Sharpening cold steel question

B

bones57

Joined
Dec 27, 2004
Messages
17
Greetings

I am a little frustrated to say the least. I have been trying to sharpen my cold steel voyager with absolutely dismal results. I have tried a japanese water stone, a dmt paddle, an oil stone with no results at all. The thing wouldnt cut butter and i have had good results sharpening other knives and cleavers and whatnot. I last took it to a knfe store here in town and the guy sharpened it for $5 and it was a good job but after quite a bit of use its ready again. I had this same problem last time and the guy at the knife store told me to forget trying to sharpen it myself as cold steel products are hard to sharpen with stones, i beleive him now, lol.
Is there any reason for this ? What am i missing ?
Any help would be appreciated.
 
I recommend the Spyderco Sharpmaker. It's so simple, that, hey, even I can use it. I've used one to sharpen a CS El Hombre so that it was shaving sharp.

If your blade is serrated, you can use the corner of the ceramic sticks to get in between the serrations to sharpen those up.

Q: What kind of steel is your blade made of? If it's AUS 8, it should hold up reasonably well. It might not if it's that Sub Zero Quench 420 stuff. :(
 
AUS8 responds well to DMT diamond hones. The vanadium carbides are very hard. Just touched up my tanto and clip Voyagers and they are scary sharp.
 
Unserrated voyagers made of aus 8 will sharpen just fine on any decent quality stone. If they're still using the same serration pattern with th really fine small teeth then even a sharpmaker will be unsuitable if it's serrated, the stone corners aren't small enough to fit.
 
It's not the knife! Stop blamming the knife. :) It's your knife sharpening skills that need work. It took me a lot of practice and reading these forums to finally get decent at sharpening knives. When I first started I sometimes got lucky and would get a knife very sharp. Then I'd have another knife I couldn't get sharp. It wasn't the knife's fault, it was that I didn't understand enough about sharpening at the time to know what I was doing wrong. Usually it's just a matter of not sharpening all the way to the edge.

First, what grit is your Japanese water stone? If your knife is very dull you're not going to get anywhere fast using some 1000+ grit finishing stone. You may need to start with something around 180 grit until you get your edge set. Then you move up in grits as much as you want to polish the edge. I also recommend getting a Spyderco Sharpmaker. Once you get your knife sharp with it, it's very easy to touch up your knife. Just be sure to touch it up often enough so it doesn't get dull.

As far as the guy at the knife store telling you not to try sharpening it yourself... He either wants your money or just has no confidence in his customers being able to sharpen a knife properly.
 
My AUS-8 Black Bear Classic was a pain to sharpen even with an Apex Edgepro. It takes a long time to get a burr on it, but it takes a great edge.
 
Well thanks for the advice guys but i tried again and the thing i still dull as can be. I tried different angles with the paddle and the stones and got nothing and i mean nothing. Maybe i will try that syderco sharpmaker.
Its frustrating because i have gotten so many other things sharp and this i cant even get started.
I did succeed in getting the blade scratched up though, lol.
I have a dremel, will that polish it up ? What would be the right wheel and paste to use ?
 
It could be that you're not really sharpening but reprofiling, or using the wrong angle. Use a magic marker on the edge bevel when you sharpen. If you still see ink on the very edge after 5 to 10 passes, then you will have isolated your problem. At that point, either go ahead and reprofile, which can take a while depending on the grit you're using, or change the angle you're using.
 
Mt Grandpa taugh me how to sharpen when I was a kid and since then I've worked in my part of own method too , and im still not as good as he was some of the time hehe. I have found that in only two siuations have I not been able to sharpen a knife , first situation : I was trying 'too hard' and getting frustrated , bad move , watch some Tv or read a book for a bit , relax and come back to it , usually works for me . Second situation : JUNK steel... I have quite a few CS knives and I know while not top of the line , it sure isnt junk either. Try the patience thingy , and good luck.
 
many people will tell you to learn to sharpen freehand before doing anything else, but i'll disagree. get yourself a Spyderco Sharpmaker (you can bring one in for ~$50 w/shipping online) and you will be able to sharpen just about anything in very little time, with a lot of consistency.

once you get the SM down pat, you will find it a lot easier to sharpen things freehand, even if you have prior experience (i know i do). perhaps it's a muscle memory thing, i don't know. i just know that my freehand skills improved by leaps and bounds after using the Sharpmaker for a while.

as previously mentioned, if you're working with Cold Steel's little serrations, nothing's going to get them sharp, except that Lansky stone with the special grooves.

good luck!

abe m.
 
rebeltf said:
Second situation : JUNK steel... I have quite a few CS knives and I know while not top of the line , it sure isnt junk either. Try the patience thingy , and good luck.
Click to expand...

I've yet to find any "junk" steel I couldn't put a razor, hair shaving, edge on. It may not hold that edge for long. :)
 
WadeF said:
I've yet to find any "junk" steel I couldn't put a razor, hair shaving, edge on. It may not hold that edge for long. :)
Click to expand...
for kicks, a coworker of mine sharpened up another coworker's Smith & Wesson SWAT knife (a rebadged Frost Delta Ranger) on his E-Pro Apex. he took it up to about 1000 grit. it was very sharp and for a few minutes, it would shave. after a day's use, it was so dull you could pull your finger along the edge again with no fear of being cut! :barf:... conversely, i whittled with my 806d2 off and on all day (the same day), and it still shaved when i got home.

so yeah, you can sharpen just about anything, but those poop steels are definitely not gonna stay that way.

my Cold Steel AUS-8 takes and holds an edge for a pretty good length of time, so it shouldn't be a problem.

abe m.
 
Dunno , some of my past co-workers , fascinated with my fascination of blades and guns and other like stuff have asked me to sharpen thier knives , last time was one of our bouncers , he had this chi-com metal handled boot knife made of some pretty dubious steel , like the original poster I tried in vain for hours to sharpenthis "knife" to no avail , nothing I had worked , I finally just gave it back to him telling him to buy something good for pete's sake . lol.. :D
 
i tried for years to sharpen with a benchstone but just couldn't get it. i got a Lanskey set-up and i get things sharp now.seems i couldn't keep the same angle free-hand. i have a CS Pendleton Hunter inm aus8a and it gets sharp and stays that way for a right good while.
 
when I first was learning how to sharpen, I tended to not hold the angle very well. This, in turn, totally rounded the bevel, and it was impossible to get an edge going on the knife. After years of practice, I've become pretty good with sharpening, so I had dug out the old knife and took another shot at it. I had to completely put a new bevel on the bllade before it could be sharpened. That was always my biggest problem; rounding the bevel.
 
Hello, asfar as polishing .... it's kinda funny. a stone scratched it... and a polishing stone will unscratch it... start with a course stone like 220 then go to a 400 then a 600. once you are at a good 600 finish start with some paste or even some regular wenol all-purpose metal-polish. with that dremel tool.. i'll bet you can make it gleam and sparkle better than when it was new

take time with the stones ... the finer you polish the more your imperfections will show up... make sure you get all the scratches out ..and an even finish before moving on to the next stone.. oh, and use a little honeing oil when you polish... good luck


Hope this helps,
Hydraulicman (machinist)
 
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