What Did You Sharpen Today?

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The angles look off on the xm 18 but it's just the thickness behind the edge.

The rex 45 is really dissapointing. It'll probably take several goes to get the bevel even. Is there such a thing as a spyderco with a perfect grind?
 
This Miyabi Aristocrat 7" santuko gets used with enthusiasm!

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I regularly hone it with a 14" Messermeister ceramic rod, and I don't think it has needed to see a stone in six, nine, twelve months? We had reduced the edge from razor sharp to very sharp, so I broke out a hard Arkansas stone and a leather strop loaded with Herold-Solingen red crayon. Lubed with water and a few drops of lanolin, the blade only got 5-10 strokes per side before it was cutting liked a scalded ape. Three or four passes per side on the strop, and it went back in the block.

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Fast forward a few weeks, and my Sharp PT50A BESS tester showed up. I read the quick start guide, and tested a few pocketknives. 160-190. They were all sharpened on the Wicked Edge, with a lot of grits, so no surprise there.

I tested a 1095 ESEE-4 that I had used to dig out roots in the garden, and it scored 294. Not bad for soft steel that had taken some serious abuse. Maybe I just hit the right spot on the edge! Another 1095 ESEE-3 that hadn't been used to dig holes scored 190. The ESEE's were sharpened freehand on a hard Ark, with no further refinement.

A Kizer with the factory edge scored a respectable 170.

I decided to test the santuko, even though it had been used since the last sharpening, and I wasn't sure how much. I know that knife is a laser in the kitchen, possibly the sharpest knife I own.

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Freehand, on a used eBay hard Ark, with a light stropping. I wasn't sure how much of that score was due to my inexperience with the instrument, so I tried again, and scored a 93.

I have learned a few things over here:

1. The PT50A is more fun than a pie fight. Quick to set up and not difficult or expensive to operate. I think this device will help me figure out problem edges and greatly refine my technique and choice of grit progressions and sharpening tools.

2. The hours I spent practicing my freehand technique were well spent! The santuko is approaching true razor sharpness with no guides, and a very modest pair of tools. The stone was lovingly re-surfaced when I got it from eBay, and it was looking at steel that Miyabi rates at 66-67HRC, but it got that fine edge back to freakishly sharp in minutes.

Next time I find a dull edge, I will start testing after each grit, which I understand can be very telling. I recently read a post where a fellow stated that his scores peaked in the middle of his progression, and started to get less sharp with succeeding polish stages. That right there is good to know, and worth the price of the PT50!

Yes, I highly recommend the PT50A, Miyabi Aristocrats, and a flat hard Arkansas stone. That stone won't sharpen everything, but it works great on many blades!
 
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Spartan blades kranos. This one took awhile to the point I pulled out the stone flattening kit and resurfaced some stones. I'm guessing it was at 25dps from the factory. Its 21-17 now. If it's stable I'll go lower, and hopefully clean up the slight recurve I gave it...
 
Khromo said:
1. The PT50A is more fun than a pie fight. Quick to set up and not difficult or expensive to operate. I think this device will help me figure out problem edges and greatly refine my technique and choice of grit progressions and sharpening tools.
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Next time I find a dull edge, I will start testing after each grit, which I understand can be very telling. I recently read a post where a fellow stated that his scores peaked in the middle of his progression, and started to get less sharp with succeeding polish stages. That right there is good to know, and worth the price of the PT50!
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Yes, I have had an Edge-On-Up PT50A for a couple years and I love it. First thing I do when I get a new knife is test at least five spots along the blade. There are some surprises.

If you test after each grit--which I sometimes do--you will need to be careful about burrs. When the BESS score goes up, I find that is usually because of a burr, and a little stropping takes the score back down to something reasonable.

I have a new Work Sharp Pro Precision Adjust. Today I sharpened a mushroomed custom knife with AEB-L. A few extra passes on the coarse stone took care of the mushroom. Ended up with BESS scores in the 100-150 range, which is what I like. I also did some light reprofiling on a Cold Steel Ultimate Hunter with S35VN. That took about half an hour. I think my TSProf Kadet would have been faster. But the Work Sharp is very simple to set up, and works well if you just follow the directions.
 
Finally got around to reprofiling my 15V Mule. Unfortunately it came with a pretty sizeable burr so needed sharpening before use. I'm on nights so it was a bit of a quick job, still turned out decent enough for about 25 minutes. 140 grit Atoma for the rough work, then 400 grit super vitrified diamond stones to clean up the nasty scratch pattern from the Atoma and raise a burr. 1000 grit super vitrified diamond to finish deburring and set the microbevel. Finished on a strop with 1 micron diamond.

