What Did You Sharpen Today?

Grasshopperglock said:
I have been putting off buying these. They sure would make it easier to touch up Spyderco. One clamp on the blade flat by the pivot isn't giving me the support I want. I want the blade solid. No having to feather touch it, or risking the blade moving in the clamp.

Freaking Russians sure are proud of their stuff. Ugh, $100. But I'd rather have the clamps then the hundred dollar bill. I'll get more out the clamps.


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Don't get all giddy over these. When I ordered my K03 from TSPROF I included these. Calibration is a so aggravating. There is no "minor adjustment" and being OCD didn't help either. I did get them calibrated to my standards but not close to perfect AT ALL ! I know it's not suppose to be perfect but come on man, give me some consistency.
 
Don't doubt the Blitz 360 sharpener.
Bought this Kendo couple years ago, sharpened it using the Blitz, carried it around a while but never used, it's a fun flicker. Friend had to have it one day so we did the deal.

He's used it for light work, brought it back to me and said it was not as sharp as it could be, would I sharpen it again.
15 min on some 3, 1 and .5 gunny, stropped it right back to ninja worthy.

Blitz did a good job on the transition.

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Letoff said:
Don't get all giddy over these. When I ordered my K03 from TSPROF I included these. Calibration is a so aggravating. There is no "minor adjustment" and being OCD didn't help either. I did get them calibrated to my standards but not close to perfect AT ALL ! I know it's not suppose to be perfect but come on man, give me some consistency.
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I'm tracking on what you're saying. It's a pain of a thing. I ordered the single spring clamp verses the double. Like that matters on adjustment. At least I can center the blade to where the stone will sharpen the heel. Without much marking up the transition from the flat to the bevel. The blades that are coated, you can see where the stones have rubbed the transition. If folks knew how much the coating can be a headache during a sharpening. It'd probably effect their purchase.

Trying to wash the grinding slurry off the coating is also not fun. The orange color is really a bear. Black, not so much. I haven't done a sand tan yet. It's a stand by the sink and serious scrub with a toothbrush to remove the slurry stain. Labor galore.

My only other option for Spyderco is taking the thing apart. Clamping the blade pivot surface. I need the blade solid.
 
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I wanna help you Spyderco guys. Where you need to position the knife in the clamp(s), relative to the stone. When I see the stone nicks. It's cringe.

Proper stone position for the blade heel. In line with the transition from the flat to bevel.



Not this,




Or this,





If the stone isn't in line with the transition. You're going to leave nick marks. Some people won't mind. Some people will freak out.
 
Today I decided to re-profile and sharpen this LionSteel Roundhead. The blade is M390, and the factory edge was an indifferent cutter, sharpened at a slightly inconsistent 25 degrees per side or so.

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I am not going to be using this knife hard, so I opted to re-profile to 17 degrees per side. I started by using the diamond Atoma 600, but found the progress too slow, so I regressed to an Atoma 400. The 400 stone got the edge re-profiled but the slow progress suggested that this steel is hard!

I continued through the Atoma 600 and 1,200 diamond stones. The steel acted as expected, moving slowly but smoothly against the sharp diamond stones. I used Krud Kutter for lubrication, and relied heavily on little plastic guides to keep my bevels crisp. This is clearly cheating, but I like to use a 20-40X magnifier, and a sloppy, kind-of-concave bevel kind of pisses me off! I will use the training wheels less and less as my technique improves. "A man's got to know his limitations."

The 1,200 stone got the BESS scores down to an average of 170. An excellent score for a pocket knife straight off the stones, but I am chasing double digits! I moved to 5 micron diamond stropping compound on leather and got to about 150, then stropped down to about 130 on the 3 micron strop. I then mentally prepared myself like the Indian fakirs who walk on hot coals, and broke out the 1 micron diamond-on-leather strop! Whoa! I am getting excited!

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I took multiple measurements and the average was exactly 100. The BESS system seems to favor a blade that has been well stropped.

The M390 responded well to the all-diamond progression. I think AO and SC, and even ceramics to some degree just polish the matrix around the carbides in steels like M390. They leave a brilliant shine, and a false impression that they are making the blade sharper. I am finding that softer polishing media don't bump BESS scores to any significant degree in high vanadium steels. The diamond tools cut effectively, at every stage in the progression.

