Sharpening newbie

[dynamicmoves]

Some people think that there's no way of getting around ruining an edge with an electric tool. The very edge is an extremely thin piece of metal which will heat up fast. You won't ruin the knife, but some believe the edge won't perform like it could when using hand sharpening methods. I don't know if I believe that fully but to me it makes enough sense to shy away from power tools. Plus, I don't really need power tools to sharpen my knives. I'm not going to set up a "system" because by the time I do I'd be done already sharpening freehand. But that's me and my use.

OP, I use a strop with bark river compound. I'm thinking of going to a super fine wet stone. Free hand is the way to go for a "survival" knife. If you can sharpen freehand you can sharpen anywhere there's a hard enough object to use on the knife. Use a sharpie to paint the edge bevel and then sharpen. Wherever the sharpie remains on the knife is where you missed the edge. Start at a low angle at first.

Shrug.
I only use the 1x30 when there's a reason to. Chipped blade, reprofile, and so on. Using one to touch up a knife makes no sense.
I agree with you in maintaining an edge with a strop on compound.

 

[chiral.grolim]

Lots of sound advice here :thumbup:

...a tiny 15-20° micro-bevel will make the 10° edge stronger, with no real apparent loss of sharpness...

Gaston makes an excellent point, but there is a challenge to it. Survive! Knives are built more for durability that includes cutting into hard/tough materials, with edge-shoulder thickness (where primary-bevel meets edge-bevel) > 0.020", ~20 dps to the apex. That is an edge built for strength. It will not have the light-use cutting performance of some of the knives tested in Ankerson's thread with edge-thicknesses below 0.010", but it will be able to endure a LOT more lateral stress than those tools.

I've posted this schematic before, but here it is again, the Izula compared has similar edge-geometry to the GSO-line:

The box-cutter (red) has an edge-angle ~8-dps and while it is great for slicing paper, cardboard, carpet, leather, flesh, etc. it collapses against overly hard objects and subjection to stronger lateral forces. The knife below it (yellow) is sharpened to 15-20 dps in front of a 3-4 dps primary grind, and it cuts BETTER than the box-cutter while also sporting a more durable edge. The extra durability provided by a stronger microbevel is not to be under-estimated, and any loss of sharpness in that tiny length of edge up to the apex is unnoticeable, especially since that knife is thinner than the box-cutter for ~3/16" along the primary. However, that slicing blade is not made for the hard-use expected of a knife like the GSO-5.1! Its meager 0.005" edge-thickness and 3-4 dps primary cannot withstand the lateral stresses expected for a longer, thicker camp-knife. For this reason, the GSO is designed to have approximately the same edge-angle - 15-20 dps - but the thickness behind that edge is much greater (> 64X stronger).
To take the edge down to 10-dps would require removing quite a bit of metal from the edge-shoulder on each side. Would this improve cutting performance? Absolutely! But it might compromise durability, depending on your use of it (e.g. have you ever chipped out a large section of blade on another knife of similar design?).

My advice would be to push the knife in your own use of it with the edge-geometry as it is. If you find yourself desiring higher cutting performance without having experienced poor durability, then definitely try cutting down the edge-shoulders at ~10-dps without touching the apex of the blade. You are thus adding an intermediary bevel to the edge, improving cutting performance without affecting edge-durability, only making it slightly weaker some distance back from the edge. Most users will find such a modification only advantageous.

For example, here is a knife from another company that i cut the edge-shoulders down to <0.010 as it is intended for skinning and not rough-use, but i kept the edge at 15-20 dps:

The electric worksharp or a 1x30 will help you accomplish this more quickly and add a natural curvature to the shoulder, but there are risks as such power-tools can remove a lot of metal more quickly than you might desire and also generate more heat than might be advised. If it's what you have, try it, but take precautions. A large diamond plate like what chambelona59 presented can work wonders at the right grit-levels but will take more time. *shrug* There are also vendors on BF that will do the work for you (e.g. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...pening-Regrind-Cerakote-Service-(pic-heavy!!))

Survive! Knives are built to be tough, but don't be afraid to adjust them to suit your personal needs :thumbup: You might be surprised at what they can handle.

 

[Silver Needle]

Dr. Grolim, ladies and gentlemen!

Chiral, were you a knife major in college or something

Seriously though, that is a great diagram. Your in depth knowledge is always impressive. You tend to discuss points that I've never heard of before. Thanks for sharing your expertise!

 

[bladeflana]

Overall, you will have to try a few things and see what works, but an understanding of sharpening fundamentals is required to make any system work for you as the maker intended.

 

[OBX351]

I just strop mine to bring the edge back. I also have a Lansky sharpener. Otherwise I send it back to S!K, Guy does an INSANE job sharpening. He's sharpened most of my GSOs at least once and he's sharpened my main 4.1 and 5.1 at least three times over the past two years.