Native sharp grrr

[Buck268]

This is odd, I barely use the thing and it started to lose its factory sharpness. Used to pushcut newsprint easily, now it doesnt push cut notebook paper Knife sees extremely light use, if any...

Anyways, so I went to touch it up on my diamond stones. What a pain it is to sharpen. I don't know if I'm getting rusty or if this blade is just that sensititive, but man. Got it back to shaving sharp but it took a couple of cycles from fine to extra fine before I got it right. Is that just the nature of S30V then? I know I've heard a lot of complaints about that steel as far as sharpening, but I figured a light touchup would be just that; not a full out honing.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

What a pain it is to sharpen. I don't know if I'm getting rusty or if this blade is just that sensititive, but man. Got it back to shaving sharp but it took a couple of cycles from fine to extra fine before I got it right. Is that just the nature of S30V then?

In some cases yes because the edge is damaged and it keeps micro chipping until the faulty steel is removed. Take a very coarse stone and regrind the primary at ten degrees and then sharpen at 15 with a microbevel. This should solve most sharpening problems and assumes you are cutting soft materials and not metals/bone.

-Cliff

 

[So-Lo]

Yep, Thats all I did to, get that crap steel off then your good to go. I go 18 on my primary, and 25 on my micro. Yes it get shaving sharp, and is very stable. I cut a lot of thick and hard things though. From 40 grit sand paper to thick plastic bands, and everything else. I also do a lot of twisting and other light prying stuff as well. I use the right tool for the job, but sometimes my job calls for this type of use. And to date I have never broken a tip off or chipped a huge peice out of the edge.

 

[knarfeng]

When I started sharpening my Native III, it looked to me as if the bevel had a hollow grind to it. In order to actually put a new edge on it so that it had the bevel I like to use I had to do a bit of work. Having done that, it's easy to keep sharp. Now I know that I have a III and you have a Native, so we have different steels, but there might be similarities in the bevels.

Just a thought.

 

[Buck268]

You know what, that may very well have been the case. Every 5 strokes I'd stop and check it out with my 10x hand lens and I noticed the very edge and the top of the bevel smoothing out (as the 600 grit DMT stone was finer than the factory grind, appeareently). Didn't think much of it other than its odd but since you've mentioned that, it may very well be the case!