Manual reprofiling?

dkb45

dkb45

Joined
Dec 16, 2012
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After a long fight with my belt sander I finally gave up and quit- he won. Returned the sander, and sold my belts, and now I have a huge issue. I have a XC DMT stone, and reprofiling takes for bloody ever. I can get it to go on most steels, but anything D2 and up just basically laughs at it. I use a "wrong" method of back and forth strokes in a sawing like motion (light pressure of course) because it removes a lot more steel, and when on my lowest grit stone the edge doesn't need to be pretty.

Is there a quicker stone to work the hard steels down? Should I just save up for some paper wheels (I will get some eventually, money is just a big factor right now)?

On a side note, any suggestions on good and less than limb priced stones for finer edges? I was thinking diafolds, but I have heard that diamond leaves a toothy edge and for my uses a toothy edge is less useful (my knives never go through any kind if hard use... unless you consider slicing paper intense).
 
Diamonds do best with very wear resistant steels, though D2 is in this class I have always felt D2 sharpens much better on waterstones. Though a coarse stone the XC DMT is better used to refine the scratch pattern of the XXC DMT stone.

My first question to you would be, what steels do you sharpen?
 
Belt grinder didn't work, and an XC diamond stone was/is too slow?

Are you sure it's not a problem with your patience?

In my experience, most sharpening problems can be attributed, at least in part, to being inpatient. An influx of relax and chill the hell out while you learn has certainly never hurt my sharpening. ;)
 
I'd say anything less than XXC DMT will be laughed at, quite a lot.

But what was the problem with the belt grinder?

If it was a Harbor Freight belt grinder, I could understand the couple's squabble:D.
 
Big diamond flat file with at least 6" x 1" coated area. Do long strokes (let the teeth do the work) rather than back and forth which just uses about 2" of "gritted" area (same with sawing). I laugh at people who have 12"+ long hacksaw blades and then only wear out the middle 2" of teeth.
 
The method for manual sharpening is patience. My 140 grit ATOMA cuts everything with ease, it doesn't mean I don't spend time reprofiling bevels any time you increase the surface area being ground you just end up taking more time.
 
Strigamort said:
Belt grinder didn't work, and an XC diamond stone was/is too slow?

Are you sure it's not a problem with your patience?

In my experience, most sharpening problems can be attributed, at least in part, to being inpatient. An influx of relax and chill the hell out while you learn has certainly never hurt my sharpening. ;)
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Belt sander worked excellently, it just died and none of the replacements would work. After the 4th replacement not working, I decided that this was a losing battle. And yes, it was a HF sander. The others are just too bloody expensive.

I can definitely keep an eye out for a XXC stone. DMT does make those in a diafold so I should be able to afford it.

For the record, the steels I sharpen right now are mostly 154cm, D2, and VG-10. I did have some super steels, but I came into a cash crunch and needed to liquidate, but I plan on getting another knife in M4, and finally getting one in M390.
 
For major thinning, re-profiling, I prefer to mount the blade onto a piece of wood, and use wet/dry sandpaper wrapped around a square piece of wood. When I'm sortof done with the coarse work, I'll refine and finish with stones.
 
Skimo said:
The method for manual sharpening is patience. My 140 grit ATOMA cuts everything with ease, it doesn't mean I don't spend time reprofiling bevels any time you increase the surface area being ground you just end up taking more time.
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Well said. I recently re-bevelled two K390 blades with a DMT XC. K390 takes twice the effort of D-2. Patience is the key.

Also try scrubbing the diamonds in the DMT with water and an old tooth brush about every 150 strokes. Even the extra coarse plates eventually "clog up."
 
dkb45 said:
Belt sander worked excellently, it just died and none of the replacements would work. After the 4th replacement not working, I decided that this was a losing battle. And yes, it was a HF sander. The others are just too bloody expensive.

I can definitely keep an eye out for a XXC stone. DMT does make those in a diafold so I should be able to afford it.

For the record, the steels I sharpen right now are mostly 154cm, D2, and VG-10. I did have some super steels, but I came into a cash crunch and needed to liquidate, but I plan on getting another knife in M4, and finally getting one in M390.
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Friend, there is some sort of issue going on here. I'm not sure if it's technique, or what. But I easily sharpen 154CM, VG-10, and D2, on an India combo stone. I have diamonds, they are not needed for these steels. You can get you an 8" Norton India, for about 30 bucks, or less even. Just take things slow, and give the stone a little chance to work. There are some really great guys on here, that are a wealth of info. Good luck.
 
I'm also getting a new issue now. For some reason my edges are having a lot of micro chipping off the stones. I never had any with my sander, but using my XC the edges are coming out with a bunch of tiny chips.

Why does knife sharpening have to be nothing but problems for me? My technique is fine, light pressure and consistent angles, but I am always getting a new problem... I try not to be easily discouraged, but damn if the deck isn't seeming stacked against me.
 
Are you using too coarse of a stone, on too thin of an edge?

Or, are you using too steep of an angle?
 
spit on a $10 pocket diamond stone.... That does the trick for me... And if you really want to get it sharp, use a piece of frosted glass, or the bottom of a ceramic cup
 
L2bravo said:
Are you using too coarse of a stone, on too thin of an edge?

Or, are you using too steep of an angle?
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I'm using my DMT XC. The edges are usually around 30° inclusive or higher, so it is unlikely that the edge is too thin.
 
I'm out of ideas man. I'm sorry. The bad part, is we can't watch you do it. If we all had the luxury, we could all have an "aha" moment at some point and time. Good luck man
 
Can I post videos from photobucket onto here? If I can then I can make a short video of me sharpening.
 
If it's 30 inclusive, with these steels (assuming well known manufacturer), too much pressure is my guess about the chipping.

Perhaps you can measure how much pressure you're using?

A video will be helpful, Youtube can be used.
 
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Thinking about it, is it possible that bringing the blade down a little too hard when I reset the blade to start another stroke, and contact with the stone is chipping my blade? I noticed myself doing that when I went ahead and did a full reprofiled on my Silent Soldier (which finally worked, but damn if it didn't take nearly 2 hours). When I was extra careful and kept my movements fluid the edge came out with no chips.
 
DKB, when going freehand (I'm decent, there are some real awesome guys in here), consistancy is final. Smooooth, steady strokes, all the same. Thats how you get what you are looking for.
 
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