reprofiling s30v is a b!tch

M

M Wadel

Joined
Sep 11, 2005
Messages
801
i wish i had diamondrods for the SM.. ok so last night i decieded to sharpen my cmtx5 and taking the back bevel down to 30°. i must have done several thousand swipes on each side now and it looks like i still have 30-40% left of the factory edge.. i gave up alternating swipes pretty fast, now i just do 300 or so on each side. i should be done in a few hours :p
 
Use a silicon carbide waterstone, it eats through S30V, you can rip a 20 to 15 degree bevel on a tactical folder in a couple of minutes.

-Cliff
 
silicon carbide you say, i have to lok into that for next time. i have probably spent 5-6 hours now
 
Reprofiling most any steel takes forever without SiC or diamonds. I don't know how many hours I spent trying to do it with a Lansky. Certainly an exercise in patience and a good learning experience but never again!
 
no not quite done yet i have approx 20-30% left on the right side (checked it with a marker) of the blade, i think its time to go out and get some beer, for motivation.. :D i couldnt even imagine how long this takes, atleast i know how the SM works now hehehe
 
Ya , you can get it done , with a good bit of "intestinal fortitude" . May take a good while, but it'll be worth it. Later, Steve
 
DMT makes a 120 grit diamond plate that really works well. Here are a few pics of it in action. It really made short work of the hollow grind on my Centofane 4.

After a few strokes.



After about 5 mins. the hollow grind was gone and the bevel was perfectly flat.



Finished Product.




I originally purchased this plate to work on a S30v chef's knife, but soon found that it really worked well on everything else too.
 
louisianacook said:
DMT makes a 120 grit diamond plate that really works well. Here are a few pics of it in action. It really made short work of the hollow grind on my Centofane 4.

After a few strokes.



After about 5 mins. the hollow grind was gone and the bevel was perfectly flat.



Finished Product.




I originally purchased this plate to work on a S30v chef's knife, but soon found that it really worked well on everything else too.
Click to expand...


All I can say is WOW. Do you use some kind of an angle guide, or is that freehand? Did you have to go to finer grits? Sorry for the question bombardment, but that knife came out really good!
 
i see diamonds are effective.. the beer really helped but im still working on the back bevel, almost finished now, id say 1000swipes on each side and im done. i really need to get some more agressive abrasives but that wont be until next month. tomorrow i can start with the edge
 
Hmm, all total? Probably 4-5 hrs. I could have stopped after the 120 diamond hone, but I wanted it to look a little nicer. The diamond hone time was probably only 30min.

Reprofiling an edge taking alternate strokes will take damn near forever, get a plate or a waterstone, grind in a thin back bevel and then use the sharpmaker. A few strokes with the fine stones and you should be sharp.
 
Yes, I agree S30V has some serious abrasion resistance. But your problem is that you are using swipes. Not enough weight, on a coarse benchstone you can really lean into it and can rip a primary bevel relatively quick like Cliff said. The swipes with little pressure apply only to sharpening, not to reprofiling.
 
i found some dmt stones at knifecenter. a 6" stone is 22$, 8" is 42$ and 11,5" is 53$. which one is the best value of those? are the big ones worth it, i mean i get both coarse and fine 6" stones for the price of a big one. or should i get a coarse big one (11,5) for reprofiling and a small fine. what your take guys, i never used any stones so all input is welcome
 
The diamonds for the sharpmaker are expensive (62.00 best I found for them) but they drastically speed things like what you just did up.
 
Larger stones are easier to use for longer blades, they are not actually more efficient in terms of speed, they just allow you to avoid honing in sections. For reprofiling, a cheap silicon carbide stone is way faster, you can find them in hardware stores for $5. They are usually called axe or garden hones.

-Cliff
 
couldnt find ant SiC stones today but i found a diamond hone..:D Dianova Lapstone professional, 150x40mm effective area, light, doublesided (30/60 micron). it was about 55€. this thing is amazing it took me 3 minutes to reprofile my emerson tanto, that took over an hour before and it never turned out as i wanted it. im going to build a couple of angled stands for it (5°-20° in steps of 2,5°) so i can use it similar to a sharpmaker. i wonder how thin i can make that s30v backbevel? anyway really cool hone. http://www.dianova-ab.se/
 
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