S30V Sharpening Stone Advice

G

Greggy

Joined
Feb 4, 2022
Messages
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Hello. I am awaiting the arrival of my Buck 112 Ranger Sport Knife in S30V. I have sharpened knives since my teens, but have never owned a higher level steel with this hardness and molecular structure. I am very comfortable with 420HC, Aus 8 and 10, 440C, D2, 14c28n, N690 and like steels, using aluminum oxide stones. I currently own a Norton 220 and Sharp Pebble 1000 and 6000 JIS stones. I have great success with these on the metals indicated.

Given ample experience with these stones, will I nevertheless be hitting my head against the wall trying to sharpen or refine the edge of the Buck 112? Your experience is valued and appreciated. Thanks.
 
Diamond all the way, with S30V. Makes it simple. And even a single diamond hone can be enough for a great working edge on S30V, in a coarse to fine or extra-fine grit range (325 / 600 / 1200), according to preference.

S30V is very awkward and likely disappointing, if sharpened with only aluminum oxide stones. The steel will have trouble taking as crisp an edge, and won't hold it as well, if sharpened that way. But trade that for diamond, and it all of a sudden becomes almost stupid simple to maintain.
 
Diamond will make the job much more pleasant on S30V. A DMT in 600 or 1200 grit, according to preference in edge finish, will be plenty to get you started for basic edge maintenance. More grits can be added later if needed.
 
Thanks for the replies. I am considering a DMT Dia-Sharp at 600 grit for starters. Seems a good place to begin. Looking forward to receiving my knife.
 
Anything with 4% vanadium demands diamonds.
As a one stone diamond solution, I like the 300(400)/1200 combo stones, followed by a strop.
 
I would like to like diamond hones but my experience hasn't sold me.The edges are so rough and snaggy that they have been a disappointment.I know,I know,they have to be broken in but I even bought a Worksharp trihone and in frustration used it to reprofile a knife with firm pressure.This still didn't break it in to break it in to my expectations.A couple decades ago I bought a DMT coarse (325) and went to reprofile my steak knives and found it to slow even with firm pressure.Then I didn't know about light pressure.Recently I dusted it off the shelf and tried it again and all that rough scrubbing did make it more serviceable.I guess I'm the type of guy that likes to use something right out of the box without a lot of prep.
 
Greggy said:
Hello. I am awaiting the arrival of my Buck 112 Ranger Sport Knife in S30V. I have sharpened knives since my teens, but have never owned a higher level steel with this hardness and molecular structure. I am very comfortable with 420HC, Aus 8 and 10, 440C, D2, 14c28n, N690 and like steels, using aluminum oxide stones. I currently own a Norton 220 and Sharp Pebble 1000 and 6000 JIS stones. I have great success with these on the metals indicated.

Given ample experience with these stones, will I nevertheless be hitting my head against the wall trying to sharpen or refine the edge of the Buck 112? Your experience is valued and appreciated. Thanks.
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Ditch those SharpePebble stones they are hot garbage. The 220 Norton stone in silicone carbide on the other hand has been very good at creating a quality consistent scratch pattern on my S30V knives.

My bugout knives do very well on a combo of Naniwa Chosera/Superstone (same stone, different name I believe), then stropping with a diamond compound. If you're not rebeveling you could get; Naniwa Super stones 400grit, 1000grit, 3000grit, then finish it off with a 3 micron diamond compound. Looking through my 120x scope, the edge looks very clean. I strop on a belt held taught. Leather attached to a board has always given me poor results. I'm a nut, so I jump to the Naniwa Snow White (8000 grit) after the 3000 grit, then 5micron strop, 3micron, 1 micron, .5 micron. But this is unnecessary and possibly detrimental to longer lasting sharpness.

My big argument against diamond stone is that I've ruined too many of them by doing it wrong. You can "do it wrong..." for a while on whetstones, then turn around and fix the stone and/or the technique and never need to buy new stones. The DMT stones also appear to give inconsistent scratch patterns. Although, I've heard Venev's resin stones don't have this issue.

Edit; I posted about S30V and 3V having a myth of needing diamond stone to sharpen and some users reported the same thing. That it's the 9%+ vanadium knives that really need diamond stone and 3-4% vanadium just isn't all that much which is why so many users report not needing diamond stones for their supposed "high vanadium..." knives. And yes I went back to edit my grammar!
 
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I have owned several Phil Wilson knives, up to S90V. He recommended Norton Silicon Carbide to me years ago. I used my Wilson’s for fish and game, so a toothy edge with some bite has advantages.

I use 600 DMT’s as well, but a light touch is all they need. They are pretty easy to damage as posted.
 
