- Joined
- Dec 9, 2005
- Messages
- 2,402
My brother borrowed my Endura Wave and managed to chip out the tip by using it as a staple remover. I figured that made it a good time to reprofile it to 10 degrees per side. I used a sharpmaker rod as a fulcrum and it took about 15 minutes with the sharpmaker diamond rods to completely reprofile the edge. I used the corners of the medium rods at 10 degrees to refine the edge, then deburred using Clark's method. I then added a 15 degree microbevel all the way through the ultra fine sharpmaker stones. I was happy with the sharpness, and it could push cut and shave very well.
The next day my brother in law got a buck. I caught him about a 1/3 of the way through skinning the buck with his Smith & Wesson Extreme Ops knife. At that point the plain edge may as well have been a spoon, and the pointed serrations were the only thing that could cut, and they were ripping the meat. I pulled out the Endura Wave for him and he was incredulous at how well it could cut. It just separated the skin with hardly any effort. I figured with the ultrafine finish it would dull out fairly quickly, but it still cut very strong through the rest of the deer. It even took the head off with little effort, though the spine was weakened by the kill shot. In the end, there was no chipping of the blade, and it was still fairly sharp. The tip needed a tiny bit of a slice to start a cut into newsprint, but from there it could push cut with only slight snagging. Half way back on the blade it could still easily push cut the newsprint, and it could still shave along the whole blade.
I was very impressed with the edge retention of the VG-10 considering the finish on the blade. I was thinking the medium sharpmaker rods would have been a better finish for the task, what do you guys think? I will have to give my ultra fine rods a little more sharpening time to see if the edge retention is that good for the rest of my EDC needs, as this was an eye opening experience.
The next day my brother in law got a buck. I caught him about a 1/3 of the way through skinning the buck with his Smith & Wesson Extreme Ops knife. At that point the plain edge may as well have been a spoon, and the pointed serrations were the only thing that could cut, and they were ripping the meat. I pulled out the Endura Wave for him and he was incredulous at how well it could cut. It just separated the skin with hardly any effort. I figured with the ultrafine finish it would dull out fairly quickly, but it still cut very strong through the rest of the deer. It even took the head off with little effort, though the spine was weakened by the kill shot. In the end, there was no chipping of the blade, and it was still fairly sharp. The tip needed a tiny bit of a slice to start a cut into newsprint, but from there it could push cut with only slight snagging. Half way back on the blade it could still easily push cut the newsprint, and it could still shave along the whole blade.
I was very impressed with the edge retention of the VG-10 considering the finish on the blade. I was thinking the medium sharpmaker rods would have been a better finish for the task, what do you guys think? I will have to give my ultra fine rods a little more sharpening time to see if the edge retention is that good for the rest of my EDC needs, as this was an eye opening experience.