Review K02: The Microbevel King and the 2500 Rule

[RadialBladeworks]

I want to share my opinion of the K02 sharpening system by Tech Studio.

Quickie review: 9/10 functional sharpening, misses a point for difficulty on extreme polish cosmetic bevels. Set your edge, jack the angle up and set a microbevel, boom, done, sharp as hell.

I am going to use the K02 to reprofile the 220 Druid by Steel Will.

At .20" thick, the blade stock is pushing the limits of the clamps, but I suspect you could still fit .25" blades in there. Don't quote me on that though; it's just a guess.

I clamped the blade in using the long knife double clamps, not the single clamp in the picture above. That one is ideal for folders, however.

The blade must have at least a tiny bit of a flat for the clamp to grab onto. Full flat grinds won't clamp properly and the angle will change as you sharpen on it. But this rarely happens, as even most full flat grind knives have a bit of a flat at the ricasso, like the Tenacious for example. That little flat bit near the spydie hole is all you need.

I highly recommend you get an angle cube. It makes your angle-setting far more precise. Angle cubes permit fast, effortless calculation of your exact angle. That being said, the angle cube pictured above is accurate to 0.05 degrees which is very precise, but not ideal. I would like an angle cube accurate to 0.001, so if you know of one, let me know...

There is a little slop in the clamp(s), so if you use enough pressure, you can change the angle of contact:

Notice how the angle has changed by two tenths of a degree?

Well, I am reprofiling a knife, so I want to use pressure. This system is capable of reprofiling a rather large knife like this to 20dps in minutes if you use the right stone and a little pressure, but again, if you use too much pressure, your angle of contact will change. Therefore, I manufactured an infinitely adjustable jamb that slides under the blade or clamp (if I am using the single clamp) and prevents any angle changing due to pressure use:

Now I can technically use all the pressure in the world, but unfortunately I am using an electroplated diamond hone, the Atoma 140, for reprofiling. It works well, but if too much pressure is used, you risk wearing the hone out prematurely.

Electroplated diamonds, at least for reprofiling an edge, are simply outdated tools when it comes to guided systems like the K02. KME and Wicked Edge combat the problem of low-pressure requirements by simply using even lower grit hones, like the 50 grit beast for the KME.

For the K02, however, I highly highly recommend you pick up a low grit bonded diamond hone for reprofiling. Poltava and Venev from Gritomatic offer very highly-regarded bonded diamond options for a range of prices. These will withstand more pressure while also giving you the convenience of (virtually) no stone wear or dishing.

I simply do not care if I wear my Atoma 140 out because I want the speed, so if she goes before her time, so be it. Metallic bonded diamonds here I come!

I used intermediate pressure. Nothing absurd. My hands did not get sore, or anything like that. But I may be in the range of "too much pressure" for an electroplated diamond hone. Either way, I hogged off metal. I fully reprofiled that 6inch blade in about 6 minutes (plus fidgeting and measuring time). I was completely done with the reprofiling stage in under 15 minutes.

If you have stones of varying thicknesses, or you employ a jamb (to remove clamp sag under pressure) like the one I showed you earlier, you will have to remeasure your angle every time you change stones and also every time you flip your knife. The jamb is fantastic for letting you use pressure without changing the angle of contact, but it comes at the cost of having to measure more often, which is not a huge deal, but I personally do get tired of measuring constantly. It is actually the reason I moved to freehand sharpening.

If you don't use a jamb, you won't have to measure your angle every time you flip your knife, but your angle of contact will change slightly nonetheless: my angle on one side measures at 15 degrees flat, and when I flip the blade, it measures in at 15.2 degrees. It's not a huge deal, but your OCD tendencies may be tickled by this, as mine are.

Why am I going on about this?

Because it's gonna make you want a small progression of stones. Seriously.

My original progression on this system was the Shapton Glass 220, 500, 1k, 2k, 4k, 8k, 16k. The insane number of stones coupled with the constant angle checking bloated a sharpening session up to hours. HOURS. Bruh, I got a life to live, man!

I whittled it down over time, and my final opinion is: the fewer stones you can use to get the edge you want, the happier you'll be with the system.

My current setup is: 140 reprofiler, SG1000 bevel stone, SG8000 microbeveler, done.

Here, I am setting my bevel to a thousand using the fantastic Shapton Glass 1k

Coming off the 1k, she's looking pretty nice!

