Rockstead Knowledge Thread

[Misanthropia]

Higo just arrived. I'll open it when I get home.

Question: has anyone touched up their Rockstead on the wicked edge as opposed to sending it to Japan? What degree are they using and what micro bevel? Once my chosera stones arrive I'm thinking I'll give it a try...after it needs it of course. Probably a year down the road, but just preparing myself.

My apologies if this has already been asked earlier in the thread.

Definitely not going to be a year if you're using it regularly. But regarding the Wicked Edge, well your problem is that unless you're just realigning the very apex (which I find is much easier to do freehand), any kind of sharpening on the WE is going to ineffectual until you grind a V edge into the zero convex, which kind of defeats the purpose of the knife. My best suggestion is to strop it regularly and use a a pass or two on a very fine stone to realign the apex. This is more an issue with the ZDP blades that are more brittle.

I also tried touching mine up with 2500 grit sandpaper on a mouse pad to preserve the convex grind, and it left noticeable marks near the apex. So I'm back to the Spyderco UF stone and a denim strop. This was on my ZDP Higo.

Blues Bender can give his input, he has had very good results sharpening his YXR7 Higo.

 

[The Aflac Duck]

So I just got my Nehan back and wanted to update the post.

Thank you for the update!:thumbup:

Your Nehan has a ZDP-189 blade, correct? I wonder if they would do the same treatment with a DLC/YXR7 blade?

They can easily regrind the polished ZDP, but the YXR7 blade would be stripped of its coating. Do they reapply it

 

[Misanthropia]

Thank you for the update!:thumbup:

Your Nehan has a ZDP-189 blade, correct? I wonder if they would do the same treatment with a DLC/YXR7 blade?

They can easily regrind the polished ZDP, but the YXR7 blade would be stripped of its coating. Do they reapply it

I wish Rockstead had a rep here, so many unanswered questions!

 

[The Aflac Duck]

I wish Rockstead had a rep here, so many unanswered questions!

Haha! They need a subforum here.

I also tried touching mine up with 2500 grit sandpaper on a mouse pad to preserve the convex grind, and it left noticeable marks near the apex. So I'm back to the Spyderco UF stone and a denim strop. This was on my ZDP Higo.

Blues Bender can give his input, he has had very good results sharpening his YXR7 Higo.

That's odd that it scratched the knife. Even though my YXR7 blades have a DLC coating, I believe Silicon Carbide (sandpaper) is harder than the coating. 2 people have now said that 2000+ grit is scratching their ZDP blades.

Mine don't have a scratch from sharpening, just using. Mine are coated though, so I'm wondering if that makes a difference?

 

[Josh1992]

Hi guys love seeing other people who love well polished knives I just wanted to share one thing about all Zdp-189 blades. Do NOT ever leave them in your car, in boiling water or (obviously) a fire. Zdp-189 has no heat resistance at all. At 100c aka boiling point of water at sea level it begins martainsite start. MF is at -70c so if you want you knife to stay strong and not be brittle keep it cool. Anyways rockys are great knifes and I don't think any of you guys would happen to leave your knife in the car for 8 hrs in Phoenix or death valley lol just wanted to let you guys all know about that.

 

[jpadia]

Thank you for the update!:thumbup:

Your Nehan has a ZDP-189 blade, correct? I wonder if they would do the same treatment with a DLC/YXR7 blade?

They can easily regrind the polished ZDP, but the YXR7 blade would be stripped of its coating. Do they reapply it

Yes my Nehan is ZDP-189 sandwiched between ats-34. I would think the treatment would be the same, but I don't know. Mr. Ishida was very responsive over email. I'm thinking we should reach out to him and see if we can get him or a rep to visit this thread. Should be to hard for me to send an email with a link and description.

