Sharpening Record Page

[nozh2002]

Only thing make sense after Green Rouge (Chromium Oxide) is diamond powder 100000MESH and only on CPM S30-S60-S90V and may be ZDP189. Otherwise you do not need anything at least to get it hair whittling sharp.

Rouge is Red in french and while ago jewelers use iron rust (red) for polishing gold and silver - from that point Rouge in English started to mean Jewelry Polish this way there are Green Rouge, White Rouge and finally Red Rouge - which is literally "Red Red".

From all this polishes only chromium oxide is hard enough to affect steels, especially blade steels, stainless steels. Red Rouge - iron oxide or rust good for gold but not for steel, but however many uses all this different polishes and even see some improvements somehow.

I try many and always check results measuring sharpness on thread cutting statistical test. So far Chromium Oxide works best - BTW this is compound used for precise optic polishing.

Diamond 100000MESH powder actually finest abrasive I ever hear about, most likely there is nothing finer then this.

Thanks, Vassili.

 

[gunmike1]

Diamond 100000MESH powder actually finest abrasive I ever hear about, most likely there is nothing finer then this.

Thanks, Vassili.

I use .05 micron 3M lapping film, which uses Chromium Oxide. Not sure what grit that is, but I'm thinking possibly finer than the 100000 grit diamonds. At that level there is probably no practical or noticeable difference in the finish or sharpness.

 

[nozh2002]

I use .05 micron 3M lapping film, which uses Chromium Oxide. Not sure what grit that is, but I'm thinking possibly finer than the 100000 grit diamonds. At that level there is probably no practical or noticeable difference in the finish or sharpness.

I am not sure but I think it should be something like 300 000 Mesh. I think 100000 is about 0.15 microns (not really sure).

I believe it make sense but need some special way to test it. Remember not to far ago only test was cutting paper and shaving arm... Who knows may be whittling hair will be considered as not really too sharp in a few years from now... But to me it probably sharp enough. Practical use to me for this kind of sharpness make sense - I can not carve out splinters out of skin without drawing blood if it is less sharp, it did not cut by slight touch, etc... But I can not imagine practical use for even sharpest edge. From other hand, until you get it this sharp it is hard to find use for it...

Thanks, Vassili.

 

[Antihero17]

Is there any other polishing compounds that are green? The one I am using came from lowes and has a red lid, but the compound inside the tube is green so I assume that it is chromium oxide but it never states it anywhere. Either way it removed the bur quite quickly and polished the edge nicely.

 

[krazichinaman]

Thanks in advance. After participating on this site for a little while I decided it was well worth it to at least get a Basic Membership to support this valuable site.

All my knives are sharpened on the Sharpmaker. However, I finsih off on the Ultra Fine stones and a strop.(Note that I can get my knives to shave after the brown stones) Also, have you watched the DVD that came with the sharpmaker? There is a learning curve on using the sharpmaker.

It sounds like to me that you aren't hitting the edge but you are "reprofiling." What you need to do is to mark the entire edge with a Sharpie or any type of marker. You can see exactly where you are hitting when you sharpen. The goal is to reprofile the edge at the 30 setting until you can see no more marker at the VERY edge. Then, you go ahead and sharpen at the 40 setting and this ensures that you are sharpening the VERY edge. This will produce a shaving edge in no time.

Just a FYI, I purchased a Spyderco Cricket last wednesday and when I went to sharpen it, the factory bevels were not even with the sharpmaker. I had to reprofile the edge to get it to work. I used the sharpie method that I descirbed to you above. Good luck and let us know how it works out for you. Soon you can join the ranks of whittleing hair!

 

[DRider]

So, does the hair have to be just held in one hand with the other end loose to count? When I try that, it doesn't bite, the hair just bends over. If I very loosely hold both ends of my wife's hair (I shave my head so I can't contribute to this) so the hair can't escape, so to speak, I can take a fine curl off it just like some of the pictures on Vassili's web site. I'm using a Kershaw JYD II with the factory edge - all I did was about 5 strokes on a side on the 30 degree side of a sharpmaker with the fine sticks, and a few strokes on a piece of copy paper after that.

 

[nozh2002]

Once again:

Well I hold it by one end only:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQPwHu4lxsQ

I think this is pretty good whittle example.

Thanks, Vassili.

P.S. Can you find (with your micrometer) anything even thiner then hait to whittle?

Thanks, Vassili.

 

[DRider]

Got it. I know what to go for now.

