What Did You Sharpen Today?

[Ben Dover]

I recently touched up my 6 inch "Chinese Pattern" cleaver. Used a 1200 grit Atoma on the EP, then stropped on horsehide treated with 3 micron CBN and finished with plain coarse denim. It isn't pretty, but DAMN it sure cuts!

Then did my three Yaxall "Ran" paring knives on Shapton Glass stones at 1000, 2000, and 8,000. Finished these on plain denim also. Shiny, but just slightly hazy. I don't spend too much time on these since my wife will dull them in a week or less, no matter what i do to them!

 

[scottc3]

Answering the age old question: does the man make the tool, or the tool make the man...?

 

[Spideyjg]

Wife's Wushof Santoku, went old school Norton IB8, soft and hard Arkansas.

Got powered stuff out the wazoo but every now and then go back to the basics.

 

[scdub]

Cool thread - learned a lot already.

portable ruby stones

What these were for instance. Solid stone made of synthetic ruby you say??

i did the mod in the afternoon. cut off a 2.5g chunk of metal hehe. highly recommended

That I’m absolutely going to do this with one of my kitchen knives that looks almost exactly like the one in your pics...

If your pal (or a relative) hands you a kitchen knife in decent condition

And that someone has friends with knives in “decent condition”. I’m usually handed things that look like they’ve been in battle. My “one stone” would probably be about an 80 grit sandstone for most of the people I know.

I actually broke out the Edge Pro to do a knife for a buddy. (Started a few days ago but finished today):

Started freehand and quickly realized I was gonna have to remove a LOT of metal so decided to switch to the Edge Pro. Edge wasn’t chipped but was severely rounded (he later told me it had never been sharpened, and if you look at the finish you can see that it’s been USED!). It took awhile (maybe an hour? Two hours??) to apex even with the diamond stone. Did the serrations with Spyderco ceramics freehand.

 

[kreisler]

What these were for instance. Solid stone made of synthetic ruby you say??

Thanks for sharing!
There are several high quality threads on synthetic ruby, my lil portable ones are posted in one of them. I am dreaming that my favorite industrial ruby manufacturer made ruby's in 204-format for end consumers like us! I'd be willing to pay 100 bucks for a 1× "204RF".

Today i did 204-freehanding on my one and only "EDC" knife (well i carry a knife only around home, also because of legal carry restrictions) the foxvoxsurucfti , just with 1× 204UF. i didn't raise a consistent burr and i missed a 1mm spot on the apex, i'll get it next time np. I'll do the stropping on the weekend, i prepared a fresh wood strop and want to let the polishing compound "dry", i.e. my added oil to diffuse into the wood and the compound to fully settle. If the edge doesn't turn out nicely sharp after the stropping, then i'll know what to do in my next resharpening session: sharpen at 16dps instead of 15dps (it's easy to raise a consistent burr by steepening the sharpening angle)

 

[kreisler]

Today i sharpened an old 1$-value fruit and vegetable knife Solingen. Key properties of such a knife are:
super light-weight (good!), small thin handle (bad!), short thin blade of "constant" thickness (apart from the primary bevel), flexible blade (not good for sharpening!), low hardness steel (otherwise it wouldn't be flexible i guess?), straight edge (ojo!), very thin behind the edge, and originally it doesn't seem to come with any secondary bevel.
One can sharpen such a knife with 204MF but i wouldn't recommend it because ..erh.. the edge line would turn concave very soon (so what?).

The blade had a dull micro-chipped edge, the secondary bevel was scratched up from abuse (~120grit like) as to not recognizable. Because of the blade thinness the knife could still cut through a cucumber or strawberry i guess, but it wouldn't catch'n slice phone paper. It's my 10th time or so sharpening this knife, and i had even cut a sharpening notch not sharpening choil; funny that i hadn't mentioned this knife before.

First i tried 302UF for grinding (lol!) but i couldn't see any manipulation to the 120grit "finish" of the unvisible secondary bevel; 302UF didn't seem to do s*it!
So, instead, i did some light grinding with on 204M and managed to set a clean secondary bevel; i had to be careful because i didn't want to ruin the geometric straightness of the edge line (risk of concaving!).
Then i went back to 302UF for grinding and balancing the bevel geometry. 302UF leaves a mirror polish; now i could see clearer which mini spots at the apex i had missed, so i had to return to 204M again and make sure that the secondary bevel went all the way up to the apex, not missing any spots.
Again grinding on 302UF. Eventually i was able to see a micro burr wire edge on the apex, nicely visible through reflecting sun rays at perfect angle of attack.

Finally, i removed the micro burr on ruby (my modded 302UF isn't suitable for burr removal) and did some (unnecessary) cleanup by 'playing the violin'-stropping . The blade is nicely sharp now, has a clear secondary bevel, slices thru phone book paper cleanly, and cuts tomato skin with minimal force at 90°, task completed! The edge continues to be 100% straight (concaving averted, cha!); not that it is necessary for this blade to be straight —in fact many fruit/potato knives come with a flexible concave blade— but it is good practice to keep a straight edge straight, like a razor. Does a razor have to be straight? I guess not. But why would you let a razor go concave if you had lapped whetstones like black Arkansas or 302UF to your disposal? If we have an original straight edge, we better keep it straight, it is the way to go. Letting it go concave would be a shame and embarrassing, haha!

