The Knife Life (Minor Topics and Random Stuff Thread)

Krissig12 said:
Except that it's also semi-convex, so you need to remove quite a bit to get a truly apexed V........

Speaking of sharpening, I'm still having a few issues with this thing. I thought I had gotten it figured out, but it turns out I still suck. I KNOW I can do better, because certain points are CRAZY sharp and fully apexed. But the majority of the edge is just "meh".....

I think more than anything it's a consistency issue. With the softer steel, it's more important to get every stroke exactly right. But the problem for me is still trying to figure out the best way to stroke so as to follow the bevel along the entire edge. So I'm consistently inconsistent because I can't find the pattern that I should stay consistent at:D

Oh well, I'm getting there. It's just really freaking strange that I own a $350 knife that I can't figure out how to sharpen! I mean this stuff should have come WAY earlier! But I guess each knife is different, so there's no way I could have fully prepared for sharpening this specific knife.....
Unfortunately I'm noticing a decent amount of wear from all the sharpening, which is kinda scaring me. Apparently, you can get it rebladed by CRK for like $135, so that's comforting. It's still pretty steep but at least I don't have to replace the knife entirely .....Not that I'm thinking about doing this any time soon..... Just thinking about the future
At least one good thing to come of this is that now that I know I can get it replaced, I can feel better about using it hard:thumbup:
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I feel you. I've pretty much learned to sharpen on my sebenza. Ive got the flat part down pretty good, but I just cant seem to get the belly and tip as sharp as the rest. That goes with most of my knives, so it's obviously some inconsistency on my end.
 
SadSappySucker said:
I feel you. I've pretty much learned to sharpen on my sebenza. Ive got the flat part down pretty good, but I just cant seem to get the belly and tip as sharp as the rest. That goes with most of my knives, so it's obviously some inconsistency on my end.
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Just hit the belly to tip with a wider angle. Sebenza 21 edges come +2~ degrees wider per side, belly to tip.
 
Yeah, I think my problem is that I feel my angles start drifting a little on the shallow, so I end up then going to steep destroying any edge that I did form. The progress is so slow that at time I just feel I'm backtracking. It's quite discouraging.
When you regrind the bevel do you do it freehand or use a set angle system for the rough edge? When I rebevelled my esee to a much shallower angle I ended up with uneven bevels. The angle was about the same on both sides, but I gues you could say the edge would favor one side instead of being dead center.
 
SadSappySucker said:
Yeah, I think my problem is that I feel my angles start drifting a little on the shallow, so I end up then going to steep destroying any edge that I did form. The progress is so slow that at time I just feel I'm backtracking. It's quite discouraging.
When you regrind the bevel do you do it freehand or use a set angle system for the rough edge? When I rebevelled my esee to a much shallower angle I ended up with uneven bevels. The angle was about the same on both sides, but I gues you could say the edge would favor one side instead of being dead center.
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I only have stones and a sharp maker. Lately I will set the bevel on the SM diamond rods, then freehand the rest on whetstones. I have some reservations with the SM but I have a new set of DMT bench stones on the way. SM is a great system, that also offers multiple methods, but I just don't prefer it for profiling an edge.

How coarse are you starting at in trying to thin out your bevel?
 
Zeta33 said:
I only have stones and a sharp maker. Lately I will set the bevel on the SM diamond rods, then freehand the rest on whetstones. I have some reservations with the SM but I have a new set of DMT bench stones on the way. SM is a great system, that also offers multiple methods, but I just don't prefer it for profiling an edge.

