Lets see your best cutter...I'm talking high performance cutters....(Thin is IN!!!)

So-Lo said:
Yours is close :p




Vivi :confused:
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Vacation in Utah and I'm not really interested in knives anymore. Girlfriend / skateboarding is occupying all my time these days. Especially the former... ;)

I did recently regrind some knives on the coarse diamond stone I received in a trade. Here's a few photos of unfinished knives. No measurements or anything.

The Caly got damaged by whittling knotty seasoned wood and really twisting the wood apart. I was being intentionally abusive to it to get an idea of how tough it would be at that angle. It was really sloppy on the left side of the blade as you can see, the right side bevel is much better looking. I was just excited to get my ZDP189 to a properly thinned edge and didn't care. I'll pretty it up some day.



This is a Centofante I was working on taking flat to the stone. Very impressive cutting performance but I was surprised that I damaged the edge by cutting up a plastic bottle. I think thombrogan had a similar thing happen with a really thing VG10 blade. I've used lots of reprofiled VG10 and never had that happen, so I remember reading what Thom wrote and thinking he must be smoking something ;). This is the first time I can recall that I damaged a reprofiled knife under what I consider to be normal use. I grinded at the microbevel some more to remove the damage and thicken the edge and it's been doing good since. If I were to leave it ground flat to the stone like I originally had it it would be a lighter use knife instead of general utility like my other regrinds are used for, including the Caly Jr. that is going with me to Utah for some hiking and trail biking.

 
With this knife, I can split logs for the fire, chop down trees, push cut tomatos like nothing and shave my head when done. It's a monster. It's been satin finished by our own Ban and given a zero convex mirror edge. I maintain it with a strop. It's incredibly sharp and because INFI is such a performer, maintenence is nearly nonexistant.
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To be honest, I have an old hickory butchers knife that I ground into a camping knife strictly for food prep with a very high up convex edge. THAT is a hell of a slicer....doesn't bind up in ANYTHING and push cuts tomatos like no other. I use it in the kitchen fairly often. Cost me $10 and puts my Henkels to shame :p
 
Somebody had to throw a INFI in here :D


Vivi that Centofante looks great! Is that freehanded or belt done? Grinds look dead on. Spyderco could give us darksiders a ZDP Centofante with a wicked edge much like yours. I think it might do well, and it would be a great platform to build on, being as thin as the blade stock is.

Just thinking out loud :cool:
 
So-Lo said:
Somebody had to throw a INFI in here :D


Vivi that Centofante looks great! Is that freehanded or belt done? Grinds look dead on. Spyderco could give us darksiders a ZDP Centofante with a wicked edge much like yours. I think it might do well, and it would be a great platform to build on, being as thin as the blade stock is.

Just thinking out loud :cool:
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Agreed. Recently asked Sal what he thought of such a thing and said there isn't enough market demand. Maybe if enough people start requesting it, some day it'll happen. I know I'm personally not going to shut up about thin edges until then. :D

All my sharpening and reprofiling has been free hand since I started sharpening.

A ZDP Centofante would be nice, especially ground very thin compared to factory edges on Spyderco knives. The edges on my Stretch 2, ZDP Caly 3 and ZDP Caly Jr. were all too thick for my tastes.
 
So-Lo said:
Its a great cutter, but you could say its like a prostreet drag car. Geared more for cutting but could be used harder. Prostreet cars, are geared for the strip, but can still take the ol' lady out for ice cream.

A Krein'ed Caly Jr, Caly3 ect. Is like a Top Fuel drag car, only made for one thing..... Going balls out fast. :D So, no prying at all, no twisting in a cut.. Or you will blow the edge out. Much like a top Fuel drag car can not take the ol' lady for a ice cream run. It would over heat, and the 1 gallon tank would not last a mile... And plus she would have no where to sit! :p

Hope that made a little sense? Can you tell I'm a gear head?? :D

Nice pics everybody :thumbup: So looks like gunmikes chef's knife is the best cutter here? Anybody else want to step up and take the title from him? :D
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I get it...well kinda:o...must be nice working with that S90V though;)
 
So-Lo said:
Just an update, she is chipping a little. Time for that micro bevel. :cool:

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Oh boy i guess the turbo overcharged.;) These pics show how extremely thin the edge is. I would try a 5degree lower microbevel and look how that holds out.

keep us nuts posted:thumbup:.
 
Hi so-lo is this edge 5 included i doubt... it would be thinner as some razor blades. or 10 included . I think i get no chipping at approx 12.5-14 :confused:included on VG 10... but might be some off i'm not sure. Freehanding is difficult determanating the actual cutting degree.. lol

This thread rocks...:D
 
first, has anyone tried making a full convex out of one of those extremely thin edges? it would of course shorten and thicken it, but minimally for the result obtained (I think).

It is my opinion and belief that convex edges are not designed to produce the sharpest edge, but rather a *Very Sharp* edge that has much greater endurance than expected.

