Sharpening D2 steel with a Sharpmaker

PartialSerrations

PartialSerrations

Joined
Nov 22, 2001
Messages
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Fellow Knifeknuts,
I am in need of advice. In the future, I will eventually have to sharpen a knife which has D2 steel. I love this steel and actually prefer it to the newer steels. I have heard that this is a very tough steel to re-sharpen. With my shapmaker, how would I go about sharpening it to get that scary sharp edge it originally came with? Would I just use the white ceramic rods? Would I use the 40 degree or the 30 degree angles it has? Would I just use the flat surfaces of the ceramic stones or the edges or a combination of both? I have viewed the tape and will watch it again in case I missed something. Is it actually possible to bring a dull knife back to the original factory sharpness? Maybe this has been mentioned in a previous post and if it has then please direct me to that forum. Thank you all for making the forums a great place to chat.

IF WAR IS HELL, TAKE A BETTER PITCHFORK THAN THE DEVIL
 
The sharpmaker will sharpen any kind of steel (D2 included). It may take more or less time, and you may need the grays or not, depending on how dull the knife actually is.
 
The SharpMaker has a choice of two fixed angles.

One would hope that one of those angles match the angle of the knife you propose to sharpen.

Try the black felt tip marker test to establish where the hone is rubbing on the edge.

If the marker is completely wiped out with a couple of strokes, then you are
lucky and have a situation represented below by "C".

If not, then you have a situation as shown by "A" and "B"

If "A", then be prepared to spend many hours, grinding off ( re profiling ) metal before you get to the cutting edge.


If "B" , then you are sharpening the cutting edge from your first stroke
and the edge will quickly become sharp but you are changing the angle away from what was chosen by the manufacture.

If repeated re sharpening at "B", then eventually you will have to re profile.

Hope this has been a little help.

sharp angle.jpg
 
I have 3 knives with D2 blades and have them all reprofiled and sharpened at 30 degrees with a sharpmaker. They are a Benchmade 806SD2, a Benchmade 705BW (satin finished D2), and a Queen stockman (three blades of mirror finished D2), so all in all there are 5 blades done to 30 degrees on the sharpmaker.

Each one was unique to sharpen, but now that they are all done the blades cut astonishingly well.

The 705 came from the factory with a slightly more narrow profile than 30 degrees so all it needed was a few passes with the fine rods.

The 806 took a little work on the dark rods, about 10 minutes, then finished with the fine rods.

The Queen was a lot more work, each blade took about 30 minutes with the dark rods. If I were to do it again, I would buy some sand paper and wrap it around the rods then hold it in place with some binder clips.

For me, what really helped was to use the "magic marker" trick to know when the sides being sharpened had come together. And also, clean the rods frequently. It does not take many strokes before they get loaded with metal and quit being effective.

D2 is GREAT stuff and holds a steep profile really well. Don't even bother with using the 40 degree side of the sharpmaker on D2.

Chris
 
Hi,

I am pretty new to knife sharpening and I find that sharpening with stones does not seem to have a long lasting sharp edge on my knives. Usually it dulls after a couple of days. I am thinking of buying a Sharpmaker but is it necessary to buy the diamond rods for the Sharpmaker? They cost $57.00 for a pair, more than the Sharpmaker itself. For this price we can buy the Edgepro, how does it compare with the Edgepro?

Thank you guys in advance.
Ratcoon
 
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