Sharpening Delta 3v

adamlau said:
Try using MinoSharp and/or Montblanc Super Togeru guide rails with an angle cube to dial in the distance you keep from the guide to the stone. Should get you 15 dps on up with excellent precision and very good accuracy. My WE was gifted away last month (to a deploying family member) as I rarely used it due to concerns over the creation and inhalation of diamond dust.
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Note to self: to wear a dust mask!
 
A ceramic hone and a strop with bark river black compound should keep it going for awhile unless you have micro-chipping.

I'd be happy to arrange a sharpening session for you while you consider the options.
 
adamlau said:
Try using MinoSharp and/or Montblanc Super Togeru guide rails with an angle cube to dial in the distance you keep from the guide to the stone. Should get you 15 dps on up with excellent precision and very good accuracy. My WE was gifted away last month (to a deploying family member) as I rarely used it due to concerns over the creation and inhalation of diamond dust.
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Adam, I'm just trying to visualize as to how you do that emboldened part? Feel free to share via text if you prefer :)
 
Thank you PT. This is really a future kinda investment for my CPKs but I needed something with an immediate need for my folders, CRKs in particular which leave me not satiated so far as their factory edge goes. I tried to fall in love with a KME, but I just could not after fiddling with it and seeing the potential flaws with regards to material used for its construction in that guided system. One thing which is really important to me is the actual materials used in any apparatus in addition to its design. I fidgeted a lot mentally with the less expensive none pro version of the Field and Sport, but that vice which they also use in their home use Pro Pack I, did not do it for me. I like the future option for additions and upgrades in a modularized system better.

P.S. As for ceramics, I do own a couple of Spyderco ceramic plates with F and UF grits in 2 x 8 and 3 x 8 sized plates. I also own a Fallkniven DC521 which has that sapphire plate on the opposite side of the diamond. I also own some Flexx Strop paddles smeared very sparsely with the BRKT Blk, Grn and White compound.
 
^ FWIW, no Spyderco plate ever came to me completely flat. I don't think that this matters much for our purposes (or does it?) but I can see as to why you'd get completelty teed off if you were using for the purposes of honing a surgical scalpel! I have not attempted to lap those ceramics but I also have a Dia-Sharp continuous plate which may be used for lapping since it is more flat than those Spidies!

As an aside, I had suggested before that perhaps someone who is a professional sharpening artists would consider running such a thread on here :)
 
So far I've only needed to strop my LC, I have a leather belt glued to a board loaded with flexcut gold. When the day comes for more than that I have a Work Sharp KO with the blade grinding attachment. I believe the belt is small enough and by keeping my rpms down I should be fine sharpening low temper D3.
 
Casinostocks said:
Adam, I'm just trying to visualize as to how you do that emboldened part? Feel free to share via text if you prefer :)
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I would shoot you an MMS or leave a shot here of how I set things up, but everything is boxed up and ready to be moved into the new shack this week. I was too lazy to label any boxes, so I doubt I would be able to find them even if I wanted to at this point. YouTube minosharp guide rails. Use an angle cube from time to time to confirm your sharpening angle and adjust as you see fit. For example, 18 dps on a certain blade may require you to raise the spine end of the guide 1/8" off the stone. So as long as you maintain a 1/8" distance between the guide and the stone, you can achieve 18 dps (more or less). You can even leave the angle cube on the blade itself when slow stropping on higher grit stones.
 
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No rush Adam. Thank you for the hint and the best of luck with the move into your new abode :)
 
'moist'- somethin weird about that word
 
Dawkind said:
I want to add that one of my most useful tools for keeping a razor edge is a German-made F. Dick polished butchers steel....burnishes and aligns the edge between sharpening on my ceramics.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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This is my approach as well. For all of my knives. My F. Dick steel is great for keeping a great edge between actual sharpenings. I don't like to take off any more metal than necessary. It has worked great for my LC so far. I haven't had to sharpen the LC, but it's nice to be able to work with it all day and then touch up the edge and slice tomatoes.
 
Brian77 said:
I use a buffing wheel with a sisal wheel to just strop / buff the edge occasionally set on slow speed. I absolutely love the way it smooths up the edge and polishes it.
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:thumbsup:

Slow speed, light pressure, keep it moving, don't let any heat build up at the apex. You'd never even feel it overheat.
 
Brian77 said:
Is this true for your other steels as well? Or is the heat treat part of the factor.
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Steel with a large vanadium carbide content does not cut or abrade easily and tends to run a little hot. High alloy chrome steels don't conduct heat as well. The Delta process incorporates the use of well developed eta carbides which are sensitive to heat. So, it's true to most all steel, but our steel comes to you in a condition that would be a shame to over heat while sharpening it.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
Steel with a large vanadium carbide content does not cut or abrade easily and tends to run a little hot. High alloy chrome steels don't conduct heat as well. The Delta process incorporates the use of well developed eta carbides which are sensitive to heat. So, it's true to most all steel, but our steel comes to you in a condition that would be a shame to over heat while sharpening it.
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Very good. Thanks for that.
 
I would never ever dare to reprofile any of Nathan's factory edges to anything more acute than the 20 DPS (Shiv, UF, LC) or 18 DPS (EDC, FK) because IMHO he has incorporated the optimal heat treat and the edge angle to achieve both edge retention and edge durability for his D3V steels. I think that his EDC in optimized D2 is also at 18 DPS but his A2 steels were purportedly 23 and 20 DPS for the Shiv and the FK respectively. I an just assuming that the UF in Elmax is also at 20 DPS the same as the 3V variant.

While it may seem cool to do 15 DPS with a microbevel at 17 degrees using a guided sharpening system, I am sure that the edge toughness will then be diminished and the carbides may start tearing apart with hard use. Case in point, not only to avoid overheating the edge but also try to avoid super acute cutting angles. However some of our esteemed super duper sharpening experts on here may completely disagree with me.
 
^you'd be surprised, dude. One of my edcs is 15 or less with a wide convex shoulder, and it cuts forever- so long as the cuts aren't overly forceful or into stuff harder than a nail. I've been fortunate in that I've regularly used a lot of different steels, different heat treatments and different geometries, and combinations thereof over the course of the past 12 or so years for various things that have been consistent enough to develop personal benchmarks. No bullshit- Nate's 3V is teh best I've used when it comes to steel, and I like that he leaves some meat after grinding the primary bevel so that you can either fine tune your edges, like I do, or use that bastard with impunity. Either way, I can't imagine a better performing steel than what I've experienced so far with D3V. Take that edge down as much as you like, you'll be damn impressed by its resiliency
 
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