It is no secret that I think the 302 Solitaire is one of the finest pocket knives extant. I have two, a plain black Valox and a rosewood brass. I use the plain black quite a lot and it is my favorite of the two. It came from the factory sharpened at an exact 20 degrees. It is easy to sharpen and the edge grind was very even.
I got out my brass rosewood version last night to sharpen it for the very first time (I do not use it that often). I found that one side was sharpened to 25 degrees and the other side was about 40 degrees. That is quite a difference!
So, I had to re-profile the edge. Thankfully, this is 420HC steel and not a super steel. The job only took 5 minutes, maybe. I marked the edge with a sharpie so I could see what I was doing. I used a Lansky and started with a coarse stone and got the edge even. Then I switched to a medium stone for a bit, until it smoothed out. Finally, I got out the fine stone and sharped it until it would glide across the stone and it would shave arm hair without pressure. Pretty simple.
I still think the 302 needs to be brought back out in different colors of Valox as it is a fine pocket knife. It has a blade the same length as a Spyderco Delica, but the whole knife is so slim in every dimension it is like carrying an ice pick without a handle.
I got out my brass rosewood version last night to sharpen it for the very first time (I do not use it that often). I found that one side was sharpened to 25 degrees and the other side was about 40 degrees. That is quite a difference!
So, I had to re-profile the edge. Thankfully, this is 420HC steel and not a super steel. The job only took 5 minutes, maybe. I marked the edge with a sharpie so I could see what I was doing. I used a Lansky and started with a coarse stone and got the edge even. Then I switched to a medium stone for a bit, until it smoothed out. Finally, I got out the fine stone and sharped it until it would glide across the stone and it would shave arm hair without pressure. Pretty simple.
I still think the 302 needs to be brought back out in different colors of Valox as it is a fine pocket knife. It has a blade the same length as a Spyderco Delica, but the whole knife is so slim in every dimension it is like carrying an ice pick without a handle.
I keed. I keed.