I really like this knife. This blade is big enough to accomplish any task suitable for its size and weight. I haven't used it enough to judge its edge holding properties, but judging from its resistance to the Atoma diamond stones, its edge holding should be excellent. It takes a beautiful edge, and should easily hit double digits on the BESS with the right operator, or a guided system.
 
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What a day. Did two knifes. One a folder and the other a fixed.


As I'm going along on the fixed. I notice one side is taking a wider grind then the other side. I double check my clamps. Made sure the knife was centered. Made sure everything on the sharpener was tight. Everything checked out.

So I pulled the knife and took out my big magnifier glass. A Sherlock Holmes looking thing. Then I look straight down the blade from the tip in bright sunlight. There was my issue. The factory bevel on the blade is ever so slightly off (clip area). The wider grind towards the tip wasn't my fault. There's zero I can do about it. It's as, "perfect" as it's ever going to get. So this time, I can punch my OCD in it's face. Verses it punching me in the nads.
 
Sharpened my two Victorinox paring knives for the kitchen. Started on a 1000 JIS stone and finished on a Sharpening Supplies 3000 JIS. Inexpensive knives that get a lot of duty in the kitchen.
 
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Today I used this LionSteel Dom to cut up some very substantial cardboard boxes. These boxes were used to ship hi-fi equipment, and the folks who build that stuff know how to ship it safely. I had a great deaI of respect for these corrugated containers! I cut them small enough so they would pack efficiently in my dumpster, but also because I wanted to test this M390 blade. It measured about 131 grams on my BESS machine before I started, about 230 when I was done. It was still cutting, but it was no longer "show-off sharp", barely food sharp.

I used DMT Fine (25/600) and Extra Fine (9/1,200) diamond stones at about 17 degrees per side. Then I switched to 5- and 3.5 micron diamond polishing compound (DPC) on leather, 1 micron DPC on balsa wood, and plain rough side leather to clean any waxey residue off the edge before testing.. This got the edge down to an average of 137. It is now "show-off sharp" by my modest standards.

I am chasing freehand 100's. I can just barely get there with thin kitchen knives, but I am not sure which stage is holding me back when sharpening thicker pocketknife blades. It is not for lack of trying!

I must go find more cardboard, so I can dull this edge and continue my efforts.
 
I enjoy sharpening and I enjoy reading Y'all's methods. It's relaxing.


Recently I switched from the TSProf diamond plates to the Poltava GBN plates.


And Oh My Goodness. The feel. Where diamond feels scratchy. Getting them broke in. Having to deal with metal particle stuck in the grit. And unless the stone stays dry. That metal dust will rust. By sharpening on blades that will rust. GBN is so much more smooth. Easier to keep clean and I'm not seeing metal dust sticking to it. And talk about the GBN removing the metal..

I knew there was a reason these plates run a $100 bucks each. These things are the real deal.
 
Grasshopperglock said:
Recently I switched from the TSProf diamond plates to the Poltava GBN plates.

And Oh My Goodness. The feel. Where diamond feels scratchy. Getting them broke in. Having to deal with metal particle stuck in the grit. And unless the stone stays dry. That metal dust will rust. By sharpening on blades that will rust. GBN is so much more smooth. Easier to keep clean and I'm not seeing metal dust sticking to it. And talk about the GBN removing the metal..

I knew there was a reason these plates run a $100 bucks each. These things are the real deal.
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Yo Grasshopper. Congrats on the stones and thanks for the review. First thing you notice when one goes to investigate these stones is how many grits there are in a set, total of 11. A man could put a major dent in his wallet if he decides to use these bad boys.
Wanted to let you know, since these are new to you, I don't think you EVER lap these stones with silicon carbide of any kind, any lapping kit no matter what it says. Just wanted to warn you before you did it and had to throw away $100 for each stone you lapped. They should put a warning sticker, bright red, big letters telling you this. --> Wonder how I know this ?
 