And this is where I stop for polishing the entire bevel. You can go a little higher, but I need to show you something. My Angle cube is accurate to five hundredths, which is the most accurate I could find (many are only accurate to 1 tenth, pffft) and even with my jamb removing all of the clamp arm movement, you are still not working with tools precise enough to push into submicron bevel polishes. Even though my angle was set to 20 degrees, and triple-checked, I still wound up with this:

Only partial bevel polishing on the bottom half. Let me be clear: this system is far from the best option if you are hoping to take a full bevel up to an extreme polish. You may be able to get it, but the amount of measuring, stroke-and-checking, and microadjusting is sure to test the limits of your sanity.

That being said, extremely high grit edges are still easily within your grasp if you utilize a microbevel. All we gotta do is jack the angle up a degree or so:

Grab our microbeveler:

Hit that apex with a few quick edge trailing strokes:

And flip it...

Strop that baby:

Bam! Literally a minute later and we got a nice little 8k microbevel on that edge.

When applying the microbevel, you don't need the jamb because your pressure is so low you aren't going to alter the angle of contact, and you've also raised up your angle, guaranteeing you hit the apex.

And I dunno, is it sharp at all? You tell me...

Cross-grain and with-grain pushcutting that phonebook paper with ease! And you know how long it took me from reprofile to completion? Like, 20 minutes.

So, get yourself
1 - A low grit reprofiler, ideally a bonded diamond hone
- using a makeshift jamb and bonded diamonds will let you rapidly reprofile edges with no worries about stone wear or angle-of-contact variance.
2 - A mid grit stone like an SG 1k
- 1k JIS is fast enough to quickly refresh your bevel, but also fine enough to take a really nice microbevel.
3 - A microbeveling stone like an SG 8k or a Spyderco ceramic fine or ultra-fine
- utilizing microbevels will allow you to attain extreme sharpness whilst circumnavigating constant angle remeasuring and adjustment as well as extensive, cumbersome stone progressions.

With the above method of usage, I think you can reap all of the benefits of the incredible K02 system, while also dodging the weaknesses of the system. You will be able to reprofile and sharpen your knives very effectively, and very fast (for a sharpening system). It is a functionally excellent jig, with only the one relatively minor weakness of struggling with extreme-polish cosmetic bevels.

An important footnote:

The above is the best polish I could achieve with the K02. The edge was taken up to 5k on the Nubatama Bamboo and I was able to successfully apex the edge whilst maintaining one single, crisp bevel from shoulder to apex. The time investment was not ridiculous, but you can bet your ass I won't be doing that every single time I sharpen a blade. But nevertheless, it is a pretty decent mirror. I know I suggest that this kind of edge finish is not possible, but it is more accurate to say that they are highly impractical. If you have the patience, all the power to you, but I'll stick with my microbevels, thanks.

 

[RadialBladeworks]

Theory: you may be able to polish the entire bevel more easily if you actually utilize the slop on the clamp arm. So discard the jamb, and instead of using light pressure on your stones, use higher pressure, deliberately introduce a slight convexity to your bevel, and perhaps you will be able to achieve a full-bevel high grit polish (with a slight convexity). You may also dig into your fine grit stones, however, so it might backfire and not work at all. I might try this, to see...


LET'S DO THIS.

Druid 225, or something. I dunno. It's the 4.5" Druid, .16" stock

The team:

I think I almost killed my Atoma during the reprofile lol. No jamb, high pressure, we were looking to utilize the slight arm movement to establish a tiny bit of a convexity in the edge. We were coming in at 15dps.

140: burr flipped back and forth several times, alternated pressure from light to heavy so as to work the entire range of the micro-convex

1000: burr successfully attained, alternated pressure from high to low, working the entire arc of the micro-convex. Burr was easily detectable. I flipped it back and forth a few times.

4000: theory is disproved. The test is a failure. Despite alternating pressure from high to low and back and forth, we had trouble apexing the edge:

Notice the beautiful bevel polish. The camera is actually focusing on my ceiling tiles through the bevel. Sweet, but also:

Notice the grey line on the belly moving up toward the tip? That is unapexed 1k edge right there.

I could technically polish the entire bevel all the way up to the 16k SG, then go back and actually apex at a higher angle with the stones, but the fidget-factor and effort level here are now back into the extreme range. What is the point of polishing the bevel at this point? Why not save the time, skip it, and merely microbevel the edge? The bevel polishing in this process would be entirely cosmetic because it isn't also apexing the edge at that grit.

