What steel is the most difficult for you to sharpen?

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The toughest thing I have in my inventory to sharpen is the Queen D2 on the sodbuster pattern. Awful edge from the factory. I'm still not happy with my edge especially the point which looked almost flat across the edge from the box. If I buy another Queen and the edge looks that bad, I'm sending it back. Anyway, it takes work to get that pupppy sharp.

EJ
 
I just got my first GEC.It's a two bladed jack.

It came dull.I think it may have been used.I got it here on the exchange at a good price,so I'm not complaining.

I've been at this thing for a good two hours on & off.It cuts somewhat,but it's still pretty dull.

Does anyone know what the approx. RC is on GEC's 1095?It responds a lot like Queen's D2,as in it doesn't.:grumpy:
 
JTR357 said:
I just got my first GEC.It's a two bladed jack.

It came dull.I think it may have been used.I got it here on the exchange at a good price,so I'm not complaining.

I've been at this thing for a good two hours on & off.It cuts somewhat,but it's still pretty dull.

Does anyone know what the approx. RC is on GEC's 1095?It responds a lot like Queen's D2,as in it doesn't.:grumpy:
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I don't have any experience with GEC's 1095, but I have reprofiled a couple of the Queen Country Cousin soddies in D2. For those, DIAMOND is the way to go for sharpening/reprofiling. I used a Lansky guided rod sharpener for mine. The D2 is fairly tough, but a quality coarse/extra coarse diamond hone would get most of the 'grunt work' done in establishing a new bevel. After that, you can finish & polish it off with standard stones or ceramics. The Fine & UF Lansky hones in the standard kit are both ceramic, and do a fine job in putting a polish on the new bevel. Once that's done, I strop with green compound on leather, then on bare leather alone.
 
I agree with the S30V guys. It can be a bear to maintain an edge on it as it seems to need it more often and takes its time getting back to a razor edge.
 
VG10 and 154CM are either REALLY easy or REALLY tough for me. S30V, cake. CPM-M4, easy. D2, little work, but not hard. My BM Grip and my Endura were tough to sharpen.
 
I don't think I've run into any super hard to sharpen steels yet. Mostly I've been using Aus-8 and carbon steels, but last night I started on S30V for the first time. It was a brand new millie and I was worried because I've always heard S30V is a real chore... but I had it convexed and hair poppin' in under 30 minutes. I'm pleased as punch with it.
 
I believe it will vary between different people's sharpening / honing styles and also the way that the different steels have been treated. With everyone trying to improve the attributes of the popular knife steels, different makers will most likely be using slightly different treatments. It would be hard to imagine at this point that there is much left that could be conisidered as standard in blade making.
 
I refuse to own anything made of ATS-34. I have never been able to put a good edge on that steel. And I can't get M2 as sharp as I'd like it. But ATS-34... I hate it! Everything else... I get razor sharp.
 
You know how they tell you to hold the blade at a 20º angle and stroke the stone as if you're slicing a piece of the stone off.

Well, with D2, instead of stroking the knife away from you as in a slicing motion, place the knife edge at the end of the stone and draw it toward you at of course any angle you desire. This pulls the wire away from the blade as it forms and allows it to break away from the edge. If you use the slicing method, the wire will roll under the edge and put your angle off kilter.

That is the method I use to sharpen my Queen D2 blades. Works well and cuts the sharpening time quite a bit.
 
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