Military 52100, having trouble sharpening

J

jonnieb27

Joined
Sep 13, 2008
Messages
191
I recently purchased a Military in the CF 52100 steel version.

I did not do anything to it except a little honing on a leather strop. It seemed very sharp.

I don't even remember what I cut with it initially, but nothing very hard. While looking closely at the blade the other day, I noticed some fractures at the front of the belly of the blade.

I tried the Sharpmaker with the brown stones, but was not able to remove or grind out the chips. I used the diamond rods to rebevel the edge to 30 inclusive, but when trying to add a 40 finish bevel, it continued to fracture along the edge.

I have cut it back 3 times now with the diamond rods, and proceeded through the succeeding rods. I cannot get the edge to stop fracturing.

I am not using a lot of pressure on the Sharpmaker, so I am wondering what I might be doing wrong. A closeup view of the edge makes it look like a saw blade, with numerous sawtooth fractures along the edge. It is almost like a large burr that fractures off to leave flat spots.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
Moved to MT&E

Removing damage with the sharpmaker can be a lesson in frustration. You're going to need many more than 10 passes before each step before moving on.
 
I maintain my 52100 Millie with a SM but don't use the corners only the flats and never had a problem. I use the brown till I feel a burr on each side, then 20 alternating on each side with the fine, then 20 on each side with ultra fine. Hasn't ever taken more then 10 minutes.
 
Jason B. said:
Had this problem a few years ago,

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/653142-Ceramics-problem

Concluded that the ceramics were so dense and hard that they were causing fracturing of the edge on hard steels. 52100 and ZDP-189 were two that I had a lot of problems with at the time.

I use waterstones now and have not had any problems.
Click to expand...

Just to follow up on my original post, I think I may have been using a little too much pressure when using the corners of the rods. I did eventually get the Mili sharp again, but wasn't happy with the area at the point, which I rounded off a bit. I have used my Lansky system to set the bevel and smooth it out, and now, using only the flats of the fine and UF Sharpmaker rods, can get the edge scary sharp. ( I'm using the SM for the final edge bevel, not the primary bevel, FWIW.) I am just waiting for the Lansky yellow and blue sapphire stones to arrive and I will be trying to polish the edge on the Mili.

I agree that the ceramic rod corners may be applying too much pressure to too small an area of the blade, and this is what caused the chipping. I experienced something similar with the PM2 in 110V and the Native LW in same steel.

I've been using my original Triangle Sharpener for many years on older Hi Carbon and SS knives (for edge touch up only), and I think the super steels may require a more gentle approach.

I think sharpening a couple or three times may have also removed some of the factory edge and got down to clean metal.

Thanks for all who responded.
 
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