To achieve that result in my own kitchen knives, I use fairly hard fine grained steel and fine waterstones.. some of the vintage american knives work well and the old hickory parer and boner both justify 8000 grit polishing..

what i've found on the cheap commercial knives (mostly, scandi's excepted) is they don't bother to polish the edge, they grind it hurriedly and leave micro-fractures that will chip out for a while. This especially applies to the newer (last few years) Old Hickory knives.. until they've been ground back a bit, 5 100ths of an inch maybe.. you're still in metal that has been degraded by the grinding process. I just turn off my brain and grind it down with a King 1200 grit, till i've managed to get past the incipient nicks that WILL show up the first few uses.. once that's done and you're into clean metal, shape the edge a little and move to higher grit stones, 3-4000 grit.. and establish a heel-to-point continuous arc, REALLY sharpening the last 1 mm of each end of the blade, identical to the rest of it.. and then move to 6000-8000 grit and put on a mirror polish for the first 3/16" or so of the edge. .. now when you get finished with that 3$ Old Hickory paring knife, or the 5$ boning knife, you've got way more labor cost invested than the knife was* worth..

and it's gonna work very well indeed, a scalpel in disguise. I use those paring knives for leatherwork, and the boning knives are my utility 'go to' knives for prep cooking, I've got 5 of 'em.

The *sharpest* knife I own is a bull nose slicer, 12", mil-spec navy knife from WWII.. semi-stainless, it doesn't want to rust but it has a dark patina.. and it will effortlessly push cut newspaper pages from point to heel without the least sign of friction. Cut a floating silk thread.. :) I do wish I had a sword made of that stuff, whatever it is..
 
Are there any blade steels particularly suited to ridiculously thin edges like this?
 
i have heard that D2 seems really well suited to thin edges...but i don't know about this thin.

also, 3V is always touted for its toughness and ability to hold an edge for forever...so it might work well for a very thin edge.
 
Vivi said:
Are there any blade steels particularly suited to ridiculously thin edges like this?
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Im not sure, I do know the chips are my fault. No knife needs to have an edge that thin. Its fun to go to the limits then back off just a little. This way you know how hard you can go.

Next up for me? I'm working my edge pro course stone like a mad man, on my s90 mili. After about 15 mins, the stone is shiny and very smooth. Then you need to throw sand on the cement rub the stone around in it to get the course surface back.

Might need to freehand it on my DMT diasharps, then move it to the edge pro. S90 is some tough stuff. Its not going to be as crazy as the Caly but we will see how it does. :cool:

Maybe I should just send it to Tom for a high hollow grind :eek:
 
You can get a convex edge just as sharp as a flat or V edge. Just takes some practice. I get mine stoopid sharp on my strop after I touch the edge up on carbide paper. Everyone has their preference though. If you're a hand sharpener, all of your edges end up convex or at least slightly so. It's impossible to keep a perfect V.

mitchshrader said:
first, has anyone tried making a full convex out of one of those extremely thin edges? it would of course shorten and thicken it, but minimally for the result obtained (I think).

It is my opinion and belief that convex edges are not designed to produce the sharpest edge, but rather a *Very Sharp* edge that has much greater endurance than expected.

To achieve that result in my own kitchen knives, I use fairly hard fine grained steel and fine waterstones.. some of the vintage american knives work well and the old hickory parer and boner both justify 8000 grit polishing..

what i've found on the cheap commercial knives (mostly, scandi's excepted) is they don't bother to polish the edge, they grind it hurriedly and leave micro-fractures that will chip out for a while. This especially applies to the newer (last few years) Old Hickory knives.. until they've been ground back a bit, 5 100ths of an inch maybe.. you're still in metal that has been degraded by the grinding process. I just turn off my brain and grind it down with a King 1200 grit, till i've managed to get past the incipient nicks that WILL show up the first few uses.. once that's done and you're into clean metal, shape the edge a little and move to higher grit stones, 3-4000 grit.. and establish a heel-to-point continuous arc, REALLY sharpening the last 1 mm of each end of the blade, identical to the rest of it.. and then move to 6000-8000 grit and put on a mirror polish for the first 3/16" or so of the edge. .. now when you get finished with that 3$ Old Hickory paring knife, or the 5$ boning knife, you've got way more labor cost invested than the knife was* worth..

and it's gonna work very well indeed, a scalpel in disguise. I use those paring knives for leatherwork, and the boning knives are my utility 'go to' knives for prep cooking, I've got 5 of 'em.

The *sharpest* knife I own is a bull nose slicer, 12", mil-spec navy knife from WWII.. semi-stainless, it doesn't want to rust but it has a dark patina.. and it will effortlessly push cut newspaper pages from point to heel without the least sign of friction. Cut a floating silk thread.. :) I do wish I had a sword made of that stuff, whatever it is..
Click to expand...
 
So Lo, go with a 10 per side microbevel and see what happens. My Caly Jr. does fine with a 10 per side microbevel on cardboard, clam packs and other plastics that I run into for EDC chores. If that doesn't get rid of the chips go to 15 or so. The beauty of the microbevel will not only be the more durable edge, but also the radically decreased sharpening time. Only a few strokes per grit will have your knife at peak sharpness, opposed to a lot of strokes per grit on that huge bevel like you have to do now.

Mike
 
Nice and sharp, yet now a lot stronger :cool: And, it didn't take 5 Mins to do.
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