Trouble sharpening Chinese D2..

Corton93

Corton93

Joined
Mar 17, 2020
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Long story short, currently sitting here with the KME sharpening a knife for my next door neighbor. He likes knives but isn't really a knife guy. Don't know the knife's model # but it is an Eafengrow copy of a Shiro. Says he ordered it off Amazon.

Blade is marked D2. For his use he chose for me to sharpen at 20° per side. Blade was already roughly around 20 degrees from the factory so not much stock removal needed. So I started with my 140 grit stone but quickly changed to my 100 grit, and I've been sitting here sharpening with that 100 grit stone for almost 45 minutes and am just now starting to form a burr (stones are still almost new). For me, it feels very similar to sharpening something like S90V lol.

I know it's a crap shoot whether or not it is actually D2, but I can't imagine it would be anything much harder than that, if anything I would think it would probably be something softer. Also wouldn't think the HRC would be that high.

It's SLOWLY getting there but it is starting to take an edge. Anyone have any ideas or similar experience?
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I've got nothing, sorry. I have the same KME, and looks like you're using the diamond stones. My 140 chews through everything with a quickness. Monofletch called it, haha.
 
My guess is that you are reprofiling the edge and not just resharpening. From the photo it appears that you're still a mm or so away from the apex, but hard to tell from that photo.

Did you Sharpie the edge to set the angle, or just make a guess?
 
prolly was there before, anyway i am noticing a recurve you know where

my kitchen knives all got recurves you know where. happens when you doht sharpen on a wide flat stohn but with a narrow one.
 
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Just finished.. The off side in the photo hadn't been touched by me at that point, i had just flipped it, that was from previous sharpening i guess. Sharpied and angle cubed it from the start, was right around 20 give or take a half degree.

Even if there was some slight reprofiling by a degree or two, I spent almost 2 hours just running a 100 grit stone. In that same time I could have completely reprofiled S30V by 5 degrees lol

And yes, ever so slightest bit of recurve. Didn't help to speed up the process. Just took it up to 600 grit and then stopping. My back just can't handle sitting here on this one knife any more 😂
 
A Chinese clone marked D2? Like you said, it could be made of anything. Specifically anything less than D2. And with no guarantee of a decent heat treat.

I'm not bashing Chinese made knives, just pointing out the very questionable metallurgy of Chinese clones, and the integrity of those who produce them and decide what to print on the blades.

I have two knives with D2 blades, one is a semi-custom made in the US (bought back around 2004), the other is Italian. I've never had any difficulty putting a shaving-sharp edge on either. This is not a boast of my sharpening skill, I'm saying that I've never found D2 from a reliable knife maker to be hard to sharpen.
 
Is the stone a course GS-100? Has it been broken in yet? I have seen new stones sometimes skate across until the tops of the diamond ridges are smoothed out a bit.
 
Some steels can be very bad about clogging diamond hones - especially stainless or others with significant chromium content (D2 is near-stainless). I used to notice that effect with stainless blades on the Lansky set I used to use. More so on the coarser diamond hones. The steel gets cut in ribbon-like shavings that cling tenaciously to the diamond grit, which takes a lot of scrubbing to get it clean again. If the hone starts clogging, the grinding process becomes exponentially slower. All the friction is against the steel swarf on top of the diamond and it becomes very slick-feeling and just skates with little or no real abrasion.

With steels prone to this clogging effect, a hone lubricated with oil is your friend, to keep the swarf from clinging to the diamond.
 
I remember Luvthemknives giving an nickname to the Eafengrow's he had analyzed for steel type because it was not often what was called out... their D2 usually much higher chromium along lines of 8cr, 16 percent-ish or higher.
Just came off KME 140 and 300 grit's, creating edge on never before sharpened, measured 61RC, Magnacut. Never applied more then thumb pressure on stone holder. Have high degree of confidence in 140 grit stone's ability. I do have a 100 grit for special projects requiring manually removing steel...
Clogging or skating, maybe... to my eye, edge pic you posted shows burr is not getting to apex near stone, though near hilt burr is prominent. What's edge look like now? KME 600 is 30 micron which is certainly serviceable.
 
