Let's Talk About Sharpening Our Survive! Knives

B34NS said:
Here's an old video I did a few years back, but might give some better visual help. Currently working on a 5-10 minute piece with the same maker.

[video=vimeo;33687759]https://vimeo.com/33687759[/video]
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Great short video, love the work.
 
Silver Needle said:
I'm viewing the forum on my phone, but I don't see a video or link.......... what am I missing?
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Basically a quick vid that shows a guy sharpening on what looks like a very wet Japanese style stone, very artistic in nature and then some stropping and then a magnification of the edge to show how sharp it is!![emoji50]
 
It's showing for me, but I'm on a laptop. B34NS, if you did the cinematography on that, kudos brother. Nicely done.
 
Thanks for the kind words brothers!

Probably some weird vimeo embed issue, here's a link

https://vimeo.com/33687759

Yup, filmed and edited. The guy who it's about owns the shop and makes the knives used to cook with me at a michelin starred restaurant prior to starting up 5 years ago this week all on his own.

I still remember when we were standing around this stove talking about it after working 16 hour days 6 days a week.
ygeWrVu.jpg



I'll keep posting updates here if you guys dig it :)

For those here in CA, come up to SF and I'll teach you how to get your whetstone on!
 
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Very nice production job B34NS. Didn't know we had a Michelin caliber celebrity among us :thumbup:
 
Hey, does anyone use worksharp field sharpener and/or have any advice as to how effective it is?
I am a reeeeeal sharpening noob and looking for an easy but effective method (for now).

Edit: i skimmed through a few pages and see that you use and find it quite effective Silver.
I might pick one up and give it a go
 
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Xtian: I'm no sharpening expert by any stretch and I often mess things up when using a sharpener by effectively further dulling the factory edge! I have the Workshop Field Sharpener which I personally found out to be not so effective for knives like Survive! I threw it in the kitchen somewhere just for touching up the kitchen knives which I don't really care for much to lose sleep over damaging the edge! To just field touch up your GSO get something better like a Spyderco cermaic or the Fallkniven DC4 (the one I carry) As for work bench sharpening, I use the DMT diamond "stones" in different grits but I am still not good at this. If I were you and you have not dulled your edge to the point which you actually need sharpening the factory edge, I'd recommend that you look into stropping first. Personally speaking, I am fond of Flexxx Strops based in UT which use BRKT compound on high quality leather.
 
redwood22 said:
Sexy stone work! If there was a place I could go to learn the mad art of razor sharpening I'd spend all my free time after work there...
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XtianAus said:
Hey, does anyone use worksharp field sharpener and/or have any advice as to how effective it is?
I am a reeeeeal sharpening noob and looking for an easy but effective method (for now).

Edit: i skimmed through a few pages and see that you use and find it quite effective Silver.
I might pick one up and give it a go
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Yes! I love mine. I am terrible at sharpening, but because of the guides and diamond plates I could get my 3v to shave my arm in just a few minutes. Let me know if I can answer any specific questions!

B34NS, thanks for re-embedding. Great video! I'd love to hear more from a true master such as yourself....... culinary, sharpening, filming and editing...... what can't you do? :)


Now, about your cooking thread................
 
Cool video B34NS. Admired your work as well. You seemed quite an all rounder and truly a Survivor!
 
XtianAus said:
Hey, does anyone use worksharp field sharpener and/or have any advice as to how effective it is?
I am a reeeeeal sharpening noob and looking for an easy but effective method (for now).

Edit: i skimmed through a few pages and see that you use and find it quite effective Silver.
I might pick one up and give it a go
Click to expand...


I use the Worksharp field sharpener when I'm in the field because of its portability and versitility. Love it. However, for really getting a perfect edge on my knives, I really like the Lansky system. I like the alumina oxide set (it's cheaper and works well even on the super-steels like 3V, S30v, and 20CV). Just remember to start with the coursest hone available and don't move on to finer hones until the edge is truely sharp. You will find that you use your coursest hone for 90% of the work and the other 2-3 hones for the last 10%.

Not to brag, but honestly, there has never been a knife that I couldn't get a better than factory edge using this system - including Survive! (That being said, Guy's edge was truely impressive - but it's the difference between me taking an evening to get a perfect edge on one knife and Guy getting one of many done and out the door). Like any sharpening system, you'll want to practice on some cheap knives that you don't care much about. I'd try to start with some smaller knives as well because the adjustment you make to sharpen a larger knife are easier to make if you've already mastered the process on smaller one.

You'll also want to put some cloth between the knife and the clamp to keep from marring the finish - another thing you want to learn on less expensive knives. Hope this is helpful.
 
I'm a fan of the WorkSharp field sharpener and the bench top one. I don't think there's anything amazing about them per se, they just have a lot of useful stuff in a compact little thingamajig.

