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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
What Did You Sharpen Today?
- Thread starter kreisler
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2022
- Messages
- 360
Sharpened the maxamet pm2. Pulled out the angle cube n was switching to micarta scales. What a pain to set a good bevel. It's still not perfect but better. By far the hardest feeling knife I've sharpened. 
I just finished sharpening my Mnandi and cleaning my bench-stone. I have been learning how to freehand sharpen on a bench-stone instead of using my Sharpmaker. There is nothing wrong with the Sharpmaker and I like it A LOT but I have been wanting to learn how to sharpen the old fashion way.
Anyway, here is the obligatory photo.
Anyway, here is the obligatory photo.
Sharpened a few hunting knives for a family member. They were in pretty rough shape. Sharpened the Buck and an unknown Gerber at 15 degrees and a Remington "China Stainless" at 20 degrees with Venev 160/125, then 50/40, then finished with the 40/28 stone. The Hapstone Lite clamps were surprisingly not able to hold the Buck 119 so I used the Leading Edge magnetic table sent to me by
777 Edge
777 Edge
A pair of brand new Kizers.
The Deviant with the M390 blade came out of the box ready to shave arm hair and skim through receipt paper. I gave it a few passes across Old Faithful on general principal. Old Faithful is a leather strop charged with 5 micron Russian diamond paste. The knife now slices silently, like a highly polished infinitely thin laser. Now, when it cuts things, I'm not even sure the apex is touching the thing, I think the thing just seperates into two things as soon as the blade gets close. Pretty remarkable considering the blade is fairly thick!
I will be three times more productive than ever before with this knife in hand. A heavy duty work tool, I find the design really impressive at only 3.5 ounces. I never cared for sheepsfoot or Wharncliffe blades until I carried one for a few days.
The little Shard emerged from the box an indifferent cutter. The S35VN blade barely cut printer paper and it barely shaved. Being the guy who loves to sharpen, I was elated! A challenge! Let's get it on, Supersteel! You think you're better than me?!?! YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME?!?!
I broke out the Shapton glass stones in 1K, 2K, and 4K. I stayed on the factory bevels and lubed with water. The 1K ceramic glass stone (!) removed most but not all of the deep scratches from the factory sharpening job fairly quickly, maybe ten easy minutes including finding the factory bevel and getting to know a brand new blade. The 2K and 4K stones were even faster at about five minutes each, but they left a frosty appearance that I always get when I use the Shaptons.
I got much better cutting action, but not up to what I expected from a mid-priced Kizer with premium steel, in a relatively small blade. I can't leave that frosty appearance on there, either, as I would consider that a sign of weakness. Old Faithful stepped up, as it always does. That's why I call it Old Faithful!
That got a quick and dirty polish in a few minutes, and now it cuts very smoothly, and shaves reliably. I stepped down to Herold-Solingen black on leather and then plain rough side leather, and continued testing carefully. My perception is that the stropping really refined the edge for the fine tests I was using. I was not expecting that, because Shapton calls their 4K stone about 3.7 microns or so, meaning I was "progressing backwards" when I switched to the 5 micron strop. The step to to the HS black might have been long, and there are a lot of lower-grit scratches left behind, but it does glow. It glows like the wind!
Overall, I consider the Shapton ceramic "glass stones" perfectly adequate for this S35VN. I prefer the feel and romance of using a natural stone, but I wouldn't look forward to sharpening this steel with anything softer than these ceramics. This job took about as long as sharpening 154CM or thereabouts on Arkansas stones. I didn't encounter anything confusing or hard, but I don't think the appearance would have been nearly as good without all six steps (three Shaptons and three strops). I usually try to stay at or below three or four stages.
The Deviant with the M390 blade came out of the box ready to shave arm hair and skim through receipt paper. I gave it a few passes across Old Faithful on general principal. Old Faithful is a leather strop charged with 5 micron Russian diamond paste. The knife now slices silently, like a highly polished infinitely thin laser. Now, when it cuts things, I'm not even sure the apex is touching the thing, I think the thing just seperates into two things as soon as the blade gets close. Pretty remarkable considering the blade is fairly thick!
I will be three times more productive than ever before with this knife in hand. A heavy duty work tool, I find the design really impressive at only 3.5 ounces. I never cared for sheepsfoot or Wharncliffe blades until I carried one for a few days.
The little Shard emerged from the box an indifferent cutter. The S35VN blade barely cut printer paper and it barely shaved. Being the guy who loves to sharpen, I was elated! A challenge! Let's get it on, Supersteel! You think you're better than me?!?! YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME?!?!
