Re-profile CPM 3V adventure

S

SkinnyElectrician

Joined
Oct 29, 2023
Messages
88
I reprofiled a Cold Steel SRK in 3V steel. The factory edge was about 29 degrees and uneven on each side. I decided to keep the knife and to reprofile it myself.

I purchased the KME beast 50 grit diamond stone and got to work. It took several hours and a lot of oil to reduce that shoulder part of the edge bevel.

Once I got the edge bevel to a uniform 19.5 degrees on each side, I then had to reprofile the blade and fix the scratches and gouges left by the beast stone. I had to repeatedly start with the 300 grit course stone and proceeded through the 600 and 1500 grit stones. I was eventually able to obtain a uniform and clean edge on each side of the blade. The beast was truly beastly on the edge, leaving the edge with a jagged pattern of what looked like piranha teeth under a magnifying glass. It took a lot of work to smooth and even the edge.

Finally, I honed and finished the blade. I did some light work with the 300 and 600 grit stones, just to refine and finish that bevel and edge.

I still need to order some stropping paste for my new strop, but tonight the knife was slicing through paper. The whole process was a lot more work than I expected. In the future, I’ll return a knife that isn’t delivered with a nearly perfect edge. But I am proud of the edge reprofile that I obtained, and I’ve spent so many hours working on the knife and I’m attached to it now.

29 degrees to 19.5 degrees turned out to be harder than I expected. So a 10 degree reprofile is certainly possible. Would I do it again? Probably not!
 
SkinnyElectrician said:
I reprofiled a Cold Steel SRK in 3V steel. The factory edge was about 29 degrees and uneven on each side. I decided to keep the knife and to reprofile it myself.

I purchased the KME beast 50 grit diamond stone and got to work. It took several hours and a lot of oil to reduce that shoulder part of the edge bevel.

Once I got the edge bevel to a uniform 19.5 degrees on each side, I then had to reprofile the blade and fix the scratches and gouges left by the beast stone. I had to repeatedly start with the 300 grit course stone and proceeded through the 600 and 1500 grit stones. I was eventually able to obtain a uniform and clean edge on each side of the blade. The beast was truly beastly on the edge, leaving the edge with a jagged pattern of what looked like piranha teeth under a magnifying glass. It took a lot of work to smooth and even the edge.

Finally, I honed and finished the blade. I did some light work with the 300 and 600 grit stones, just to refine and finish that bevel and edge.

I still need to order some stropping paste for my new strop, but tonight the knife was slicing through paper. The whole process was a lot more work than I expected. In the future, I’ll return a knife that isn’t delivered with a nearly perfect edge. But I am proud of the edge reprofile that I obtained, and I’ve spent so many hours working on the knife and I’m attached to it now.

29 degrees to 19.5 degrees turned out to be harder than I expected. So a 10 degree reprofile is certainly possible. Would I do it again? Probably not!
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Rumor has it that the 3V SRK's have disappeared. You may have exercised the only option.
Reprofiling edges is for those of stout heart and strong fingers. Ask me how I know.
 
knarfeng said:
Ask me how I know.
Click to expand...

You're half lion and half bass player?

Since I don't have such genetics, I would just use my belt grinder. ;)

unless it were Delta-3V
 
SkinnyElectrician said:
I reprofiled a Cold Steel SRK in 3V steel. The factory edge was about 29 degrees and uneven on each side. I decided to keep the knife and to reprofile it myself.
Click to expand...
29 degrees on both sides is disgraceful. Most of my Cold Steels had pretty good grinds out of the box. Oddly, there are three that are 11 degrees on one side and 19 on the other, bought several years apart. I have not decided what to do with them.

I still have a couple dozen knives that are in serious need of reprofiling and quite a few more that need reprofiling a few degrees.

A few days ago I did a Hogue Deka in Magnacut that was 20 degrees on one side and 31 degrees on the other. It took an hour and a quarter to take 31 down to 20 degrees with Poltava Premium Metallic CBN Stones. I would hate to try that on both sides.

But I would imagine that some people are faster than I am. The bursitis and tennis elbow have been slowing me down.
 
David Mary said:
You're half lion and half bass player?

Since I don't have such genetics, I would just use my belt grinder. ;)

unless it were Delta-3V
Click to expand...

Multiple Queen D2 blades using aluminum oxide stones. Queen was famous for their "butterknife edges".
 
