Touching up Buck's 420 HC?

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pinnah

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Jul 28, 2011
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For the first time, I have a Buck knife in my EDC rotation. All of my other EDC knives are 1095 and after a bit of use, I can return them to hair popping sharp with my strop.

Not so with my Buck 500. While it holds a good working edge, it loses it's shaving edge after a but rather like 1095. But, it doesn't seem to respond to a strop.

I use a Lansky system for sharpening and can revive the blade by getting that out, but that's a lot of work to just touch up a blade.

So, how do you touch up your Buck blades?
 
pinnah said:
For the first time, I have a Buck knife in my EDC rotation. All of my other EDC knives are 1095 and after a bit of use, I can return them to hair popping sharp with my strop.

Not so with my Buck 500. While it holds a good working edge, it loses it's shaving edge after a but rather like 1095. But, it doesn't seem to respond to a strop.

I use a Lansky system for sharpening and can revive the blade by getting that out, but that's a lot of work to just touch up a blade.

So, how do you touch up your Buck blades?
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I use a Spyderco Sharpmaker and it works for me just fine on all the blades as long as I don't let them get really dull. I have the set of diamond sticks for it, but haven't had to use them yet on a Buck.
 
I use Norton aluminum oxide oilstones... A few quick strokes on my fine stone and they are shaving sharp again...
 
A DMT fine/extra fine Diafold, a Buck washita stone, or a coffee cup does the trick for me.
Then I can get it poppin' with a strop.
 
I use fine sandpaper and a mouse pad ,a few passes on each side of the blade,just to set the edge and then stropping on a leather strop with compound,sometimes a sharpmaker as i like this sharpener,also a diamond stone and coffee cup bottom like others mentioned.All work great for maintaining your buck.
 
I also use a Sharpmaker. Depending on the day and how I used my knife, a few strokes on the necessary rods/sticks and I'm good to go.
 
Shaving edge is usually temporary......at least with most steels I've seen.

Isn't there a bit of a "snob factor" in all the talk about shaving edges?

A shaving edge will be gone fast on most normal knives. What we should be concerned about is a good sharp working edge that lasts as long as possible.

Then we sharpen it again.

Buck's 420HC will hold a good working edge for a good long time.

Then we sharpen it again.

:)
 
I dunno confederate,i've feild dressed 5 whitetail deer,and skinned and de-boned them all with the factory edge on my s30v cabelas A.G vanguard,it came with a kind of toothy edge,and it will shave hair right now and it hasn't been touched up.And thasts the s30v youy said was inferior,LOL
 
I agree once again with BG42 in that the "Hair popping/shaving sharp" isn't what most people want. What we really should really be striving for is that good working edge on our knives, that lasts long enough to get us through what we need to do, and hopefully several times over. If you think about it grinding your knife down to a razors edge will usually ruin the factory bevel on the knife. At the very least it will thin out the edge faster and reduce the life of your knife. On my working knives I like them a bit toothy, like from a medium stone. They seem to cut right through whatever I put in front of it. I don't want a razor I want a knife that works like a knife.
 
I don't let mine get dull enough that they no longer slice paper. So, I use a smooth ceramic stick, then strop with medium pressure on a loaded leather belt, then strop very lightly on 3000-grit sandpaper. If I get a used Buck or have used mine hard and it won't slice paper, I do the same, except I add a coarse or medium (depending on how dull it is) Smith's diamond paddle. If I want to reprofile, some sandpaper is in order.
 
BG42EDGE said:
Shaving edge is usually temporary......at least with most steels I've seen.

Isn't there a bit of a "snob factor" in all the talk about shaving edges?

A shaving edge will be gone fast on most normal knives. What we should be concerned about is a good sharp working edge that lasts as long as possible.
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Why the thread hijack? Had I been interested in a discussion of the relative merits of a working edge vs a shaving edge, I would have asked about that. It's an interesting discussion, but it's a different discussion. If it's a topic that interests you, perhaps you could start your own thread?

As for your "snob factor", that flat out pegs my Iron-O-Meter seeings how this is a collector's forum. My preference is to avoid the use of universal royal "we"s as in, "What we should be concerned about..." I'm happy to let you be concerned about what you want to be concerned about. I'm concerned about the best way to maintain a shaving edge on some of my Bucks. I hope you don't mind if I pursue that interest independent of your opinions on the merits of that (which I didn't ask for).
 
mbjannusch said:
If you think about it grinding your knife down to a razors edge will usually ruin the factory bevel on the knife. At the very least it will thin out the edge faster and reduce the life of your knife.
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My experience with 1095 is that you can have your razor edge cake and have your working edge too. Use of a strop generally returns my 1095 blades to shaving sharp so long as I tend to them before they get really abused. And, if my understanding of how a strop is correct, it doesn't "grind down" the blade in any way - more pushes it back into shape.

Actually, I share your concern concern about prematurely wearing a blade out by over-sharpening. In fact, that is precisely why I started this thread. I'm wondering if Buck's 420HC can be pushed back to shaving sharp without resorting to using a stone.
 