On top of this, the gouging of the stone that I hypothesized was indeed present. My poor stones now have some nice gouges thanks to the high pressure work at the tip. Harder stones (i.e. bonded diamonds) would not have this issue, but again, you are not apexing the edge, which is begging the question: Why polish the bevel then? Bevel polish, functionally-speaking, is merely a by-product of the specific edge finish the blade has. If an extreme bevel polish does not also imply an extreme edge finish, then it ceases to be attractive. It would be like polishing the neck of one of your hammers. Woohoo... neato mirror on your hammer, bro, but it doesn't hammer nails any more effectively... The attraction lies in the suggested functional potential of the tool; that is, I reckon you don't care much about the mirror polish on your bevel when your knife is dull, do you? You like that high polish because it says to you "Hey man, I am one sharp-ass tool, ready to cut like a laser--ready to go to work and to work well." Anyway, I digress...

So, I do have to say, the K02 freakin' dominates the microbeveling procedure I recommend in my original post, and although it is technically possible to polish the bevel very highly and have an extremely high edge finish (by way of polishing the bevel first, then going back through the progression applying a microbevel), I feel that is highly impractical and a waste of time.

The immense value of the K02 lies in a minimalist stone progression, and the usage of microbevel apexing.

 

[RadialBladeworks]

A final disclaimer: I have found the K02 to work fantastically for me, even without the jamb, up to around 2500 JIS, or approximately 1k FEPA F which is what all the silicon carbide stones like the EP options go up to anyway. A lot of you guys, including myself sometimes like to use lower grit edges. If you rock a 2k JIS and lower edge, you should basically encounter no issues with apexing. Those stones are abrasive enough to sharpen through the slop in the clamping arms and successfully apex the edge. If you do not care about the slight angle difference when flipping the knife (and you really shouldn't; it's negligible and visually imperceptible), this system will allow you to put any edge you want inside of that range on your blade with virtually no issues whatsoever. Just put the stone in and go, flip the blade and keep going. This process will be made even faster yet if you use extremely slow wearing stones of identical thickness. Then you literally only need to measure one single time throughout your entire sharpening session. This will be the ultimate in convenient jig sharpening experiences. Inside the 2500JIS range, the K02 is a sharpening god and I hope I didn't undermine that with my review.

I felt like this needed to be said because my review focused on how to push your edge results beyond that 2500JIS soft-boundary, and it may have distracted some readers from the 2500-and-under ball game. Microbeveling technique, and addon adjustable jamb aside, up to 2500 grit, the K02 is easily one of, if not literally the best, sharpening system available.

 

[wade7575]

That's a good review of how to Microbevel and I think your review is very well done,I also seen from the first pictures the Metallic Bonded CBN or Diamond stone in the picture and I knew what it was before reading any of this article I love my Metallic Bonded CBN and I would not trade them for anything.

I agree with what your saying to about trying to use less stones for sharpening because the more you use sometimes the less you want to sharpen.

 

[RadialBladeworks]

That's a good review of how to Microbevel and I think your review is very well done,I also seen from the first pictures the Metallic Bonded CBN or Diamond stone in the picture and I knew what it was before reading any of this article I love my Metallic Bonded CBN and I would not trade them for anything.

I agree with what your saying to about trying to use less stones for sharpening because the more you use sometimes the less you want to sharpen.

Thanks man. Yeah, you have the whole set of metallic bonded CBN don’t you? How have you been putting them to use?

 

[HeavyHanded]

Just a thought, but it might be faster and possibly more consistent to use the height/distance from the stone surface to the clamp when changing stones out.

This is the method I use on my homemade system - get the angle set on any stone using a cube, then take the distance from stone to a fixed reference point. It doesn't matter how thick or thin followup stones might be, I just set to the same distance. Might be a bit more awkward on the KO2compared to what I'm using, but might be worth a try.

I am not a fan of using the angle cube every time as it sometimes returns a bad number if its tilted. It doesn't take much to be off a degree or even half a degree and then you're doing a lot of extra grinding. The more accurately you can dupe the angle the fewer progressions you can use and the faster they will go.

Just a thought....

Another solid write up!

 

[RadialBladeworks]

Just a thought, but it might be faster and possibly more consistent to use the height/distance from the stone surface to the clamp when changing stones out.

