polishes edges not good for general use cutting purposes?

L2bravo said:
One thing we haven't talked about, is durability. How is that 0550 at 20 degees? I am sure that with it's high grind on that blade, it does cut good at that edge, but I would fear it being a little fragile at that point.
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Since clamshell packaging is the hardest use my knives will ever see, I never worry about durability. The edge is heavily convexed, though (Worksharp), so it is stronger than it appears. I carried a similarly ground FFG Delica for a while and never had even a single chip, and the Delica was barely convexed.
 
hemi1300 said:
been playing around with my edge pro for the last few weeks and really getting my technique down. First few i did were my kershaw blur's and went up to the 3000 grit polish tape for a great looking mirror edge. Edge's were definitely sharp and hair shaving, but just didn't seem quite as sharp as the factory edge on my spyderco paramilitary 2. Finally worked on the paramilitary 2 today and decided to finish with 400 grit stone, wow did it turn out great. Bevel and finish look almost 100% factory edge and when doing the paper slicing test it performs flawlessly (i'm guessing by finishing with 400 grit the edge still has tiny micro-serrations and grabs more so seems to cut better?) Love the look of a mirror polished edge, but am i crazy in saying an edge finished with 400 grit or even 220 seems to cut paper better?
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1.No you are not crazy, you can even get a VERY sharp edge by using simple street sidewalk stones; it won't be pretty but it will be sharp. The technique is a major factor in sharpening.
2. factory edge is not always sharp - and by sharp I mean "Scary sharp".
3. when you worked on your kershaw - did you use only 3000 grit?
 
Polished edges work great for general use. I go up to 4000 grit waterstones or 0.3 micron lapping films and have no trouble with "bite". However, if you know you'll be doing some heavy cutting on fibrous material, a coarser edge may last longer and work easier. This is one reason I like traditional knives with more than one blade. I kept my trapper with a high polish edge on the spey blade at 20 degrees per side off the Sharpmaker and lapping film, while the clip blade was about 8 degrees per side, finished off my 220 grit water stone, which was the coarsest I had at the time. I could deburr conduit and copper with the spey, but the clip blade would cut and cut and cut.

I'm working with a new knife, a Tojiro 120 mm petty in White #2 steel. It had one of the most polished edges from the factory/shop I've ever seen. It would whittle hair right out of the box, but I could slide my fingers across the edge with no fear of being cut, using light force of course. I started cutting cardboard a week ago, have nearly a trash bag full, and it will still cut newspaper and cuts printer paper easily. It has also sharpened pencils and some other random chores, and some kitchen duty. Polished or coarse, the edge was cleanly apexed and burr free, and has held for a long time. Either edge works, but you can get just a little more if you taylor the edge to the task, and more importantly, your cutting method, ie pushing through stuff vs. slicing.
 
eytankey said:
1.No you are not crazy, you can even get a VERY sharp edge by using simple street sidewalk stones; it won't be pretty but it will be sharp. The technique is a major factor in sharpening.
2. factory edge is not always sharp - and by sharp I mean "Scary sharp".
3. when you worked on your kershaw - did you use only 3000 grit?
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wow, lots of info on edge sharpness in this thread. When i worked on the kershaw, think i started with 400, 600, 1000 grit edge pro stones and polished the edge with 2000 grit tape. Getting ready to place an order tonight for a shapton glass stone for my edge pro but can't decide which one. Should i go 500 or 1000 for a better replacement stone than the edge pro or step it up to a 4k stone-any recommendations??
 
hemi1300 said:
wow, lots of info on edge sharpness in this thread. When i worked on the kershaw, think i started with 400, 600, 1000 grit edge pro stones and polished the edge with 2000 grit tape. Getting ready to place an order tonight for a shapton glass stone for my edge pro but can't decide which one. Should i go 500 or 1000 for a better replacement stone than the edge pro or step it up to a 4k stone-any recommendations??
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I've got a 1k Shapton bench stone. It is a gem, and I do mean shining gem of a stone. I can do (like tonight), Fine DMT, Shap 1000, and a loaded strop with porter cable black, finished with a 40 degree micro on the brown Sharpmaker stones. That is a shaving, scary sharp edge, that is robust. I feel like the Shap gets it where I want it. It just has a total different feel to it. Maybe I am weird, but it does to me.
 
