Sharpening crk

Greg02 said:
I also use a Wicked Edge. I went with the WE130 about 5 years ago. I could never get a consistent edge freehanded and was normally left discouraged trying. With the WE, it gets incredible results every time. Pricy yes. But well worth it in my opinion. Plus their customer service is top notch. It’s the CRK of sharpening in my opinion.
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Greg is the one who consistently plants the seed in my brain that I need a WE130. Darn you, Greg.
 
I just do it freehand, but I rarely let it get very dull, so I've never had to re-profile it. Once I notice it's losing its bite, I give it a few swipes on a 1200 grit diamond plate, then a few on a Spyderco ultra-fine. Finish with some diamond compound on a strop, and it's back to shaving sharp.
 
rishma said:
My guess is they ship with a convex edge because of the belt system they use to sharpen them at the factory. I suspect convex is not the goal, but an artifact of the system they use. They recommend maintaining with a sharpmaker, which makes me think convex isn’t really that important. I am sure some of our serious edge-nerds can explain the differences in performance vs geometry, which I’d probably never notice in real life.

But what do I know, I just cut stuff.
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This is an interesting approach indeed it could be not the goal of their way to sharpen them. Maybe it is best to just to wait if somebody can give some more insight in the benefits or cons of a convex grind before I over complicate things
 
Skunkworkz said:
How do you guys sharpen your CRK’s?

I do regular knives freehand on shaptons, but sometime have some inconsistencies, bu I also have a tsprof K03 system for reprofiling and polishing.

I can get a convex adapter for the system but I have no clue which angle I need. I have a 31 sebenza and an large inkosi.

Also it seems that a lot of people just go for a v edge on a guided system?

And another question, I have a spare lanyard with pin from my sebenza, will that fit the inkosi? I would like a lanyard on it, but didn’t tried if it would fit.

Regards!
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Stay with the stones, a loose wristed convex is easy to maintain and gives a nice soft margin for error. Efficiency can't be beat and even if you do scratch above the cheeks it will only remind you what the knife is, an amazing "tool".
 
Skunkworkz said:
This is an interesting approach indeed it could be not the goal of their way to sharpen them. Maybe it is best to just to wait if somebody can give some more insight in the benefits or cons of a convex grind before I over complicate things
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Do a search in the MTE sub forum. The spark notes are that theoretically the convexing causes less drag because the shoulders of the bevel are smoothed into the primary grind. I've never noticed any real differences myself. As long as you've got a clean apex and proper thickness BTE you've got a sharp knife...🤷‍♂️ Just a layman's view of things of course.
 
Kettleman said:
Really? I opened a clam shell yesterday and it was like it just melted. Better edge than Ive ever gotten. Gallon size paint stick or the big 5 gallon bucket size? I gotta try this!
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Either one should work, but I think mine would do a 5 gallon pail. I just have different compounds loaded in different areas of the stick.
 
Personally I have used everything from the Sharpmaker - I am probably one of the few that don't get my desired results as it was designed; now I typically lay the crock sticks flat and use them more as a hone - to a Lansky, but mostly I freehand now.

I typically don't let me knives get to the point where they need a full sharpening session, ceramics and stropping keep them where I like them for quite a while.

I am curious to hear what grit you guys typically take your CRK's to; and that will likely vary depending on the steel they are. In my experience, S35VN seems to do better when not taken above 1000 grit; and often 600 is where I stop as it is a really "bitey" edge. I haven't sharpened Magnacut yet, but even that I would probably go no more than 1000; I am not one personally that chases a mirror polish - they look amazing and credit to those that can pull off a nice mirror - but I don't care for the slickness that can come with that.

For stropping I am currently using the black and white compounds, but have some diamond emulsions that I look forward to playing with.
 
For touching up I might use anything from the brown rods on the Sharpmaker to 1 micron diamond emulsion on basswood, followed by stropping on bare kangaroo leather.