The beast stone should never be used to go to the edge! It is very aggressive. I like to stop just shy of the edge and then go to the 150 then 300.
 
My son rounded the edge bevel of his CRKT M16, you could not cut yourself with it if you tried. I decided to re-bevel then sharpen. Used my Norton 200 grit stone, then proceeded upwards until ending on a 3000 grit stone. Not as difficult as your project, but it did make my hands sore. Within two months my son donated the knife to the TSA at the Madison, WI airport when traveling on business. Hope the feds enjoy their knife. Pics below:

WqMeIms.jpg

2EYHh5Y.jpg
 
I had to re-profile my SRK and Ka-Bar Mark 1 as both came with very obtuse edges. Fortunately, being 1095 Cro Van/Carbon V, it was relatively easy, starting with a fine file for the rough work. Doubt I'd attempt modifying 3V.
 
SkinnyElectrician said:
The beast was truly beastly on the edge, leaving the edge with a jagged pattern of what looked like piranha teeth under a magnifying glass. It took a lot of work to smooth and even the edge.
Click to expand...
Don't go all the way to the edge with your coarsest stones. In the long run this saves time and steel.

SkinnyElectrician said:
The whole process was a lot more work than I expected. In the future, I’ll return a knife that isn’t delivered with a nearly perfect edge. But I am proud of the edge reprofile that I obtained, and I’ve spent so many hours working on the knife and I’m attached to it now.
Click to expand...
I know that feeling from convexing a Mora on sandpaper. :)
 
I truly didn’t want to go to the blade edge with the beast. But it was necessary to help develop the natural plane of each bevel and to develop bevel equally on each side. But man did it leave a god awful mess of miniature jagged piranha teeth on the entire blade, and it took just as long to clean it up as it did to remove 10 degrees of CPM 3V steel in the first place. I did learn a lot by using black sharpie on the blade and utilizing a magnifying glass to access the progress and status of the blade.
 
SkinnyElectrician said:
I truly didn’t want to go to the blade edge with the beast. But it was necessary to help develop the natural plane of each bevel and to develop bevel equally on each side.
Click to expand...
Were there overgrinds that caused you to hit the edge in some spots before finishing in others? If you observe this approaching again try "bread-knifing" a flat on the edge. This flat will offer support to prevent the worst of the tear-out that causes the jagged edge and wasted time grinding it out again.
 
Oh yeah and CPM 3V steel is a tough steel that isn’t easy to remove with a stone. But, like the other CPM steel, it sure does make a nice sound when sharpened on an even bevel. 3V isn’t as finely grained as S35-VN, but it’s still a very evenly grained knife steel that provides a nice stiff edge. I think the 3V is a good choice for a big banger outdoor knife like the SRK, I’ll test it out the next time we get a warm spell here.
 
SkinnyElectrician said:
I reprofiled a Cold Steel SRK in 3V steel. The factory edge was about 29 degrees and uneven on each side. I decided to keep the knife and to reprofile it myself.

I purchased the KME beast 50 grit diamond stone and got to work. It took several hours and a lot of oil to reduce that shoulder part of the edge bevel.

Once I got the edge bevel to a uniform 19.5 degrees on each side, I then had to reprofile the blade and fix the scratches and gouges left by the beast stone. I had to repeatedly start with the 300 grit course stone and proceeded through the 600 and 1500 grit stones. I was eventually able to obtain a uniform and clean edge on each side of the blade. The beast was truly beastly on the edge, leaving the edge with a jagged pattern of what looked like piranha teeth under a magnifying glass. It took a lot of work to smooth and even the edge.

Finally, I honed and finished the blade. I did some light work with the 300 and 600 grit stones, just to refine and finish that bevel and edge.

I still need to order some stropping paste for my new strop, but tonight the knife was slicing through paper. The whole process was a lot more work than I expected. In the future, I’ll return a knife that isn’t delivered with a nearly perfect edge. But I am proud of the edge reprofile that I obtained, and I’ve spent so many hours working on the knife and I’m attached to it now.

29 degrees to 19.5 degrees turned out to be harder than I expected. So a 10 degree reprofile is certainly possible. Would I do it again? Probably not!
Click to expand...
If you do it again, order some diamond files from mcmaster-carr. You can make a jig very easily and it should be much quicker.
 
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