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Thanks alot everyone with the replies!

I have plenty of average knives to practice with. I knew my schrade schf 52 would come in handy eventually haha
That thing was soo blunt out of the box.

Could someone explain to me when it is neccessary to use the coarse grit vs fine vs stropping?
 
XtianAus said:
Thanks alot everyone with the replies!

I have plenty of average knives to practice with. I knew my schrade schf 52 would come in handy eventually haha
That thing was soo blunt out of the box.

Could someone explain to me when it is neccessary to use the coarse grit vs fine vs stropping?
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Ha! I found a whole new use for my Schrades as well. Actually I feel ok practicing on all my old 1095 stuff as much as I still value them for what they are. I've also be practicing my stropping on my GSO 5 since it is a factory second and I got it with the sole purpose of using and abusing. I'm not planning any major reprofiling so I don't think I could do that much damage with my honest sharpening attempts. I hope I don't prove myself wrong!

I'm sure someone else can give a better answer, but personally, I've only used the fine plate on my field sharpener. I'm trying to be conscious of not removing too much metal. I don't want to go too far with diamonds, so all I've done is a few dozen passes on each side on the fine side and that gets me back to shaving sharp. I haven't had much luck with the strop... I think it's just too small. But then again maybe I just never gave it an honest try.
 
Hhaha i sure hope not too!
Your gso 5 with red linen is beautiful :D
I also have some 1095 to practice on but fortunately isnt to blunt yet.

As far as ive heard, coarse grit is for major reprofiling such as large chips, fine grit is just to restore sharpness, is that correct? What about stropping, just another alternative method?

I was thinking of just sending my knives back to survive when they need resharpening (although i am still waiting on my preorder and for others to go back on sale).
The only issue is i live in Australia and sending things internationally always runs the risk of it being lost or stolen
 
Hey thanks! That 5 is my absolute favorite knife!

If you haven't seen them, go back a few pages in this thread and find my exchange with ManofSteel. He really is a master and was the single most guiding force in my sharpening journey. You seem to be right on with your assessment of the idea behind course and fine grit. There are far more experienced folks here who I hope jump in with some answers, but I think the stropping refines an already sharp edge. One thing I'm trying now is to strop often enough that I can keep my steel away from the diamond plates. I'm hoping to preserve the blade as much as I can that way.

Sending to Guy would be a fail safe way to get an amazing edge back, but in your location the cost and risk can add up. I really like the idea of being self sufficient in all aspects of knife maintenance and I'm working to get there!

Of course I'd want Guy in my group of survivors (SURVIVORS!) in the upcoming zombie apocalypse, but if he's not able to make it to me in time, I better be able to keep up with my tools and weapons :D
 
XtianAus said:
Could someone explain to me when it is neccessary to use the coarse grit vs fine vs stropping?
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It's really pretty simple. The objective is to remove the metal required to expose the true edge. To accomplish that, you have to use an abrasive material (could be diamonds, natural stones, ceramic, sand, glass, anything). If there is a big chip, you have to remove a lot more material because the true edge is now at the bottom of that chip. Using the coursest abrasive you have will get you to the true edge fastest because it removes the material the fastest. You will know that you've arrived at the true edge once a burr forms along the edge. (It should be along the entire length of the edge otherwise you just keep going). I usually pick an arbitrary number and alternate passes on each side until the burr is formed. Once you've got the burr, your goal is to remove it with decreasing numbers of alternating strokes. (This is all done with the course stone ~90% of the time you'll spend). When there is no burr and the edge is established the knife will be sharp (depending on the steel, the knife will be very sharp). Once sharp (hair shaving) then use the finner stones in alternating passes to further refine the edge ~9% of your time. Once you've cycled through all the fine stones, the the knife will be very, very sharp (hair popping). Once there, you can make it "stupid sharp" by finishing up with a few passes on a strop. The purpose of stropping is really to put an ever so slight convex to the edge and remove any micro-burr that maybe left over from your last stone. It shouldn't take many passes at all ~1% of your time. Over stropping can actually exaggerate the burr (which can be very keen, but is inherently fragile and rolls easily).

Depending on your level of interest, you may want to check out this site: https://scienceofsharp.wordpress.com/. This guy uses an electron microscope to evaluate the changes an edge undergoes when getting honed and stropped.
 
I think the worst thing you can do is over think the process. Yes, you can trash an edge if you just willy nilly start rubbing your knife on an abrasive surface, but it's just as bad to be scared to mess with it. You just have to keep the angles consistent, and for me my KME then the Work Sharp guided sharpener and field sharpener made it easy to gauge the angle. The hardest part to freehanding IMO is judging how much to raise the knife to stay in contact on the belly of the blade.



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