Waterstones.

[65535]

It might just be my angle is too steep but I can't get a worth a damn edge on my new Norton 1000/8000 waterstone. It removes steel well, I can see how much it smoothed my old lines from the DMT last time I sharpened. Got it up to 8000 polished knife thought I had brought up the burr, but after some treatment on the 8000 side it was pretty dull, so stropped it a bit, now it's got what feels like an excellent edge (in terms of it's sharp but I won't chip of the apex of the edge touching metal or something).

Anyways I'll try it after my finger heals. I have found you CAN'T get a decent edge by sharpening your left middle finger. I also found out a 1000 grit waterstone has a sharp grit, and will in fact slice into flesh very well, way more flesh cutting power than any diamond stone I own.

Am I doing something wrong or are my angles so bad I will be sharpening away a lot before they smooth down? I have horrible angle consistancy on the DMT's but much better on the water stone, also it's very hard NOT to cut into the stone, how do you get around that? Less pressure I would assume it's an art these water stones.

BTW steel is S30V.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Sharpen by pulling the edge AWAY from the waterstone, not into it.

 

[Roger999]

When I'm sharpening edge first, I try to make sure that I'm sharpening at the previous angle and using little pressure(but I use alot of pressure on a low grit waterstone), if you sharpen at a higher angle, it gouges into the waterstone. As Bill said, pulling the edge away also works well to prevent gouging into the stone, but I find it takes a little longer to polish the edge, and I'm super lazy lol.

 

[thombrogan]

The Norton 8,000 is an interesting beast. It quickly adds a mirrory polish to most steels, but takes a lot of skill to use without gouging and without 'needing' a finishing step after its use (such as a strop). Luckily, getting a good finishing edge and avoiding gouging the stone are solved simultaneously.

You can still do edge-leading passes, but you'll need to be more deliberate in your movement.

What I do on the Norton 8,000 grit waterstone is flatten it before use, sharpen in sections as though raising a burr, and then do a descending series of edge-trailing passes ending with a few alternating edge-trailing passes to deburr and polish. When paying attention and not 'going through the motions,' the edge is quite sharp. Otherwise, off to a strop it goes.

 

[Jason B.]

I have a similar problem with my waterstones, after the 8000 stone the edge is sharp but with hard steels like CPM-D2 it almost feels rounded over. I keep going back to my spyderco UF ceramic it seems to polish better and have a sharper finished edge, I don't have as much of a problem with softer steels and carbon steels on the waterstones though.

Am I doing something wrong or is the steel to hard for the stone?

 

[65535]

Forgot to mention I'm sharpening an S30V Strider SnG.

 

[thombrogan]

Am I doing something wrong or is the steel to hard for the stone?

Which sort of waterstone are you using? The latest breed of waterstones (Shapton's "Pro" and "Glasstone" series and Naniwa's Super Stones and Chosera stones) are built to handle almost everything.

Forgot to mention I'm sharpening an S30V Strider SnG.

It'll take a few more passes than I use to get hairwhittling edges with VG-10, but it'll still sharpen on the Norton 8,000 grit waterstone.

 

[Jason B.]

King waterstones.

 

[thombrogan]

Oh dear. The King 8,000 is one of my favorite waterstones, but it's also so very slow. The only powdered steel I've had it work on (without watching paint dry while sharpening) is very thinly ground SG-2. That stone works wonders on finer-grained steels, though.

 

[Jason B.]

Your spot on with that, my 52100 mule gets stupid sharp right off the 8000 but it seems like anything with a CPM in its name gets rounded. I picked up a set of waterstones for doing my scandi ground blades because nothing else seemed to keep a stright grind. I still like my diamond and ceramic's for the hard stuff but using a waterstone gives you that historical feel.

 

[thombrogan]

That's why I use Shapton Glasstones. They're made for woodworking tools using A2 and D2 and CPM-S30V is easier to sharpen than regular D2, so anything easier to sharpen than S30V is gravy on them. Some high-end abrasives closely graded and stuffed in a resin binder. I think wet/dry paper cuts a little faster sometimes, but it dies faster, too.

 

[gunmike1]

That's why I use Shapton Glasstones. They're made for woodworking tools using A2 and D2 and CPM-S30V is easier to sharpen than regular D2, so anything easier to sharpen than S30V is gravy on them. Some high-end abrasives closely graded and stuffed in a resin binder. I think wet/dry paper cuts a little faster sometimes, but it dies faster, too.

I have to agree with Thom, the Glasstones have sharpened everything I have tried. For me the Norton 1k/8k was ok but gouge prone, much more prone to dishing and slower cutting than the Glasstones.

Mike

 

[matt321]

I can use edge leading strokes on my waterstones if I'm careful with the angle. I've been trying to improve my angle holding accuracy by using a few strategies suggested by others:

1. Watch the action of the water at the bevel edge. At the beginning of each stroke raise the bevel until the water squirts out from under the edge. (This is difficult but works well if you have just the right amount of water on the surface.)

2. If you start with very flat bevels and pay attention, you can feel when the bevel is flat to the stone and when it is not. It feel very slick when the angle is correct and coarse otherwise.

3. Focus on the height of the spine above the stone and keep it constant.

Anyone have any other ideas?