Reprofiling Question

Revival29

Revival29

Joined
Jan 9, 2013
Messages
609
So I have a PM2 in M390 that I received from a friend a while ago. I believe he had it professionally sharpened to 10-12°.

I’m not a fan and usually sharpen my knives to 15-17°. If I want to reprofile to 15-17°, what should my plan of attack be? I sharpen on a KME and have the 50 grit Beast.

Do I set to 15° and just grind away on both sides? Or is there more of a gradual process to get back to the 15°? I have no experience doing this so I prefer feedback before I attempt it. Thanks in advance.
 
I reprofile with a belt sander. But the process is the same. Just keep at the new angle until you reach the edge. That may mean until you get a bur. I say may because you don't have to raise a bur to sharpen. No argument here about that though. And then flip and repeat. You will very likely end up with a double bevel. As the new edge will end up shorter than the old one as the angle is different. Good luck and it's not rocket science.
 
Its up to you how fast you want to get to your desired edge angle. For me, I would use the knife at its current angle until it needs sharpening. At that point I would start micro beveling at the desired angle. Over time just keep micro beveling the egde and at some point, may two or three times of doing that you’ll realize it’s time to just fully sharpen the knife and reprofile the edge to the full desired angle.
 
Revival29 said:
So I have a PM2 in M390 that I received from a friend a while ago. I believe he had it professionally sharpened to 10-12°.

I’m not a fan and usually sharpen my knives to 15-17°. If I want to reprofile to 15-17°, what should my plan of attack be? I sharpen on a KME and have the 50 grit Beast.

Do I set to 15° and just grind away on both sides? Or is there more of a gradual process to get back to the 15°? I have no experience doing this so I prefer feedback before I attempt it. Thanks in advance.
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Don't unnecessarily waste metal, and be very careful of attacking your 10-12 dps edge at 15-17 dps with a 50 grit stone on an edge that was previously sharpened at 10-12 dps. You can, and will likely easily create micro cracks and chips.

Because you already have a bevel thinned out to 10-12dps, just go ahead and sharpen with your higher grit finishing stones at your preferred 15-17dps angle. It will be a very quick process. Having the thinned out bevel behind your edge with M390 steel is then an added bonus that you didn't have to re-profile yourself.
 
Yes, just microbevel with a finishing stone at your desired angle. The microbevel needn't be any more work than maybe 2 - 5 passes per side with your chosen finishing stone. With subsequent touchups to the microbevel, the steel behind the apex will gradually thicken and add some strength & stability to the apex without degrading the thin grind behind it. No need to grind a bunch of the steel away to make the edge wider. Just a tiny bit at a time will do - and only when it actually needs sharpening.
 
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Revival29, Agree with others suggesting using it, observe performance n edge failures, microbevel as maintenance strategy as long as your happy. At this point you will understand more about Spyderco's m390 on your example with your use cases then just reprofiling out of the gate.
 
When you guys refer to finishing stone(s), just use my highest grit stone(s) at 15-17°?

have 50-140-300-600-1500 Diamond stones. Do I use the 600 then 1500 or just 1500?

I’m not a micro bevel guy so I had to let all of this sink in…haha.

Forgot to mention that it was also sharpened to 10-12° a long time ago and it has been used. So it’s not a fresh edge or anything. Don’t know if that matters with the reprofiling but just wanted to point that out.
 
OP reports "Forgot to mention that it was also sharpened to 10-12° a long time ago and it has been used."
Use whatever digital camera you have, take pics and magnify to assess edge, both bevels, heel to tip. If edge is all wonky with various failures, cracks, roll overs, chips, then start with the 600grit. If edge is clean use your KME 1500 set to 17 degrees for creating microbevel. That is, if edge is unblemished.
 
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Revival29 said:
So I have a PM2 in M390 that I received from a friend a while ago. I believe he had it professionally sharpened to 10-12°.

I’m not a fan and usually sharpen my knives to 15-17°. If I want to reprofile to 15-17°, what should my plan of attack be? I sharpen on a KME and have the 50 grit Beast.

Do I set to 15° and just grind away on both sides? Or is there more of a gradual process to get back to the 15°? I have no experience doing this so I prefer feedback before I attempt it. Thanks in advance.
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If the knife is properly sharpened to that angle, why not sell or trade it to someone who wants a really thin edge? Then you can get another that is closer to the factory edge and you'll be happier with it. It seems a shame to undo that work!
 
rhino said:
If the knife is properly sharpened to that angle, why not sell or trade it to someone who wants a really thin edge? Then you can get another that is closer to the factory edge and you'll be happier with it. It seems a shame to undo that work!
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It was given to me as a gift… and wouldn’t feel right selling it. The professional sharpener also lazer etched its company logo into the blade.
 
M390, while listed as a super steel, Is probably the easiest of the bunch to sharpen. If its due for a sharpening, with that steel, and that acute of an edge, I would hit it with 400 diamond grit at lowest and then up. It's very thin at that angle and wont take much effort to take off steel at the edge.
But all that being said, I personally would use strops to maintain the edge at the sharper angle if it's just small packages or letters and such. If its routinely cardboard or zip ties, then go to the 15-17 degree angle.
 
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