Letoff said:
Yo Grasshopper. Congrats on the stones and thanks for the review. First thing you notice when one goes to investigate these stones is how many grits there are in a set, total of 11. A man could put a major dent in his wallet if he decides to use these bad boys.
Wanted to let you know, since these are new to you, I don't think you EVER lap these stones with silicon carbide of any kind, any lapping kit no matter what it says. Just wanted to warn you before you did it and had to throw away $100 for each stone you lapped. They should put a warning sticker, bright red, big letters telling you this. --> Wonder how I know this ?
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During my research. I looked into the requirements of having to lap GBN. And a huge selling point for me, was they don't require lapping. I really don't want to have to go down that road. I'm not into making a surface perfectly flat.

Reading about those latest and greatest, 'Nano Hone' . Those bad boys require lapping at one point during their service life. I almost got one too.Good thing I didn't.


Oh, and the Poltava stones. Are a couple of millimeter thicker then the TSProf. But not as thick as the wooden faced strops. So if you decide to piecemeal your stone selection together. Be warned, you'll be adjusting the pivot height on the machine to compensate between stone types. For which is annoying mixed with some frustration. Found that out also.
 
Sharpened my orange Delica for the first time today. The factory edge dulled a while ago so I’ve been carrying other blades. It was time to get it back in the daily carry pile. 220 grit Norton water stone, 1000 grit King water stone, ceramic rod. 22 dps, but that will be reduced to 17 and then 12 on subsequent sharpenings.
 
Benchmade skinner in s90v.

Thin behind the edge. Meant for dragging the wide belly of the blade to separate the hide off meat.

14.8° edge bevel. Carried out to 2000 grit with a light touch stropping. S90v on anything else, that's not a thin skinning knife. 600grit would be more appropriate on things that require a sawing motion. Not a glide through a soft membrane, as with field dressing an animal.




 
Benchmade something. Their really thin flat ground skinner. s30v.

12.9°, 2000 GBN, 3 micron strop. And I found something that smooths out the higher grit stones. I've been using a tiny spray bottle to wet the blade. Keep the dust down and lube it a little. Plain water is horrible. It'll bead up and I swear I can feel the stone glide on top of the water. So I put a dab of soap in the water to break the surface tension. That was better but I could still feel the stone ride on top of the water and it continued to bead up (surface tension).

Sitting there, cleaning the previous grit slurry off the edge with rubbing alcohol. I noticed if I left the rubbing alcohol on the blade. The stone moved smoother, bit the metal more, and things stayed cleaner. So I poured out my spray bottle and refilled it with 50% rubbing alcohol. No more of that feeling the stone gliding over the water. No more beading up and you can see micro bubbles form as the stone moves across the edge. Plus, wiping the stone off afterwards, it comes out cleaner.

In other words, I found my perfect mix of water. The 50% rubbing alcohol. Now, I need to pick up a couple more bottles to have on hand.



 
Another friend's knife. Good ole' Buck 110.


When you hear about a particular steel being an absolute pain in the butt to sharpen. It's usually some steel that's a dream to run an edge on. They've never tried Buck's 420hc. It's like grinding glass. There's close to an hour in this knife. I started at 400, refined that with 600. The apex was frustrating, but know, it's true and straight.

I'm not done. Oh No, I'm going to run a 1000 grit over it. Then the strop. If this knife had been M4, I would have been done 20 minutes ago. 420hc sucks to sharpen. But it'll shave a frog after I'm done.



 
Devised a way to clean GBN.

Make some DIY Dawn Powerwash®. Which is Dawn dish soap with an alcohol added. I'm using 70% rubbing alcohol with some Dawn squirted in it.

Wet the stone with the soap solution and then scrub it around with a stiff toothbrush. Follow that with a sanding belt eraser (I got mine from Harbor Freight). Using more soap solution with the belt cleaner. Scrub the stone, rinse it in the sink, and then dry it off.

Notice the deep black on the edge of the belt eraser,



 
Grasshopperglock said:
When you hear about a particular steel being an absolute pain in the butt to sharpen. It's usually some steel that's a dream to run an edge on. They've never tried Buck's 420hc. It's like grinding glass.
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Interesting. It had been years since I sharpened 420HC. Last night, I spent 2 hours reprofiling a Strongarm from 24:19 to 19:19 degrees. Gerber, not Buck. I had never spent so much time on a blade before, especially not with diamond plates. I was wondering, was it me or the stones or the steel?
 
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