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Wandering_About said:
Finally got around to reprofiling my 15V Mule. Unfortunately it came with a pretty sizeable burr so needed sharpening before use. I'm on nights so it was a bit of a quick job, still turned out decent enough for about 25 minutes. 140 grit Atoma for the rough work, then 400 grit super vitrified diamond stones to clean up the nasty scratch pattern from the Atoma and raise a burr. 1000 grit super vitrified diamond to finish deburring and set the microbevel. Finished on a strop with 1 micron diamond.

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Nice work. :thumbsup:
 
Finally got around to reprofiling this MagnaCut Insingo bladed Sebenza. It came with a pretty good edge so I wasn't in a rush to put it to the stones, but since we're in a hot week sharpening a knife seemed like a good way to use up some time indoors in air conditioning. 140 grit Atoma, then 400 and 1000 grit super vitrified diamond stones, then strop with 1 micron diamond, all done freehand. I haven't been going quite as silly thin lately, not for any really big reason. It does definitely take less time though.

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Resharpened all kitchen knives ~70 degrees. The wife cut her finger and asked to sharpen it so that they cut the food, but do not cut it. And all due to the fact that she pulled her hand behind a knife standing in a stand with other knives and accidentally hit her finger on a nearby knife. It cut to the bone and cut the nerve, now the front pad of the finger does not feel anything. It can take about 5-10 years to restore sensitivity, she is a pianist and this upset her very much.
 
My son visited last night and we bbq'd ribeyes. He carries an old CRKT M16 and does not know how to sharpen a knife. The blade was incapable of cutting and the bevel had been convexed from past sharpening attempts by him. So he left the knife with me and this morning I began with my Norton 220 and re-beveled the blade from the ground up. I next went to a 1000 stone, and finished on my 3000. The edge polished well and the blade now rates a 6 out of 10 for sharpness, with a 5 as average. I was not entirely thrilled with that, but it does cut paper. My Sharpening Supplies.com 3000 stone has impressed me based on 3 knives that I have sharpened with it. For some reason, however, the M16 did not respond as well. Even so, as mentioned, it does cut paper, so it will do just fine in the field. My son is an electrical engineer and uses his knife somewhat frequently on the various projects he is always carrying on at his home and property. It was fun this morning, and I love to sharpen knives!!

Some pics:
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The knives are an ESEE-4 in 1095 and a Ka-Bar Short Drop Point in 1095 Cro-Van. The ESEE has seen heavy, deliberate abuse. It has been used to cut palms and dig roots out of compacted, rocky soil, getting that ugly grinding sound when the edge hits stone. The Ka-Bar has not been used for much beyond cardboard, yet, but it will be used a lot, although not for stupid, inappropriate gardening tasks!

The paint on these blades is really thick, making the thickness behind the bevel way too thick, half of it paint! I ground the shoulder down considerably. I used 220 and then 320 grit self adhesive paper on a flat purpleheart block. I didn't want to clog a fine natural stone with paint! I kept the spine just off the paper and gave the area behind the bevel some considerable relief.

The paint on both blades was impressively tough! The ESEE has had a hard life and it has never shown any oxidation.

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Since we are talking about old school steel for hard use, I stuck with old school tools to sharpen and strop. I used a hard Arkansas stone, followed by red Harold-Solingen crayon on smooth leather. I sharpened the Ka-Bar down to an average BESS score of 161, and then stropped it down to 133. I got the the ESEE down to 135. While I would normally continue polishing way beyond the point of diminishing returns, that would be putting lipstick on a pig.

The Ark and the HS strop took care of business in 10 or less strokes per side, although both blades were still fairly sharp before I sat down. 20 degrees per side. I toyed with the idea of adding a black Ark stage, but the hard Ark felt like glass, so I decided not to waste time with any further polishing!

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These knives are good tools for a guy who likes to sharpen! They take a fine edge that doesn't last long, but it is remarkable how easy they are to sharpen. The bright venom green paint on the ESEE holds up very well and it protects against rust well. I have grown to really appreciate the green and orange colors, which make it easy to find after putting it down.

A hard Arkansas stone can produce a very fine edge on cooperative steel. Using different pressure can get different results, more or less coarse. This one has never seen oil, just water with dish liquid or lanolin. I keep it flat with an Atoma 140. Some steels will just glide over the surface, but it will perform lighter duty on some pretty tough steels. The HS strop is another reliable performer. It knocks as much as 50 grams off a BESS score in my limited experience.
 
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Today I sharpened a coworker’s kitchen knife. Her brother in law has some sort of „sharpening machine“ and has to sharpen another knife for her. So now it’s a contest between freehand and (probably cheap) pull through sharpener.

