Time to break the edges on the new 5.1's jimping. The nice crisp edges are expected from any machine shop worth its salt, but for prolonged use I prefer a slightly rounded edge.
I gathered some tools and laid them out. My new-spec 5.1 with edges that can push-cut phone book paper, my old-spec 5.1 that has hand-friendly edges, a Sharpmaker set with diamond rods, a small Spyderco medium stone just in case, a Sharpie and plenty of Founders All Day IPA:
I started off with a few comparisons to get an idea of what I wanted to do, then marked up the edges with the Sharpie. The idea is to see how much material you're removing at a glance, and helps with getting a nice, even cut:
I toyed with the idea of cutting a bevel on the edges with the Sharpmaker but preferred working the stone by hand to get to all the edges. Here was a quick shot of what the Sharpie looked like after a few swipes with the medium rod:
After looking at the scratch pattern (very fine) I decided to switch to the diamond rod to remove material faster and more closely match the peened finish. The important thing with the diamond rod, and all abrasives, is to let the abrasive do the cutting. More pressure here yields poor results. A shot of the jimping after work with the diamond rod:
Continued on the next post