This is the method I use on my homemade system - get the angle set on any stone using a cube, then take the distance from stone to a fixed reference point. It doesn't matter how thick or thin followup stones might be, I just set to the same distance. Might be a bit more awkward on the KO2compared to what I'm using, but might be worth a try.

I am not a fan of using the angle cube every time as it sometimes returns a bad number if its tilted. It doesn't take much to be off a degree or even half a degree and then you're doing a lot of extra grinding. The more accurately you can dupe the angle the fewer progressions you can use and the faster they will go.

Just a thought....

Another solid write up!

Hmmm... That is a good idea. I like the reliance on the line level. I don't know if my own eyes would be more accurate than 0.05 degrees, and in fact, I doubt it, but it may be accurate enough whilst allowing me to use a jamb to remove clamp arm flex and set the angle with less hassle than the angle cube. I also like the continuous feed of visual information from the line level as opposed to the angle cubes set, pause, observe, double-check thing you have to do to get a reliable reading, so I could see the annoyance factor being reduced. Technically I would need to hold the adjustable square at a perfect 90 degrees every time or else I am now introducing another element of imprecision...

Christ, see this is the problem for me personally though: how much thinking and fidgeting am I supposed to do to sharpen my knife? This is why I went freehand lol. Freehand's slogan could very well just be "hold low and go" and you'll be splitting hairs and carving up phonebooks until the cows come home.

 

[HeavyHanded]

That's the way of it, the more accurate one part becomes, the more accurate everything else needs to be or you wind up going backwards.

 

[RadialBladeworks]

Okay guys, a final chapter to the K02 saga. I wanna talk about "The 2500 Rule."

The 2500 Rule is this: The K02, when paired with any quality stones up to approximately 2500 JIS will easily and quickly apex the edge of your blade without requiring the use of either a microbevel, specialized technique, or a makeshift clamp arm stabilizer like the jamb I have shown in my posts. Just put the stone to the blade, scrub ‘til you burr, flip the knife, and scrub some more. As you may have seen in my previous post, pushing past this limit may result in difficulty apexing the edge as well as an inability to successfully polish the entire edge bevel.

If you followed this entire discussion, then it is clear there is a level of "real world imprecision" that is impossible to remove from a sharpening jig. Ultimately, the small imprecisions add up and impact the "maximum effective/efficient grit" your system will be able to employ without falling outside of the bounds of a practical, real world sharpening session (that is, a sharpening session that does not take hours, or requires an overly high degree of effort). As the grit in the abrasive gets finer, it is less capable of shaping your bevel. The inherent imprecision in something like the K02 and the tools you use to measure angles on that system (like my angle cube only being accurate to 0.05 degrees) will negatively impact your "maximum effective grit" because you will need coarser and coarser abrasives to "sharpen through" greater and greater imprecisions.

The good news is that the K02 is a fantastically well-machined system that pushes its maximum effective grit up to about 2500JIS. Anything inside that range will give you virtually no issues whatsoever when sharpening, and the system is designed in such a way that you also retain a high degree of speed in sharpening inside this range (or microbeveling outside of it). That is, the system retains high speed and low effort.

The maximum effective grit (for polishing the entire bevel and simultaneously apexing the edge, as opposed to just microbeveling) for the K02 appears to be about 2500JIS. In the real world, and in pursuit of pragmatic/practical knife sharpening, this is plenty high enough for everyday utility. So, using the K02 in the simplest fashion possible, with no jamb, no microbeveling tomfoolery, and technically even no angle measuring**, you are able to push your edge up to about 2500JIS, making your knife extremely sharp, in practical terms, with almost no effort.

The following is a proof of The 2500 Rule and a demonstration of this system's ability to permit the user to sharpen with incredible ease. This is for the guys who just need a sharp edge, damn it!

Back to the Druid 220, or as I like to call it, the Poor Man's A1.

We're taking this thing up to 1k on the Edge Pro stones, which is about 7 microns, which is approximately 2k JIS. This is under the 2500 maximum effective ceiling for the K02 which means I should be able to progress through the entire series of stones with utterly no issues apexing the edge while performing a minimum of angle measuring and general fidgeting to ensure efficient sharpening.

We are going to reset the bevel at 20 degrees per side again, using the EP 220

This stone has a very hard binder, so I do actually recommend using a jamb because the pressure you'll need to use is quite high. Technically this breaks the rules for my test, but honestly, the EP 120 and 220 kind of suck ass and I really really recommend you get a higher quality reprofiling stone. I am assuming you've already done yourself this great service and will therefore not need to use 10,000 pounds of pressure to sharpen your edge. With a better stone, you won't need a jamb. Either way, we attained a burr on both sides of the knife at 20dps:

And the other side...

