Share your edge maintenance method

J

Jamesh Bond

Joined
Jan 14, 2007
Messages
1,760
Hi peeps.

Right off the bat, this is NOT a "How doos I shorpen moi Emersonz" thread. For the love of God. 💩

Now that that's out of the way, I've been REALLY appreciating the hell outta my old Dia-Fold lately! So I got a wild hair up my ass to see what other Emerson owners are using to maintain these unique blades.

Just for fun, share your equipment and philosophy!

Meself:

These days I'm really all about purposely using random crap I find, just cuz I can, and avoiding crutches as much as possible. Car windows, coffee cups, random rocks, broken toilets, and so on.

Its fun but also translates into useful skill.

And honestly, there's a little of that dorky exclusivity I've talked about in other threads too. Having a knife that requires its own skill set to use. I'd say sharpening a 200 dollar chisel edge with knickknacks and trash falls under that category! 😎


My philosophy of use is simplicity and repeatability. Concept based. I really enjoy knowing that I can take care of my equipment anywhere ill be. In the case of knives, I deliberately stay away from guided systems, fancy strops and abrasives, etc., as much as I can.

But when that thick edge needs some real work done, my go-to is always diamonds.

I use a DMT C/F Dia-Fold exclusively these days. Then strop on plain cardboard or a belt. That's it. Nothing more. And I can still sever free hanging hair all day long when I'm done!

I really like the nasty aggressiveness of a well done, toothy edge, and how much longer it stays usable than a polished edge. Also been noticing lately how much easier it is to cleanly apex softer, malleable steels like EKI's 154cm with diamonds. They grab a burr really well instead of folding it back and forth. I have a bitch of a time using my Spyderco ceramics to do that. I also like the feedback I get. And the portability. And the price. And the speed. And the size. And ease of use. And longevity. Lol.

I have a feeling Ernest might agree with some of the above too, considering he chose diamonds to sell and demonstrate sharpening with on the website. . .

Overall just a really useful, highly effective and enjoyable sharpening tool. Love me some diamonds!

Anyway, that's my story.

What's yours?
 
Sharp-maker with ultra fine rods six or seven passes on chisel side then one pass on non chisel side holding knife flat to remove burr seems to put razor sharp edge on CQC-14.
 
My sharpening process depends on which knife it is on and what it will be used for. But most of it is done on the following:

DMT DiaSharp Bench Stone 11.5" Extra Coarse
DMT DiaSharp Bench Stone 11.5" Fine
Spyderco Benchstones Medium, Fine, and Ultra Fine.

My heavy users will usually get touched up on the DMT Fine Stone followed by the Spyderco Fine or Ultrafine Bench Stones. If I'm trying to be fancy, then I finish the edges on my Norton 8000 grit Waterstone, but that is pretty rare.
 
I like your style Harvey.

Jmorton10, is the edge left by the work sharp extremely convex? Or more subtle?

You guys using the fine Sharpmaker rods, are you raising the angle slightly and hitting the apex, as in conventional honing?

Or are you actually using those fine rods at the same angle as your edge and hitting the whole face? If yes to this way, how? Seems like aot of metal and pain in the ass to deal with vs just hitting the apex with a slight microbevel.

Just curious on that one.

Thx.
 
I have been using the spyderco triangle stones to touch up my edge. Holding the knife in my left hand and and stone in my right it is pretty easy to hit the whole edge even when it is uneven from the factory.
I don't keep count of strokes anymore but would guess maybe 40 strokes or so on the bevel and maybe half that on the back side. Fine stone, Ultra fine stone, and a strop with green compound are enough to touch up anything other than an edge that has been destroyed though occasionally I will make a few passes with the medium stone.
This process is for maintenance, if a knife needs to be sharpened from scratch that is a whole different process.
 
Yesterday I took my HD-7 to my in-laws to do some gardening and other chores. I used the front step to sharpen my knife. In the past I have used a car window, Lansky Dog Bone, DMT folding sharpener, diamond rod, leather belt, coffee mug,and a metal pipe. I use this knife as my sharpening/sharpening materials test bed. All work fine.
 
Sharpmaker for re-establishing the edge, or a small Brommeland strop if I don't need to do more than a touchup. All my Emersons have recurve blades of one degree or another, so these two tools work best for me. When I use the SM, I turn the knife with the blade facing me first, then set it at the angle I need to hit the entire bevel. Once I eyeball the right angle, I'm pretty good at holding that angle when I turn the knife around and actually sharpen it. Interestingly enough, I've had a couple of Emersons (CQC15s) that didn't need to be held at an angle. Straight up and down in the 20 deg setting hit the bevel perfectly. Most need a slight tilt, though.

For "out and about" sharpening, I have one of the small diamond sharpeners that EKI sells and a double sided diamond stone (Hewlett, IIRC) that both stay in my car console. They work well for quick sharpening. Even have a small kangaroo strop in the console package.
 
Thx Dale.

Lotta ceramic fans here I guess!

Ironically, after posting this I decided to revisit my Spyderco Profile rods. Still liking the diamonds better, but the rods need excellent technique to use well so there's good practice to be had!

Funny you bring up the EKI/Kershaw sharpener. I've been eyeballing it for ages and decided it'll be the next sharpener I buy when the time comes.

How do you like it? Does it seem to hold up well?
 
I like both diamond and ceramic sharpeners because they hold their shape over time and don't generate a mess like traditional stones do. I even have a flattening stone from the time I only used Japanese or Norton stones. However, the speed of diamond abrasives is too hard to pass up, especially if I'm trying to repair some serious damage or if someone drops of load of blades for me to touch up. Like most of you, I also have a SharpMaker, but those get used mostly for serrations or for finishing off recurved blades. Re-profiling recurved blades is done on a nice curved diamond bench stone I found a vendor selling.

