Tips for sharpening super steels?

Diamonds go a long way and guides if you need help with holding a consistent angle. Beyond that make sure you get a fully apexed edge that is free of defects as your goal and your set.

Head over to the maintenance part of the forum that's where the OCD knife sharpening magic happens.
 
If you can regrind the blade, take the edge width (at the shoulders) to 0.015 inches (15 thousands) or less. A thin edge is much easier and much faster to sharpen.

Short of that, reprofile to a 30-degree edge angle (inclusive) and sharpen with a 40-degree microbevel. Microbevels also make sharpening faster and easier. Sodak has a good sticky on this in the maintenance section.

And use diamonds. With an aggressive edge geometry, you can use much finer grits and keep the edge sharp without removing much metal.

And learn to strop.
 
Use good diamonds and they are easy to sharpen.
 
Use diamond/cbn and sharpen like any other steel. Make sure you form a burr the entire length of the edge on both sides. Be patient.
 
Been using DMT diamond, red,fine, green extra fine and tan, xxfine, I finish off with a leather strop one has white compound and the other is green compound.
Haven't played around with the edge angles, probably sharpen at about 18 degrees give or take. So far so good.
 
If you haven't already, you might want to also determine what kind of edge you want: toothy, smooth, or somewhere in between. I spent quite a bit of time, and some money, chasing after edges that I eventually found out were not what I needed.
 
For tungsten and/or vanadium carbide steels, use what ever you want for shaping, I use a Norton jb8 coarse side, and diamond for at least the last two finishing grits.

For iron and chromium carbide only steels, it doesn't matter.
 
MtnHawk1 said:
If you haven't already, you might want to also determine what kind of edge you want: toothy, smooth, or somewhere in between. I spent quite a bit of time, and some money, chasing after edges that I eventually found out were not what I needed.
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in general I prefer a semi smooth edge, however in my kitchen knives I like a fine toothed edge my exfine green DMT gives for me. I use a black surgical for my Kai Shun knives along with a light strop with green compound, they respond very well to that.
Another surprising kitchen find is the original round nose Mac knife, handy in the galley and the vanadium steel holds a great edge. I have another asian cheapies that has a picture of George Washington on it, it appears to be the same quality steel as the Mac and it was $.50 at a thrift store and handy in the galley.

Thanks for all the replies. :)
 
if you have trouble sharpening, just do edge maintenance. i'd recommend 204-freehanding for the task
 
kreisler said:
if you have trouble sharpening, just do edge maintenance. i'd recommend 204-freehanding for the task
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Never have had troubles sharpening stuff, these super steel knives I have take a bit more effort but last quite a bit longer. Guess its a trade off, I do a light touch up on an 8000 diamond, two or three strokes on both sides of the blade then a quick strop and we're done.
 
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