Sharpening Material?

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G11354

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Aug 26, 2020
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Im new to knife sharpening and I am curious as to what sharpening materials are best suited for specific steels/material hardness?

Currently I have a set of arkansas stones(soft,hard and black) and the toughest steels I have are S30V and 154CM. Im curious as to whether I need to invest in other sharpening stones for these steels or if the arkansas stones will be capable enough.
 
Those steels don't require any stones particularly exotic. Your stone description is vague, but you might want to use what you have until your skill level is as good as it can get with your available tools.
 
RustyIron said:
Those steels don't require any stones particularly exotic. Your stone description is vague, but you might want to use what you have until your skill level is as good as it can get with your available tools.
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Thank you for the feedback. I wasnt certain if the ark stones were up to working s30v or 154cm. Was wondering at what point one needs to opt for stones made of aluminum/silicon oxide or possibly diamond.
 
Get a coarse diamond stone, or a dual sided diamond stone (coarse/extra fine), and if you want to go further I like the spyderco ceramics. I usually go coarse, extra fine, medium ceramic and sometimes fine ceramic. Depends on what kind of edge I want. The diamond is much toothier than the ceramics.

Arkansas are good for some things, but you'll be spinning your wheels with the S30v!
 
I can see this starting the endless debate of 4% vanadium and whether it requires diamond stones or not.

To cut a long story short the only sharpening related materials that will cut vanadium carbides are CBN and diamonds, therefore for any vanadium content your best bet to sharpen is with those materials, period.

Saying that, many people have reported that 4% is a sufficiently low concentration that the ill effects of burnishing the steel matrix around the carbides is minimised to the point that there is no noticeable degradation in edge performance.

In your case, go as coarse as you can for the S30v, so stick to the soft. See what the edge performance is like and decide if you need to invest in a diamond stone. If you can’t get it to cut and/or burnish the stone then similarly think of investing.

Your 154cm should be fine on the arks.

Craig
 
Aluminum Oxide belts are used to grind the hardest steels when they are manufactured.

For 154cm and S30V I normally use a Baryonyx Manticore or American Mutt for initial grinding and for refining Spyderco ceramics work well.

I use diamond plates or stones exclusively on Maxamet though.
 
For any significant edge reshaping or grinding, the Ark stones will really struggle on S30V at least, and will be very slow on 154CM. And the wear-resistant carbides in those steels will eventually glaze the stones as well, making them even slower to the point they won't even work well on simple steels. For very minor touching up, you might get by on them for a while. But the glazing effect on the stone from the steel's carbides will still happen over time.

With that in mind, either SiC or diamond does much better for grinding or reshaping (profiling, rebevelling) on S30V. And a good-quality aluminum oxide or SiC stone handles those tasks very well on a steel like 154CM. And for finishing at/above ~ 600-grit or so, diamond is much better on S30V, allowing you to get the most out of the steel and it's vanadium carbides.
 
A set of diamond hones should last you for decades. Keep your Arkansas stones for high carbon steels if you want, but they don't work on high vanadium/chromium/niobium carbide steels.
 
I absolutely love Arkansas stones. To the point of once deluding myself into believing I could sharpen anything with them. I was wrong and you can't. I wouldn't use them for either of those steels. For the 154CM a Norton Crystolon and/or India should do and you could do final honing on an Ark if you wanted. I'd go straight to diamonds for S30V. As David said, you'll just eventually glaze your stones even if you do make progress.

Keep the Arks for the soft stuff and invest in a couple new stones for everything else. :)
 
I appreciate the all of the input everyone! Ill certainly look into some more efficient stones for the harder steels. Most of what I sharpen is in the area of 420hc(a lot of Buck knives) so the arks will do for the most part.
 
G11354 said:
I appreciate the all of the input everyone! Ill certainly look into some more efficient stones for the harder steels. Most of what I sharpen is in the area of 420hc(a lot of Buck knives) so the arks will do for the most part.
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Even with 420hc and such, I’d use a crystolon to set edges and finish with arks.
A Norton jb8 is only in the $30 Range delivered, last decades, and save A lot of wear and tear On your arks.
 
jpm2 said:
Even with 420hc and such, I’d use a crystolon to set edges and finish with arks.
A Norton jb8 is only in the $30 Range delivered, last decades, and save A lot of wear and tear On your arks.
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I agree - I regard my Arkansas stones to all be polishing stones to some degree.
There is a reason why people bought all those India stones and you saw less Arkansas stones in stores back when we had retail.
 
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