knife sharpening

SpartanSaint

SpartanSaint

Joined
Jun 17, 2010
Messages
970
alright, well here's the deal. at some point i plan on buying a sharpmaker, however my financial issues aren't being resolved very quickly at all.

which brings me to my point. I have a benchmade 940 d2 limited that is in need of some love that i just can't give it right now. I'd like recommendations on the following:
1) bevel angles? the stock ones are uneven and i would like some input on what's sharp and durable for bm's d2 [hrc 59-61 i believe they said] and who here could do the bevels well, evenly, and for how much
2) as mentioned in number one, who? who here is recommended?

i'd like to know who'd be willing to work with this knife, how much etc. I'd like to get the bevels evened out and i would love to have a hair whittling, mirror edge to at least last me a couple weeks of minor cutting till i can afford the equipment to do it myself

thank you guys!
 
basic sharpening & bevel work is fairly easy, even a novice like myself can do edges that only need an ocassional stropping to last for weeks & weeks depending on how much cutting is done.good edge work is fairly simple , the mirror polish work done by some members is really an art form.dennis
 
i know i can do it myself, the thing is that i don't have the cash flow to be able to buy a sharp maker, the makings for a strop, strop compoud etc... i want to do it myself, i just can't right now. which is why i ask you guys. email sent to richard

ps. even if the mirrors edge is just for show, i still want one :D :jerkit:
 
SpartanSaint - didn't you just score that knife? Beat her up already huh? I posted that you should get the S30V model but a limited edition was too tempting huh. Understandable ;)

You'll have to pay to have someone reprofile your blade anyway. Why not just bring it to sharp with something cheap like a sharpening steel or a pair of criss-cross crock sticks?

You cab use sandpaper and strop it or the bottom of a coffee mug (this actually works I tried it) for emergency touchups

I sold my sharpmaker - never did a great job on D2 of S30V.

Go to Amazon or eBay & get a DMT diafold - pick up a coarse/fine, that'll get you started cheap and they eat those steels for lunch! Very cheap as well.

I like the DMT products the best so far. :thumbup:

BTW, I've bought a couple of 940's and they show it most, but almost all blades will come with more stock on one side of the edge than the other. My BM 710 came shaving sharp with a wider grind on one side than it had on th other.
 
yes i realize that having read a bit and talking to people. doesn't change the fact that i want it even :p

and yes, i just scored it. it shaved arm hair for a while, and then i got happy with it on the beach with some sandy drift wood. damn that stuff gets pointy ;)

i'll have to look into the dmt stuff, i had alot of recommendations for the sharpmaker though. People said it'd take a while to reprofile unless i got the ultra coarse diamond rods

they have super high grit ultra fine rods too that would be nice for getting the mirror's edge i want... so idk. you'll have to sell me on this dmt stuff :D

the limited version had alot that drew me to it. i was initially looking for a simple carbon steel, but i didn't find much in the dollar range i wanted to spend. d2 is a nice compromise. i am very happy with my decision. i have no doubt that if i hadn't been whittling sand it'd still be shaving sharp. keep in mind i have nothing to touch it up with atm either. talking to richard he might have sold me on a paper wheel lol... but i guess we'll see. i gotta have the money in hand before i dream too much. which is where richard comes in
 
SpartanSaint said:
yes i realize that having read a bit and talking to people. doesn't change the fact that i want it even :p

and yes, i just scored it. it shaved arm hair for a while, and then i got happy with it on the beach with some sandy drift wood. damn that stuff gets pointy ;)

i'll have to look into the dmt stuff, i had alot of recommendations for the sharpmaker though. People said it'd take a while to reprofile unless i got the ultra coarse diamond rods

they have super high grit ultra fine rods too that would be nice for getting the mirror's edge i want... so idk. you'll have to sell me on this dmt stuff :D

the limited version had alot that drew me to it. i was initially looking for a simple carbon steel, but i didn't find much in the dollar range i wanted to spend. d2 is a nice compromise. i am very happy with my decision. i have no doubt that if i hadn't been whittling sand it'd still be shaving sharp. keep in mind i have nothing to touch it up with atm either. talking to richard he might have sold me on a paper wheel lol... but i guess we'll see. i gotta have the money in hand before i dream too much. which is where richard comes in
Click to expand...

Yup, sand would do a number on any knife's edge. :)

I just sold my complete Sharpmaker with Diamond rods and ultrafine too, on the exchange about 3 or 4 weeks ago and no remorse. Despite what people say (I don't believe them unless it was a "touch-up") you can't re-profile D2 or S30V on a Sharpmaker unless you're ready to stroke that blade until the 2nd coming of Christ.

I tried to put a 30* edge (back bevel) on an S30V BM940 and never could get the edges to meet. I mean I spent weeks literally - an hour here and an hour there, repeat - repeat - repeat - repeat until I figured well, I'll go back to the 40* setting which yielded results since I had at least knocked the shoulders down a bit. Then my 40* edge would grudingly give up 1 or 2 little bits of hair after scraping my arm so bad that it was irritated. Never ever shaved though.

Exact same experience with my BM710 D2 which is slightly softer and now is like a razor. I spent months on those two knives and steels with limited success.

I bought some DMT Diafolds and after a few swipes 6 or 7 of all the grits, I had a much sharper edge with burrs forming sometimes, because they cut so well. Just 1 or 2 very light passes on the side with the burr and it would disappear. and be ready to strop.

