yet again, another sharpening question

rugershooter16

rugershooter16

Joined
Mar 2, 2007
Messages
554
OK, so say you use you knife, but you don't keep up on the edge as much. The edge is not dull, but it is not sharp. A basic field edge. About how long does it take for you guys to sharpen your knife with your set-up? It would also help to say the steel is s30v. I know I am having one heck of a time getting an edge on my ZT 0121:mad:. But, I just cleaned the rods, so it should be working better:(.

But yeah, about how long does it take you to sharpen s30v with your set up?
 
Depends on what you're using (diamond, ceramics, belt, etc), how dull your knife is and your skill. "Dull" and "sharp" are relative terms and I suspect that if we took everyone's knives and compared their actual levels of sharpness with each person's description of how sharp it is, we'd have a huge difference in opinions.

My knives rarely ever get to the point where they can't shave. This of course depends on your usage. I've never done it before, but I've read that your can't skin a large animal and expect it to shave afterwards. But because my knives don't get duller than shaving sharpness, I can bring them back to Uber-sharpness in a minute or 5 with my ceramic stones that were made of the Spyderco Sharpmaker.
 
Yes, I am using the Sharpmaker, and my skill level is pretty high, I can get the knives to tree top hairs, but I still don't have any strops to finish, so I cant get much sharper. After cleaning the rods, the ZT 0121 will shave nicely but does not tree top hairs yet.

I usually don't keep the knives beyond shaving because they dull fast and I am only using them for utility, so there is no need to have them razor sharp. I will still probably go and continue touching the edge up though...:D
 
If you're looking to be able to get them that much sharper, you don't need an "official" strop. Someone told me about this and it took my edges to a new level. Try stopping on newspaper on glass. You're right though, my edges are impractical and I like them that way. I'm not foolin anyone by trying to argue that I need to be able to split a hair in 4.
 
If the bevel angle is very close to the angle setting on your Sharpmaker, it might take a good while because you are sharpening over the entire bevel (which on a ZT knife isn't exactly small).

If you rebevel the edge to significantly below your Sharpmaker setting, it will take only a few swipes, because you are sharpening only a fraction of the bevel.
 
Kaizen1 said:
If you're looking to be able to get them that much sharper, you don't need an "official" strop. Someone told me about this and it took my edges to a new level. Try stopping on newspaper on glass. You're right though, my edges are impractical and I like them that way. I'm not foolin anyone by trying to argue that I need to be able to split a hair in 4.
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Question, Why on glass? would any hard even surface work, or is there something about glass?:confused:
 
michdad said:
Question, Why on glass? would any hard even surface work, or is there something about glass?:confused:
Click to expand...

Buzzard got it. I actually use a paper weight and I'm not even sure if it's glass, it doesn't matter. I've also used wooden desks. It's more about it being smooth, flat and hard.
 
Plate glass is a lot flatter than the other things mentioned. Don't know if that add'l flatness is really going to make your knife sharper, though.

To shorten sharpening time, HoB got it. Rebevel to less than 15 degrees per side, then a few swipes on the sharpmaker (15 degrees) will get it sharp.
 
army4ever said:
so what is the basic way to strop a knife on newspaper?
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1) Make sure the newspaper is on something flat with no give.
2) Line up the edge on the paper parallel with the glass like you're going to freehand sharpen
3) Pull in the opposite direction of if you were sharpening on a stone (edge trailing).
4) Repeat as often as you like.

Keeping the edge on the proper angle is key here. At least that's how I do it.
 
From what I've read, lots of people here use very light pressure. I actually use medium pressure until I think the edge is straight enough and then light pressure after. I check sharpness by slicing through paper, checking for resistance or shaving/splitting hairs.
 
the steel in your knife is tough to sharpen. if you must have super hard to sharpen steels you will have to use diamonds to start with then the ceramics.
 
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