hemi1300 said:
wow, lots of info on edge sharpness in this thread. When i worked on the kershaw, think i started with 400, 600, 1000 grit edge pro stones and polished the edge with 2000 grit tape. Getting ready to place an order tonight for a shapton glass stone for my edge pro but can't decide which one. Should i go 500 or 1000 for a better replacement stone than the edge pro or step it up to a 4k stone-any recommendations??
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I recommened to buy a 1k stone for edge sharpening and 5k -10k stone for finish
use the 200-600 for rough work (like fixing chipping or reshaping).

Personally I use only Japanese waterstones.
some times i use leather strop.
 
So I have an SV 30 and I see sandpaper upto 8000 grit for wood? Is that what I should buy what exactly and where is a good place to purchase it?

Thanks
 
jagman13 said:
So I have an SV 30 and I see sandpaper upto 8000 grit for wood? Is that what I should buy what exactly and where is a good place to purchase it?

Thanks
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S30V won't respond as well to sandpaper, most likely, except for light maintenance or touch-ups. And if the sandpaper 'for wood' is garnet abrasive (instead of aluminum oxide or silicon carbide), it won't be effective at all. There's a lot of very hard vanadium carbides in S30V; diamond or CBN are aggressive enough for it, and would do better, especially if much metal needs to be removed (re-bevelling, for example).

Sandpaper will tend to more aggressively abrade/polish the steel matrix (iron/carbon/chromium), but will be very slow in abrading the vanadium carbides embedded in the steel, resulting in blunting or rounding the edge. Diamond or CBN are more aggressive on everything in the alloy (including the vanadium carbides), so they'll be much better at shaping the entirety of the edge, producing a much cleaner & pure apex.


David
 
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dkb45 said:
You have 2 million grit!? How much would getting a knife sharpened up to that cost? I want to cut a hole in the fabric of space time!
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Right now the finest stuff on the market is about 640,000 grit.

For what its worth , at the level of refinement your getting to the point of being able to cut small bacteria... Makes for a great shave though :)
 
Sadden said:
Right now the finest stuff on the market is about 640,000 grit.

For what its worth , at the level of refinement your getting to the point of being able to cut small bacteria... Makes for a great shave though :)
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Eesh, and I thought 6k grit was high...
 
I've been experiementing with sharpening techniques and edge finishes a bit; here are some of my findings so far FWIW, which isn't much... ;):D

I went up to 6k polish tape with my benchmade 581 in M390 and it worked very well for every day duties. It was sticky sharp; dang I miss that knife! :( It may just have been the M390 though... :thumbup:

I sharpened my Strider SNG in S30V up to the 600 grit stone and then threw it on the slotted paper wheel; again, it worked quite well in general tasks IMO.

My zt0300 in S30V up 1k stone, then polished on the slotted wheel; it actually ended up being too smooth IMO, not enough bite for general use but did push cut well. I did rush it a bit sharpening this one so maybe the edge wasn't apexed enough...

I'm working on resharpening and thinning out the edge on my Spydie TUFF right now, it's taking a long time to get the bevels thinned and I'm not even close to apexing the edge yet. :thumbdn: It was previously sharpened on a Wicked edge system and was quite sharp so I hope to get it even sharper once I'm done... I'll probably go the full edge pro route up the 6k tapes...

I've owned two Hogue knives, both came with very nice polished edges from factory. Quite impressive!
 
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Most of my knives re sharpened to 15K on Shaptons, then stropped with CBN to .5, or .25 micron. They cut like light sabres.
 
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