What Did You Sharpen Today?

[HwangJino]

Last night I sharpened these 2.
Spent an hour on a 5000 grit KME stone.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Just got in these 'plates' they have a rubber pad on the back but I wanted to have them resting on something a bit higher up and that would support the thin plates, the grits go from 400 to 1200 and they seem to work pretty nicely, some youtube reviews of them also spoke highly of them and being less than $20 it was a fairly safe gamble for a pack of diamond plates that you can easily tote along.

I cut out a thin section of some maple so the plates will stay in place and I could hold the block of maple with my stone holder. I put screws in on each side and I adjust the height so the spine of the blade rests so I have a reference point to start the sharpening, helps keep the angle of the bevels better.

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

The knife was a Rosecraft kayak model I picked up from DavidZ it arrived today, thanks again David!

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

G2

 

[Ace Rimmer]

I've been using my Buck 119 (1991 model, bought new about then, 425M steel) a bit lately for some light tasks so I thought I would touch up the edge. I have a Smith's Diamond Combination Sharper that I bought several years ago and that I'm not sure I've ever used , so I thought I'd give it a try. The original edge appears to be about 20 degrees per side (or maybe more?), certainly more obtuse than my newer Buck fixed blades. Didn't take much to get it "tuned up."

 

[garry3]

I'm convinced that woodworking blades are the easiest thing there is to free hand sharpen.
It was hard to whittle the hair because it just wanted to pass a hanging hair test.

Translucent ark, plain leather strop.

 

[joesrx]

Today I practiced freehand sharpening. I used the wedges, but I think I get a better edge without.

 

[Dutch87]

I sharpened my ESEE 6 on my TS Prof.

It took two multi-hour sessions to profile to 20 degrees because the new CBN 6x1 stone I am trying out cut slower and finer than the grit spec would suggest. I was okay with that as an experiment, because I'm trying to upgrade over using cheap diamond plates to profile. The cheap plates always cut too deeply for my polishing stones to ever get the scratches out in a reasonable amount of time, so I was hopeful that the slower and shallower-cutting CBN would transition to polishing better. This was not the case, as there were still lots of scratches from the CBN profiler that my Matrix 250 stone was never going to get out in the time I still wanted to invest. So I only went one stone further to the Matrix 650, as there wasn't any point in going for a mirror polish.

Low spots in the heel and belly of the factory grind were the reason that the profiling took so long. These low spots hung around forever as my profiler took baby bites pass after pass. I used a 2 minute timer to flip the blade over to keep the work as even as possible. In the this third picture against the white background you can see how this low spot right smack in the middle of the blade became so small that I could barely see it without fresh marker and good lighting. If I wasn't diligent in checking it I might have stopped grinding and left a dull spot in the middle of the blade.

Another new thing I am experimenting with is using 3D printed stencils or jigs to locate the knife in the clamps in a repeatable way. The stencil locks on the handle of the knife using the same screws that would fix the handles, and then there are perfect cut-outs for the TS Prof clamps. This way, I have a repeatable mounting for any ESEE 6 with the same rotation and clamp depth. As long as I dial in the same angle as the original profiling, then a future touch-up will have the knife in the exact same location and allow me to touch up the blade with minimal grinding and re-profiling of the belly and tip.

I've got stencils for all my ESEEs and I plan on making a stencil for every knife that I have multiple versions of or that I touch-up frequently. The stencil pictured is engraved "5" because is has the cutouts for the clamps rotated 5 degrees off of 90 from the top straight edge of the stencil.

 

[Tensaw]

I sharpened my ESEE 6 on my TS Prof.

It took two multi-hour sessions to profile to 20 degrees because the new CBN 6x1 stone I am trying out cut slower and finer than the grit spec would suggest. I was okay with that as an experiment, because I'm trying to upgrade over using cheap diamond plates to profile. The cheap plates always cut too deeply for my polishing stones to ever get the scratches out in a reasonable amount of time, so I was hopeful that the slower and shallower-cutting CBN would transition to polishing better. This was not the case, as there were still lots of scratches from the CBN profiler that my Matrix 250 stone was never going to get out in the time I still wanted to invest. So I only went one stone further to the Matrix 650, as there wasn't any point in going for a mirror polish.

Low spots in the heel and belly of the factory grind were the reason that the profiling took so long. These low spots hung around forever as my profiler took baby bites pass after pass. I used a 2 minute timer to flip the blade over to keep the work as even as possible. In the this third picture against the white background you can see how this low spot right smack in the middle of the blade became so small that I could barely see it without fresh marker and good lighting. If I wasn't diligent in checking it I might have stopped grinding and left a dull spot in the middle of the blade.

Another new thing I am experimenting with is using 3D printed stencils or jigs to locate the knife in the clamps in a repeatable way. The stencil locks on the handle of the knife using the same screws that would fix the handles, and then there are perfect cut-outs for the TS Prof clamps. This way, I have a repeatable mounting for any ESEE 6 with the same rotation and clamp depth. As long as I dial in the same angle as the original profiling, then a future touch-up will have the knife in the exact same location and allow me to touch up the blade with minimal grinding and re-profiling of the belly and tip.

