Let's Talk About Sharpening Our Survive! Knives

Maybe it's partly the black compound but I use white the vast majority of the time, white from BRKT and a little 0.5 micron to really bring the shine on.

I think you have it down now though if you have been going a year. Forgive my ignorance on that compound.
 
Just had to sharpen my 3.5 after using it as a scraper. Took out my Eze-Lap 1200 grit and with a few quick strokes brought it to a nice micro-serrated edge. I find the CPM steels do very well with such an edge. No I never polish things ! I've been sharpening knifes for so many years ,freehand is all I need with a diamond rod .
 
I am more of a fan of the coarse grit abrasive pastes. I'm currently using 600 grit silicon carbide paste on leather.
It come in a jar instead of a block and applies evenly and wears pretty well.
It is available from a variety of sources, the stuff I have now comes from ****************** (not a bf sponsor, sorry)
a very well known industrial supply catalog. I've also bought similar material from Big Chris Knives.
If you want something more flexible I've used the trick of heating the compound in an oven before applying it,
and that improves the penetration into the leather.
 
JustinFournier said:
Maybe it's partly the black compound but I use white the vast majority of the time, white from BRKT and a little 0.5 micron to really bring the shine on.

I think you have it down now though if you have been going a year. Forgive my ignorance on that compound.
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For both knives I started with diamond stones and finished with my strop, the bat from the picts from my previous thread. I can get an okay polish but a hair cutting edge mostly with the black compound and untreated leather. I've lost about 20% to 50% of the green and white compound from the strop and it's hard to get it to stay on the leather when I reload it. I'll try another brand of compound to see if it'll adhere better. Currently I use the JRE Industries white and green compound.
 
Yeah OBX, I should add. I use white and CBN, but NOT on the suede side. I'm sure it makes a difference. Different results from different types and thicknesses of leather and suede side or not as well. This is just white and it's not done yet.

dbdb6c6a372fee47c5377cd2515be904.jpg
 
OBX351 said:
...I've lost about 20% to 50% of the green and white compound from the strop and it's hard to get it to stay on the leather when I reload it. I'll try another brand of compound to see if it'll adhere better. Currently I use the JRE Industries white and green compound.
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This may have been mentioned previously, but just in case, OBX are you using any heat when you reload your strop? I don't use strops much (don't usually require such a polished edge) but for my straight-razor, I'll lightly apply the compound to the strop and then heat it with a heat-gun to help smooth it out on the surface.
 
chiral.grolim said:
This may have been mentioned previously, but just in case, OBX are you using any heat when you reload your strop? I don't use strops much (don't usually require such a polished edge) but for my straight-razor, I'll lightly apply the compound to the strop and then heat it with a heat-gun to help smooth it out on the surface.
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Great question. I used heat on my first strop bat by applying with heat. I lightly heated the compound and then applied it to the leather. Unfortunately it caked the compound and made the surface very uneven and eventually it flaked off. Now I rub the compound directly on the leather. I don't have a heat gun but maybe I'll get one and try it your way.
 
JustinFournier said:
Yeah OBX, I should add. I use white and CBN, but NOT on the suede side. I'm sure it makes a difference. Different results from different types and thicknesses of leather and suede side or not as well. This is just white and it's not done yet.



Mine is not as mirrored as yours. I'll try using more white and green which are fine and super fine I believe.
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I use BRKT compounds which you are not supposed to use heat for. So I do not use heat at all.

Different steels also take a different level of polish.

S35VN is one of those notorious for being difficult to polish. Here is my EDC Sebenza 25 in said steel.

e697a2dbfe3a7c1ea5c6eb6a87a0e93e.jpg
 
OBX351 said:
Great question. I used heat on my first strop bat by applying with heat. I lightly heated the compound and then applied it to the leather. Unfortunately it caked the compound and made the surface very uneven and eventually it flaked off. Now I rub the compound directly on the leather. I don't have a heat gun but maybe I'll get one and try it your way.
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I'm no expert, but it has worked when I've done it, then again I'm applying the compound VERY lightly across the surface, then heating gently and smoothing it out with the spine of a knife. I'm not sure which brand my compound is, it might be that most don't require any heat at all, I just started doing it when it seemed like I was getting ridges of compound on the strop and I wanted them to be flatter/more even.
 
Makes sense to me. When the green and white compound wear off of my current strop bat I'll use your idea when I reapply. I'll also try some of the compound Justin uses on my other bat to see which works better. But for now my current bat is doing it's job, (mostly using the Enkay Black Emery coarse and the untreated smooth leather) and I can shave with the knives in the picture above. Below is a short single pass on my leg with my GSO 4.1 that I recently resharpened with diamond stones (Work Sharp guided sharpening system) and finished with the bat. But I still think I'll get a wicked edge system too some day.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

 
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TY! But I love the clean look your knives have, so I have something to strive for!
 
Chiral: I received your package in the mail today. All fantastic as was the case the last time. I'll be using this for my GSO 10 to accessorize it. Thank you Buddy :thumbup:
 
Casinostocks said:
Chiral: I received your package in the mail today. All fantastic as was the case the last time. I'll be using this for my GSO 10 to accessorize it. Thank you Buddy :thumbup:
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LOL, I really have to renew my subscription so I can receive PMs again :p
 
So... I kept stropping that darn GSO 10 which I bought off of eBay, the one which supposedly had sat in a safe and never had cu anything other than paper! However, it was the toothiest GSO (note I didn't say dull, because the blade geometry and the knife's heft would still slice meat off a bone with no problems) that I had ever had go through my hands (admittedly as I'm a newbie, not that many so far). It was time to take out the gemologists' magnifying eyepiece (I'm not one of those but somehow have ended up with one of those pieces!) and low and behold, I note two very, very minor rolls and microscopic chips! Oh the bloody horror! :eek:

Very p*ssed off and not knowing as to whether to direct my cusses at Guy (just because and why not as he's the Papa), at the seller or at myself (I did hack at a few pieces of wood but nothing that I deemed to have metal in it and didn't hit any cement or anything) I just manned up and took out the DMT diamond plates (Fine and extra Fine: red dot / green dot) I didn't have an extra Coarse / Coarse (which I will now be ordering) to take that microscopic chip out in its entirety but actually ended up doing a very decent job just with the aforementioned. I had never sharpened a GSO but I was rather surprised as to how painless it was as I didn't spend more than 15 minutes tops including stropping (Black, Green & White on Flexxx Strop paddles). Now the GSO 10 is very sharp and only catches on that one minor spot about 1/2 way in the middle if I go slowly but will skip that hick up altogether if I use the weight of the GSO 10 to push through.

Obviously I skipped the very fine honing before stropping as my only option would have been to use the dark brown side of my DC4 but I wanted something larger and much higher in grit. I am thinking of buying a Spyderco ultra fine benchstone (3 x 8 size) for home use and the Fallkniven CC3 for field use along with my DC4. Has anyone in here used that Spyderco large ultra fine plate? The reviews on Amazon are a bit of hit and miss and reading the critical reviews, most buyers complain about its unevenness. I can always lap it using the coarse DMT which I will also be ordering, so not too worried. Otherwise do you guys have something better to recommend? Perhaps a Shapeton 8000 grit glass plate? I have never had Shapetons. Decisions, decision!
 
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