Sharpening M390

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Oct 8, 2016
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I just sharpened My Bradford M390 Wharnie. This was my first attempt @ M390. I fully expected to spend hours sharpening It. I had to do minor re-profiling to even it out and could not believe how easy it was to sharpen. The edge took a high polish very easily and it is razor sharp.
I am pretty sure that the heat treat is good, I know that Bradford is known for their heat treating. The reason I didn't try before is all the comments on BF on how hard it is to sharpen.
I use the KME w/ diamond stones and a Kangaroo strop
I hope all my M390 is like this. I am tired of sending my knives back for the free sharpening.
Kershaw once cost me a lot of money. They sharpened my Kershaw Tilt which was supposed to be a straight line, they sent it back to me with a belly. That is the last time I sent in an expensive
Knife to any of the manufacturers to sharpen.
 
M390 isn't hard to sharpen ... if you have the proper equipment ... it just takes different stones than softer steels.
 
What he(JJ) said. I think more and more people are realizing that these super steels aren't that much more difficult to sharpen over your average steels.

Diamond stones make a world of difference with steels like M390 or even S30V. If you have them then it's just putting in the time to put a good edge on em'. I do enjoy sharpening M390 quite a bit more than I do S30V, though haha.
 
Diamond is the only way to go with high carbide content steels.

Hm................ I just finished this knife and put first edge in less than 5 minute .It is M42 or M35 HSS steel , 67 HRC / I forget from which circular saw I cut blank / And this is sharpening stone I use , left one is white color and 200 grit , middle is green color and 400 grit and last one is 800 grit .Most I use 200 and 400 grit on this kind of steel .......
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For all steels, including M390, ZDP, S30, S35, I use the Spyderco sharpmaker which is ceramic, but I do use the diamonds to reprofile. I also strop on sandpaper for touch-ups; 400, 600 and 1000 grit depending upon the knife.
 
What he(JJ) said. I think more and more people are realizing that these super steels aren't that much more difficult to sharpen over your average steels.

Diamond stones make a world of difference with steels like M390 or even S30V. If you have them then it's just putting in the time to put a good edge on em'. I do enjoy sharpening M390 quite a bit more than I do S30V, though haha.
I agree. I found it more tedious to sharpen S30 than M390.
 
For all steels, including M390, ZDP, S30, S35, I use the Spyderco sharpmaker which is ceramic, but I do use the diamonds to reprofile. I also strop on sandpaper for touch-ups; 400, 600 and 1000 grit depending upon the knife.
I have sandpaper all the way to 12,000 grit for when I am feeling anal. I usually go up too 2,500 and have no need for the strop. Sandpaper is much cheaper than stopping tape.
 
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I think you found what many have M390 and some of the newer steels aren't truely any more difficult to sharpen but it does take different stones or compounds to sharpen them with.

I haven't tried alot of the so called new "super steels" ... but I found out I needed to upgrade my equipment and it just happened to be M390 that I first ran into trouble with my old faithful stones ... and I had tried diamond stones but did not like the feel and feedback so I told myself they weren't for me.

But after talking to several more experienced sharpeners then myself I found other options and that the diamond stones had much improved from the ones I first tried ... so I ended up with some good quality diamond stones and found Shapton Glass Ceramics and tried and really liked the New Chosera stones and found the Baryonyx Artic Fox pocket stone I had was now offered in field and bench stone sizes ... so I gave in and upgraded my equipment and all of the frustration and feeling that it had to be something I was doing wrong that I couldnt get these knives sharp ...

well it opened my eyes made sense and i don't know why it took so long for me to just accept the new steels weren't the problem ... but with a few good stones and updated compounds for my strops I'm learning to get the same quality edges I had on old beat up knives I'd had for years ...

and the only drawback ... it turned out to be hard on my wallet ... not so much the new equipment ... but it sure got me to buy and try alot of new knives snd steels ...