 

[AusLoX]

Definitely not going to be a year if you're using it regularly. But regarding the Wicked Edge, well your problem is that unless you're just realigning the very apex (which I find is much easier to do freehand), any kind of sharpening on the WE is going to ineffectual until you grind a V edge into the zero convex, which kind of defeats the purpose of the knife. My best suggestion is to strop it regularly and use a a pass or two on a very fine stone to realign the apex. This is more an issue with the ZDP blades that are more brittle.

I also tried touching mine up with 2500 grit sandpaper on a mouse pad to preserve the convex grind, and it left noticeable marks near the apex. So I'm back to the Spyderco UF stone and a denim strop. This was on my ZDP Higo.

Blues Bender can give his input, he has had very good results sharpening his YXR7 Higo.

I was just going to use the kangaroo strop with .5 micron paste on the wicked edge. Figured that will keep the polish as well as the convex. If it has more scratches then I was thinking to use the 10k choseras(water stones) first.

Anyways, finally opened it. Here it is in all its polished glory...

 

[Dddrees]

I was just going to use the kangaroo strop with .5 micron paste on the wicked edge. Figured that will keep the polish as well as the convex. If it has more scratches then I was thinking to use the 10k choseras(water stones) first.

Anyways, finally opened it. Here it is in all its polished glory...

Great choice, Congrats!!!

 

[The Aflac Duck]

I posted this somewhere else, and wanted to share it here too.

I used a little grip tape (Scrims method) on my Chi to make it feel better in-hand. I gotta say, I like this knife twice as much now The grip makes a huge difference!!!

Please excuse the dinks & dents on the handle

 

[Spyder59]

I was just going to use the kangaroo strop with .5 micron paste on the wicked edge. Figured that will keep the polish as well as the convex. If it has more scratches then I was thinking to use the 10k choseras(water stones) first.

Anyways, finally opened it. Here it is in all its polished glory...

Nice! Congrats.

 

[Dddrees]

Carried my Shu today.

Thinking about pulling the trigger on the Ryo.

Just dreaming of what will be.

 

[The Aflac Duck]

Just dreaming of what will be.

Stop!!!

You're making me jealous

 

[Dddrees]

Stop!!!

You're making me jealous

I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait.:triumphant:

 

[Rob S.]

Anyway I finally ordered my Shu, and I partially blame and mostly thank Rob S for his excellent pictures of his Shu.

Congrats! You're going to love it.

 

[Dddrees]

Congrats! You're going to love it.

Thank you sir.

 

[thales2015]

I wonder if they would do the same treatment with a DLC/YXR7 blade?

They can easily regrind the polished ZDP, but the YXR7 blade would be stripped of its coating. Do they reapply it

I contacted Rockstead about this and this was the reply:

"Thank you for your inquiry.

We usually remove the DLC coating when resharpening the blade edge.
It remove around 0.5 mm. It depend on the damage on the edge.

Sincerely yours,

Rockstead corp
Noriyuki Ishida"

Seems like they do not re-apply the coating

 

[The Aflac Duck]

Darn...

I'm never sending mine to Japan, I love the coating too much

 

[Dddrees]

I contacted Rockstead about this and this was the reply:

"Thank you for your inquiry.

We usually remove the DLC coating when resharpening the blade edge.
It remove around 0.5 mm. It depend on the damage on the edge.

Sincerely yours,

Rockstead corp
Noriyuki Ishida"

Seems like they do not re-apply the coating

I had a feeling this might be the case.

I have to say its a bit disappointing that they don't restore the mirror polish on the zdp blades and they don't restore the mirrored DLC polish upon sharpening those blades. I can imagine that both processes are fairly time consuming and costly but it's still disappointing.

 

[sutherland]

You sure they don't restore the mirror polish on the ZDP blades? I don't see that from Mr. Ishida's response.

 

[Dddrees]

You sure they don't restore the mirror polish on the ZDP blades? I don't see that from Mr. Ishida's response.

If memory serves me correct there is a post a page or so back indicating that they do not based on a knife that someone sent in for resharpening. But hey based on what I own so far and what I am in the process of purchasing I'd much rather be completely wrong about this.