 

[Macchina]

I am ready to join! I sharpened up my carbon steel Mora this afternoon and decided to give it a try. My Moras are always the sharpest of my knives. I sharpened with a Spyderco Fine (white) ceramic benchstone at a angle about 2 degrees above the Scandi grind that is standard on a Mora. I gradually lightened the strokes, alternating sides every pass. I then lightly stropped a few passes on my jeans (hi-tech, eh?). Here are the results:

 

[samhain73]

Bad pic, but I whittled this one with a free hand convexed Busse Active duty.

 

[Roger999]

I've done this with a vic huntsman, bantam, byrd cara cara and a cheap thin knife i use to eat apples with lol. I only have pics of the whittling from the bantam and cara cara on my comp though.

I sharpened them on sandpaper on a mouse pad going from 800 grit, 2000grit, 2500grit, then i go to a strop loaded with chromium oxide.

 

[Tom v S]

I wanna join Knife is made by Ed de Pauw from the Netherlands, sharpened by me on sandpaper upwards to 2000 grit, polished on a leather strop loaded with compound.

 

[Gator97]

Ok, I'll join the club too. I don't think it's practical im most of the cases, but mainly I was curious if I could get Pill Wilson's CPM 10V to do that. CPM 10V is a real challenge to reprofile and sharpening it isn't easy compared to other steels even at high hardness.
Also, for testing purposes I've repeated hair whittling with Benchmade 710HSSR M2 blade and Benchmade 710-01 D2 blade.

Here's the pix, first 3 are macro shots with Canon MP-E 65 lens. That's a human hair Last one is just all 3 together with normal lens.

Wilson, CPM 10V 64HRC


Benchmade M2 60-62 HRC


Benchmade D2 60 HRC


All together


For the record. D2 blade is clearly less sharp than M2 blade. However surpasses M2 in ease of hair whittling. I figure that's to toothy nature of D2 steel. In other words bigger carbide particles.

D2 was finished on edgepro 3000 polishing tape, haven't used it for years.
M2 is my EDC. Finished with Al oxide film, 0.3micron.
Wilson gets used quite often, sharpened yesterday to lower the edge to 15 per side. Very difficult to reprofile. Gave up freehand, used edge pro, finished with 0.3micron Al oxide film.

 

[cutlerylover]

I've done this with a vic huntsman, bantam, byrd cara cara and a cheap thin knife i use to eat apples with lol. I only have pics of the whittling from the bantam and cara cara on my comp though.

I sharpened them on sandpaper on a mouse pad going from 800 grit, 2000grit, 2500grit, then i go to a strop loaded with chromium oxide.

Very nice man, good to see you here on bladeforums!

 

[Gautier]

Alright, I'll play. Case Mini Trapper in CV freehanded convex edges on a Black Hard Arkansas stone, stropped on a leather belt(the kind that holds up your pants, not the kind on a machine) loaded with red jeweler's rouge. Not the best photographer but I tried to get a couple of curls in there. Had one really nice one then the hair split
My hair's too short so that's one from the wife's brush, freehanging for the whittling process.

And one finer, greyer hair whittled twice by my Case Peanut in CV, freehand convex on a "White Hard Arkansas" benchstone.

Gautier

 

[hardheart]

Wenger Standard Issue, Spyderco Medium

 

[hardheart]

$2 Imperial Schrade I got in the mail today, Norton economy silicon carbide, coarse (coarse Crystolon is 100 grit, I guess this is the same)

 

[Roger999]

I've done this with a vic huntsman, bantam, byrd cara cara and a cheap thin knife i use to eat apples with lol. I only have pics of the whittling from the bantam and cara cara on my comp though.

I sharpened them on sandpaper on a mouse pad going from 800 grit, 2000grit, 2500grit, then i go to a strop loaded with chromium oxide.

I got pics of my huntsman whittling.

 

[nozh2002]

$2 Imperial Schrade I got in the mail today, Norton economy silicon carbide, coarse (coarse Crystolon is 100 grit, I guess this is the same)

Wow! Now the only thing you did not sharpen - spoon or nickel!

Did you do this with coarse abrasive only? Is it whittling hair all over edge or on some lucky spots? What is you observations - I was thinking that only green rouge can do this? but you are saying it is 100 grit?

Thanks, Vassili.

 

[hardheart]

That took several attempts. The whole edge should have been about the same, but I worked with just the last quarter inch or so. The edge grabs so aggressively it would cut through the hair pretty easily before producing a curl if I didn't focus as best I could. That is only about half the hair, the split end is where I began to whittle it, then the blade slipped out. When I attempted to make the shaving longer, I cut through.

I did this because of something Uncle Rufus posted in the strop thread. I made extremely light passes on the coarse stone, just like I do when finishing on the strop. This was actually running through my head the day before he posted it, the ability to refine the scratch pattern by reducing pressure instead of reducing abrasive particle size.