So what is the ULTIMATE stone etc. for Case SS for deburing / touch up.

Wowbagger

Wowbagger

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I just got this lovely Case Trapper in Walnut Bone. My Birthday knife. I have reprofiled it pretty shallow with my Edge Pro and what I want to know is what stone, . . . bench stone, strop compound what have you . . . is most wonderful with the basic Case SS steel ?

It seems to be a little softer/different than the Case SS in my genuine stag trapper.

I have a plethora of stones from a very nice Best brand Translucent Hard Arkansas bench stone to most of the Shapton Pros and the Shapton glass stones on my Edge Pro. Also the Spyderco Ultra Fine Triangle ; which really does it for me on the harder alloy steels but not so great on this Case (wire edge stays on even when going edge leading only down the triangle).



PS: I HATE stropping and prefer to just use a stone but if stropping is best . . . I guess . . .

THANKS
 
I find that the Sharpmaker brown (medium) rods do a decent job. The slightly more aggressive grit with the lightest pressure will help to remove the burr, rather than just endlessly flipping it back and forth.
 
I like my Case SS with a polished edge in most cases, Shapton Pro 5k would get my vote.
 
Thank you so much everyone.

I find that the Sharpmaker brown (medium) rods do a decent job. The slightly more aggressive grit with the lightest pressure will help to remove the burr, rather than just endlessly flipping it back and forth.
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Yes that is the kind of edge my older stag trapper came with and it cut for ever.
The new trapper came with a big bur on it and even though it is toothy it was flipping back and forth. Took it off finally with the corner of the Ulta Fine triangle. I don't have the brown triangle yet. That would have probably been an easy solution. Now that it is polished the ultra fine is not doing it for me.

I like my Case SS with a polished edge in most cases, Shapton Pro 5k would get my vote.
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Yes as you know I have one and from reading what I did from your link to Shapton stone info I was hoping someone would have found that one to do a good job.

Well back to the stones.

Thank you all.

PS: kind of surprised I didn't get a vote for the hard Ark. Probably best for the CV steel from Case.
Part of me wanted to smear a bunch of that 14,000 diamond paste on it but I resisted . . . for now.
 
What a great birthday present! I don't know what would be the best stone, but finishing with the hard arkansas would just feel right IMO
 
With the simple steel found in most slip joint knives, old and new, once an edge is profiled I keep them up to speed with the 'Arkansas' family of stones.
Depending on what the week has thrown at me I'll touch up with the medium and/or hard(translucent) followed by a white rouge strop.

Just a few minutes and it's back to shaving or ripping down Costco boxes so fast the blade gets too hot to touch.

Here's a very rare translucent 'soft' Arkansas from Dans Whitestone circa mid 1980s. I'm told it is very hard to find these and near impossible to find one in any currently operating quarries.

This stone is my favorite if I have too many folds and bends for the medium stone. Just a dream on the simple carbon steels.
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1980s trans soft Ark.

A prize to hang onto. I'll keep it in mind if I am ever in the right place at the right time. Since I tend to be about a century out of time early or late, . . . it seems to vary . . . I'm not holding my breath.

Ha,ha
Well I just had a whacky time of it but got results.

The edge was sharpish but had some dings so I used the Spyderco Ultra Fine triangle mostly on the flats but on the corners right at the dings to straighten them out.
This gave me some bur.
I went to the Shapton Pro 5,000 as it was in the storage box and wetted it. Seemed to have enough feel and I did edge leading passes to get rid of the bur. Still wasn't too shave sharp after that let alone hair whittling. Tried to go really light and not spend much time in the same place on the edge and not do too many passes.
Not great.
Very briefly freshened the 5,000 on the DMT diamond plate and tried again.
Still not great and seemed to be loosing the feel of the edge and getting a bit higher angle from trying to feel for it.
Gave that up and went back to the Spyderco Ultra Fine triangle totally on the flats now and some edge trailing and some edge leading and got the edge hair whittling again with out any real bur.

I quit while I was ahead. Gee I figured I could get hair whittling off the 5,000. I am positive I could have using a jig on a woodworking plane blade.

Tomorrow after dulling the edge at work, tomorrow is trash day, I will go back to the 5,000 and then the 8,000 and see what I can do towards hair whittling by hand.

My feel for that is I will be back on the Edge Pro to get the bevel un rounded from all this trying to feel the edge on smooth stones. Wish me a surprising experience.
 
For good (actually, really good) utility sharp edges on Case's SS blades, I've preferred something between 320-600 grit. The 'fine' side of a hardware store stone in AlOx or SiC works very good for this (~320), as does a 'Fine' diamond hone (~600). A 'medium' or soft Arkansas stone, used with oil, also works very well for maintenance of such an edge. Stropping with green compound on leather, or on bare leather alone, is a good way to clean up any burrs left, without taking too much of the bite out of the edge.

I've not liked highly polished edges on Case SS as much, or any other 420HC variant, as they need more frequent touching up to retain some bite. You'll notice this even more, as the edge angle becomes wider; especially above 35° inclusive or so. 30° inclusive or lower will do better at higher polish. If you do want shaving sharpness at a higher polish, a hard-backed denim strop with white rouge, or similar AlOx polishing paste works very well.

Ceramic hones are among my least favorite sharpening tools for such a steel, as they'll exacerbate burring issues with them.


David
 
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I don't know about ultimate, but I know what works for me. If the edge bevel is already set, then the standard Sharpmaker kit with medium and fine stones, followed by stropping on firm leather with some green buffing compound does a good job. Freehand I use a Norton IB8 India combo stone if needed, followed by a soft/hard Arkansas stone, and strop.

Case SS is easy to sharpen but requires some attention to burr removal/minimization. The Sharpmaker stones will keep developing a fresh burr on that steel if you use a lot of pressure with them.

I have some Shapton stones but have never used them on Case SS. These days when I want to touch up a Case edge I just use the hard Ark and a strop. It may not be ultimate, but it'll do.
 
Thanks David and John.

I used it today but not as much as I thought I was going to and it is still pretty danged sharp so it may be several days until I can get with it again.
 
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