• Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I hope that you all have something to be grateful for this year and for many years to come

  • The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
    Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/

  • America has reached 250 years, and I am grateful to be here, in the best country in the world. Thank every one of you who helps make this country a better place, those who have gone before and risked it all, and those who've paid the ultimate price to make the United States what we are today.

    Happy Birthday America! Let Freedom Ring for all time!

Reprofiling--How do I know when to stop?

S

SubSpace

Joined
May 26, 2011
Messages
630
I just invested in the diamond rods for my sharpmaker, and want to use them to sharpen up a GEC knife of mine that just isn't responding very well to the medium brown stones.
My question is, do I use the diamond stones as I would the other stones on the sharpmaker? What I typically do is give about ten passes on each side, then check to see the knife will cleanly cut phone book paper. Should the knife be paper-cutting sharp after the diamond stones, and then do I go through the medium and fine stones to finish off the edge? Or do the diamond stones just remove enough metal that the medium/fine combo puts on the edge?

I just don't want to over-sharpen/put needless wear on my blade.

Thank you.
 
Hello

The way i use diamond rods on the 204 is just to establish a new back bevel at 30 degrees, i put permanent marker to see exactly the progression of the job being done.
I dont use the corners of the rods, just flat surfaces and i do as many strokes as needed until i apexed the whole edge.
Once you done you go back to 40 degrees and establish a microbevel, you dont need as many strokes as shown on the DVD, just a couple of strokes with fine and ultrafine rods will a set tiny bevel (dont overdo it as the tiny contact area will make the steel go away quite fast due to the small contact area with the stone.)
Once you did that check for burrs and strop it gently.
You can maintain that edge quite a long time with relative low maintenance compared to an inclusive angle.
 
The burr formed at the edge is the universal cue to indicate you've reached the apex. That's when you stop. If you're not getting the burr, either you haven't ground enough away from the new bevel, or the angle control is inconsistent, which is rounding the edge. That's easy to do on the Sharpmaker; just a little variation in angle on subsequent passes will round the edge a little bit, and the burr will never form. All the more likely to round it off, the longer one has to keep grinding at it; fatigue starts to erode the results after a while.

Take it very carefully with the diamond rods, and inspect the edge with a magnifier and bright light after every couple or three passes. You want to make sure you're getting closer to the apex with each pass, as only one or two off-angle passes can ruin previous good work.

BTW, don't even attempt using the ceramic rods until you've formed the burr on the diamond rods. The ceramics won't likely help at all, if you haven't apexed the new bevel on the diamond yet.
 
Thank you, both. I'm hoping these diamond rods make it a bit easier for me to sharpen my GEC knives. When they come sharp, they stay that way for a long time. When they don't, they take a long time to get there. At least for me.
 
I forgot to emphasize earlier, to use very, very light pressure on the diamond rods. I'm assuming your GEC is 1095 steel(?). If that's the case, that steel should form a burr very quickly when the apex is reached. It's important to check the edge frequently, because the diamond can erase the burr equally fast, if it's overlooked when it first forms.

Good luck! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top