For actual sharpening, I'll generally use any of various diamond hones, plated or bonded...or ceramic bench stones if not too much is required.

I have lots of sharpening gear...it's like its own hobby. (I rarely ever use the EdgePro, but it's there if I need it.)
 
I typically just use 1500 grit sandpaper and a 6000 grit stone held at a very steep angle to remove the burr.

My CRKs typically end up with a V grind on them but I'll try to maintain the convex edge for a while. What I'll do is take some sandpaper and clip it to my old leather bible. I only push the knife away from me. The sandpaper on the leather will roll around the edge maintaining the convex to some degree. This is of course not perfect but it's easy and works well enough.
 
rishma said:
My guess is they ship with a convex edge because of the belt system they use to sharpen them at the factory. I suspect convex is not the goal, but an artifact of the system they use. They recommend maintaining with a sharpmaker, which makes me think convex isn’t really that important. I am sure some of our serious edge-nerds can explain the differences in performance vs geometry, which I’d probably never notice in real life.

But what do I know, I just cut stuff.
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When u use you're hand holding the knife, the edge will always come out somewhat convex using the sharpmaker. You move your hand more than u think with mini and micro movements you cant even see. Try holding hand held binoculars with 8 or 10 magnification completely still..
 
I was just remarking in another thread about the glories of a 600 grit diamond finish on magnacut. This is the way.

I use a wicked edge, although the system itself is not central to my point.

You need diamond abrasives to get the most out of this steel. The sharpmaker ceramics just won't do the same thing.

That's my opinion and I am a random jackass on your internet feed. :cool:
 
I also have a K03 and have used the Universal Pro Convex Attachment on my CRKs at the 4.3 degree setting. I set the angle to 19.5 degrees at the apex, and ends up right around 15.7 degrees at the inside of the bevel. For tantos, I do 18 degrees at the apex and 14.3ish degrees at the inside of the bevel.

I’ve stopped doing this and switched back to V edges because I find it overly time consuming to get a convex edge just right, and burr removal is an absolute pain. As cool as they are, for my use cases I don’t get much benefit from the convex edges.

I’m generally using Poltava Premium Metallic CBN stones and stop at J600 grit on MagnaCut CRKs.
 
loon#r said:
With a spyderco triangle and only achieve a slightly better working edge. I need to improve that.
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True story. I am working on freehand sharpening with a strop at the end. Little sharper than on my sharpmaker
 
jacobconroy75 said:
A Wicked Edge eats steel quickly to keep things fast. This does mean that an EDC user will lose a lot of steel over several years. I've "sharpened the belly" out of two Mnandis in appr. eight years.
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Curious about this. Are you going through a full grit progression on each sharpening? For me, a wicked edge sharpening is usually just three or four passes per side with one stone, usually 600 grit. Then a little stropping.
 
Modernflame said:
Curious about this. Are you going through a full grit progression on each sharpening? For me, a wicked edge sharpening is usually just three or four passes per side with one stone, usually 600 grit. Then a little stropping.
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You are probably correct in your practice. I'm a bit of a bone-head and once an edge has been reprofiled (the first sharpening), I typically run 100/200 - 400/600 - 800/1000 - both ceramics - maybe some leather honing each time I resharpen. I usually resharpen when the blade is so dull it embarrasses me. :)

To make me look even dumber, I often neglected to record exact blade placement and sometimes didn't bother to set the blade to 0 degrees in the clamp. Of course, this lead to blades with slightly uneven grinds when I sharpened them next (which necessitated starting with a low grit to cut through the apex in a timely fashion).

This year I've been carefully recording the settings for each knife and setting them to zero in the clamp. Hopefully this will make things easier and result in less steel loss.

Recently though, I've been stopping at 600g on Magnacut and really like it. It's literally 1/2 the work compared to what I've always done. When it's time to touch up my new 31 I'll hit it once with 600g to see if that is all that is needed (like you are doing).

I haven't tried stropping a 600 grit cut yet.
 
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