I've got stencils for all my ESEEs and I plan on making a stencil for every knife that I have multiple versions of or that I touch-up frequently. The stencil pictured is engraved "5" because is has the cutouts for the clamps rotated 5 degrees off of 90 from the top straight edge of the stencil.

I've decided that it doesn't matter the brand, price tier, or nation of origin, factory edges can be weird. Is your CBN stone resin or metallic bonded?

 

[Dutch87]

I've decided that it doesn't matter the brand, price tier, or nation of origin, factory edges can be weird. Is your CBN stone resin or metallic bonded?

Hybrid I think. It's a lower grit so maybe more metallic? Or fully metallic? I think the bond type is listed on the stone, but I don't know what it all means.

I do know that the last 1/2" on either end of the stone feel rougher to the touch than the rest. Makes me suspect that the face of the stone could be uneven and the rougher sections are where my deeper scratches came from.

 

[Tensaw]

Hybrid I think. It's a lower grit so maybe more metallic? Or fully metallic? I think the bond type is listed on the stove, but I don't know what it all means.

I do know that the last 1/2" on either end of the stone feel rougher to the touch than the rest. Makes me suspect that the face of the stone could be uneven and the rougher sections are where my deeper scratches came from.

View attachment 2859839

Thanks for the info. I believe the "Premium" stones are metal bonded. I was wondering because I've ordered a few of their resin bonded versions to try.

 

[ChiefTJS]

Today I removed a chip from the edge of my Spyderco Para3 in S45VN with my Sharpmaker. First time removing a chip and I’m pretty jazzed.

 

[Dutch87]

Sharpened a GEC 94 on my K03 + magnetic table. This is the first of my GECs that I've sharpened, and this one really didn't have an edge at all from the factory.

I sharpened at a conservative 22 DPS, but since the flat-ground blade is laying flat on the table, the effective sharpening angle is a bit shallower then that. Maybe I should have set the K03 at 24 DPS instead.

This is my standard surgery prep for a traditional folder. The entire handle is mummified in plastic wrap to keep water and shavings out, then over-wrapped in painters tape. Orange electrical tape is stretched tight around the kick to protect against the stones. Finally, a layer of kapton tape in the blade flats protects the mirrored finish and slides easily on the double layer of kapton coating the magnetic table.

I started with 1/2" Hapton Premium CBN 150 grit stone from this set, seen here in a handsome stone case that I modeled and printed.

The 1095 steel profiled quickly, at first, with back and forth strokes. Due to the magnetism, long strands of shavings built up on the underside of the blade.

The 150 grit stone was maybe a bit coarse for this soft steel, and I began to have trouble seeing if there was a sliver a un-apexed edge is a few areas.

I switched to the next stone in the set, 400 grit, and suddenly I could no longer hit the last few mms of heel on the show side. Now I believe this was because a bit of kapton was spanning the choil was angling my narrow stones crooked and the finer stone revealed that it was no longer contacting the bevel all the way at the heel.

So I switched to my 1" EP Matrix 250 stone and it had no trouble hitting all of the heel. With the Matrix stone I did edge trailing heel-to-tip passes until the last stubborn spot was apexed. Then did several sets of passes with a Matrix 650.

Stropped with basswood on a 1/2" blank mounted in the K03, but under good light I still saw bits of burr so I went freehand on smooth leather.

 

[Spats McGee]

Sharpened a GEC 94 on my K03 + magnetic table. This is the first of my GECs that I've sharpened, and this one really didn't have an edge at all from the factory.

I sharpened at a conservative 22 DPS, but since the flat-ground blade is laying flat on the table, the effective sharpening angle is a bit shallower then that. Maybe I should have set the K03 at 24 DPS instead.

This is my standard surgery prep for a traditional folder. The entire handle is mummified in plastic wrap to keep water and shavings out, then over-wrapped in painters tape. Orange electrical tape is stretched tight around the kick to protect against the stones. Finally, a layer of kapton tape in the blade flats protects the mirrored finish and slides easily on the double layer of kapton coating the magnetic table.

I started with 1/2" Hapton Premium CBN 150 grit stone from this set, seen here in a handsome stone case that I modeled and printed.

The 1095 steel profiled quickly, at first, with back and forth strokes. Due to the magnetism, long strands of shavings built up on the underside of the blade.

The 150 grit stone was maybe a bit coarse for this soft steel, and I began to have trouble seeing if there was a sliver a un-apexed edge is a few areas.

I switched to the next stone in the set, 400 grit, and suddenly I could no longer hit the last few mms of heel on the show side. Now I believe this was because a bit of kapton was spanning the choil was angling my narrow stones crooked and the finer stone revealed that it was no longer contacting the bevel all the way at the heel.

So I switched to my 1" EP Matrix 250 stone and it had no trouble hitting all of the heel. With the Matrix stone I did edge trailing heel-to-tip passes until the last stubborn spot was apexed. Then did several sets of passes with a Matrix 650.

Stropped with basswood on a 1/2" blank mounted in the K03, but under good light I still saw bits of burr so I went freehand on smooth leather.

Nice work and I really like that stone case!

 

[HwangJino]

New Fox Ryu came in, 20° and fairly dull, so gave it a toothy finish at 15°. Still got some more to go, but good enough to cut some maki. Will be a lot better by the end of today.