hone?

 

[Greggy]

When re-profiling I use moderate pressure, not light pressure. You need to aggressively remove steel.

Although not directly on point, I have a dollar store chef's knife that I keep around as a beater. I regularly sharpen it and it keeps performing in a dollar store kind of way. No complaints.

 

[UncleBoots]

I use little to no pressure, just the weight of the stone and stone holder. Does an hour maybe an hour and a half even seem reasonable to take a knife from 40 degrees per side down to 16 with a 1”x4”x3/16” 50 grit hone?

No, that's way too long, especially in such soft steel. I think I could do that in 10 minutes with a 1000 grit stone.

 

[Skane24]

When re-profiling I use moderate pressure, not light pressure. You need to aggressively remove steel.

Although not directly on point, I have a dollar store chef's knife that I keep around as a beater. I regularly sharpen it and it keeps performing in a dollar store kind of way. No complaints.

I’ve always heard that you aren’t supposed to apply much if any pressure when using the plated diamond hones, as you can knock the diamonds off. When trying to apply more pressure, it doesn’t seem to affect the cutting speed.

 

[Triple_D]

I work the heck out of my 10" DMT diamond plates (the kind with the "holes" in them) when reshaping/profiling chisels, plane blades, etc. It takes lots of grinding, pressure, and patience to restore some of those old plane blades I've picked up off of eBay. But it never seemed to hurt the diamond plates.

 

[Greggy]

I’ve always heard that you aren’t supposed to apply much if any pressure when using the plated diamond hones, as you can knock the diamonds off. When trying to apply more pressure, it doesn’t seem to affect the cutting speed.

One can read all kinds of advice online. The best policy is to let experience be your guide. Keep the advice in the background.
For example. Your experience to date tells you that little to no pressure does not remove enough steel to reprofile your knife.

My experience. I use my first D2 knife as a trainer. It was my second knife and when I bought it I had not sharpened a knife since my teen years (more that 40 years ago). I sharpened it using a 1000 grit aluminum oxide stone and unwittingly created various planes on the single secondary bevel. It was a mess. After gaining valuable experience on other knives I became proficient at sharpening. So I next returned to the D2 knife and reprofiled it using a Norton 220 stone. I used moderate pressure and at times pushed it hard. It took about one half hour to flatten the bevel. I then worked my way up to the 1000 stone, then to the strop. It worked. Little to no pressure was ineffective on that knife. I took notes and moved on.

 

[kane22]

It's fine to practice with cheap knifes like that, but I wouldn't spend a lot of time on it. Odds are it's going to have a crap heat treat and not hold an edge for long anyway.
Re-profiling can take some time if you're changing the angle a lot.

 

[scottc3]

I bought a $2.47 pairing knife

set my kme up so it would sharpen at 16 degrees per side, and got to work with a 50 grit diamond stone

Does an hour maybe an hour and a half even seem reasonable to take a knife from 40 degrees per side down to 16 with a 1”x4”x3/16” 50 grit hone?

You are correct in letting the diamonds do the cutting, but it is OK to apply a little pressure, use a scale to feel what 3 to 5 pounds feels like. I just finished a Magnacut blade starting with just thumb pressure on the 140 grit 118 micron KME diamond stone.
1.5 hours is about an hour longer then I would expect.
Stop using the KME 50 grit (KME calls it a "beast") on this pairing knife, it is way to coarse for the knife's thinness and generic steel. Steel this inexpensive has been reported to be more difficult to sharpen, and I'm guessing it might be how the burr behaves. You may not be removing the burr. If you follow directions exactly for the first few knives, your burr will be removed in the end of the instructed sharpening process. BUT, Use a sharpie and magnification anyhow. A sharpie to make sure your hitting the edge when you start, and your camera to magnify the edge when you get to the end of sharpening with the first stone which is that KME's 140 grit. Let us know what happens.