There is still some micro burr wire edge left, can thou see it?


I cut up a fresh/firm tomato, and for supper i'll mix in 2 eggs, season with salt'n pepper (onions? bacon? fresh green beans?) and put the stuff into the microwave instead of frying. Can be eaten on a sandwich or wiv rice, you know this universal dish (). Ends up in my belly within seconds anyway so i doht care about the taste difference while watching ROME1000 quarter finals (i'm not a gourmet, are you?), bon appetit!

 

[000Robert]

A cheap pair of scissors for one of my ex-girlfriends. Yes, I'm still friends with all of my ex-girlfriends. They have pretty good steel though. First I cleaned off all of the rust.

 

[jnaught]

A Condor Discord:

 

[lonelyronin]

Sharpened my neighbors hatchet today with an American mutt and Arctic fox puck from byxco. Well I finished what I started two weeks ago. Two weeks ago I slipped off and cut my finger. Still new to hatchet and axe sharpening

After that I sharpened my other neighbors simple stainless steel pocket knife with the Spyderco double stuff. From time to time I use pocket stones so I can get better at sharpening with them. Still need to get more practice in with these small stones and in hand sharpening.

 

[Blues]

Some of my wife's kitchen knives...on a Spyderco brown ceramic bench stone.

 

[kreisler]

Today i did 204-freehanding on my one and only "EDC" knife (well i carry a knife only around home, also because of legal carry restrictions) the foxvoxsurucfti , just with 1× 204UF. i didn't raise a consistent burr and i missed a 1mm spot on the apex, i'll get it next time np.

Today i finally finished sharpening the suru.

tl;dr i wasn't able to raise a burr with 204-freehanding this time (for investigatable reasons) so i put the 204MF away and did some grinding on degussit ruby with notable pressure. and there it was! visible with bare eyes, macro(!) burr reflecting my headlamp's light. the burr was so sharp and easily felt with fingers that i wouldn't have called it micro-burr. Just imagine, you have a mirror-polished keen bevel with M390 macro burr riding on the apex! So what's the next step, knowing that deburring is oftentimes the most challenging step of the sharpening process? I stuck with the stone, reduced pressure, reduced speed, raised the angle, and after a short time the burr was gone! That was pretty amazing (and probably would have worked on a 302F too, i don't have 302F). I did some quick clean up with wood strop and the blade is now "sharp enough" (it can cut tomato skin at an angle but not at 90°):

I plan to cut only soft things and without cutting board with this blade. I doht want to sharpen it again anytime soon lol.

 

[kreisler]

Today, as pastime, i resharpened a small batch of 3pcs Stanley #5192 utility blades:

Some utility blade models, including this one, come with a primary grind only, i.e. with no secondary grind (no micro bevel). So all i had to do was match the factory grind angle with one long edge of a 204M, do some fanning movement, until i could feel a burr. Then i removed the macro burr with 204M, polished with 204F, mirror-polished with 204UF, and finally removed the micro burr with 204UF. No strop.

As i mentioned elsewhere, concave blades (like scythes, karambits, concave utility blades, serrations) are (very) harsh on the 204M: if you see some "black powder" on the blade, it's not your blade steel but pulverized Spyderco Medium ceramics. Never mind though because now i have 2 different "grit ratings" on the same single 204M rod, which is actually quite useful.

A sharp concave utility blade stays sharp and undamaged for a loong time in a keychain utility blade holder because the concave edge doesn't ride on a 'channel floor'; straight edges like standard trapezoidal razor blades often suffer from the auto-dulling effect through the sliding/riding action inside the keychain tool. So the 3 copies weren't dull tbh, i just felt like sharpening today and this was some fun!

 

[kreisler]

Out of fun, i've been sharpening several recurved knives (i.e. knives with recurved blade sections) in the past few days because i got a new tool [RRS] for it, so today i tried the tool on a normal chef knife (8Cr13MoV) for touching up.

Woah, was rather easy'n fast, or i am simply getting better at the process. Today my chosen sharpening sequence for that cheap chef knife was:
1) 204-freehanding just on 204UF, which produced a macro(!) burr at the entire mirror-polushed bevel,
2) trying to reduce the macro burr on the groove face of 204UF as much as possible (my right hand has become more sensitive to burr removal feedback, sweet!)
3) total deburring with RRS (first it created a fresh burr yikes my bad —it is less fine than 204UF after all!—, so i had to re-handle the tool more carefully and succeeded) instead of with flat DD57F.

RRS ruins the mirror-polish. I could have stopped here because the blade was super sharp, with a crisp apex and micro-burr free. (As we know, some people manage to get a hair-whittling edge off of Spyderco UF, without stropping!)

