what finish to put on edges?

Sorry to hijack the thread, but Cliff, would you mind one again giving your estimate of the "grit" of:

Spyderco medium rods,

Spyderco fine rods,

Spyderco ultrafine rods?

I can't remember the long ago thread, and I doubt a search would easily find it, but I recall one person estimating the medium rods were 600, the fine 1200, and the ultrafine 2000.

Thanks!
 
Thanks Cliff.

The chart you reference seems to indicate the medium is equivalent to about 750 and the fine is 1200. The chart also lists extrafine white ceramic as 3 micron, or roughly half of the fine. I wonder if that's what Spyderco's extrafine is.
 
I asked the grit question a few days ago and found that they are VERY VERY fine. Apparently they would be close to 3000 grit.

I personally have been loving my ultrafines. I'm not sure exactly what grit they are, but I find they remove very little metal and work great when your knife is very slightly dulled. They work almost like a smooth steel except they leave a GREAT finish on the blade. Highly recommended!!!
 
Here's my zdp Delica after reading this thread:

zdp1.jpg


zdp4.jpg
 
Nice work, mine it similar, using the term loosely, but is convex unfortunately as it was done on waterstones. It also doesn't look nearly as crisp. How long did that take?

-Cliff
 
Man that is beautiful work. My VG-10 Endura looks aweful compared to that. Very nice stone work. How exactly did you do it?
 
Thanks for the kind words. Unfortunately, it's a convex edge*. Just done in a few steps:

1. Set relief with 120x DMT D8XX hone.
2. Polish as many scratches as possible away with 600x diamond hone
3. Step 2, but with 1200x diamond hone
4. Step 2, but with 4000 grit green SiC paper followed by 9000 grit green SiC paper.
5. Step 2, but with 1 micron AO polishing cloth.
6. Edge bevel going from 1200x on, but adding 1.8 micon boron carbide on strop and finishing with 0.5 micron CrO lapping film (polishing film got trashed with too much pressure).

A fun way to make an edge convexed with a flat, hard surface is to use finger pressure on the blade for the edge-trailing passes and slightly raising the edge away from the hone for the edge-leading passes. Not only does it keep your blade from ruining leather hones, it polishes the back-bevel (and slightly reprofiles on the coarser grits) so as to make it pretty and possibly reduce gunk-up and places for strain to be magnified.

Even with the magic of the 120x D8XX, it took hours. I should've kept the mountain of dust to make a knifeknut version of GoldSchlager. Was tempted to use the wet grinder, but it's very slow, messy, and doesn't let me make everything as pretty.

CMSpeedy,

If you want, I can do the same for your Endura. About to redo my VG-10 Delica in a similar manner. Looking forward to the softer steel.

*= Yeah, yeah, yeah... ...convex is the best... ...results from CATRA and Chucka from Land of the Lost show that... ...it's a thin edge on what should be a standard hardness for small knives, not a purple drop from WoW. Jebus cripes!
 
Thom thank you for the offer, but you have inspired me to take mine back out and grind away some more metal. I would like to learn how to do this myself. I have a DMT xtra coarse benchstone, an edgepro, and a sharpmaker. I think I can get close to your results (with a much softer steel) with the equipment I've got. I'll post pics when done.
 
Cool. Just prepare to become very familiar with your extra-coarse hone and to relearn your EdgePro and Sharpmaker techniques afterwards (being able to spread pressure over a wider area while sharpening on benchstones can throw some folks off their game - ask QuietOned or me :o ).
 
Can you get a more coarse stone for the hollow grinder? Or do the initial work on the standard benchgrinders which are radically fast. If you have mad grinding skills you can do it with an angle grinder, it is over in about 1-2 minutes one way or the other.

-Cliff
 
WOW Thom I'm very impressed. Great job. I'd never guess you just started hand sharpening this year, your doing great work. And some would say looks don't matter. HA!
 
Thanks for the kind words, db. You provided the inspiration for that and that hippy-looking guy from Oregon and Japan provided how easy it is to do.

CMSpeedy,

Pics of my reprofiled Delica 3 in VG-10 are shown below, but the angle was too thin for steel of its hardness. It needed a thicker edge (eating away the reprofiling) before it took a 25-30 included degree edge. I think the Scandi-looking part on the Endura 4 is lower/thicker, so you may be okay, but there's some kooky point of diminishing returns.
 

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So how sharp would you call a knife that can push cut straight down through newspring very close to where you hold it? (My Opinel at 15 degrees per side)
 
These knives are not "reprofiled." They are reground to an entirely different bevel contour.
Bill
 
Not following your line of reasoning, Mr. DeShivs. What part of a blade's geometry escapes being included in its profile?
 
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