When you grind a blade with a ceramic rod edge trailing you are attempting to align the steel more so than removing metal. This is why Ron Hood for example keeps mentioning not a lot of pressure needs to be used, you don't want to be grinding the blades as much as reshaping the edge. I have blunted both my BM and #7 Basic now about a dozem times each. On the Basic I brought it down that dull so that it would not break skin under its full weight. To restore the edge I just do a little aligning with a ceramic rod and then strop it lightly about 10 times. It will then be restored to being able to push cut through paper quite easily.
I have taken the #7 Basic and chopped through some small diameter hardwood that is hard enough that Ontario's machete break on it, Mission's A2 dents, etc., and the edge on the Basic holds up fine. It does blunt after awhile (after a few hundred chops), but there is no deformation of chipping. Note I am doing the chopping in a really moronic way which is just to bang the blade straight through the wood, no attempt to v it out, this way I can exert maximum stress on the blade.
I think one of the reasons it is not difficult to sharpen is that it resists chipping strongly. If indents / chips are not present then this greatly reduced the amount of sharpening that you need to do to restore the edge because there is not a great deal of material needing to be removed. While I haven't done enough work to comment on the durabilty / edge holding and be specific, I can say that it sharpens very easy. The comments made by the users like Aubrey Moore (just strops it occasionally) are pretty much on.
-Cliff
[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 29 September 1999).]
