Sharpening s90v on KME

[trailhunter]

Just bought benchmade 940-1. Any tips to sharpen s90v steel on a KME?

 

[PeterS84]

I've done S90V, S110V, and Maxamet on my KME. My biggest piece of advice is to use the diamond stones and to use light pressure. Don't know what your preferred edge finish is, but I like stopping at the 300-325 grit range and then doing 5-10 stropping passes with 4 micron CBN emulsion. Leaves an extremely aggressive edge which seems to do very well for my EDC tasks and maintains its performance for quite a long time. YMMV of course.

Edit to add: Also, if you're doing a full reprofile, do NOT apex the edge with the 50 grit beast diamond stone. Get it close, then move on to the 100-140 grit. Trust me on this one.

 

[Mo2]

I've done S90V, S110V, and Maxamet on my KME. My biggest piece of advice is to use the diamond stones and to use light pressure. Don't know what your preferred edge finish is, but I like stopping at the 300-325 grit range and then doing 5-10 stropping passes with 4 micron CBN emulsion. Leaves an extremely aggressive edge which seems to do very well for my EDC tasks and maintains its performance for quite a long time. YMMV of course.

Edit to add: Also, if you're doing a full reprofile, do NOT apex the edge with the 50 grit beast diamond stone. Get it close, then move on to the 100-140 grit. Trust me on this one.

Can't agree with this more.

For s90v I just goto around 400-600grit for a really nice working edge. Then get a strop with diamond paste and finish it off.

 

[trailhunter]

I've done S90V, S110V, and Maxamet on my KME. My biggest piece of advice is to use the diamond stones and to use light pressure. Don't know what your preferred edge finish is, but I like stopping at the 300-325 grit range and then doing 5-10 stropping passes with 4 micron CBN emulsion. Leaves an extremely aggressive edge which seems to do very well for my EDC tasks and maintains its performance for quite a long time. YMMV of course.

Edit to add: Also, if you're doing a full reprofile, do NOT apex the edge with the 50 grit beast diamond stone. Get it close, then move on to the 100-140 grit. Trust me on this one.

Regarding your edit, do you mean, do not form a burr with 50 but rather with 100-140? What is your experience with apexing the edge?

 

[Mo2]

Regarding your edit, do you mean, do not form a burr with 50 but rather with 100-140? What is your experience with apexing the edge?

Avoid the 50grit apexing and making a burr because it will cause the edge too tear out because it's too coarse a stone. This will then make edge stability issues that cannot be fixed in the later progression. That's why it's preferred to either start with the 140 or to just apex and create a burr with the 140 and the 50 to set the angle when re profiling because it hogs off material fast (let the diamonds do the work, don't use heavy pressure what so ever).

 

[PeterS84]

Avoid the 50grit apexing and making a burr because it will cause the edge too tear out because it's too coarse a stone. This will then make edge stability issues that cannot be fixed in the later progression. That's why it's preferred to either start with the 140 or to just apex and create a burr with the 140 and the 50 to set the angle when re profiling because it hogs off material fast (let the diamonds do the work, don't use heavy pressure what so ever).

This has been exactly my experience; I did apex one knife with the 50 grit stone and felt that it gouged out chunks at the apex which took forever to remove/refine to a sufficient level before moving to finer abrasives. The 50 grit is great for massive material removal if you have a very obtuse angle that you're trying to thin out, etc. However, now I rarely use it unless I'm cleaning up someone else's screwed up knife. And even then, I stop before I hit the apex and switch to the 100 or 140 grit stone.