Let's Talk About Sharpening Our Survive! Knives

I would practice on a knife that you don't really care about first. It's really easy to mess up a perfectly good edge with a strop.
 
I would also go with something a little easier to sharpen too. Some 1095 might make it easier.

I use some 1095 and 440c I just started moving to my 3v.
 
It's pretty easy Silver. I am new to strops too and just received mine a few days ago. Been having fun stropping mine to perfection. The trick is to press down with only a little pressure but not so much it digs into the strop as that will cause your edge to roll over. Too light and the strop is doing nothing. Try placing the edge on the strop and press it down and see if the leather bends. If it does you are pressing too hard. Release some pressure before you start. Remember when at the tip of the blade not to tilt your knife too high as it will dig into the strop.
 
I might be imagining it, but it seems like when I use diamonds on 3v the edge lasts longer. I read something about using regular compounds polishing away the material around the carbides in 3v but not the carbides themselves, which compromises the edge retention... seems like it might be true.

I'm using DMT diamond paste on blocks of balsa wood now, then bare leather for a final strop.
 
My experience has been that the edge angle tends to slowly increase when strops are used exclusively.
Flat abrasives, and especially diamond plates, are very good at reprofiling the secondary bevel and getting the edge angle back to where it belongs.
As Chiral has pointed out, dropping the edge angle improves the cutting efficiency quite a bit.
 
These days I sharpen at about 18dps and use a coarse grit (300 or 600) diamond hone, then strop with black compound (I use Stropman, but Bark River is similar I think). Most times, I just strop with black to get the edge back. This toothy edge works best for me on my fixed blades. For a while, I was going as refined and polished as I could, but like this better. YMMV.
 
I also have a stropman, (thanks nc) for the suggestion. I use black and white compound. Hadn't gotten too good yet but time will tell.
 
I finally made some time to practice some sharpening tonight. "Silver GTFO of here with that cheap, foreign 1095!!!" I gotta practice on something I don't care about, right?

I used a sharpie (not pictured) on the edge and got to work removing the marker with the black side of the strop. I did this several times. Although I started to feel better about my technique I couldn't get the knife to shave hair. I need some more practice and time to "get reps in". I used the diamond plate for just a few passes this afternoon. I'll have to make a dedicated block of time later because it did not feel good!


 
You started with a pretty big blade too. Which makes it harder to do. As you hand moves away from the diamond plate it gets harder to maintain consistency
 
Riz2530 said:
You started with a pretty big blade too. Which makes it harder to do. As you hand moves away from the diamond plate it gets harder to maintain consistency
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You're absolutely right. This is the only 1095 blade I have that I don't mind messing up, though. I have some smaller budget stainless I could put to work.
 
Silver, you bought the duo sharp with holes in it. Just be careful with the tip of your knife as it could dig into the holes and be damaged. For knives with sharp tips it is better to go with dia sharp whereby it's just a flat slab. Only drawback with dia sharp is that you need to flush away the metal shavings once in a while.
 
pjandyho said:
Silver, you bought the duo sharp with holes in it. Just be careful with the tip of your knife as it could dig into the holes and be damaged. For knives with sharp tips it is better to go with dia sharp whereby it's just a flat slab. Only drawback with dia sharp is that you need to flush away the metal shavings once in a while.
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Thanks for the advice! I hadn't heard that about potential problems with the tip. Maybe I can aim the tip for the continuous section. I have a long ways to go with my technique...........
 
Silver Needle said:
Thanks for the advice! I hadn't heard that about potential problems with the tip. Maybe I can aim the tip for the continuous section. I have a long ways to go with my technique...........
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I am a total noob when it comes to table top stones for sharpening. I was looking to replace my Gatco guided diamond sharpening kit and thought of going into stones so I did a research and that's the information I gathered from many in BF. Hope it helps.
 
Silver Needle said:
Thanks for the advice! I hadn't heard that about potential problems with the tip. Maybe I can aim the tip for the continuous section. I have a long ways to go with my technique...........
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If you hold the blade so that the tip points away from the direction of travel across the stone the tip can't catch the holes. It requires some disciplined wrist action to keep the amount of bevel consistent through the belly and to the tip.
 
So if I'm reading all this right, the danger is if the tip goes into a hole and dings up the edge on the tip?
 
In my opinion the issue is more about not goofing up your bench stone.
The finer grit DMT stones are easy to damage. If you gouge the nickel plate that the diamonds are embedded in it makes it hard to use the stone.
When you pass over the part where the knife tip bent the nickel plate then the knife will catch on the raised portion of the plate.
I've done this on the edge of the plate and I had to take another stone and grind out the damaged portion.
If you are unlucky enough to do this in the middle of the plate it would be harder to fix.
 
I'm really disappointed in myself. I generally over research any purchase, especially online purchases. I'll be careful with my technique and hopefully avoid any disasters!
 
I've used the diamond plates with the clearing holes a lot. I've never had a problem. Not to say that it can't happen. Just that, without really thinking about it, I haven't had a issue. BUT, it could very well be that the ones I use don't have holes as deep as that one.

Honestly, I've found that the typical coarse carborundum stone works fine for taking off plenty of metal to take down the shoulders on thick edges. And the fine side does a nice job of cleaning up the grind marks on the way to the brown Spyderco ceramic and sometimes a leather strop. Most of the time, though, I stop at the brown ceramic. Most steels work well with that leaving a toothy edge, but still keen enough to shave.
 
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