Well this just sucks....

G

godogs57

Joined
Apr 16, 2004
Messages
795
Took an order last year from a pretty famous outdoors writer...trout and bird Damascus with exhibition grade desert ironwood. I was to present it to him this weekend in person. It turned out gorgeous! Finished the sheath this evening...all is set. The first time this has happened to me:




The damn thing will NOT sharpen! I have never ever had this happen before in 19 years. Damascus always sharpens pretty easily for me....The serrated edge just pops the hair on my arm after a few strokes on the sharpening steel....not this time. The ht and temper was fine, file tested fine.....I dunno...she just plain won't take a shaving edge no matter what angle I use.

Pretty much screws up my weekend + all the $$ I have invested in the Damascus, $50 chunk of ironwood...the time.....

Damn.
 
try stropping it a bunch - you may have a hair fine wire edge that just needs to be stropped off.
 
An edge can be put on almost any piece of steel, eventually. What is the edge doing? Look at it with a magnifier. Is it so hard it's chipping out on the stone? Is there a big wire edge hanging on? Is the steel so abrasion resistant it's not sharpening quickly with your regular equipment? You may need different stones to get an edge depending on what's happening with the steel
 
I initially put a 20 degree edge on my blades and then finish up with a fine diamond stick...it that does not work (1 out of about every 25 knives or so) then I will try 17 degrees and that will sharpen things up. The Damascus, obviously because of it's structure, always gives me a nice serrated edge but not this one. After the sharpening failed, I even tried a Warthog sharpener to no avail.

I am aware of having to re-establish the edge after you change angles so the edge does not roll, only sharpening the bevel by mistake, etc....After I set the initial bevel on the flat platen, I always run the blade across my fingers to see if the edge "grabs skin"...if it does, I know I've got it right and only have to hit it with the diamond stick. It is the first knife in 19 years that has failed to do this for me.

It just flat does not cut! No wire edge hanging on...no rolled edge...I am dumbfounded. I even went back and asked myself "alright dummy....you DID heat treat this blade didn't you??? " ...I did.

Alabama Damascus was the steel of choice and I have never ever had a problem with their product.
 
Without looking at the edge under a magnifier it's hard to know for sure what the problem is, so this is just a guess... You have mentioned a sharpening steel or diamond rod as the last step. Both would have a very small contact area with the edge and if the steel is very hard could cause the edge to chip with even light pressure. Try sharpening again and finishing on a leather strop.
 
Chances are pretty good that you ruined the edge temper on the grinder. Roman Landes measured the temperature of the metal right at the edge just drawing a blade across a dry sharpening stone, and the first couple of microns of steel was over 1000 degrees f, think about how much energy you are generating with a dry belt, it doesn't have to penetrate very far to destroy your first couple attempts at sharpening. Work it by hand on a diamond stone or wet/dry sandpaper wetted with water and a little dish soap and you might be able to work down to steel you haven't ruined

-Page
 
I've always started my bevels on the flat platen....everyone I know does it the same way. How do you do it? That is a serious question, not a smart alec question, as I'd be there all day otherwise. Thanks for everyone's help...
 
Since shortly after Roman's presentation at Ashokan I have established my edge bevels by hand on a DMT extra coarse diamond plate with water/dishsoap for cooling the point of abrasion. I have noticed a difference in the edgeholding and edgetaking between establishing the edge bevel on the platen dipping constantly in water and effectively cutting the edge bevel in a waterbath. Yes it takes bloody forever, especially on my CPM 154 knives, but even the CPM154 I was in a hurry on one so I went back to the platen, and that one is noticeably softer at the edge than the ones I did by hand. I am going to make myself a wetted surface diamond grinder at some point for setting edge bevels to speed up the process

-Page
 
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