How coarse are you starting at in trying to thin out your bevel?
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My best bud has a Sharpmaker (which I got him for Christmas last year), and this past year he's REALLY gotten into sharpening, and into blade edge reprofiling. It's such a pain with the Sharpmaker that he was growing somewhat discouraged. So, I've stepped him up to a Worksharp this year for Christmas. I also got him a spare belts set, so that way I won't feel bad when I have him do all my kitchen knives on it. LOL
 
Quiet said:
My best bud has a Sharpmaker (which I got him for Christmas last year), and this past year he's REALLY gotten into sharpening, and into blade edge reprofiling. It's such a pain with the Sharpmaker that he was growing somewhat discouraged. So, I've stepped him up to a Worksharp this year for Christmas. I also got him a spare belts set, so that way I won't feel bad when I have him do all my kitchen knives on it. LOL
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Awesome gift to your buddy Forrest! As many years as I've had the SM, I've never liked it as more than an edge maintainer or finisher. I can't wait to reprofile the DT Sebenza when my DMT stones come in. It's already apexed now but I should be able to get it even thinner on the DMT. Maybe have a better video to text you too haha! How're you liking your new edge stropped after those UF rods by the way? Scary right?
 
Zeta33 said:
Awesome gift to your buddy Forrest! As many years as I've had the SM, I've never liked it as more than an edge maintainer or finisher. I can't wait to reprofile the DT Sebenza when my DMT stones come in. It's already apexed now but I should be able to get it even thinner on the DMT. Maybe have a better video to text you too haha! How're you liking your new edge stropped after those UF rods by the way? Scary right?
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Thank you, sir! My bud's like a brother to me, so I had to take care of him, you know? :thumbup:

Like you, I primarily use my SM for maintaining the edge on my EDC blades. I have multiple stones I use free-hand if/when I have an edge that needs real TLC. That said, I have put my Insingo on those ultrafines and now this thing is ultra friggin' sharp!! My OomNoomZeta is next in line for treatment, and I'm looking forward to it. I do need to look into a new stropping compound. What do you use?

My OomNoomZeta
 
Zeta33 said:
I only have stones and a sharp maker. Lately I will set the bevel on the SM diamond rods, then freehand the rest on whetstones. I have some reservations with the SM but I have a new set of DMT bench stones on the way. SM is a great system, that also offers multiple methods, but I just don't prefer it for profiling an edge.

How coarse are you starting at in trying to thin out your bevel?
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The coarsest paper I have is 400 grit. Ive been thinking lately that I might invest in a nice coarse stone. I want to move towards strictly stones, but I just don't have the money to get an entire set. Would the transition from a stone to sand paper on wood work? I'm just not sure how going from flat to convex would act. Not to mention that I'd have to grind off the convex formed from the paper every time I go back to the stone. If that makes any sense.
 
SadSappySucker said:
The coarsest paper I have is 400 grit. Ive been thinking lately that I might invest in a nice coarse stone. I want to move towards strictly stones, but I just don't have the money to get an entire set. Would the transition from a stone to sand paper on wood work? I'm just not sure how going from flat to convex would act. Not to mention that I'd have to grind off the convex formed from the paper every time I go back to the stone. If that makes any sense.
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400 is barely coarser than the SM medium stones. Sandpaper is fine, just go down to 100-150 grit to establish a coarse, even bevel. Should go by a lot faster! 100, 200, 500, 700, 1000, 2000 then some stropping and you should have a very fine edge heel to tip. Jump straight from 1000 to your highest grit finisher on the strop and you'll get a polished edge with a decent bite too.

The convex happens as you tilt the edge while you pull it, or are on a flexible surface. Laying flat on wood or whatever, with light pressure, it will stay flat.
 
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Yeah I've been meaning to pick up some lower grit for the past couple months now but just keep putting it off. Well that explains why when I try to reprofile it takes literally hours until I finaly give up and just go back to whatever remains of the butchered up edge that I had on it. It sucks because I'm able to get them sharper then I ever could in the past, but the edge is about as far from a-symetrical as possible. I'm to much of a perfectionist to live with an ugly sharp edge. Most people would never no the difference, but I do and it bugs the crap out of me.
Looks like I'll be bumping up getting some lower grit to the top of my priority list.
 
