Sharpening 1095 HELP ME

coop1957

coop1957

Joined
Oct 22, 2002
Messages
2,624
I received my first 1095 steel blade knife and it was not very sharp. I will not say the manufacture. That is not the issue. The issue is I can't seem to get a good edge on it. I've used a Sharpmaker for years to get great edges on
VG10, 154, S30V, AUS8, 440s, 420HC etc.
What is the typical Rockwell hardness of a 1095 blade? Is there a special way to sharpen 1095 steel?
Thanks in advance
 
Are you hitting the edge? 1095 is one of the easiest steels to sharpen in my experiences.
 
I agree, it is one of the easiest steels to get a wicked edge on provided the heat treat isn't garbage.
 
Are you working with the factory edge?

Have you re-beveled it?

Ceramics can be really slow on carbon steels.
 
carbon steel is easy to get sharp. i use 1075 and my blades rockwell between 63rc-65rc and i get them sick sharp but i use paper wheels.
 
I'm hittin the edge. Used the old magic marker trick.
Additional information:
This is a slipjoint with 2 blades. The smaller of the blades gets wicked sharp fairly fast. The larger one is the problem.
 
If you are for sure hitting the edge, and its still not as sharp as you want it, you probably need to remove the shoulders of the bevel - make the whole bevel a steeper angle.
 
Is it possible that you've developed a wire edge that's folded over during sharpening? Something similar happened to me on a sharpmaker when I first started collecting carbon steel blades.
 
I have never got a wire edge with the SharpMaker. Not saying it can't happen though. I got a set of the diamond hones for my sharpMaker, I hated them at first until I finally figured out that when they say use light pressure with the diamond hones, THEY MEAN light pressure. Once I backed off and let the hones do the work, I fell in love with them. They will re profile a blade pretty fast.

All that said, once in a while, I get a knife that it just flat does not work on. I assume that both angles are wrong for some blades.
 
I got the problem solved. I took it to my nephew who has younger eyes and more patience than I. He reprofiled the edge use DMT diamond sharpeners.
I will be able to use my Sharpmaker to maintain the edge.
 
Well then, mystery solved! Yeah, reprofiling with ceramic takes an eternity... and in cases of more extreme dullness, so can diamonds and wet/dry sandpaper!
 
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