As for philosophy (which I didn't really answer in my previous post), I'm looking for consistency, speed, and durability on my sharpeners. The longer and wider surface of the benchstones I use helps me get the job done faster while also accommodating longer fixed blades.
 
Jamesh Bond said:
Thx Dale.

Lotta ceramic fans here I guess!

Ironically, after posting this I decided to revisit my Spyderco Profile rods. Still liking the diamonds better, but the rods need excellent technique to use well so there's good practice to be had!

Funny you bring up the EKI/Kershaw sharpener. I've been eyeballing it for ages and decided it'll be the next sharpener I buy when the time comes.

How do you like it? Does it seem to hold up well?
Click to expand...

Actually, I have both sizes. The full-sized one hangs in my basement workshop and gets used more than the small one. But they're the same, I think, except for the size, and the large one has held up pretty well. I use it on my mini-15 and my mini-Com mostly. I like the grit on those sharpeners. I think they're made by Kershaw, or by the same people who make the Kershaw version of the sharpeners.

Another set that works well is Spyderco's old Profile set. I have one of those and it's a great set of rods for doing field sharpening. Wish they weren't disco'd, but I have my set and I'm keeping them. The diamond rods are quicker but the Profile rods are more forgiving and more flexible as far as the kind of edge you get. They'll repair and sharpen with a little patience and they'll also let you refine the edge a bit more than just using a single grit diamond rod.
 
Update.

Went back to finishing with my fine spyderco after all your replies. I gotta admit, I just don't see it.

For ages I, like most knife knuts, didn't consider an edge sharp until it was refined, shiny, and smooth.

I'm going to wager that this "mirror edges are best" idea among us is definitely mental. Soon as I got good enough at sharpening to shave hair with a coarse edge, I noticed ALL my cutting was noticeably better, and longer lasting.

Yes, some one will inevitably educate me that "polished edges are better for push cutting or wood." And "toothy, coarse edges are better for rope."

True to form, Imma call some BS here.

Having spent the last week or so actually USING my polished edges, I'll take coarse edges on any knife, any day of the week, for anything.

The polished edge is always slipping off stuff, especially with this chisel edge. I'm talking freshly sharpened, sticky, tree topping hair whittle. Just won't bite. Additionally, didn't feel sharp at all after some minor cutting, even tho it was still popping hair slicing phone book paper across the grain. Actually felt DULL, to the touch.

My coarse edges FEEL evil to the touch, and stay evil feeling even when they are ripping phone book paper. Yes, they are technically "duller" than the polished edge, but who cares? These "dull" edges still bite into things, still feel sharp to the human touch (which I believe is something to be trusted, ey?), and STAY like this a hell of a lot longer. Plus, they're easier and quicker to touch up.

I'm obviously talking about MY story here, but I strongly believe that I'm not the only one in the world that reads a bunch of cool stuff on a forum and then convinces myself to agree.

As soon as I started being purely objective, I noticed instant performance increase on the whole when I stopped after my diamonds.

BTW, none of this is that new to me. I just had a good run appreciating my knives and wanted to start a thread on it.

Regarding this post, please don't take anything as insulting or offensive. I understand how I may be taken.

But, let's be real. Besides the art and beauty of fancy edges, and perhaps the odd specialized task, like wood carving (which doesn't call for the use of pocket knives, btw), I haven't been able to come up with a single example of cutting task where a polished edge would outperform a toothy one.

Yet, I can come up with several tasks where the polished edge actually DIMINISHES performance.


I spent a long time learning to identify kool-aid, and a while more admitting to myself that my mirrored edges weren't the best thing since sliced bread. Hell it took me forever just to be able to admit that that 1.00 Walmart special will cut the same as a 250 dollar Spyderco.

Anyway, forgive the long post, and some of its rude implications. Just some long and old thoughts finally coming to fruition.

I don't know why I frequent a forum when I am so horrible at conveying written thoughts with any coherence.

Thx for sticking around. If you have any examples against what I've bleethered above, please post! I'm pretty set in my belief here, but I'm always down to be wrong so I can justify my fancy edges again!
😂😂😂
 
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Sharpness and cutting ability of a knife definitely vary from person to person due to individual preferences. I think it all boils down preferred cutting techniques, steel type, edge geometry, and expectations on how they think a knife will perform. I prefer smoother edges on my Emersons because they work well on my reprofiled edges and for the tasks I use them for. If I keep the factory angles, then I usually maintain a toothier edge on the blade. Depending on the knife geometry, steel and heat treat, I sometimes find that polished edges just don't cut well or vice versa. So there are definitely a lot of variables. However, toothier edges will pretty much work on any knife and is faster to achieve.

For kitchen knives and fabric shears, I generally put toothy edges unless a user requests otherwise. If the fabric and hair shears don't have enough "bite", I notice that the material just gets pushed away from the cutting surface. In contrast, my TOPs knives in 1095 seem to love polished edges and will hold up very well after real use. Same thing with my Benchmade knives in M4. So I guess between polished and toothy edges, I'll use which ever will work best for the particular knife I'm working on.
 
I also like the edge that comes from the EKI or Hewlett diamonds. In fact, my Emersons seem to work better with a rougher or toothier edge from the diamonds or the M Sharpmaker rods. I've used both toothy edges and very polished edges at work. In the warehouse I cut zip ties, computer cabling, strapping material, blister packs, styrofoam, and cardboard.

All those are man made materials and the toothier edges on my Emersons and my S30V Para 2 performed very well. They also held up well. And when they needed touchup, a little DMT keychain sharpener or a small field strop did a good job until I could get back home.
 
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