The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
So... I kept stropping that darn GSO 10 which I bought off of eBay, the one which supposedly had sat in a safe and never had cu anything other than paper! However, it was the toothiest GSO (note I didn't say dull, because the blade geometry and the knife's heft would still slice meat off a bone with no problems) that I had ever had go through my hands (admittedly as I'm a newbie, not that many so far). It was time to take out the gemologists' magnifying eyepiece (I'm not one of those but somehow have ended up with one of those pieces!) and low and behold, I note two very, very minor rolls and microscopic chips! Oh the bloody horror!
Very p*ssed off and not knowing as to whether to direct my cusses at Guy (just because and why not as he's the Papa), at the seller or at myself (I did hack at a few pieces of wood but nothing that I deemed to have metal in it and didn't hit any cement or anything) I just manned up and took out the DMT diamond plates (Fine and extra Fine: red dot / green dot) I didn't have an extra Coarse / Coarse (which I will now be ordering) to take that microscopic chip out in its entirety but actually ended up doing a very decent job just with the aforementioned. I had never sharpened a GSO but I was rather surprised as to how painless it was as I didn't spend more than 15 minutes tops including stropping (Black, Green & White on Flexxx Strop paddles). Now the GSO 10 is very sharp and only catches on that one minor spot about 1/2 way in the middle if I go slowly but will skip that hick up altogether if I use the weight of the GSO 10 to push through.
Obviously I skipped the very fine honing before stropping as my only option would have been to use the dark brown side of my DC4 but I wanted something larger and much higher in grit. I am thinking of buying a Spyderco ultra fine benchstone (3 x 8 size) for home use and the Fallkniven CC3 for field use along with my DC4. Has anyone in here used that Spyderco large ultra fine plate? The reviews on Amazon are a bit of hit and miss and reading the critical reviews, most buyers complain about its unevenness. I can always lap it using the coarse DMT which I will also be ordering, so not too worried. Otherwise do you guys have something better to recommend? Perhaps a Shapeton 8000 grit glass plate? I have never had Shapetons. Decisions, decision!
A ceramic sharpening rod. I have one on my Work Sharp Field Sharpener. I had a small nick on the side of the blade of one of my knives. I ran the knife up and down a few times on the ceramic rod and it took the bur out.
Wicked Edge?
Are you selling at a F&F discount, since you've been on a generous roll recently?![]()
The Spyderco UF bench stone is excellent, but if you lap it with diamonds you are going to change the surface grit to that of the diamonds. It will not be ultra fine anymore.So... I kept stropping that darn GSO 10 which I bought off of eBay, the one which supposedly had sat in a safe and never had cu anything other than paper! However, it was the toothiest GSO (note I didn't say dull, because the blade geometry and the knife's heft would still slice meat off a bone with no problems) that I had ever had go through my hands (admittedly as I'm a newbie, not that many so far). It was time to take out the gemologists' magnifying eyepiece (I'm not one of those but somehow have ended up with one of those pieces!) and low and behold, I note two very, very minor rolls and microscopic chips! Oh the bloody horror!
Very p*ssed off and not knowing as to whether to direct my cusses at Guy (just because and why not as he's the Papa), at the seller or at myself (I did hack at a few pieces of wood but nothing that I deemed to have metal in it and didn't hit any cement or anything) I just manned up and took out the DMT diamond plates (Fine and extra Fine: red dot / green dot) I didn't have an extra Coarse / Coarse (which I will now be ordering) to take that microscopic chip out in its entirety but actually ended up doing a very decent job just with the aforementioned. I had never sharpened a GSO but I was rather surprised as to how painless it was as I didn't spend more than 15 minutes tops including stropping (Black, Green & White on Flexxx Strop paddles). Now the GSO 10 is very sharp and only catches on that one minor spot about 1/2 way in the middle if I go slowly but will skip that hick up altogether if I use the weight of the GSO 10 to push through.
Obviously I skipped the very fine honing before stropping as my only option would have been to use the dark brown side of my DC4 but I wanted something larger and much higher in grit. I am thinking of buying a Spyderco ultra fine benchstone (3 x 8 size) for home use and the Fallkniven CC3 for field use along with my DC4. Has anyone in here used that Spyderco large ultra fine plate? The reviews on Amazon are a bit of hit and miss and reading the critical reviews, most buyers complain about its unevenness. I can always lap it using the coarse DMT which I will also be ordering, so not too worried. Otherwise do you guys have something better to recommend? Perhaps a Shapeton 8000 grit glass plate? I have never had Shapetons. Decisions, decision!
The Spyderco UF bench stone is excellent, but if you lap it with diamonds you are going to change the surface grit to that of the diamonds. It will not be ultra fine anymore.
The folks that comment on bench stone unevenness have extremely high standards for the flatness of their stones since they are accustomed to lapping their wet stones. This stone won't dish out the way that a wet stone will.
It also won't wear back down to the grit size of the abrasive after lapping the way that a wet stone will. Once the surface of the ultra fine ceramic bench stone is abraded it will stay that way.
The extremely small amount of unevenness that the stone might exhibit is irrelevant when it comes to sharpening a GSO-10. It is a good stone for creating a final polish.
Just to be clear, my DMT products are of their DuoSharp variety which is the mesh type diamond plate whereas you (Clip.) have mentioned DiaSharp which as I understand is the continuous surface version. I forgot to mentioned this in my earlier posts but I just wanted to clarify that we are not taklkng about the exact surfaces from this maker unless we are throwing terms around semantically?
If anyone has the XC/C version of DuoSharp, how often do you realistically use that for your GSO and other 3V knives? I don't sharpen my axe on these as I prefer to get the GB's stone for my GB-SFA and I don't use chisels and such which require extra coarse / coarse. At some point I can envision the softer 1075 steel of my LTKT machete to take a beating and need more metal shaven off with the XC / C plate. For now though, I think that it's a redundant $65 or so expenditure so I'll just keep that on the Amazon wish / watch list for now. The Spyderco UF bench plate is coming though. Pulled the trigger on that one based on Fancier's and Clip.'s recommendations :thumbup:
Casino, glad you like it. Sounds like your experience was similar to when I first received mine. Very impressed with the edge it leaves. very common for my UF to get dark gray with metal, you can see two distinct arcs where I sharpen until one side gets loaded with swarf and starts cutting slowly, then rotate to the other side.
For cleaning (it always goes back to white) use Bar Keepers Friend and a green Scotchbrite pad. Brings it back to brand new.
![]()
$10 at Home Depot. It's only single-sided, but it'll do just fine.
$10 at Home Depot. It's only single-sided, but it'll do just fine.
+1 to that!!! I have the blue one....but I paid $15 for it. Oh well...
+1 to that!!! I have the blue one....but I paid $15 for it. Oh well...