4) i marked the entire bevel with a black Sharpie and did a quick clean-up with a loaded wood strop, leaving a mirror polish. sharpness went minimally down though (because i had also hit the apex, not only the bevel faces with the wood strop; calling it "rounding off" would be an exaggeration)

In future i'll try this sequence on my Zwilling chef knife. I can remember well, in the past i had struggled at deburring the Zwilling (or VG10 for that matter). So it'll be another good test for the RRS.

 

[S-3 ranch]

Someone sent us some Japanese chef’s knives, they came pretty sharp, but I ran them over some .5 diamond strop, then bare leather! Now they’re insanely sharp, it’s incredible when I go to insane sharp makes biggest difference
since the strops were out I touched up my daily carry folder knives to insainly scary sharp

 

[kreisler]

I just touched up (incl burr creation) my recurved AMC filet knife which i had sharpened 1 week ago:

Literally some minute only on my silver RRS for burr creation AND complete burr removal and the knife was flying cleanly thru phonebook paper from all angles of paper attack. Just this 1 sharpening medium. No subsequent separate medium (step) for stropping, no clean up. Not necessary.

Crazy cool. Fun. Exciting. But also boring, haha (i could imagine feeling this way in future):

"Touching up has just become too easy, thru this tool!"

I really enjoyed using the beautiful silver tool for the first time! Hopefully it doesn't get old. Usually i doht mind repetitive work which is easy to complete like maintenance tasks, cleaning rain gutters, mowing the lawn, clipping me bold, or similar.

 

[000Robert]

I just touched up (incl burr creation) my recurved AMC filet knife which i had sharpened a week ago. Literally some minute only on my silver RRS for burr creation AND complete burr removal and the knife was flying cleanly thru phonebook paper from all angles of paper attack. Just this 1 sharpening medium. No subsequent separate medium (step) for stropping, no clean up. Not necessary.

"Sharpening (or let's say Touching up) has just become too easy, thru this tool!"

I enjoyed using the beautiful silver tool for the first time!

I use a Wicked Edge 130. What is a RRS?

Edit: Never mind, I saw the link in your previous post.

 

[Blues]

Yesterday I sat on my porch with my buddy, drank some (of his) beer and sharpened a few knives for him. I'd say it was a fair trade.

 

[kreisler]

Sharpened 1 Herbertz pocket knife, touched up 1 Bee folder.
I am realizing that i have 5 scythes (sickles), too many haha!
And really improved the sharpness of scythe1. Everything done with RRS, with no subsequent stropping. Scythe can slice phonebook paper now. Never again Sharpmaker rods for sharpening scythes (non-optimal tool for the task, limited sharpness)!

One/my manual method of sharpening such scythes (which are 3D-concave):
1. use fanning movement with your stick-like ceramic file (204-rod, or RRS) to establish a consistent bevel on either side of the blade.
2. eventually the fanning movement should produce a macroburr on either side. you'll know when you've apexed the edge
3. for deburring, keep doing the fanning movement, i.e. at the same angle. just with less pressure. switch sides often, keep doing. use less and less pressure. it'll take a long time but in the end even the microburr will be removed this way. the burr might be too stubborn to be sheared off cleanly by raising the angle.

Yikes. Someone abused the AMC knife. Will need to resharpen it again, tomorrow. *sigh* Ah, no problem .. hehe.

 

[DavidABQ]

I touched up the edge on my CRK Mnandi with a set of ultra-fine stones in my Sharpmaker. Quick and easy. I try not to ket the edge get too dull so it is quick and easy.

 

[kreisler]

Today i sharpened scythe2 (i believe there are 4 or 5 around de house). Afaik i never sharpened this copy before. Due to the rust there was no edge, and under the rust i detected a rough/coarse secondary grind, i.e. the factory bevel grind. I went to town with the depicted diamond file, eliminated the bevel grind, raised burr, then "polished" with the Ø8mm ruby (which turned out to be nearly as coarse as the diamond file lol), which raised burr again, then tried to polish and deburr with Ø6mm rubies. At that point i realized that my special quality AX ruby is closer to a brand-new 204M than a 204F, and that all my other cylindrical rubies are coarser than a brand-new 204M lol. But that's good! So often people on the www complained about 204M being too fine. I have corrected the op of the RRS review thread accordingly.(…)

Polishing/deburring with a clogged ruby is, of course, finer than a 204M. The start of a mirror-polish.

scythe2 can cut phonebook paper easily now. incredible bite!
My scythes have never been sharper. 204M can't get there (because it's friable).

The next day i also did scythe3 (front, back). With 8mm (coarse), 10mm (medium), 6mm (fine) diameter rubies. No diamond file. It was a copy which i had sharpened once before where i had ground a secondary bevel with the 204M because it was impossible to do otherwise. This time, with the 8mm, i ground off all the rust and continued to thin down the primary grind, so that the old 204M-secondary bevel grind would slowly disappear. Now the blade has only 1 primary grind, no bevel, same as scythe2! Can slice phonebook paper well, too. i covered the fresh edges with bike chain oil to protect them against oxidation.