Nitro V - hard to sharpen or …..?

Terry M.

Terry M.

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Feb 5, 2006
Messages
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I’m having a heck of a time sharpening this Zermeno blade. Not raising much of a burr at all. I’m dropping to 600 grit and it’s a tad better. I think I got the angle right at 21 degrees via the magic marker. Lots of belly on this one but I don’t think that’s throwing me off as I just sharpened another with just as much belly successfully. That one was M390 though. Is Nitro V that tough to sharpen?

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Some steels won't form a burr you can see or feel easily. It either breaks off or is so small. It's not a traditional type burr.

You need a loupe, if you don't have one already. Get down there and look at the apex. You'll see if there's a big enough burr to see.
 
Do you have issues with AEB-L?

How thick bte?
 
Grasshopperglock said:
Some steels won't form a burr you can see or feel easily. It either breaks off or is so small. It's not a traditional type burr.

You need a loupe, if you don't have one already. Get down there and look at the apex. You'll see if there's a big enough burr to see.
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I have a lighted magnifying glass over the top that doesn’t show in the picture.
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I’m barely seeing any burr though. That’s why I’m asking. I seem to be struggling 🙂
 
Grasshopperglock said:
$10 bucks. Most come with a light. Looking at it close, 30x. It's another world dealing with sharp.

It'll also save you time. You can see the apex and any area that hasn't formed to the apex.

Burr or not.
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Just ordered one from Amazon. May have to set this knife aside til I get it. Hate to sound whooped but I may be
 
A Vosteed Valkyrie is the only knife I have with Nitro-V. I had never carried or sharpened it, but it was a little dull (BESS 250) out of the box, and the bevel angles were 21 degrees on one side and 24 degrees on the other side, so I thought I would give it a try. I set the WS Pro Precision Adjust to 20 degrees and started with the coarsest plate, the 220 grit. I was going somewhat slowly, because the knife has a nice, almost straight edge that I do not want to mess up. After 20 minutes on the 24 degree side, I had a bit of a burr near the tip. I flipped it over, and after 5 minutes on the 21 degree side, I had a clear burr along the whole edge. I went through the whole plate progression and got a reading of BESS 350. Figuring I still had a burr, I stropped it for 2 minutes on plain leather and got BESS 280. This was considerably more time and bother than I have had reprofiling S90V or S35VN. Maybe I'll try my new Hapstone CBN plates tomorrow.

Update: Got out the Hapstone R2 with new CBN plates. The good news is that, because I had already reprofiled the blade, I started with 400 grit and got a burr on each each side in about a minute.
 
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Nitro-V is nothing special. There are no significant amount of carbides that would slow you down outside of the ordinary. If it is thick BTE you have a fair amount of material to remove, then it's just a matter of sticking with it. I generally don't grind away on one side too much all at once, but after a few passes switching sides you should get to a point where you are raising a burr quite easily on both sides, especially with a guided system.

Your diamond plates may also need a clean or have worn to a point where they are just not cutting as they once were.
 
Terry M. said:
I’m having a heck of a time sharpening this Zermeno blade. Not raising much of a burr at all.
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Common wisdom on internet dictates us to sharpen one side till you get a burr and then repeat the same on the other side of the knife.
But, is raising a burr a good thing?
Can a knife be sharpened without raising a burr?
 
Nitro-v is usually really easy to sharpen. It sounds like you may not be getting the bevels to actually meet, so maybe start with a more aggressive stone and spend more time there, if you have one. One of the mistakes I made odten when I started freehand sharpening was moving past the really course stones too soon, especially with some of the obtuse factory angles out there. The very coarse stones are the workhorses if the knife is dull. Makes things go much quicker, then it's refining from there.

My starting stones for a dull knife are either a byxco manticore (60 grit) or atoma 140 (140 grit diamond).
 
TheOne45 said:
Common wisdom on internet dictates us to sharpen one side till you get a burr and then repeat the same on the other side of the knife.
But, is raising a burr a good thing?
Can a knife be sharpened without raising a burr?
Click to expand...

To answer the last part, yes, but a burr makes it easy to know when the bevels have met. I usually only look for a burr on heavier resharpening job, like reprofiling factory edge angles.
 
I usually only look for a burr at 240 grit. After that is removing the scratches with 400 and moving up the grits.

The emphasis on raising a burr relates more to the history of carbon steel and stones. Carbon steel will take a decent burr. Gummy steel.

Then we have the powdered steels. That the only way to sharpen it, takes diamonds. The burrs have become more tiny. If there's a burr at all.
 
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