Like I said, on the whole a big ol' thumbs down for the EP 120 and 220...

The 400 and 1000, however, are awesome!

So I have now removed the jamb which means my angle will be slightly off when I flip the knife.
Side A:

Side B:

So we are off by 0.3 degrees. Visually, we aren't going to be able to see any difference, so there is no need to worry about this.

The question here is: Will we be able to "sharpen through" this imprecision, and through the flex in the clamp arm that we will now have to deal with because we have removed the jamb? We are using the system "as is" if you will. No aids. We are testing how well the system combined with the EP 400 will be able to apex the edge despite the inherent imprecisions and angle variations.

I really like the EP 400. In fact, it is often my stopping point when I use this system. It's a great, long-lasting, toothy edge, and the stone itself is fantastic. It cuts fast, it doesn't load, and it wears extremely slowly. And it's cheap! Well, cheap-ish, I suppose. Cheaper than my Shapton Glass 1k by half. But Gritomatic offers similar stones at double the thickness for near the same price.

After about a minute, it's time to burr check:

Got one. Time to flip it...

This side took a little longer because I actually had to lay the bevel back from 20 degrees off the jamb to the 19.7 degrees it naturally sits at. After a little less than 5 minutes, we achieved a burr.

Time for the 1k. The real test. ~2k JIS, no aids. And because my stones were brand new (thus the exact same thickness), I didn't even measure the angle again. I busted out some fresh stones to simulate using something like Bonded CBN stones, or electroplated diamond hones (of the same brand/line) which remain virtually the exact same thickness forever therefore removing the need for you to measure every time you change stones. The ability to measure your angle one single time at the beginning of the session is a MASSIVE convenience. I highly recommend you get a set of stones that permits you to jump through your progression without measuring more than once, as it keeps your effort level and fidget factor extremely low. I almost cannot overstate how awesome it is to measure one single time then just bomb through your entire stone progression utterly care-free (up to 2500JIS, at least).

And again, after only about 2 minutes per side, we have successfully apexed the edge at 1k FEPA F, or approximately ~2k JIS.

I did some edge trailing strokes to minimize the burr. With a stone this abrasive (compared to something like an 8k SG, or Spydie UF), I don't really recommend raising your angle to deburr/microbevel because it will just keep generating a full burr, no matter how light your stroke is. Just do a few edge trailing strokes at the same angle you sharpened at.

After that, I wanted to clean up on a 'Roo strop loaded with some Tormek compound:

I like using Tormek compound for this type of stropping because my surface is really small, so the high abrasive density of the Tormek paste helps to make the process faster.

What this shows is that despite irremovable imprecisions in the K02 (all sharpening jigs have their own set of imprecisions to overcome), abrasives under 2500JIS (the "maximum effective grit" of this given system) are fast enough to easily "sharpen through" any kind of angle variances caused by factors like clamp arm flex. And if you use stones of identical thickness, you will literally only need to measure one single time at the beginning of the session. This will allow usage of the system with the absolute minimum effort level possible, and quality hard-wearing stones will permit the fastest speed possible. I dare suggest that the K02 has one of, if not the, highest "low effort:high speed" ratios of all non-powered sharpening jigs in existence up to its soft "maximum effective grit" ceiling of approximately 2500JIS. Beyond this, I have already demonstrated that the use of microbevels can help you keep speed very high whilst minimizing increases in your effort level.

 

[wade7575]

I have been mainly using them on S110v and other hard steels that are hard to cut,I find the 8K stone does a good job to of not leaving a lot of scratch's,the 50 grit CBN stone cut's really fast and I would not recommend or give to a person that has not done much with guided systems that stones is a great example of how a knife could be ruined so fast without even trying.

I remember a guy I knew purchased a KME when I had one and I also knew you couldn't tell him anything and with each stone he was grinding away like a maniac taking forever to change from one stone to the next thinking more he ground off with each stone the sharper it would get.He sharpened his knife witch had a blade that was easy to sharpen and I had my ZT 0566 with me and I it was dull and asked if I could use his KME seeing he had it out and I sharpened my knife in the time and got a much sharper edge needless to say he was pissed and not so much at me but how much time he put it into sharpening his knife,I then went onto show him it's not always how long it takes to sharpen a knife that's going to ensure good result's it also technic and also showing him that all he was doing more then anything and that shortening the life of his knife.