Well, when that "shaving sharp" edge is gone, it has worn to the point where you should have a good working edge.

As I said, this is a normal progression. It's the way things work.

Why would you keep pushing it back to "shaving sharp" anyway?

You're not using it to shave, I hope.

Wait until it is no longer working well for you and then resharpen with a good diamond stone.
 
Pinnah,

I know your OP was questioning the methods to revive your knives edge after they loose the hair popping quality, It's not uncommon for threads to morph a bit. In saying that, I think you may have been a bit harsh in post #11. Somethings don't always translate from mouth to a readable text. I'm sure BG didn't mean to ruffle any feathers nor hijack your thread. Enough about that. I was under the impression that a strop was used to remove burs left by the sharpening device. Like using it prior to shaving it would remove the burs and reduce razor burn. I guess it could roll the edge back into place but considering that the steel would be thin and brittle gives me the idea that it would just break off. I cant see your theory working more than once. In which case you would have to use a sharpening system of some sort.
 
Sandpaper and mousepad or strop or some combination of the two most of the time. I keep my knives very sharp.
 
mbjannusch said:
Pinnah,

I know your OP was questioning the methods to revive your knives edge after they loose the hair popping quality, It's not uncommon for threads to morph a bit. In saying that, I think you may have been a bit harsh in post #11. Somethings don't always translate from mouth to a readable text. I'm sure BG didn't mean to ruffle any feathers nor hijack your thread. Enough about that. I was under the impression that a strop was used to remove burs left by the sharpening device. Like using it prior to shaving it would remove the burs and reduce razor burn. I guess it could roll the edge back into place but considering that the steel would be thin and brittle gives me the idea that it would just break off. I cant see your theory working more than once. In which case you would have to use a sharpening system of some sort.
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mbjannusch, thanks for your note. I share your valid concerns about tone in forums. As it turns out, I moderate several forums professionally and am one of several moderators in a hobbyist/collectors forum outside of work, so I'm very familiar with normal thread drift. I've been lurking and reading the Buck sub-forum for quite a bit - long enough to understand that a) BG42EDGE is quite intentional about ruffling feathers and b) I'm not the first person to note that. Was I being a bit harsh in my post? All I was doing was meeting BG42EDGE's tone in kind. There was no need for his intentionally inflammatory "snob factor" comment and my criticism of thread hijack was a not-too-subtle reference to his frequent use of that tactic in threads where he gets himself in trouble. About the only thing I didn't do in mimicking his style was place a smiley at the end of my post. That would have made everything alright, no? :)

Getting back on point... I sharpen my EDC knives at 20 degrees (and tough use knives at 25). I don't think 20 is considered super thin and it's certainly a long way away from a true razor blade. My understanding of sharpening theory and practice is that there are (at least) three issue: destructive sharpening which removes material, final polishing which removes burrs and honing which realigns the edge without removing material. The "theory" of honing is not mine, to be sure.

I guess I should have asked the question, "How do people hone their blades made from 420HC?"

Do you hone your 420HC blades after sharpening them and if so, what do you use?
 
Well,it seems you know plenty of ways to sharpen knives and seem knowledgeable on everything else,so if you have a problem getting ashaving edge on your 420 hc,something seems strange ,you should be able to ge that edge you want no problem .
 
Razorblades, as I noted in my first post, I typically use 1095 for my EDC knives and stropping has worked fine for touching up the blades. What I don't have is much experience with using and maintaining 420HC on a day in/day out basis. I'm finding that a strop alone is not enough, or at least, no where near as effective as it is with 1095 blades. My request for guidance on this was quite sincere.
 
Plumberdv said:
I use a Spyderco Sharpmaker and it works for me just fine on all the blades as long as I don't let them get really dull. I have the set of diamond sticks for it, but haven't had to use them yet on a Buck.
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Plumerdv and Badhammer, I've heard of the Sharpmaker but not familiar with it's use. Two questions....

1) Does it include rods that act as ceramic hones and not as (destructive) sharpening stones? I'm looking for something I can use while minimizing sharpening damage (as I do with stropping 1095).

2) Does it fixed the edge angle for you? My experience with the Lansky system as convinced me that I don't have time to get good enough free hand to put a good edge on. One reason I've steered clear of honing steels/rods is that my understanding (could be wrong on this) is that they are less tolerant of edge angle variations than strops are when used freehand.
 
RAZORBLADES said:
I use fine sandpaper and a mouse pad ,a few passes on each side of the blade,just to set the edge and then stropping on a leather strop with compound,sometimes a sharpmaker as i like this sharpener,also a diamond stone and coffee cup bottom like others mentioned.All work great for maintaining your buck.
Click to expand...

Razorblades, two questions...

1) Do you use the sandpaper/mousepad as a strop (pulling the blade back across the paper) or as a stone (pushing the blade across the paper).

2) When doing this, do you do it freehand or with an edge guide of some sort?

Thanks.
 
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