I used vitrified diamond stones in 400, 1000 and 3000 grit. After that 4-6 micron diamond on leather and 1 micron diamond on leather. No idea what kind of steel it is but it turned out well. The knife was basically blunt before. Looking forward to her reaction.
 
I got a Spyderco UKPK in S110V recently. I used the same setup as above. Vitrified Diamond stones in 400, 1000 and 3000. After that leather strops with 4-6 micron diamond and 1 micron diamond. It's my first knife in S110V but I have a couple others in S90V and M390/20CV. Don't really notice any difference in sharpening. The edge turned out nicely.
I have to be more deliberate with the heel of the blade... I prefer knives with a sharpening choil. The heel portion is sharp but doesn't look as nice as the rest of the edge.

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I repair musical instruments, so I always have one of these small files within lunging distance. The safe edges are very useful!

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I got in the habit of using one of these to rough-in the heel on blades with no choil. I can get a very crisp edge where the blade meets the ricasso with a few strokes, then blend it into the rest of the blade with whatever stone I am using. It is pretty quick and leaves a neat, effective heel.

The files are pretty well screwed for fine instrument work after this, though!

Those are some inspirational BESS scores, LR! As a newbie to sharpening, I would be interested if you ever tested the edges between stages, as you work through your progression.
 
Khromo said:
I repair musical instruments, so I always have one of these small files within lunging distance. The safe edges are very useful!

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I got in the habit of using one of these to rough-in the heel on blades with no choil. I can get a very crisp edge where the blade meets the ricasso with a few strokes, then blend it into the rest of the blade with whatever stone I am using. It is pretty quick and leaves a neat, effective heel.

The files are pretty well screwed for fine instrument work after this, though!

Those are some inspirational BESS scores, LR! As a newbie to sharpening, I would be interested if you ever tested the edges between stages, as you work through your progression.
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That looks like a pretty cool idea!

Thank you! I’m constantly chasing the sub 100 BESS scores. For me sub 150 is no problem on normal sized folders, but sub 100 is still not happening as reliably as I’d like.

I usually try to remove the burr as well as I can before I go to the strops. Never tested the edge straight from the stone but might do that next time. I usually do my first test after stropping with 4-6 micron diamond or the black Bark River compound. If it’s below 150-170 after that, then I can usually achieve scores around 100 after some additional stropping with finer grits.
 
LR, those fat spots next to the ricasso also prevent the stone from lying flat against the blade until the stone is completely clear of the fat area. That bugs me, as I think it costs sharpness and straightness for about the first 1/4" of the blade. I use the steel files with the safe edge to rough in the fat area, and I finish it with hard Arkansas files I get from a gunsmith's supply shop. Once I get the problem area level and square with the rest of the edge, it can be maintained for a long time with your typical bench stone.

I look forward to your detailed posts. My scores are about 50 grams higher than yours, and I'm getting useable tips from you!

It looks like I may have been neglecting the stropping process, using one stage of a less-aggressive compound. I think I will try a few more stropping stages and see if that starts getting me below 150 consistently.
 
Khromo said:
LR, those fat spots next to the ricasso also prevent the stone from lying flat against the blade until the stone is completely clear of the fat area. That bugs me, as I think it costs sharpness and straightness for about the first 1/4" of the blade. I use the steel files with the safe edge to rough in the fat area, and I finish it with hard Arkansas files I get from a gunsmith's supply shop. Once I get the problem area level and square with the rest of the edge, it can be maintained for a long time with your typical bench stone.

I look forward to your detailed posts. My scores are about 50 grams higher than yours, and I'm getting useable tips from you!

It looks like I may have been neglecting the stropping process, using one stage of a less-aggressive compound. I think I will try a few more stropping stages and see if that starts getting me below 150 consistently.
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Yes, I try to adjust the angle and/or use just a small corner of the stone for that portion but that's not really effective. I also don't have that much patience... Using a file like you do is probably the better idea. With one Delica I actually added a sharpening choil but I didn't like the look of it.

I tried going from stones straight to a fine strop (1 micron diamond or white compound) a couple of times but didn't get the desired results. So now I always use a coarser compound first and then a fine compound. Overstropping and rounding off the edge is a thing though, especially when I get too sloppy with the angle.
I have one very fine 0.25micron strop that I rarely use. For whatever reason most of the time I go from 1 micron down to 0.25 micron I somehow get a duller edge. Haven't quite figured out what happens there.
 
Letoff said:
Person: Hey I heard you sharpen knives for $xx, I seen Joe's knife, I want mine like that.
(Joe had a $250 knife that was pocket candy, never seen work it's life)

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Oh my goodness, looks like Joe's buddy cut into a live wire with that Kershaw of his! 😂

That took some re-profiling, must have been awesome to do it on your TSProf K03.👌🏻
 
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