Thanks man. Yeah, you have the whole set of metallic bonded CBN don’t you? How have you been putting them to use?

 

[wade7575]

I also seen the President's Choice logo on the bottle of Olive Oil I did not know you were from Canada.

 

[RadialBladeworks]

I also seen the President's Choice logo on the bottle of Olive Oil I did not know you were from Canada.

haha yeah man, Edmonton, Alberta, baby! You from Canada as well?

Yeah man, I remember you talking about the 50 grit CBN's aggression. That post practically made me salivate, man. I had ten of those things in my cart a minute later. Really tempted to give one a rip. I haven't really been using my K02 much, but I recently felt like busting it out again. It's been a lot of fun to play with, so maybe I'll pick up some new stones... and it'd be nice to get my hands on some Maxamet too, to really put em to the test

 

[wade7575]

I'm from Hanover Ontario Canada,if I were you do not buy the Maxamet it is a horrible steel that corrodes extremely fast I remember I was at work when the package person from Canad Post came around with mine and I opened it and it left a fingerprint on the steel and only got worse from there until I used Froglube if I were you get a Gayle Bradely 2 folder made in M4 I have 2 of them and really like them a lot and they are a carbon steel but do not corrode like the Maxamet,I still use froglube on the M4 and I prefer the paste and I use brush to apply it,I just get the steel really warm with a hair dryer and then brush it on let it sit for a few minutes then wipe it off with a paper towel.

 

[RadialBladeworks]

I'm from Hanover Ontario Canada,if I were you do not buy the Maxamet it is a horrible steel that corrodes extremely fast I remember I was at work when the package person from Canad Post came around with mine and I opened it and it left a fingerprint on the steel and only got worse from there until I used Froglube if I were you get a Gayle Bradely 2 folder made in M4 I have 2 of them and really like them a lot and they are a carbon steel but do not corrode like the Maxamet,I still use froglube on the M4 and I prefer the paste and I use brush to apply it,I just get the steel really warm with a hair dryer and then brush it on let it sit for a few minutes then wipe it off with a paper towel.

I heard there was some chipping issues with Spyderco’s Maxamet—such often seems to be the case when a manufacturer works with a new steel. Have you had any problems with chipping?

 

[lex2006]

Another Edmonight here , like reading your post
Thanks

 

[wade7575]

I have not had any problems with chipping myself but I think with any steel that is really hard you always going to have that problem to a certain degree and what really matters is how good they are at heat treating that metal and also if the ends user understands how to sharpen the knife properly and not thin out the edge to much and if they also are smart enough not to abuse the knife either.

If you want to get a steel that can take a razor sharp edge look at the Bradley 2 by Spyderco in M4 that steel can take a very sharp edge and I mean sharp,also a lot of guy's who make completion chopper's use that steel a lot to from what my friend Kevin Cox told me who is a knife maker from Quebec.

If you are looking at getting some really nice water stones don't get in to big of a rush I just got a Sigma Power Select II 6 10 and 13K stones and a Suehiro G8 8K stone,I'm goint to try and get around to using them sometime this week and see how they work and report my findings on the forum,from what other people have told me who use the Sigma Power Select II stones have told me that they cut fast then any other stone on the market,I got mine for working with S110v I'm not sure if you have read what I have said about S110v but from what I understand from something I read from Crucible Metal they state that when you heat treat a metal that has Vanadium in it the Vanadium carbides get to be 80 to 82 Rockwell hardness witch is way harder then any knife steel I know of I think Maxamet only get's to be around 68 or 69RC from what I have read if I'm remembering correctly,I found that Maxamet was easier to sharpen then S110v and I think it may have something to do with it not having as much or no Vanadium in it at all.I have tried many times to find the pdf that I read about steels that have Vanadium in them and the how the carbides get to be so hard it was a very good read.

 

[RadialBladeworks]

I have not had any problems with chipping myself but I think with any steel that is really hard you always going to have that problem to a certain degree and what really matters is how good they are at heat treating that metal and also if the ends user understands how to sharpen the knife properly and not thin out the edge to much and if they also are smart enough not to abuse the knife either.

If you want to get a steel that can take a razor sharp edge look at the Bradley 2 by Spyderco in M4 that steel can take a very sharp edge and I mean sharp,also a lot of guy's who make completion chopper's use that steel a lot to from what my friend Kevin Cox told me who is a knife maker from Quebec.

