sharpening ?

C

cjordan

Joined
Jul 29, 2012
Messages
85
Alright yall Ive been looking around all day at differant stones. I think I have decided to go with the 6" DMT, XC,C,F,XF. Here is the question, will this be a good setup for 440c, and cv? I have several other knives but these two will be used the most. Thanks
 
The diamond hones will work for any steel (which makes them versatile above anything else), but you'll need to go very gently on the carbon steels like CV and 1095. Almost no abrasion-resistance in these steels, so the diamond will cut very aggressively. Unless you're doing a big re-bevel job on a large, thick blade, I'd recommend using only the coarse or finer diamond hones on these. I avoid using XC/XXC diamond hones on them. 440C has a lot of chromium in it, which gives it more abrasion resistance (chromium carbides). Diamond will work fast on it also, but not quite so aggressively as on plain carbon steels and simpler stainless. I've also noticed, because of the aggressiveness of diamond on simpler & softer steels, the diamond hones will often load up (clog) pretty fast when sharpening them. That's something to consider also; not that they won't clean up pretty easily.

For what it's worth, I've found silicon carbide wet/dry sandpaper to work very well on carbon steels and the 420/440-series steels. Also works well on D2 (which responds well to diamond also). The sandpaper is cheap to get, so it never hurts to have some on hand. Given a choice, I'd pick the sandpaper over the diamond for carbon steels (used some today, in fact, for this very purpose). I'm sure a silicon carbide stone would do well also, for these steels. Diamond really excels on the vanadium carbide-rich supersteels like S30V, but can often be overkill for simpler steels.
 
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I would skip Coarse (45micron), since XC is 60 micron and F is 25 micron. Instead get 4" EEF 3 micron whetstone. While at it, grab a dia-paste 1 micron + balsa, enjoy your hair whittling journey!

Also wise to heed David's solid advices, he is quite obsessed with edges :)
 
Thanks for the info guys, I belive Ill start looking around for the sandpaper. Is there any special place to get it at? Also I guess I should have mentioned in the first post, these are pocket knives that I carry every day, also there will be a few hunting knives with fixed blades, I dont know what steel they have. What Im manily after is being able to put my own edge on the blade, which means knocking the factory edge off. I have seen a few pictures on here of some blades with a mirror finish on them, and as good as that looks I dont know that I will be able to work these pocket knives down that much? They have pretty thin blades on them. Also when you work a knife down to that mirror finish is there an advantage vs having one that is "shaving sharp" talking about shaving as in throwing the hair off of your arm? Now I know sharper is always better, but this is one of them things I have wondered since running across this site and seeing how well some of yall can sharpen a blade.
 
You can usually find the wet/dry sandpaper in coarse to medium grits (up to ~600 grit) at most of the big home improvement centers, like Home Depot/Lowes. Higher grits up to ~2000 or more can usually be found at auto parts or auto refinishing shops, or at some woodworking specialty shops like Woodcraft. The 3M and Norton brands are very good.

Working an edge to a mirror finish isn't a necessity, but it's a good way to test one's capabilities. Takes a lot of patience to get an edge that polished, while still not overdoing it and rounding off the edge. When done right, they'll absolutely make hairs jump off your arm, and can make excellent working edges too (assuming one isn't afraid to scuff a shiny edge up ;)). That's not to say this can't be done at lower levels of finish; many here are quite good at that, at some very coarse grit finishes. You can take your pocketknives to a mirror finish if you want, and you don't necessarily have to remove a ton of metal to do it. It's very much more about establishing a very pure apex with the first hone (absolutely THE MOST IMPORTANT step), then gently refining it with subsequent hones & stropping.
 
Thank you sir for your help. I was digging through some of my stuff and found some M3 wet-dry paper, all I can find on is 401Q IMPERIAL WETORDRY. Is this the same stuff you are talking about? I havent been able to find anything about silicon carbide wet/dry sandpaper anywhere on it. Again thank you for your help and input.
 
cjordan said:
Thank you sir for your help. I was digging through some of my stuff and found some M3 wet-dry paper, all I can find on is 401Q IMPERIAL WETORDRY. Is this the same stuff you are talking about? I havent been able to find anything about silicon carbide wet/dry sandpaper anywhere on it. Again thank you for your help and input.
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401Q is the silicon carbide paper. That'll be fine (perfect). What grit is it? Should be marked on the back of the paper (and the package), most likely as 220/320/400/600/800/1000/2000/etc. Grits in the 400 - 800 range are probably the most versatile, and could be used to put good working edges on most any blade. Lower than 400 (320 and lower), those would normally be used for very heavy metal removal; for your pocketknives, that would be overkill. Grits of 1000+ will begin to polish most knife steels.
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
401Q is the silicon carbide paper. That'll be fine (perfect). What grit is it? Should be marked on the back of the paper (and the package), most likely as 220/320/400/600/800/1000/2000/etc. Grits in the 400 - 800 range are probably the most versatile, and could be used to put good working edges on most any blade. Lower than 400 (320 and lower), those would normally be used for very heavy metal removal; for your pocketknives, that would be overkill. Grits of 1000+ will begin to polish most knife steels.
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It's 1500 grit. Now that I know that is the right stuff I can go pick up some 400-800 grit. I have a diamonod stone thats 300 on one side and 600 on the other, I think I will try it then try to polish with the 1500.
 
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