Quiet said:
Thank you, sir! My bud's like a brother to me, so I had to take care of him, you know? :thumbup:

Like you, I primarily use my SM for maintaining the edge on my EDC blades. I have multiple stones I use free-hand if/when I have an edge that needs real TLC. That said, I have put my Insingo on those ultrafines and now this thing is ultra friggin' sharp!! My OomNoomZeta is next in line for treatment, and I'm looking forward to it. I do need to look into a new stropping compound. What do you use?

My OomNoomZeta
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I'm using BRKT black, green, and white compounds rubbed into my flexxxstrop. I use Flitz as a final finisher on micro abrasive cloth for my mirror, but the white BRKT compound will give you a pretty reflective and stupid sharp edge alone. I'm getting some 20k compound from flexxxstrops after the holiday too.
 
SadSappySucker said:
Yeah I've been meaning to pick up some lower grit for the past couple months now but just keep putting it off. Well that explains why when I try to reprofile it takes literally hours until I finaly give up and just go back to whatever remains of the butchered up edge that I had on it. It sucks because I'm able to get them sharper then I ever could in the past, but the edge is about as far from a-symetrical as possible. I'm to much of a perfectionist to live with an ugly sharp edge. Most people would never no the difference, but I do and it bugs the crap out of me.
Looks like I'll be bumping up getting some lower grit to the top of my priority list.
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Man you and I are very alike!

I used to not care so much, but lately I've been getting more and more interested in sharpening to PERFECTION, and when that fails I get super pissed off. Both because of the bad result and because I know restarting the process at a low grit will hog away even MORE material. I'm telling you, there is a NOTICEABLE amount of wear on my sebenza right now. As in you can see it clearly if you compare side by side with a stock picture. It doesn't look like a different profile, but more like a thinner version (spine to edge) of the already existing one.....if that makes any sense

But I'm slowly starting to figure out the sharpening. I understand the whole "thickening up towards the tip" thing, but its still tricky (for me at least) to figure out exactly where to start angling up.... I'm pretty close to finding it right now, and you can tell because my edges are getting much better. I only wish it didn't take so much time and so much worn off steel to figure out:grumpy:
 
That's why you practice on your cheapos!

Sharpening isn't hard, per se, but it takes a lot of practice to get to where you know what you're doing.

The different profile toward the tip isn't tricky at all if you use benchstones....

Not to me anyway. BUT, I've been putting edges on stuff for a long, loooong time.
 
Use cheapos I know, but I just hate it when my favorate(s) knife/knives has a dull edge. Like to the extent that I wont carry it, and I just cant not carry my sebenza. Kind of a catch 22.
And I'm using the BRKT green and black compounds right now which gets the edge polished enough for me right now, but there are time where it does seem to be lacking. I think I'll focus on getting my angles right for now though haha.
 
AntDog said:
That's why you practice on your cheapos!

Sharpening isn't hard, per se, but it takes a lot of practice to get to where you know what you're doing.

The different profile toward the tip isn't tricky at all if you use benchstones....

Not to me anyway. BUT, I've been putting edges on stuff for a long, loooong time.
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Lil stabbies, ole stabbies, big stonies

The struggle man. You know it. Lmao!
 
You can't learn how to sharpen a sebenza by practicing on a knife with a different blade shape. Trust me, Im pretty good at sharpening as well. I can get a DAMN good edge on everything else in my collection. But when it comes to the seb, I'm just lost.

Oh well, it just takes time I guess. And lots of trial and error
 
Krissig12 said:
You can't learn how to sharpen a sebenza by practicing on a knife with a different blade shape. Trust me, Im pretty good at sharpening as well. I can get a DAMN good edge on everything else in my collection. But when it comes to the seb, I'm just lost.

Oh well, it just takes time I guess. And lots of trial and error
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Meh, Sebenzas aren't magic. Just hold a correct and consistent angle. It'll get sharp. If you're doing it right, it has no choice but to get sharp.

It's physics man!
 
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