Tell me I did OK sharpening my Sebenza?

C

Climb14er

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Dec 16, 2003
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I've had my Small Classic Sebenza S30V almost two years and during this time, was keeping it sharp on my Sharpmaker.

The edge from the Chris Reeve shop is I believe 20* and while this has been ok, I never felt as if it was really 'that' sharp.

I'm not knocking the factory on this but rather, reading various posts from very knowledgeable knifemen, I've learned that it's more than ok to take the edge to 15* with the high grade of steel of S30V.

Last night, I reprofiled the blade on my Gatco to 15* and then 'finished' the blade on the 30* back bevel (15* per side) on the Sharpmaker.

The blade is nice and sharp and the edge seems pretty uniform.

Have others been sharpening to 15* with their Sebbies and how have you found the edge 'lasting' to be?

I'll routinely resharpen on the Sharpmaker and perhaps some day, I'll send it back to the shop for a complete resharpening.

Any thoughts or recommendations?
 
ok you did ok sharpening your sebenza ;) seriously I reprofiled mine to about 17 on my edge pro down from the factory 20 and i like it. Heck if worse comes to worse you can have CRK replace the entire blade
 
It will definitely an improvement. Even if you find that the edge is not lasting you can put a microbevel at 20 deg. on it and you will still see an improvement in cutting ability because you thinned out the blade behind the edge.
 
I would take serious cutting to require a 20 degree microbevel on top of a 15 degree primary. The large blades I use to baton knotty wood won't even get that thick. The Sebenza would be fine with a 10/15 profile unless you were cutting thick metals or similar.

-Cliff
 
It sounds like you've got no final microbevel--just a 15 profile that you polished at 15 on the Sharpmaker. Generally I'd then put a slightly more obtuse final microbevel on it.

Like Cliff said, though, I'd tend to make the more obtuse microbevel at 15 and make the profile more like 10 or 12.
 
Thanks guys for the comments. I did in fact 'simply' profile the blade to 15*.

Honestly, I don't know how to put on any microbevels, so to speak.

I would be comfortable with an edge of 15* that I could touch up on my Sharpmaker.

Is there anything else I need to do other than stropping the blade when I've finished with the Sharpmaker to keep it sharp and in good condition?
 
Climb14er said:
Honestly, I don't know how to put on any microbevels, so to speak.
Click to expand...

All you need to do to put on a microbevel is sharpen at a slightly increased angle. That's actually the whole idea of the Sharpmaker's two sides. You put a main 15 profile on a blade and then a small 20 microbevel. This does a couple of really good things, but perhaps the best is that it's much much easier to resharpen that microbevel than it is to resharpen an edge at the primary angle. You're removing much less metal when you do the microbevel. If you have only one angle--say, 15--then whenver you go to resharpen, you need to remove metal from that entire plane.

Climb14er said:
I would be comfortable with an edge of 15* that I could touch up on my Sharpmaker.
Click to expand...

That's a good idea, and it's pretty much what Cliff and I were saying. Instead of using the default 15/20 (primary/microbevel) of the Sharpmaker, create a primary bevel that's less than 15, and then you can do what you're talking about--just much more easily. You can do your 15 edge and maintain it with the Sharpmaker--as the microbevel.

In other words, go from 15/20 to 10/15. You'll still be sharpening at 15 on the Sharpmaker, just like you are now, and you'll still be presenting that initial 15 edge to the thing-to-be-cut. The only difference is you'll have a 10 backbevel so (1) the edge will perform better and (2) it's a whole lot easier to touch up the 15 (what you're doing now anyway).

Hope that makes sense.
 
OK, how do I get to the 10*?

You're saying from there, then finish with the 15*. Is this correct?

The Sharpmaker has got the 15* and 20*.

The Gatco I have goes down to 11*.

So, would you like for me to reprofile to 11* then finish with 15* on the Sharpmaker?

Or with the 15* that I have now, go to 20* finish on the Sharpmaker.

I hope what I shared makes some sense as I'm trying to understand what's being shared.

Thanks! ;)
 
Well, 10 was just an example; the 11 you can get from your Gatco would be fine, and it'll be a whole lot easier than trying to reprofile with your Sharpmaker.

Or you could do the 15/20 instead of 11/15, but I think you'll find that 11/15 would outperform 15/20 by a lot, and your particular knife is more than capable of taking and holding that edge, provided you don't abuse it.

I'm experimenting with a folder right now that should probably have something like 8/11 when it's done.
 
When you say abuse it, I find myself cutting through the hard plastic packing tape (not the think stuff but the 1/2 inch tape that has thickness to it) a lot and with a sharp knife, the tape just cuts in two very quickly. My 20* Sebenza factory edge is ok (not great) on this and I know it holds up under cutting this 'kind' of stuff a lot.

Will the 11/15* hold up ok or will the thin edge get dull a lot sooner than say the 15/20*. I know the 11/15 will cut the tape much better than the 15/20 but is the loss of edge, 'worth it'?

Thoughts?
 
The edge won't go dull sooner, that is a common myth, and tape isn't abusive. Mike Swain and Joe Talmadge were among the first to deal with the enhancement in edge life on knives when you reduce edge angles, see old posts on rec.knives.


-Cliff
 
Appreciate the link to the rec group. ;)

Just for the record, earlier, I put an edge of 20* on top of the reprofiled 15* and the result was very impressive.

I noticed superior cutting on the new 15/20 than I had with either the factory 20* or the reprofiled 15*.

Honestly, I'm tempted soon to go to 11/15*.

I'll read the postings on some of the forums and rec group to further my knowledge or different edge angles.
 
Once you start microbeveling it makes resharpening much easier because you can do the primary grind freehand with little precision. It also allows greater customizing of edges as you have two bevels to play with to balance strength and cutting ability.

-Cliff
 
Thanks again guys for all of your insight and comments!

Here's where I always take one good, sharp knife as part of my essentials for climbing the high peaks of Colorado and the west. I've climbed all of Colorado's 14,000 ft peaks (many numerous times) and many of the 13K ones too. A sharp knife is an essential and has come in handy on a few occasions in my thirty plus years of climbing.

Enjoy:

The pic is of Navajo and Apache Peaks, high 13K peaks, south of RMNP, taken from the summit of another 13er, Shoshoni, late Sept 2005. Enjoy the view. ;)

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The next is a shot of my friend Chris as we climbed Crestone Needle, a fairly difficult 14,000 ft peak in Southern Colorado with the Sand Dunes and Sangre de Cristos behind.

IMG_0232.JPG


Here's a summit shot of me on Mt Lindsey, a 14er in the Blanca range, southern Colorado with Blanca Peak in the background, the fifth highest 14er in Colorado.

IMG_0106_1.JPG
 
Great photos!!!

I put the same edge on my small Sebenza about 6 months ago and am very pleased myself.

I found that the factory edge was too abtuse to sharpen on the sharpmaker (it was greater than 20 degrees per side on my knife)
So I used my Lansky to put about a 15 degree per side on it. Then I've used my sharpmaker to sharpen at roughly a 20 degree micro bevel.

All in all I'm pleased with the results
 
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