JB in SC said:
I have owned several Phil Wilson knives, up to S90V. He recommended Norton Silicon Carbide to me years ago. I used my Wilson’s for fish and game, so a toothy edge with some bite has advantages.

I use 600 DMT’s as well, but a light touch is all they need. They are pretty easy to damage as posted.
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The second time I have heard about DMT's and light touches. Appreciated, as I have ordered a coarse and fine DMT combo stone.
 
Yes, any plated diamond hone is best-used at light-to-moderate pressure. 'Moderate' means it's OK to exert a little more during edge-setting (profiling), but not enough pressure to fatigue your hands or fingers - make it comfortable to maintain full control of the angle, and the grit will do the work. The profiling work is best done with some sort of lubrication for the hone to keep accumulated swarf from clogging the surface. Many use water, or dish soap & water for that. I use mineral oil (doesn't evaporate) for such work.

And for refining, go as light as possible. It's best for results at the edge, and also best for the durable life of the hone itself. Can be done with some lubrication for the hone, but it's not a big deal if done on a dry hone. Just be sure to clean the hones after every use. Dish soap & water, and an old toothbrush work well for that. Or alternatively, a microfiber towel wetted with Windex also works very well.
 
For S30V diamond is definitely best. Plated diamond abrasives have high grit protrusion that can cause challenges in generating very polished edges but also S30V and other high carbide steels generally shine best when used in situations where they experience a lot of abrasive wear anyhow, and those types of contexts usually benefit from toothier edges anyhow. If, for some reason, you need a really highly polished edge on high vanadium blades then bonded diamond stones are usually a better option since they have lower grit protrusion.
 
For polishing S30V, I've also found hard strops of wood with diamond compound at 3-micron and finer to work very well. The firmer the wood and more tight-grained and smooth it is, the better. I've used DMT's Dia-Paste (3 micron) for that - at that grit transition, it'll bring up a very fast, near-mirror polish when following something like an EF (1200) or even a Fine DMT (600) hone and leaves the edge hair-shaving or tree-topping sharp. This is where the difference in capability of diamond vs. AlOx or something else, will really make a difference in edge quality on S30V.
 
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Robert Ptacek said:
I would like to like diamond hones but my experience hasn't sold me.The edges are so rough and snaggy that they have been a disappointment.
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Well you also could have followed up with something finer, like a 600. However, this is also why I strop after diamond stones. In fact I'm pretty inconsistent about stropping unless I used diamonds.
Something like a Fallkniven DC521 also makes sense, issues aside. It's 25 micron diamond on one side and fine ceramic on the other. It will clean up the edge just fine.
The issues are that some have reported the two sides separating and the diamonds might not be even or something.
 
Robert Ptacek said:
I would like to like diamond hones but my experience hasn't sold me.The edges are so rough and snaggy that they have been a disappointment.I know,I know,they have to be broken in but I even bought a Worksharp trihone and in frustration used it to reprofile a knife with firm pressure.This still didn't break it in to break it in to my expectations.A couple decades ago I bought a DMT coarse (325) and went to reprofile my steak knives and found it to slow even with firm pressure.Then I didn't know about light pressure.Recently I dusted it off the shelf and tried it again and all that rough scrubbing did make it more serviceable.I guess I'm the type of guy that likes to use something right out of the box without a lot of prep.
Click to expand...
I clean my DMTs with BreakFree CLP. It lifts off the swarf and restores the steel cutting performance. My DMTs have lasted for decades.
 
Ourorboros said:
Well you also could have followed up with something finer, like a 600. However, this is also why I strop after diamond stones. In fact I'm pretty inconsistent about stropping unless I used diamonds.
Something like a Fallkniven DC521 also makes sense, issues aside. It's 25 micron diamond on one side and fine ceramic on the other. It will clean up the edge just fine.
The issues are that some have reported the two sides separating and the diamonds might not be even or something.
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The ceramic will result in sub-par performance on S30V. It'll get it sharp, but the edge will degrade faster than if diamond is used, and will prematurely wear down the sharpness of the ceramic abrasive grains, resulting in glazing and burnishing. Will it get the knife sharp enough for use? Yes. Is it an optimum solution? Definitely not.
 
Yes the most correct term would technically be "superabrasives" but diamond is more common language and faster to type, and can best be understood as "diamond and diamond-like materials". CBN is effectively equally capable of abrading any high-vanadium steels as diamond is for the purposes here discussed.
 
All replies are much appreciated. I ordered a DMT combo stone (coarse and fine). My style and practice in most things is to adjust my approach to the tools at hand. As such, I have almost always adjusted to make any tool effective. I trust my DMT stone will be no different. If I am wrong, then I have learned a lesson. Thanks again for all the wonderful comments. I have learned a lot.
 
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