I just received a mini-SOCOM through a trade and while NIB, the edge was not up to my personal satisfaction. I started using the Spyderco 204 and could plainly see that this was going to be time consuming. So out comes the Lansky. Since I have a black blade, the first thing I do is to cut a small piece of paper to go between the clamp jaws to prevent marring the blade. About three passes with a coarse diamond stone set the edge just fine at the 25 degree setting. MT's are ground quite thin (a good thing!) and I could have just as easily used the 20 degree setting which would get me even better cutting performance at the expense of some reduction in edge strength. Still might do this next time as this knife is mainly my office and light duty carry and not generally subjected to rough duty. I then just used the natural progression of coarse through the ultra-fine stones. Stropped on leather impregnated with green compound. Sharp? I guess maybe just a little! Overall a much happier sharpening experience than when doing my Benchmades. Easiest stainless I have found to sharpen outside of a Sebenza. Kudos to MT on their heat treat.
