sharpening D-2 steel

J

Jay_Wyatt

Joined
Dec 12, 2004
Messages
339
]I hope I am in the right place for this post. I have been sharpening my 806 D-2 with my sharpmaker. I cannot seem to get as good of an edge with it on my 806 as I can with anaus8a blade. Am I not applying enough pressure or what is up? Can some of you old hands give me some advise about sharpening D-2 steel.?
 
Probably a mix of 2 things.
1. The benchmade edge. Benchmade generally sharpens at a wide angle. You need to re profile the edge angle to match the angle of the sharpmaker.
2. D2 is hard stuff. Its very wear resistant, so if all you have is the ceramic stones of your sharpmaker, reprofiling the edge will take a long time.
 
Can you freehand a stone? You could do that to get an edge close to 30 or 40 deg. then take it to the Sharpmaker.
 
Use a black marker pen on the edge, make a few strokes on the corners of the brown rods, this will tell you if you are reaching the edge. The working edges that Benchmade put on their knives are too obtuse to work in with the sharpmaker. A bit of reprofiling is required, but well worth it if you want to use the sharpmaker.
 
It' s not that the D2 is so hard that the diamonds won' t remove it while sharpening. But rather what others have said, the edge bevel and angles are way too steep. A lot of steel needs to be removed so for what I feel is a properly thinned edge for cutting. I have put BM D2 and M2 on an EzeLap super fine diamond benchstone. It took both a consistent angle hold and hand pressure to be able to thin them out a bit. I was able to get a good toothy edge. But it is still no match for a HOLLOW grind! Benchmade: PLEASE!

N2
 
I have a good cheater trick for you. Buy one of those relatively inexpensive DMT hones...the ones w/ the red and blue side and folding handle. Then set up your sharp maker w/ the flat sides of either grade stone inward. Match up the flat side of the hone to the flat side of the sharpmaker stone...this is a quick way to get the same angle w/ out paying for a set of Diamond rods for the sharpmaker. I did 15 strokes on both grits of the diamond hone and then another 10 on the each phase of the sharpmaker and came out w/ a shaving sharp edge on my D-2 806. It wasn't nearly as hard as I had anticipated.
 
Matt Shade said:
Probably a mix of 2 things.
1. The benchmade edge. Benchmade generally sharpens at a wide angle. You need to re profile the edge angle to match the angle of the sharpmaker.
Click to expand...

That´s new to me. All my Benchmades came with angles around 30°.


Matt Shade said:
2. D2 is hard stuff. Its very wear resistant, so if all you have is the ceramic stones of your sharpmaker, reprofiling the edge will take a long time.
Click to expand...

Not new to me :D :D . I think, with a good coarse stone you will get along quicker. I usually need 1/4 hour to reprofile an edge on good stones and would only use the SM for usual edge maintance. It gets cheaper using stones than to buy the diamond rods with better results.
 
Match up the flat side of the hone to the flat side of the sharpmaker stone.
Click to expand...

I've done the same thing many times. I'm sure it's not as nice as having dedicated Sharpmaker diamond rods, but it does work in a pinch. Maybe I'll someday stop being such a cheapskate, and finally pick up those diamond rods.
 
The Sharpmaker is a great product and I think others here have given you the advice you need, keep at it and you will get it the way you want it.

BUZZ - I've also held off on getting the Sharpmaker Diamonds for a couple of reasons, not only are they pretty expen$ive but the ones that I have seen are not actual Rods they are just Sleeves that fit over the existing Rod.

I guess I am just lazy in that if I have a custom knife that needs major reprofiling I just send it back to the Maker, never really had to do a reprofile on a Production knife, just try to keep the same edge that they came with.
 
Buzzbait said:
I've done the same thing many times. I'm sure it's not as nice as having dedicated Sharpmaker diamond rods, but it does work in a pinch. Maybe I'll someday stop being such a cheapskate, and finally pick up those diamond rods.
Click to expand...

Apparently many have wrapped sandpaper around the rods. A good coarse aluminum-oxide paper should speed things up significantly.
 
Well timed post, one of my Queen D2 folders finally got dull enough I tried to sharpen it this morning, and just about pulled my hair out. Dang this stuff is hard! Is the Sharpmaker as good as they say??
 
Yup, the sharpmaker is as good as they say, but its not meant for reprofiling. I have also used a DMT Benchstone with the sharpmaker, works quite well, but I prefer to do the reprofiling by hand on a waterstone.

Reprofiling the S30V blade on my Lil'T took longer than a 1/4 of an hour on a pretty good #220 waterstone and I didn't have far to go, I would imagine that D2 hardened to a similar range will rather be more difficult.
 
The Sharpmaker is a fantastic product. However, I couldn't for the life of me get a decent edge back on my Camillus Cuda Maxx, which is also D2. I finally got an EdgePro, and I'm back in action. I will say that I can now use the Sharpmaker for touch-ups on the Cuda Maxx.
 
HoB said:
Yup, the sharpmaker is as good as they say, but its not meant for reprofiling. I have also used a DMT Benchstone with the sharpmaker, works quite well, but I prefer to do the reprofiling by hand on a waterstone.

Reprofiling the S30V blade on my Lil'T took longer than a 1/4 of an hour on a pretty good #220 waterstone and I didn't have far to go, I would imagine that D2 hardened to a similar range will rather be more difficult.
Click to expand...

I finally did the marker trick tonight, and found the right angle. It will shave now but barely. My biggest problem is I have held onto stones to long and refused to buy diamond hones other than small 4 inch DMT pocket hones. I need to break down and buy a bigger bench size or something, cause my older stones aren't doing so hot against some of the newer steels.
 
Yes, diamond stones are a must for a number of the top alloys today. A steel like D2 would be a real workout on an Arkansas stone.
 
lambertiana said:
Yes, diamond stones are a must for a number of the top alloys today. A steel like D2 would be a real workout on an Arkansas stone.
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yeah my old tried and true 6 inch white stone wouldn't even make D2 blink. Does anyone know of a link to the Edgepro, I would like to look at it before I decide between it or the sharpmaker.
 
Also take a look at www.razoredgesystems.com. More expensice than the Sharpmaker, but cheaper than the Edge PRO. Plus I prefer the razoredgesytems to anything else. I just had some very good results with it and want to let everyone know!!!!!!!!!!!

Lee
 
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