Sharpening the Leatherman Squirt/Micro

[badevilcow]

Greetings!,

I picked up both a micro for my girlfriend, and a squirt s4 for my self (to go with the charge/spyderco dodo) and then i realized the blade is ground really odd.. neither knife is really that sharp. .and i tried used the 204 sharpmaker at 30 degree's to sharpen the micro and couldn't get it sharp.. anyone reccomend a way to make these little babies sharp? should i only be sharpening one side or what? anyway thanks alot in advance!

Cheers,
Miles

 

[Steely_Gunz]

Miles, I've had really good luck with a grooved steel, a smooth steel, and an old leather belt for stropping. The 400 series steel leatherman uses is pretty soft and easy to sharpen. It's a little tougher to do on small blades, but I just take the a few passes down the grooved steel until i get a nice bur from hogging off a bit of metal, then the smooth steel to kind of smash the micro edge back to true. It should now shave arm hair with a bit of an uncomfortable drag. Finally, I take an old belt nailed to a board and strop each side of the knife until polished and smooth. It should now pop the hair off your arm. It takes some practice, but it's worth it. Your knives will stay sharper if you strop often as well as lose less metal with each sharpening.

Good luck
Jake

 

[klattman]

Miles, I've had really good luck with a grooved steel, a smooth steel, and an old leather belt for stropping. ...

Good luck
Jake

Sorry, those tools will not do the job on the leatherman micra/squirt. They're great tools, but the small LM's require some trickery.

The small blades will not allow you to get a round steel close enough to sharpen the entire blade easily. The 204 sharpmaker rods or a bench stone will work better.

These LM's come with a near 45 degree chisel grind which is very obtuse. That's your main problem.

You need to bring the angle down less than 20 per side (15 per side would be better ). You can do this on the 204 brown rods if you are patient, or you can use a coarser stone freehand. You can keep the chisel grind if you wish, but you still have to lower the angle.

I sharpened mine on a stone and made it a v-grind at less than 15 degrees per side and then finished up on the 204, going through all the hones.

My point is, you really need to thin the edge before you can expect any results. My guess is you just aren't there yet. You should use the marker trick to tell.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=330335