I use the diamond stones from KME. They seem to do the trick.
 
Hm................ I just finished this knife and put first edge in less than 5 minute .It is M42 or M35 HSS steel , 67 HRC / I forget from which circular saw I cut blank / And this is sharpening stone I use , left one is white color and 200 grit , middle is green color and 400 grit and last one is 800 grit .Most I use 200 and 400 grit on this kind of steel .......
Maybe diamond being "the only way" isn't quite right, but I get best results from them.
I'd like to sharpen those knives of yours with diamond for you to compare. I have several knives in those steels since the mid 80's.
 
Hm................ I just finished this knife and put first edge in less than 5 minute .It is M42 or M35 HSS steel , 67 HRC / I forget from which circular saw I cut blank / And this is sharpening stone I use , left one is white color and 200 grit , middle is green color and 400 grit and last one is 800 grit .Most I use 200 and 400 grit on this kind of steel .......
JusGG87.jpg


laOuRSS.jpg


uVdPUf0.jpg

R2K1JJ0.jpg
Has it already been hardened ?
 
Maybe diamond being "the only way" isn't quite right, but I get best results from them.
I'd like to sharpen those knives of yours with diamond for you to compare. I have several knives in those steels since the mid 80's.
I use diamond. I have 50, 100, 140, 300, 600, 1500 grit and then I have my strop and sandpapers that go up to 12,000 grit. It depends on the knife and steel as to how far I would go. I take M390 up to 2500 grit for high polish & 600 grit plus strop (5 Micron) for a nice working edge. I have decided that for now M390 is my favorite steel to sharpen.
 
For all steels, including M390, ZDP, S30, S35, I use the Spyderco sharpmaker which is ceramic, but I do use the diamonds to reprofile. I also strop on sandpaper for touch-ups; 400, 600 and 1000 grit depending upon the knife.
If you keep going up to 2,500 grit on the wet and dry sandpaper You will get an amazing high polish on most metals.
 
M390 also pleasantly surprised me at not being a nightmare to sharpen. You would think with the performance of it that it would be worse than S30V, but it's been so much more forgiving to me. Now if you want a hard steel to sharpen, try S110V or S90V.
 
If you keep going up to 2,500 grit on the wet and dry sandpaper You will get an amazing high polish on most metals.

I don't go past 1000/1200, I'm lazy :).

With one slipjoint, designed by an over the road trucker, convex O1 warncliffe in Remington bullet stlye, the maker said to strop with 600 grit sandpaper on leather. I like to follow instructions when they make sense and come from someone who should know. That sucker will cut like a demon, it's supposedly Rc 61.
 
I don't go past 1000/1200, I'm lazy :).

With one slipjoint, designed by an over the road trucker, convex O1 warncliffe in Remington bullet stlye, the maker said to strop with 600 grit sandpaper on leather. I like to follow instructions when they make sense and come from someone who should know. That sucker will cut like a demon, it's supposedly Rc 61.
Yeah It's all about the steel. Yesterday I polished 440C and it took longer than the M390 on diamond stones.
M390 also pleasantly surprised me at not being a nightmare to sharpen. You would think with the performance of it that it would be worse than S30V, but it's been so much more forgiving to me. Now if you want a hard steel to sharpen, try S110V or S90V.
Been there done that. I don't carry them much. If I get overly frustrated I just send them back to the manufacturer to sharpen and when I get it back I strop it with 2500 then leather. It's lasts a long time because I have so many knives in the rotation that no particular knife gets a lot of pocket time.
 
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I actually touched up my M390 mini Ritter last night. I grabbed my diamond stone, my belt, and my ceramics. I decided to skip the diamond since the edge was still viable, and it turns out the ceramics did their job exceedingly well. My Ritter is back to popping hairs off my arm.

Usually I would have started on the diamond and finished on the ceramics(and belt), but hell I'll do this again. It kept me from removing more metal than was necessary.
 
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