I broke out the Shapton glass stones in 1K, 2K, and 4K. I stayed on the factory bevels and lubed with water. The 1K ceramic glass stone (!) removed most but not all of the deep scratches from the factory sharpening job fairly quickly, maybe ten easy minutes including finding the factory bevel and getting to know a brand new blade. The 2K and 4K stones were even faster at about five minutes each, but they left a frosty appearance that I always get when I use the Shaptons.
I got much better cutting action, but not up to what I expected from a mid-priced Kizer with premium steel, in a relatively small blade. I can't leave that frosty appearance on there, either, as I would consider that a sign of weakness. Old Faithful stepped up, as it always does. That's why I call it Old Faithful!
That got a quick and dirty polish in a few minutes, and now it cuts very smoothly, and shaves reliably. I stepped down to Herold-Solingen black on leather and then plain rough side leather, and continued testing carefully. My perception is that the stropping really refined the edge for the fine tests I was using. I was not expecting that, because Shapton calls their 4K stone about 3.7 microns or so, meaning I was "progressing backwards" when I switched to the 5 micron strop. The step to to the HS black might have been long, and there are a lot of lower-grit scratches left behind, but it does glow. It glows like the wind!
Overall, I consider the Shapton ceramic "glass stones" perfectly adequate for this S35VN. I prefer the feel and romance of using a natural stone, but I wouldn't look forward to sharpening this steel with anything softer than these ceramics. This job took about as long as sharpening 154CM or thereabouts on Arkansas stones. I didn't encounter anything confusing or hard, but I don't think the appearance would have been nearly as good without all six steps (three Shaptons and three strops). I usually try to stay at or below three or four stages.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2007
- Messages
- 3,446
Wanted to do a reprofile on my 15V Manix, and while I had the stones out I did my K390 Stretch 2 which was in some real need of some time on the stones to clean up and reset the edge bevel. This was my first time sharpening 15V and it works shockingly well for its high wear resistance. Used my usual 140/400/1000 stones then 1 micron diamond strop progression and it came up SHARP. 15V and Maxamet both want to get sticky sharp, but 15V works notably more easily. Both deburr exceptionally well. For the K390 Stretch, I just used the 400 grit stone to clean up the bevels, then put on the final edge with 1000 grit stone and 1 micron strop.
I wanted to put the S35VN blade of this little Kizer Shard on some diamond stones to compare the results with the edge I had previously gotten with Shapton glass stones. The Shaptons were pretty slow, and while the edge performed well it was not great. I really like the knife, as it (barely) fits in the watch pocket of my jeans and it feels great opened. I was beginning to fear that the blade might be a little too thick to cut up to a little-knife standard, but I like to sharpen, so here goes!
I had used 1/2/4/8K Shaptons and a few different strops previously so I had the 17 degree per side profile I wanted and an honest apex. I decided to start with an extra fine DMT to see if this would refine the edge enough. I took a stroke and checked to make sure I had the right stone, as it felt like I was sharpening on the sidewalk. Huh. I probably took another stroke or two before I realized the extra fine stone had not been broken in.
I broke out my cheap magnifier and at 20X I found a couple of small chips, right around the sweet spot. They were small, but they caught things they were supposed to be cutting, which made me slightly angry!
I had to bump back down to the well-used DMT coarse and proceed through the fine before I calmed down. The coarse cut fast, but it took a long time to grind out the tiny chips. The DMT fine cleaned things up well, and got it cutting well enough for most people. I broke in the DMT extra fine stone with the spine of an old Solingen kitchen knife. Then I got a very clean apex and smooth, even bevels, and it started to really cut.
I finished up with 5 micron Russian diamonds on eBay leather on Home Depot plywood. Just a few strokes, as this little guy is going to get used, a lot, and I don't see the point in polishing up the bevels of a knife that will be cutting things it probably shouldn't!
I have a pretty deep respect for S35VN after this little 2.25" blade took me 15 rounds. I would not try to sharpen S35VN on the ceramic stones again, it would take me too many strokes and I can't keep a precise angle forever! I might try my Spyderco CBN stone the next time, just for the sake of science, but I think diamonds will be necessary for me to get along well with this steel. Tough stuff!
Are people sharpening this stuff with natural stones? Are folks geting good results with ceramics on S35VN?
