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sharpening my Emerson CQC7

S

shankman

Joined
Jun 29, 2000
Messages
27
I recently purchased one of these great knives but I have questions. The care guide says to use a 25 degree angle on non chisel ground blades and a 30 degree angle on chisel ground blades and also that they can't be sharpened on the flat side. I must sound very "un-edge-ucated" but what kind is mine and can I sharpen the flat side? Thanks alot for all your feedback.

shankman
 
Another reason I really like my Edge Pro sharpening system is that you can put the exact edge on a blade, no guesswork at all!
 
If you have the tanto point, then you have a chisel. If you have the spear point, then you have a non-chisel ground.

cqc7bsm.jpg


The picture is a tanto point. If your tip isn't like this, you have the CQC-7A. The CQC-7B has the point as shown above.

Sharpen at a 30-degree angle and stop your sharpening stroke when you reach the "corner" before it goes to the tip edge. Do the tip portion of the edge seperately so to avoid rounding the corner.

The difference in the chisel grind to the other grinds is that the chisel grind is groun only on one side. You should not sharpen on the flat unground side. When you are finished sharpening the side that is already ground, a burr (raised portion) should pop up on the flat side. Do not stop until you can feel a little thing raised up from the flat side, just feel for it. When you have a burr, then you have ground all the way to end of the edge and are ready to either strop the flat side or use a finer stone on the ground side to make the scratch pattern on the edge more fine. WHen you have used your finest stone on the ground side, or don't wish to go any finer (hard Arkansas is plenty), then strop the burr off the flat side. There are several ways to strop. Some people use some leather strip, like an old belt, and place a MILD abrasive on it. Chromium oxide, red rouge, or white rouge will generally all do fine. Just pull back the flat side of the edge almost flat against the leather and let the mild abrasives do the work. This is generally done pulling back, not cutting into like you would on a sharpening stone.

If you are confused about how this works, don't try it until you do understand it. You don't want to mess up your knife. The key is largely raising the burr on the flat side (don't grind on the flat side, grind on the ground side until a little rolled piece of edge pops up on the flat side), and then removing the burr and checking to make sure there is none on either side. I will post diagrams soon.
 
sharpen.jpg


Here is a crude set of diagrams that might help you learn to sharpen and strop a chisel ground knife. Remember, not all sharpening stones are created equal. You should start with a coarser one as the edge is more worn out. Another tip, put some magic marker (NOT permanent marker) on the edge and try your sharpening stroke. if all of the magic marker is removed properly, then you have the right angle. If some magic marker is removed from the back of the edge, but not the tip of the edge, your angle is too low. If only a bit from the tip of the edge is removed, you are going too high.

After you are done stropping and succesfuly remove the burr on the flat side, you'll notice sometimes it flips up the ground side. Just strop the ground side at a 30-degree angle (but pull back, not cut into the strop as you would cut into a sharpening stone). Then the burr should be removed on the ground side. Repeat betwen stropping ground side (30-degree) and unground/flat side (almsot flat angle) until the burr is succesfully removed on both sides.

This sharpening will not work if you did not raise a burr! That is a crucial step.
 
Bravo, Comrade Chang. Nicely done.

Just one comment: It's okay to use permanent marker. I do all the time (Sharpie permanent). The color comes off quite easily with WD-40.

Not to imply that non-permanent won't also work.

David Rock

------------------
AKTI Member # A000846
Stop when you get to bone.
 
I know that it comes off non-coated finish, but his CQC-7 is probaby bead blast. I wouldnt want to try it with Black-T either, but i'm sure it would come off of black-t no problem. Bead blast is my main worry. You've seen how easy rust and moisture collects in there.
 
Good point about the bead-blast, Comrade.

David Rock

------------------
AKTI Member # A000846
Stop when you get to bone.
 
Actually, does someone have a cheap bead blast knife they want to apply a dot of permanent marker to and see if it will rub off? We could get to the bottom of this rather quickly by doing it this way.

Try applying some, and rubbing off with WD-40 or Tri-Flow. I'd be interested in knowing, and I haven't any bead blasted knives left in my small collection.
 
The Emerson CQC7 is a custom knife. The knives referred to above are production knives. Please be sure to add the alphabetic suffix if you have a production knife so that there will be no doubt as to which knife you refer. In addition, Benchmade made a series of knives, the 970 and 975, which are sometimes (incorrectly) referred to as the CQC6 and CQC7.

There is also a Emerson forum under makers and manufacturers; it is an excellent source of information about Emerson knives, both custom and production.

Walt
 
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