Which blade type is most difficult/easiest to sharpen?

C

ChuckBuck

Joined
Oct 19, 2004
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I recently started a new job in a big metal shop and have to use my knife constantly to open boxes, cut plastic wrap and various other stuff. I frequently run the point of my Dominator across galvanized sheet metal ducts, sometimes spiral duct which has a bump where the metal sealed in the process of "spiraling" a 6" wide piece of sheet metal, off of a 1000' roll of it into a 3 to 6 foot piece of round-duct. Anyway, I have to wrap the ends in plastic to keep the dust out which the dominator is great for cutting the plastic when I lay it down on the duct and cut it by running the point all the way down the width of the plastic sheet, usually about 20 to 30 inches. I know it won't be long before the blade gets too dull for me to use on the job. When I look at the blade on my knife which is tanto pointed and partially serrated edge, I think it would be a nightmare to sharpen compared to an old fashioned Buck knife. However, I have never used knives much until recently so I had no reason to sharpen, so I never have sharpened a knife before, at least not successfully anyway, when I was a little kid I tried and I obviously sucked at it. I'm thinking of getting a new assisted open knife for my job but I want (need) to be able to sharpen it on a regular basis. I'm wondering what you all think would be the best choice of blade type, as well as steel type and any advise on any specific brands of sharpenning systems to buy would be appreciated as well. Maybe I should just bring my Ka-Bar to work.
 
IMO a hollow grind drop point would be easy to sharpen, or a clip point like the bucks as you mentioned., anything with a recurve would be harder, as well as serrations. Tantos are also harder to sharpen. my $.02
 
forgot to add steels, would go with somthing with something like BG-42 or S30V, Although that will be harder to sharpen than a carbon steel blade, if you went carbon steel im partial to durable tool steels like L6 or O1. but any carbon steel usualy takes a wicked edge and is easy to sharpen.
 
For the kind of work you are doing there is probably nothing better than a knife that uses disposable blades so you don't have to sharpen anything. You just throw out the blade after you dinged it all up. The above post recommending a super knife is a good suggestion. I second that.

However if you are just hell bent on getting a regular everyday carry folder one with a combo edge may work as well as anything for you.

The easiest knife I've ever sharpened is my David Boye folder made of Dendritic Cobalt Crystal alloy. I honestly believe you could sharpen this knife on a flat piece of sandstone found in a wash or rock pile. It takes a good edge fast and easy. I really like it for a maintainance free knife that always cuts.
 
Get a Queen stockman in D2 and use the sheepsfoot blade with a toothy edge for rough cutting and keep the spey blade razor sharp. The clip point will still be available as back up if the others get too dull in the middle of the day.

You should get a Sharpmaker anyway for maintaining your knives, but a carbon steel stockman or other slipjoint cn be sharpened easily with a small whetsone you can carry with you.

DMT has some credit card sized diamond sharpeners and Spyderco has small ceramic stones -- I have the Double Stuff, a fine and a medium ceramic stone glued back-to-back, in a leather sheath.
 
underaged! said:
IMO a superknife would be the perfect tool here.
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I'm sorry, what is a superknife? Like a box cutter or something, one of those ones where the blade is designed to break off every quarter inch or so? Those are a little to flimsy for what I'm doing, although they would work, something with backbone works a lot better. I really am seriously considering taking the Ka-Bar or another similar big, non folding knife with no serrations and a clip or drop point. Thanks for the advice though, its worth a try since those knives are so cheap and dispoasable. :thumbup:
 
A super knife is a utility knife with a replaceable razor blade. It would probably be great for the work you mentioned. There are many brands/models out there, you can pick one up at wallyworld for under $10.
 
When you talk about difficult/easiest, do you mean blade steel or blade shape?

I don't think any particular steel is really hard to sharpen if you have the right tools. If you have to reprofile something like D2, you're going to want something that will remove metal aggressively.

Put a micro-bevel on anything and it takes very little effort to touch up an edge. An example would be my Ritter Griptillain (S30V). I keep it sharp with the Sharpmaker ultra fine stones and a strop. It takes very little time.
 
Ryan8 said:
When you talk about difficult/easiest, do you mean blade steel or blade shape?
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I was talking about both; blade type, drop, clip, tanto, etc. as well as steel type. My Dominator is s30v which I like a lot. I've heard that it can be a pain to sharpen though, and that perhaps vg-10 or AT-34 or aus-8 or another stainless would be better.
 
ChuckBuck said:
I was talking about both; blade type, drop, clip, tanto, etc. as well as steel type. My Dominator is s30v which I like a lot. I've heard that it can be a pain to sharpen though, and that perhaps vg-10 or AT-34 or aus-8 or another stainless would be better.
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Ok.

Personally, I have a little bit of trouble with knives that curve sharply towards the tip. I have to pay extra attention or I can't get that area as sharp. That's probably just me or what I use though.

Tanto blades really aren't any harder to sharpen. You just have to treat it like two separate edges. I've always wondered about them on a bench stone though. I can see that sharp angle going dull.

As far as the "super steels" that hold an edge for a long time go: Touching them up is easy. Reprofiling them can take a while if you don't have something aggressive.

I use a Sharpmaker as my main sharpening system. What I did with the Ritter Griptillian was bring it down to ~30 degrees (15 per side). First I hit it with an EZE-LAP diamond hone. Then I smoothed it out at 30 degrees on the Sharpmaker. I then did a small number of strokes at 40 degrees to create a micro bevel. I touch it up with the ultra fine rods at 40 or just a strop and it takes very little time.
 
I think a box cutter with disposable blades is your best bet. I carry a Superknife Edge at work with Lennox Gold bi-metal blades. Bi-metal blades are supposed to bend instead of break. The actual blades that come with the Superknife are very thick compared to standard Stanley blades, they're pretty sturdy. If you go to mcmaster.com you can see a lot of different box cutter blades that range in thickness, materials, and specialized shapes such as hooks blades. There are a lot of different companies that make folding box cutters such as Superknife and Sheffield. There are even assisted opening folding box cutters from Camillus (Camco) and Meyerco.

A Superknife and a SAK can prety much get me through all my daily cutting chores at work ranging from trimming cardboard to slicing a piece of my Starbucks Crumble Cake during break. I highly recommend this combo for warehouse/production facility environments. (I work in a newspaper production facility by the way.) I still keep a Kershaw Scallion in my back pocket just in case.

I would not recommend the blades that snap off. I have not heard of any incidents but it seems the blade may snap off at the wrong time and in the wrong direction.
 
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