If you are looking at getting some really nice water stones don't get in to big of a rush I just got a Sigma Power Select II 6 10 and 13K stones and a Suehiro G8 8K stone,I'm goint to try and get around to using them sometime this week and see how they work and report my findings on the forum,from what other people have told me who use the Sigma Power Select II stones have told me that they cut fast then any other stone on the market,I got mine for working with S110v I'm not sure if you have read what I have said about S110v but from what I understand from something I read from Crucible Metal they state that when you heat treat a metal that has Vanadium in it the Vanadium carbides get to be 80 to 82 Rockwell hardness witch is way harder then any knife steel I know of I think Maxamet only get's to be around 68 or 69RC from what I have read if I'm remembering correctly,I found that Maxamet was easier to sharpen then S110v and I think it may have something to do with it not having as much or no Vanadium in it at all.I have tried many times to find the pdf that I read about steels that have Vanadium in them and the how the carbides get to be so hard it was a very good read.

Hell yeah man, I’d love to hear your thoughts on those stones. Really tempted to pick up the 10 or 13k specifically. And post that pdf too if you find it again. I’d certainly be interested.

I’m with you on the M4 love haha one of my favorite knives is the BM Contego. The stuff takes a killer edge and just keeps cutting, man. I beat the hell out of that knife and it just keeps going. I almost bought the GB2, I think, probably about a hundred times. Handsome blade, that one...

 

[marcus52AR]

Great review, I own the Ko2 and have been able to get some really nice edges out of it.

Thx for the tips!

Also Canadian (Winnipeg)

 

[wade7575]

Beansandcarrots can you post your email and a link to your facebook as well I'd like to be to contact that way if I can.

Also if you look at this website I have dealt with him to get my Sigma Power II Select stones and he is a very good guy to deal and I'm also looking into trying his Gritalon stones witch are supposed to be pretty good and are not the Grinderman stones that come with the K02 and just rebranded these are his own stones from what he told me,look at the long list of everything on the right side of the page and look for the Gritalon stones.

https://sharpeningstones.ru/

Also if you look at the main page at the bottom he also has the Metallic Bonded CBN stones as well,the one I got from Sharpeningstones.ru that are different are the 240 Grit as Gritomatic does not offer that stone at all,then I got a 800 grit has another grit rating on the box and it's the same rating system so I'm pretty sure nothing is getting confused the 800 grit has 28/20 written on the box the stone came in and the reason I'm pretty certain nothing has been confused is because my Gritomatic 1000 has 14/10 written on the blank and thy do not offer the 800 grit,also got a 1200 grit that has 10/7 written on the box but none of my Gritmatic stones have a corresponding number and I also got a 240 grit that has 63/50 on it.A friend of mine was in Russia and I found out he was going right threw town where sharpeningstones.ru is and he made arrangement's to stop in and pick up these stones for me and bring them back,the Sigma Power and Suehiro stones I had to shipped to me about 2 weeks before my friend decided to go over ad visit some of his family.

When I check my Gritomatic stones that I have the same grit's in the numbers match such as the 120 stones both say 125/100,the 4000 grits both say 5/3 and the 8000 grit both say 2/1,so it looks like sharpeningstones.ru is carrying a few different grit's as well,I wanted to have a back up set of stones and also get the 240 and 1200 grit when it comes to sharpening if I'm going for a mirror polish I don't like to make to big of jumps at a time and I find it does not take as long to remove the scratch's at higher grits when dealing with S110v.

The only stone they do not list is a 50 grit but if you ask me I think the 120 stone still out performs most if not all other stones rated at the same grit if no lower grits.

 

[RadialBladeworks]

They have the Venev conversion chart on there! Awesome! I still can make absolutely no sense of it though lol

Production - Venevsky diamond tools factory (Venev Industrial Diamonds).

Marking Grain size JIS
100/80 ~ 100 μm 150
50/40 ~ 45 μm 320
20/14 ~ 20 μm 700
7/5 ~ 6 μm 2500
3/2 ~ 3 μm 5000
1/0 ~ 1 μm 15,000

That's a solid site. A ton of options on there, and the prices are pretty incredible for the most part. Hopefully shipping is cheap...

Anyway, you can hit me up at
Keith.amirault@live.ca
https://www.facebook.com/keith.amirault

Beansandcarrots can you post your email and a link to your facebook as well I'd like to be to contact that way if I can.