scottc3 said:
I remember Luvthemknives giving an nickname to the Eafengrow's he had analyzed for steel type because it was not often what was called out... their D2 usually much higher chromium along lines of 8cr, 16 percent-ish or higher.
Just came off KME 140 and 300 grit's, creating edge on never before sharpened, measured 61RC, Magnacut. Never applied more then thumb pressure on stone holder. Have high degree of confidence in 140 grit stone's ability. I do have a 100 grit for special projects requiring manually removing steel...
Clogging or skating, maybe... to my eye, edge pic you posted shows burr is not getting to apex near stone, though near hilt burr is prominent. What's edge look like now? KME 600 is 30 micron which is certainly serviceable.
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I finally got it done. Idk, but I've sharpened 100's of knives on my KME. Never had one fight me like this, including Rex 121. Cleaned the 100 and 140 stones out 3 or 4 times throughout the sharpening in case of clogging, though they were never actually clogged. Neighbor came back and asked if I could make it "shiny",.. so I went back and took it up to .5 micron 🤦‍♂️

So who knows, ended up turning out nice. But if he ever asks me to sharpen it again it's just gonna get run through the Worksharp lmao.
 
Have picked up a few Chinese folders recently. Civivi, Two Sun, Ruike - just wanted to see how they stack up for the price compared to the better quality cutlery that I have.
The steel used is either D2 or 14C28N.
What I have noticed is the steel is actually very good and they are well put together at the price point.
However - All had really bad uneven primary grinds.
As they were all purchased for evaluation, beaters and give-ways, they all went on my course stones ( Shapton Pro 220 ) or course diamond plates to thin down the primary bevel - I hand sharpened, don't use a guided system, so I can really put some downward pressure on the grind for quick removal.
This was a pretty quick and painless job - 5 minutes per side. From here, it was business as usual putting a 20 degree per side final edge and reasonably impressed how they are holding up with edge retention.
 
Stockman said:
Have picked up a few Chinese folders recently. Civivi, Two Sun, Ruike - just wanted to see how they stack up for the price compared to the better quality cutlery that I have.
The steel used is either D2 or 14C28N.
What I have noticed is the steel is actually very good and they are well put together at the price point.
However - All had really bad uneven primary grinds.
As they were all purchased for evaluation, beaters and give-ways, they all went on my course stones ( Shapton Pro 220 ) or course diamond plates to thin down the primary bevel - I hand sharpened, don't use a guided system, so I can really put some downward pressure on the grind for quick removal.
This was a pretty quick and painless job - 5 minutes per side. From here, it was business as usual putting a 20 degree per side final edge and reasonably impressed how they are holding up with edge retention.
Click to expand...
I've also been impressed by them, especially 14c28n. I picked up one of the Ruike P801's off Amazon for like 25 bucks last year. It's hard to beat for the price.
 
Ruike P801 - lots to like with this one, very functional EDC - without being insulting, its like a Sabenza that you can thrash, abuse and loose without any tears. Just how I like my beaters.
 
Exactly why I bought it. My large Inkosi needed a break but I wanted to keep a similar profile lol. It's a little slick in hand, but thats my only complaint, was thinking about sand blasting it eventually for a little more grip..
 
Corton93 said:
I've also been impressed by them, especially 14c28n. I picked up one of the Ruike P801's off Amazon for like 25 bucks last year. It's hard to beat for the price.
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I don't know if I got a bad example or what, but the one Ruike I have -- in 14c28n -- is about the softest EDC blade I've ever experienced. Just melts on the stone. If I had to guess ... 55 hrc.

Budget specials I really like:
Civivi Conspirator in Nitro-V. Good grind. .0125" bte. Takes a very sharp edge and strops back beautifully.
Kizer Mini Roach in 154cm. Deep hollow grind, coming down to .0095" bte! Very comfortable for a smallish knife, too.
 
3D Anvil said:
Just melts on the stone. If I had to guess ... 55 hrc.
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I've have experienced this occasionally. If you haven't already tried, grab your coarsest stone, I use a SP 220 and completely regrind and re profile the edge, remove plenty of steel.
Quite often, they are poorly mechanically ground and I believe too much heat has created the effect of reducing the HRC at the edge.
Nearly always, the new edge performs much better and doesn't feel like rubber.
 
Stockman said:
I've have experienced this occasionally. If you haven't already tried, grab your coarsest stone, I use a SP 220 and completely regrind and re profile the edge, remove plenty of steel.
Quite often, they are poorly mechanically ground and I believe too much heat has created the effect of reducing the HRC at the edge.
Nearly always, the new edge performs much better and doesn't feel like rubber.
Click to expand...
I know what you mean, but that's not the case with this knife, which I specifically bought to use for free-hand sharpening practice. It's probably been sharpened 20 times.
 
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