Sharpening advice for an M2 blade

C

Climb14er

Joined
Dec 16, 2003
Messages
244
I've got a Gatco and a Sharpmaker and I've reprofiled an S30V blade and two 154CM blades fairly well.

Being the M2 is a slightly harder steel than I've sharpened in the past, any recommendations for the two sharpeners for a Benchmade 710HS M2 knife?

I'd like to get this blade really sharp, with good edge retention.

Should I back-bevel or use one 15*, 17* or 20* edge? Should the Gatco with standard do a good job at reprofiling the edge?

What about the recurve on the 710? Any special suggestions for sharpening?
 
imho M2 is one of the harder steels to sharpen, i have donne ATS34, 154CM, S30V, talonite, D2,etc, and my nealy pesh kebz in M2 is as difficult as any to do.

i always just used my sharpmaker on my 710, the edges of the stone work best on the recurve imho, than the flats.
 
WOW! I'll say it again. WOW!

I received the 710HS from New Graham in only 1.5 days to Denver.

This is only partly one reason for the WOW!

The knife rocks! Big Grin It's big but handles really well. My small 705 and small Classic Sebenza look tiny compared to this one.

PLUS, the edge that came from the factory is REALLY sharp! Much sharper than any edge that came from any factory knife.

I'm psyched! It fits in my jeans pocket really well.

Now I'd like to touch it up on the Sharpmaker and a strop.

Should I sell the small Sebbie? I'm tempted. Wink

This 710HS is beautiful. :D
 
I've never had problems sharpening M2 on my Sharpmaker. Reprofiling an edge would be a different story, but that would likely be the case for most knives using the Sharpmaker.
 
I reprofiled my 710HS using the 30 degree setting on the Sharpmaker basically as Joe describes. It took a long time but it was worth the effort (I couldn't bring myself to hack it up on my extra-course diamond hone). All I do now is touch it up as needed with the fine or ultrafine rods at the 40 degree setting. All it takes is a few strokes.

I've never used a Gatco so I can't help you there.

Your going to love the M2. It's very easy to keep it hair-splitting sharp with occassional touch ups.
 
I've got a 910HS that I'm in love with right now. I need to get a 710HS so I can have my axis lock too!
 
M2 is very hard so may be a problem on Arkansas stones, but I have no problem with it on water stones... actually, it is one of my favorite steels to sharpen since it is much finer grained than D2 and so will take a much lower bevel angle, sharpens up to a very keen edge that lasts and has negligable burr formation which makes sharpening easier (unless you habitually look for the burr to tell you when one side is done).
 
Use your SM. Reprofile to a 30 deg bevel. I don't bother with a secondary bevel, M2 can handle it. Get the diamond and ultrafine hones to reprofile and final polish. Much easier to reprofile and put on a poppin edge with them. Use cardboard (legal pad type) to strop or heavy leather with some green polish to finish and remove the wire burr. May take months to require more than a touch up on the strop or ultrafines to get the edge poppin again, that's how good the steel is ....
 
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