Let's Talk About Sharpening Our Survive! Knives

10 and 15?? The little ones cost 15-20! Good sales :thumbup:

Speaking of which, if anyone wants to buy my very good-condition DMT Aligner Kit with black, red, blue, and green, + red marker and kids toothbrush ;) I'm planning to list it for sale on the exchange this week:

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That's a nice looking kit.
Is it a pain to get the proper angle set?
 
That's a nice looking kit.
Is it a pain to get the proper angle set?

Not really, you just use the marker-trick and test the different angle settings until you are removing the paint, or just set it where you want and have at it! I will say that the green isn't the best for pretty polishing of bevels, an uninterrupted surface is better for that, but it works very well to restore a microbevel. This is what I've been using on most of my knives up to this point. If you're a stickler for EXACT angles, this isn't your kit, but it WILL produce a nice even bevel at an effective cutting angle :thumbup:
 
The Spyderco UF bench stone is excellent, but if you lap it with diamonds you are going to change the surface grit to that of the diamonds. It will not be ultra fine anymore.
The folks that comment on bench stone unevenness have extremely high standards for the flatness of their stones since they are accustomed to lapping their wet stones. This stone won't dish out the way that a wet stone will.
It also won't wear back down to the grit size of the abrasive after lapping the way that a wet stone will. Once the surface of the ultra fine ceramic bench stone is abraded it will stay that way.
The extremely small amount of unevenness that the stone might exhibit is irrelevant when it comes to sharpening a GSO-10. It is a good stone for creating a final polish.

I agree with every bit of this. I have the ultra fine 3x8, and it works fine polishing knives free hand. When you hone straight razors, having a flat stone is essential. I lap my water stones before every razor honing session. I might not lap the 6k + stones if I am honing more than one razor, but the 1k and 3k get lapped for each razor when I am resetting bevels.
 
I used to use the sharpmaker but have since upgraded to the wicked edge system. I can get a hair whittling edge no problem... Pics to follow.
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The WE is hard to beat. Pricy, but very effective. The problem with it is that maintaining proper edge geometry after multiple sharpening is not addressed in the system, but there are manual ways to account for that.
 
The WE is hard to beat. Pricy, but very effective. The problem with it is that maintaining proper edge geometry after multiple sharpening is not addressed in the system, but there are manual ways to account for that.
I agree with you on the edge geometry. I keep a log of how I have done each knife and try to keep them at their set settings. I usually do not have to do much in terms of resharpening because most are not used " hard" my hard use knives are usually 50 and below. If you know any tips I am wide open to suggestions. I am a relatively new sharpener.

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The WE is hard to beat. Pricy, but very effective. The problem with it is that maintaining proper edge geometry after multiple sharpening is not addressed in the system, but there are manual ways to account for that.
What do you mean by this? It would take many many sharpening sessions to alter the factory edge geometry if you stay at the factory angle .. it just doesn't remove steel fast enough...that being said i rarely ever keep the factory edge geometry anyway. Most blades get immediately reprofiled tothe edge geometry i desire.

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What do you mean by this? It would take many many sharpening sessions to alter the factory edge geometry if you stay at the factory angle .. it just doesn't remove steel fast enough...that being said i rarely ever keep the factory edge geometry anyway. Most blades get immediately reprofiled tothe edge geometry i desire.

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With repeated sharpening at a fixed angle, the cutting bevel moves into thicker portions of the blade such that the bevel will become wider and wider, eventually effecting cutting efficiency. The only way to maintain optimal bevel geometry is to thin the blade at each sharpening. If we look at the S! Knife, it has 3 bevels. The flat closest to the spine and at 90 degree angle from the spine is the primary bevel, the next is the secondary bevel, and the cutting bevel is the tertiary bevel. To thin the blade, you must run the the secondary bevel across a stone to thin the blade. This maintains optimal cutting bevel geometry throughout the life of the knife. It Mars the blade which is why I don't like coated blades, but I do use this method on some very expensive knives that get a lot of use with a lot of sharpenings.
 
There's 2 bevels,(unless your using a micro bevel) the primary bevel and a secondary which is the cutting edge...we're not talking about Scandi grinds which are done in the methods you're describing....you'd have to be sharpening a gso ALOT before you'd need to start considering thinning down the primary bevel from being sharpened back that much..


With the exception of the convex monster there's a thread about i haven't seen a gso that's been over sharpened to the point it needs the primary bevel thinned down...and most won't use and sharpen a knife to that point and aren't grinding down the primary bevel when they do sharpen their blades. (Unless it's a Scandi or convex grind)

The wicked edge does what it's designed to do and that's sharpen knives...not re-bevel em. Unless of course you just want it thinner behind the edge.. that's why we have guys like R.E.K. who do great regrinds.
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Ok, however you slice it, failure to thin the blade with repeated sharpenings will decrease cutting efficiency if you do not thin the blade. Let's call the cutting bevel the primary bevel and count backwards. Then thinning the secondary bevel is essential to maintain optimal cutting bevel geometry throughout the useful life of the knife.

If you don't use and sharpen a knife very much, then absolutely it does not matter much, but if you want to maintain efficiency over the useful life of the blade, thin the blade at each sharpening.
 
Silver Needle featured the bladesmith Murray Carter in the nonsense thread here tonight. Look him up, and watch some of his sharpening videos on YouTube.
 
No thanks, i know exactly what im doing when i sharpen..if i get a blade to the point of needing the primary grind thinned I'll have a regrind done..until then there's no need to grind away at a primary grind unless it's a Scandi or convex grind that's meant to be maintained as such.

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Anyone have any experience or opinion on the Lansky mini dog bone crock stick?

As a more general question: who likes ceramic rods for edge maintenance? I've been getting into stropping and haven't used a diamond plates in months. Where does ceramic fall between those two extremes and how does it effect the steel?
 
That Lansky looks a bit awkward to use, but it may be a great compact sharpener. I don't know if I'd want to have a sharp blade sliding towards my thumb while sharpening.
 
I think ceramic is great for touching up your edge. You don't always need to sharpen your knives. After every use, just run it a few times on the ceramic rod and strop and it should be back to razor sharp again.
 
Silver, I've used the Spyderco Sharpmaker for years and the ceramic rods in those are very good.
Those ceramic rods are much less aggressive than diamond plates, but subtantially more aggressive than stropping.
The medium gives a toothy edge, the fine gives a much more polished finish.
I can't speak for the quality of the ceramics from other sources, the only time I bought from another company I returned it because the surface of the ceramic was like scraping a knife against a broken plate.
 
Silver, I've used the Spyderco Sharpmaker for years and the ceramic rods in those are very good.
Those ceramic rods are much less aggressive than diamond plates, but subtantially more aggressive than stropping.
The medium gives a toothy edge, the fine gives a much more polished finish.
I can't speak for the quality of the ceramics from other sources, the only time I bought from another company I returned it because the surface of the ceramic was like scraping a knife against a broken plate.

I think that is my experience too. Some white ceramic scratches my knife when I expected them to polish, especially obvious on a scandi edge. The Spyderco ones seems quite good.
 
That Lansky looks a bit awkward to use, but it may be a great compact sharpener. I don't know if I'd want to have a sharp blade sliding towards my thumb while sharpening.

Well don't just worry about your thumb, the blade will also be coming at your index finger :D

Thanks for the input on ceramic, guys. I have a lot to learn and you're all a big help!
 
Well don't just worry about your thumb, the blade will also be coming at your index finger :D

Thanks for the input on ceramic, guys. I have a lot to learn and you're all a big help!

Haha! My dumbass would cut both of my fingers off!
 
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