Most challenging steel to you to sharpen

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DaveHb

Joined
Oct 18, 2021
Messages
106
What’s hardest steel for you to sharpen?
For me it’s my 20+ year old Junglee.
Reprofiling from 25 to 20 per side. 2 hours so far on 220 grit diamond to get it apexed on both sides.
Not sure what kind of HT the Seki put on them, but have found it hard to sharpen since day one.
M390 lots easier for me.
https://imgur.com/a/xWVMqcd
 
Maybe it's just me, but it seems like heat treat and other factors come into play, besides just steel type. I've got a DPX Heft 4 in Niolox that I can't seem to get sharp... I have an N690 blade that gives me fits, too. S30V is not too bad. Maybe I just need better technique...
 
Patience is a virtue and some days it's in short supply for me. Elmax on my ZT has been a pain, grind was a bit off and it felt very hard. I don't know what the real HRC is it. I also have a cheap knife in D2 that was almost impossible to sharpen even on the diamond rods.
 
I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL SHARPENER AT ALL , but I keep try to keep all my knives shaving.

4V - I gave up after a few 90 min sessions. 5.25 blade. I was using a KME with stones ranging from 50 - 300 ( DMT and KME stones , I tried silicon carbide water stones as well ).

I’ve sharpened a few hinderers , the M390 sharpened easier than the S35VN. Out of the 3 in M390 I sharpened, all of them were different. I think heat treatment plays a huge part of it.

4V by Gossman was definitely the most challenging steel I’ve tried to sharpen. Followed by S30V Strider ( old models ).

Another that was a nightmare - DPX HEFT 6 in sleipner steel. I could never get a decent edge on that knife. RC 61 was probably more than old diamond stones could handle ? And definitely a lack of skill / patience back then (2013 I think).

D DaveHb that junglee is nice !! They made some excellent knives back in the day, evidenced by that one you’ve got still going strong 👍👍
 
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I have an Endura in VG-10 that I just can't get to take a good edge. I have removed quite a bit of steel, used a KME, diamonds, etc.

I think it's one of those unicorn poor heat treats.
 
Newest steel for me is S35vn. No problem sharpening it. BM in D2 , ok. BG42 no prob. My weakness was Bucks 425m... jeez, gave me fits.
 
luethge said:
D DaveHb that junglee is nice !! They made some excellent knives back in the day, evidenced by that one you’ve got still going strong 👍👍
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Yes they did. It takes one keen edge.
It’s seen a lot of carrying. At least 100k miles on semi-truck with me plus wood time. Really surprised how well the coating held up through it all.
 
jc57 said:
For me personally, it was D2. In particular, Queen knives in D2. However, it did really teach me how to sharpen. It was a stern taskmaster, but I learned a lot from it.
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My experience too. It made me question myself a bit.
 
Given a sane profile there is no steel I can't sharpen with diamond plates, give me five or ten minutes at most. But I still can't move the Sandrin Torino past the scrape shaving state.

Now, it really depends what shape the edge is. Are there chips, or is it just a touch-up. Reprofiling and sharpening are two different things. For me, sharpening an acute and thin behind the edge blade is quick and easy compared to a thick, obtuse one.
I had D2 and S35VN blades I struggled with, but all they needed was to thin them out and lower the angle and now they are scary sharp. It is a sad fact of life, but all production blade and edge geometries are created with the lowest common denominator in mind. IOW they are making idiot proof knives to keep warranty costs under control and to outlast the competition in YT destruction videos..
 
MolokaiRider said:
I have an Endura in VG-10 that I just can't get to take a good edge.
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it's been ages since i had my delica or endura in my hands. i remember that i had had unsurmountable difficulties removing the microburr. since then i improved my deburring technique but nowadays i am no more interested in .. these two knife models. they can stay and rot in the
 
Burr-prone, ductile steels at low hardness, such as below HRC 55 or so are the worst. Something like Spyderco's VG-10 can be a PITA if it's a little soft, with very tenacious burrs that'll bend back & forth all day without breaking loose. And a steel like ATS-34, I've noticed, can produce very 'bendy' & ductile burrs even at hardness levels around 60 HRC. But at that hardness, even the burrs are impressively strong & tough. Getting them aligned straight is the trick.