I'm sure you'll have some succes with either but DMT diamond hones are flat out - the best thing I've ever used. Good luck! :thumbup:
 
huh, mine came out of the box shaving hair.... messed up bevels and all

and i'm gonna have someone else even it out while they're sharpening it anyways. ya dig?

and damn you, should have held on to it and sold it to me!!!!!

but yea, i know whittling sandy drift wood is gonna dullen anything but i had to do it. it was a stick, i was sitting on the beach in front of a fire and my knife was in my pocket. like any of you would have done any different haha
 
but yea, i know whittling sandy drift wood is gonna dullen anything but i had to do it. it was a stick, i was sitting on the beach in front of a fire and my knife was in my pocket. like any of you would have done any different haha
Click to expand...

If you asked a Zen Master why that stick was there on the beach (with your knife in hand) he'd have told you that it was waiting to whittled! :D

Good luck on your cool new 940 - I was going to get one and didn't. In retrospect I should have, as my experience is that BM D2 behaves a little friendlier when sharpening. As I mentioned, my 710 in D2 is shaving sharp - reprofiled to 30* back bevel with a 40* micro-bevel over top. Wicked sharp - on a Sharpmaker! :thumbup:
 
I have had a slightly different experience with each of the two BM 940's in S30v and one Bm710 in D2 that I reprofiled to 30 degrees inclusive on a Sharpmaker. The process did however take several hours overall. One 940, who's factory edge bevels were uneven and each WELL over 40 degrees , took most of the aggregate time. Because the other 940 went much faster, rebeveling it didn't make a big impression on me and therefore it wasn't particularly memorable . I don't remember it taking an excessively long time at all. I only used the medium and fine rods on them all. I did use a combination of push and pull strokes, not just the recommended draw strokes, until the new bevel had just about touched the edge. This almost doubled the speed. Frequent quick rod cleaning with an ink eraser kept the abrasion consistent. The Sharpmaker was the only quality Sharpener I had at the time so I used what I had. In retrospect, this rebeveling was, by comparison to the EdgePro quite slow. Which I imagine, compared to a belt grinder, or paper wheels is itself also quite slow. Rebeveling can successfully done with just a Sharpmaker. Since the original poster indicated that cost was a concern, a Sharpmaker obtained at a good price, which is not optimal at rebeveling, may offer a better long term return on his investment. I have a Gatco Delux Diamond Hone set, an EdgePro Apex 3, some cheap bench stones and a Sharpmaker. I sold my Lansky Standard Set, and gave my DiaFolds to a relative who loves them. I still use the Gatco, the EdgePro and the stones. The one I use most frequently however, is still the Sharpmaker. You are quite right. It is the easiest to use for touch-ups. In the useful life of my knives, they seem to require many more instances of touch-ups than reprofilings. I've gotten more than my money's worth out of the Sharpmaker. This is only my personal experience and opinion. OldDude1
 
I re-profile everything on my sharpmaker. I just fold sandpaper around the stone's.

I start with 150 grit then take it up to 2,000 grit in the 15 slots, then put a light micro bevel on with the 40 degree slots.

I fold the sandpaper tightly around the stone's and hold the paper in place with twist ties.

Here's a few pictures for reference.
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Works great if you don't wanna shell out the extra cash for the diamond stones.
 
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Here's a few pictures for reference.
Click to expand...

I've done that :thumbup: I can't believe you ever had to reprofile a Street Beat! Mine came like a Stanley knife. Did you baton some small twigs with it or something? :D
 
SpartanSaint said:
i know i can do it myself, the thing is that i don't have the cash flow to be able to buy a sharp maker, the makings for a strop, strop compoud etc... i want to do it myself, i just can't right now. which is why i ask you guys. email sent to richard

ps. even if the mirrors edge is just for show, i still want one :D :jerkit:
Click to expand...
Mirror edge on some knives provides a lot less resistance when slicing certain material. It's pretty darn sharp aside from looking cool. :cool:
Check it:
imag0151b.jpg

imag0153i.jpg

imag0155u.jpg
 
RevDevil said:
Mirror edge on some knives provides a lot less resistance when slicing certain material. It's pretty darn sharp aside from looking cool. :cool:
Check it:
imag0151b.jpg

imag0153i.jpg

imag0155u.jpg
Click to expand...

You didn't tell us how you achieved that excellent mirror edge RevDevil - especially the ZT. :eek:
 
Do they make a paper wheel small enough to mount on the end of a high speed drill I wonder - I don't have space for mounting electric moters bu I think I could secure my variable speed drill. :confused: Nice edges btw.
 
cziv said:
I've done that :thumbup: I can't believe you ever had to reprofile a Street Beat! Mine came like a Stanley knife. Did you baton some small twigs with it or something? :D
Click to expand...

Nope, no twigs. Just regular use.
It was sharp when I got it, but the bevel was too small and overly thick.
So I had to back that sucker up, and thin it out some.
 
cziv, they dont make small wheels like that but i have some scraps that i make 2" wheels so soldiers can touch up their blades out in the field using a dremel tool. a humvee has 110 and one soldier i gave a couple of wheels to said it worked out ok. as for the grit wheel, it would be hard to keep the wheel in place to do a proper job.
if you come down this way i'll teach you how to use them. you dont need a bunch of space either. i have set my portable sharpening setup on a washer/dryer before with damp newspaper to catch what little dust or rouge that comes off.
 
Thanks Richard, I'm coming down there in August or for sure in October to the Ohio Knife Show. I'll get in touch with you and let you know. Thanks again :thumbup:
 
I have a lanske sharpning kit and got the super blue saphire stone for it and it do's a great job putting a mirror finish on a blade abd the stone was like 10 bucks at bass pro shop and the kit was around 30. Been using it for years and works great!
 
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