Oar Carver?

[Omega Leather Works]

By 'shaping carbides', I'm referring to grinding them aggressively enough to reduce their size (therefore thickness/shape) at the apex. Using very coarse diamond or other coarse abrasive might just tend to rip the (whole) carbides out of the steel matrix at the edge during sharpening, but using finer but equally-hard abrasives is what will refine them by grinding or thinning them in-place, instead of just ripping them out.

Diamond from coarse thru fine/ef/eef will do it faster (especially during the heavy grinding/re-bevelling). Silicon carbide will still do it, albeit not as fast; and aluminum oxide abrasives slower still. Sometimes, for me, the slower-cutting rate of SiC or AlOx can be advantageous in the super-fine-tuning of an edge, in that it goes about it very, very gradually (think of Spyderco's ceramics). This is a good thing when the edge becomes finer and finer, when you want to avoid tearing out the carbides (which effectively blunts the edge), and instead sharpening and refining them in-place.

I suspect the idea that D2 'is better with a coarse/toothy edge' probably just comes from the fact that a coarse edge doesn't take near as long to create, and the toothiness of it makes it an effective working edge (which D2 will hold for a long time). Thing is, D2 will also take a very fine, polished edge that lasts a long time, but it takes quite a bit longer (maybe 2X/3X or longer) to make it so in the first place. And the thinness & crispness of the apex itself (therefore the finished size of carbides at the edge) become the bigger factor in sharpness & cutting ability, rather than the presence of the aggressive teeth at the edge.


David

That's what I got from your first post. Makes sense to use the finer diamond to shape the carbides. Though I haven't experienced d2 for myself, I have read about tear out a lot.

Interesting theory on the toothy edge idealism. You're REALLY making me want to grab a knife (any knife) in d2 and experiment. Seriously.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

That's what I got from your first post. Makes sense to use the finer diamond to shape the carbides. Though I haven't experienced d2 for myself, I have read about tear out a lot.

Interesting theory on the toothy edge idealism. You're REALLY making me want to grab a knife (any knife) in d2 and experiment. Seriously.

D2 is wicked when toothy, so I'm not attempting to diminish fans at that end of the grit spectrum. The first time I took it to a diamond hone (DMT Fine 'credit card'), my Queen Country Cousin bit me HARD on one errant slip off the hone, and the teeth in the edge made a big impression on me, in more ways than one. What I've grown to like about D2 is, for as long as I've persisted in refining edges in it, it just keeps getting sharper. The edge can get a lot finer & thinner than many give it credit for.


David

 

[pertinux]

I know absolutely squat about carving but those are some fine looking pieces of cutlery.

I was thinking the same thing.

It's just too bad a deer stepped on them.





(What's the brand?)

~ P.

 

[Omega Leather Works]

I was thinking the same thing.

It's just too bad a deer stepped on them.





(What's the brand?)

~ P.

Good call on the makers mark!

The deer hoof marked carvers are from Deepwoods Ventures. Hammer forged from 1095 round bar stock.

 

[Omega Leather Works]

D2 is wicked when toothy, so I'm not attempting to diminish fans at that end of the grit spectrum. The first time I took it to a diamond hone (DMT Fine 'credit card'), my Queen Country Cousin bit me HARD on one errant slip off the hone, and the teeth in the edge made a big impression on me, in more ways than one. What I've grown to like about D2 is, for as long as I've persisted in refining edges in it, it just keeps getting sharper. The edge can get a lot finer & thinner than many give it credit for.


David

I was thinking about all of this today and I have a question for you. Supposing I wanted to get a fine d2 edge, would it be appropriate to use a coarse stone/plate to get the edge profiled, then work the edge to refine it with an eef, or would the xc cause too much tear out? Would I have to get it close then work the bevel with an eef for a long time in order to save (and shape) the carbides?

As for the Oar... I wonder if there's any chance that Queen's service/warranty dept would thin the blades a bit if you sent the knife in for service. I wonder if anyone has ever tried that. I know people send knives in for sharpening all the time, but thinning the whole blade might be too much of an ask. Couldn't hurt to try if you owned one though.

 

[MarkPinTx]

probably be less trouble to take it to a machine shop! I guess that's my problem with sharpening DW:after that toothy edge on a coarse india and some tuning on the fine it only seems to go backwards for me in any reasonable amount of time. granted I haven't used diamonds.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

I was thinking about all of this today and I have a question for you. Supposing I wanted to get a fine d2 edge, would it be appropriate to use a coarse stone/plate to get the edge profiled, then work the edge to refine it with an eef, or would the xc cause too much tear out? Would I have to get it close then work the bevel with an eef for a long time in order to save (and shape) the carbides?

I wouldn't necessarily start with an XC hone. BUT, a large bench hone in Coarse diamond would handle most any folder-sized blade. I mention this, because I recently tried to do essentially the same thing with a ZDP-189 blade. Even more carbon and chromium than D2 (MUCH more), and trying this task with my small Lansky diamond hone (XC) was taking FOREVER. I finally clamped the blade into a DMT Aligner clamp, and took it to my 8" DMT C/F Duo-Sharp hone. All that surface area really made a night vs. day difference, and the job got done much, much faster. After shaping the bevels on the coarse side, the work on the Fine side was minor by comparison (just cleaning up the Coarse scratch pattern and making sure the edge was fully apexed).

So long as you keep a close eye on progress with the Coarse, you don't have to stop too soon and try finishing the bevels with a finer hone. Just make sure you lighten up on the pressure as you get closer, and especially so as you progress thru the EF & EEF grits. That's where the 'shaping' of the carbides will begin at the edge, when it becomes much finer.

As for the Oar... I wonder if there's any chance that Queen's service/warranty dept would thin the blades a bit if you sent the knife in for service. I wonder if anyone has ever tried that. I know people send knives in for sharpening all the time, but thinning the whole blade might be too much of an ask. Couldn't hurt to try if you owned one though.

I doubt Queen's warranty service would cover a 'custom' thinning of the whole blade grind (I think that's what they'd likely call it). Their factory warranty is defined according to the spec'd edge they put on the blade, and not by what most of us knife nuts would prefer it to be. Would be nice, though.


David