- Joined
- Dec 1, 2015
- Messages
- 468
Hello,
I discovered spyderco ceramic whetstones couple of years ago. I was amazed at the results I got with them. I was able to easily put sharper edges on my knives than I ever had before. They worked well on my victorinox knives, knives with sandvik steel, vg-10, and s35vn. I can put very sharp edges on these blades within a few minutes. However, as I progressed up the "steel ladder" to higher alloy steels I ran into problems. I purchased a 940-1 with s90v steel and although I could sharpen it to a nice edge, it took several times longer and could not approach the sharpness I had achieved with my blades before. Then I purchased a sage 3 with s30v steel. Being similar to s35vn, I believed setting a fine edge would be no problem. However, I struggled to put on a fine edge just as with s90v. I would spend dozens of minutes at a time with decent results but not as good as my previous blades.
Now, after reading several threads here on the topic, I decided to try out a diamond whetstone. I purchased an "EZE LAP Model 62F" which is a fine (600 Grit) 2"x6" sharpening stone. I spent about 10 minutes setting a new edge on my sage 3. Then I progressed to my spyderco "302F" fine ceramic whetstone where I spent about 5 minutes refining the edge. The results were excellent. I finally achieved a fine edge on my sage 3, one that I find to be in the same class as my native 5 and delica vg10.
I believe that the diamond stone allowed me get both sides of the blade to meet at a very fine apex, one which I just could not easily, if at all achieve on my ceramics alone.
In conclusion, I would recommend a diamond stone to anyone who his having difficulties achieving satisfactory edges on steels such as s30v and harder.
So, in my experience, ceramics will easily sharpen steels like vg10 and s35, but add diamonds to your routine if you are having troubles with steels such as s30v.
I discovered spyderco ceramic whetstones couple of years ago. I was amazed at the results I got with them. I was able to easily put sharper edges on my knives than I ever had before. They worked well on my victorinox knives, knives with sandvik steel, vg-10, and s35vn. I can put very sharp edges on these blades within a few minutes. However, as I progressed up the "steel ladder" to higher alloy steels I ran into problems. I purchased a 940-1 with s90v steel and although I could sharpen it to a nice edge, it took several times longer and could not approach the sharpness I had achieved with my blades before. Then I purchased a sage 3 with s30v steel. Being similar to s35vn, I believed setting a fine edge would be no problem. However, I struggled to put on a fine edge just as with s90v. I would spend dozens of minutes at a time with decent results but not as good as my previous blades.
Now, after reading several threads here on the topic, I decided to try out a diamond whetstone. I purchased an "EZE LAP Model 62F" which is a fine (600 Grit) 2"x6" sharpening stone. I spent about 10 minutes setting a new edge on my sage 3. Then I progressed to my spyderco "302F" fine ceramic whetstone where I spent about 5 minutes refining the edge. The results were excellent. I finally achieved a fine edge on my sage 3, one that I find to be in the same class as my native 5 and delica vg10.
I believe that the diamond stone allowed me get both sides of the blade to meet at a very fine apex, one which I just could not easily, if at all achieve on my ceramics alone.
In conclusion, I would recommend a diamond stone to anyone who his having difficulties achieving satisfactory edges on steels such as s30v and harder.
So, in my experience, ceramics will easily sharpen steels like vg10 and s35, but add diamonds to your routine if you are having troubles with steels such as s30v.
