One of those days..

S

Spartan00

Joined
Feb 4, 2016
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Anybody else ever had one of those days or one of those knives that just doesnt want to cooperate lol?

I was going through my case yesterday and I have a few Spyderco pm2s in there .

Noticed the oldest one I have was in the case dull from a project a few months back . I mean really dull , as in no edge left on the knife .

I followed my normal routine of dmt xc then coarse and the edge felt off to me .

I was sure I had apex ed it and done everything correc tly,the same way I sharpen ever single knife I own . This knife just wouldn't take an edge to save my life .

Went back to the dmt xc and repro filed to a shallow angle again getting a working edge but nothing like I'm used to getting .

It will cut magazine paper off the 220 but it's a rough edge and you can see snags in the paper . Any attempt to refine the edge the knife gets dull.

This is frustrating because I'm usually a pretty good sharpener . I can polish edges and do all the things that give us free handers bragging rights on here , this pm2 in s30v got the best of me .

Now I will say it's been awhile since I've sharpened s30v . Steels I've been sharpening are zdp-189 and other super steels .

I got frustrated and left it alone before I screwed the knife up. Figure I'll go round 2 today .

Anybody else ever done this? You follow your sharpening routine to a T and you just can't get an edge on the knife ?
 
Just walk away for a day. The stars aren't right for you today.:thumb up:

It'll be better tomorrow.
 
Happens to me more than I would like to admit.
 
A few years ago I picked up a bunch of kitchen knives at the Goodwill. One of them is an older Japanese stainless of unknown pedigree, doesn't even have a full tang - but its a tough SOB to sharpen. Whenever I get a new stone or want to try out a new honing compound etc I pull that thing out. Like jumping rope for 20 minutes, it never gets easy.

Most knives I can get to a pretty good level but every now and then one will beat me up a bit. Usually it comes down to working around lousy geometry or a warp. After that it winds up being a poor choice of abrasive.
 
jackknife said:
Just walk away for a day. The stars aren't right for you today.:thumb up:

It'll be better tomorrow.
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Best advice ever , I did walk away , trust me I was tempted to pull out power tools on the knife . Crazy thoughts of did I buy a fake or what the hell I lost my touch lol.

No no fake bought it in person , didn't lose my touch either just a bad day for sharpening for some reason ,tried it again last night and it was good to go .

Glad I'm not the only one this happens to as I was feeling kind of weird when I typed it . My guess is I just had too much going on I wasn't giving the attention I usually do .
 
Some days one of your chakras gets blocked and the sharpening force is not with you. :D

Sometimes the stones call to me and I sit down and sharpen. Other times they act like I have bad breath and want nothing to do with me.
 
I sharpen with a guided system and I can sharpen the same way every time. I use the coarse stone until I know I have hit the apex, then a few strokes with the medium and fine, then a few strokes with the strop, and I know it will be sharp even before I test it.

If I had to try sharpening freehand I would probably be completely lost, and when I've tried to sharpen a convex edge with sandpaper and mousepad I have never made any progress.
 
One has good days and poor days. As Jason stated more than one would like.
 
bdmicarta said:
I sharpen with a guided system and I can sharpen the same way every time. I use the coarse stone until I know I have hit the apex, then a few strokes with the medium and fine, then a few strokes with the strop, and I know it will be sharp even before I test it.

If I had to try sharpening freehand I would probably be completely lost, and when I've tried to sharpen a convex edge with sandpaper and mousepad I have never made any progress.
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Yes I've got an edge pro , I just feel like its cheating , plus I get sharper edges free handed than off an edge pro.

The edge pro does have its place , if I want a quick reprofile at a low angle the 120 EP cuts it quickly and allows me to feel the bevel a bit better on the stone .

Other than that I'm not a fan of high grit edges on my pocket knives usually I'll stop at a 325 diamond or 320 Waterstone 1200 grit max for me on a pocket knife .
 
Just finished my PM2 on the KME... The kangaroo strop with the 4mic cbn really made it pop! Lol free handing is over rated... :)p
 
Not if your good at it ! Like I said I have the edge pro with the tapes and also have a roo strop with diamonds .

I can get sharper edges off diamonds and ceramics .not starting a pissing contest but honestly if you know what your doing a freehand edge can be sharper may not easier but sharper at least for me .
 
Spartan, you seem to know what you're doing and be a good sharpener. I agree with a lot of what you've written in the past few weeks.

But the idea that a freehand edge is better than a guided edge doesn't make sense to me. A guided edge, done by a skilled operator, should be at least the equivalent, if not better than, a freehand edge. It only makes sense.

The best freehand edges are probably equivalent to a guided edge done by a skilled operator. But I can't imagine a freehand edge that would be better. For the record I freehand about 90% of the time.

Brian.
 
Maybe it's my stones vs the stock edge pro stones and tapes , maybe it's the slight convex a freehand edge has who knows , in my situation though I can get a pretty edge off the edge pro but as far as sharpness goes even when perfecting freehand I finished on edge pro and went to the UF free handed .

I don't know others are more into the science of sharpening I just like to do it .

Also I've had knives that have came with edges off the wicked edge and like I said I have an edge pro .

I've also gotten hand sharpened knives if you've never had a knife hand sharpened especially say Japanese kitchen knives treat yourself .
 
I think alot of why a free hand sharpening feels so sharp is the initial scratch pattern we set in and then refine. The guided systems get you one hell of an edge but I think they allow us to over do it. Just my thought on it I'm sure I'm wrong but maybe someone else has the same view
 
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