At the opposite end of the burring spectrum, a steel like ZDP-189 at hardness of low-mid 60s HRC won't produce a noticeable burr at all. So it can be difficult to detect if the edge is fully apexed or not, which makes sharpening it more challenging.

Most any other steel can be very difficult or very easy, depending on whether or not you find the right abrasive for the job. The D2 mentioned in other posts is one of these - I've not much liked trying to sharpen it with aluminum oxide or lesser abrasives. But SiC eats it for breakfast, as does diamond. SiC is great for quick bevel-setting on D2, and diamond is best for refining it to a higher finish.

Agree with other mentions about the heat treat making the most difference. An otherwise 'difficult' steel to sharpen can be made much easier to sharpen, and with better edge-holding to boot, with a masterful heat treat job. And supposedly simple steels like 1095 can be some of the worst, if the steel is left too soft by heat treat. 1095 is a thing of beauty at hardness levels around 60 or so.
 
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kreisler said:
it's been ages since i had my delica or endura in my hands. i remember that i had had unsurmountable difficulties removing the microburr. since then i improved my deburring technique but nowadays i am no more interested in .. these two knife models. they can stay and rot in the
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Those poor knives gonna feel neglected. lol
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
Burr-prone, ductile steels at low hardness, such as below HRC 55 or so are the worst. Something like Spyderco's VG-10 can be a PITA if it's a little soft, with very tenacious burrs that'll bend back & forth all day without breaking loose. And a steel like ATS-34, I've noticed, can produce very 'bendy' & ductile burrs even at hardness levels around 60 HRC. But at that hardness, even the burrs are impressively strong & tough. Getting them aligned straight is the trick.

At the opposite end of the burring spectrum, a steel like ZDP-189 at hardness of low-mid 60s HRC won't produce a noticeable burr at all. So it can be difficult to detect if the edge is fully apexed or not, which makes sharpening it more challenging.

Most any other steel can be very difficult or very easy, depending on whether you find the right abrasive for the job. The D2 mentioned in other posts is one of these - I've not much liked trying to sharpen it with aluminum oxide or lesser abrasives. But SiC eats it for breakfast, as does diamond. SiC is great for quick bevel-setting on D2, and diamond is best for refining it to a higher finish.

Agree with other mentions about the heat treat making the most difference. An otherwise 'difficult' steel to sharpen can be made much easier to sharpen, and with better edge-holding to boot, with a masterful heat treat job. And very 'simple' steels like 1095 can be some of the worst, if the steel is left too soft by heat treat. 1095 is a thing of beauty at hardness levels around 60 or so.
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I've wondered about the 1095.
Ive seen those sharpening the knives and using lots of pressure to strop and have wondered if it was just aligning the bur and that is what was doing the cutting.
I like the work sharp set up I have for pivot but don't like the jig/angle guide variance for strops because it is so much steeper than blade sharpen angles so I just free hand.
 
I have an old Kabar 2752 boot knife that I bought around 1980, just because I thought it looked cool. The knife was made in Japan. Nobody seems to know the blade steel, other than it says stainless on the blade. But it is very hard, and kind of a pain to sharpen. That is ok though, because I have never found a good use for a dagger, except to look at it.

O.B.
 
S110v was the most challenging for me as I usually like to sharpen to cut arm hair. I can swing it now. But the paper wheel as a back up never failed me on any steel.
 
CPM-S110V. I've found honing on an ultra coarse DMT (220 grit) followed by finishing on an ultra fine DMT (1200 grit) results in a very durable, toothy edge.
 
I don't find any steel difficult to sharpen. I primarily use bonded diamond and cbn stones. I have had individual knives that were difficult to get sharp. In almost every case the difficulty was caused by steep factory edge angles, wavy edges (barely detectable recurves that aren't supposed to be there), lopsided edges, etc.
 
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