I had used 1/2/4/8K Shaptons and a few different strops previously so I had the 17 degree per side profile I wanted and an honest apex. I decided to start with an extra fine DMT to see if this would refine the edge enough. I took a stroke and checked to make sure I had the right stone, as it felt like I was sharpening on the sidewalk. Huh. I probably took another stroke or two before I realized the extra fine stone had not been broken in.
I broke out my cheap magnifier and at 20X I found a couple of small chips, right around the sweet spot. They were small, but they caught things they were supposed to be cutting, which made me slightly angry!
I had to bump back down to the well-used DMT coarse and proceed through the fine before I calmed down. The coarse cut fast, but it took a long time to grind out the tiny chips. The DMT fine cleaned things up well, and got it cutting well enough for most people. I broke in the DMT extra fine stone with the spine of an old Solingen kitchen knife. Then I got a very clean apex and smooth, even bevels, and it started to really cut.
I finished up with 5 micron Russian diamonds on eBay leather on Home Depot plywood. Just a few strokes, as this little guy is going to get used, a lot, and I don't see the point in polishing up the bevels of a knife that will be cutting things it probably shouldn't!
I have a pretty deep respect for S35VN after this little 2.25" blade took me 15 rounds. I would not try to sharpen S35VN on the ceramic stones again, it would take me too many strokes and I can't keep a precise angle forever! I might try my Spyderco CBN stone the next time, just for the sake of science, but I think diamonds will be necessary for me to get along well with this steel. Tough stuff!
Are people sharpening this stuff with natural stones? Are folks geting good results with ceramics on S35VN?
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2012
- Messages
- 6,973
Fresh Off My Workbench :
Survive GSO 5.1 that I just reprofiled and sharpened for a good customer here at BF. This one has beautiful multicolor micarta scales and the blade is made of Magnacut. 15 degrees per side edge bevel, from the factory it measured right around 20 DPS.
I did the reprofiling work and also finished the apex on my Tormek T8 with the SG-250 grindstone, which leaves 220 grit finish. Deburring was done on the same wheel by setting the edge angle 1 degree higher. My assistant rotates the wheel by hand slowly as I take very quick and light passes alternating from one side of the blade to the other. The key is not to overgrind and create a new burr!
A handful of passes on each side and you are left with an edge which is shaving sharp and will pop hairs off your arms yet also retains excellent slicing aggression and edge retention. This is the configuration I prefer on general use knives where most of the cutting will be done on a slicing or draw cut rather than a true push cut. Not the best choice for woodworking, but for general utility it's great.
Survive GSO 5.1 that I just reprofiled and sharpened for a good customer here at BF. This one has beautiful multicolor micarta scales and the blade is made of Magnacut. 15 degrees per side edge bevel, from the factory it measured right around 20 DPS.
I did the reprofiling work and also finished the apex on my Tormek T8 with the SG-250 grindstone, which leaves 220 grit finish. Deburring was done on the same wheel by setting the edge angle 1 degree higher. My assistant rotates the wheel by hand slowly as I take very quick and light passes alternating from one side of the blade to the other. The key is not to overgrind and create a new burr!
A handful of passes on each side and you are left with an edge which is shaving sharp and will pop hairs off your arms yet also retains excellent slicing aggression and edge retention. This is the configuration I prefer on general use knives where most of the cutting will be done on a slicing or draw cut rather than a true push cut. Not the best choice for woodworking, but for general utility it's great.
David Lennon
Gold Member
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2017
- Messages
- 728
Looking good .
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2011
- Messages
- 162
I sharpened this little guy today:
Got it as a birthday present for my sister in law. Usually I sharpen all the knives I give away but I didn’t bother with this one at first. Then my wife said „don’t you want to sharpen it before we gift it?“
So I did. I’m always hesitant with these tiny blades because they are the hardest to sharpen for me. Difficult to hold the angle with a blade that narrow and short. I used Spyderco medium and ultrafine stones and stropped afterwards. It now shaves with a bit of pressure and turned out quite a bit sharper than the factory edge. My normal sized blades are usually a lot sharper than that but for this one it’s good enough.
Got it as a birthday present for my sister in law. Usually I sharpen all the knives I give away but I didn’t bother with this one at first. Then my wife said „don’t you want to sharpen it before we gift it?“
So I did. I’m always hesitant with these tiny blades because they are the hardest to sharpen for me. Difficult to hold the angle with a blade that narrow and short. I used Spyderco medium and ultrafine stones and stropped afterwards. It now shaves with a bit of pressure and turned out quite a bit sharper than the factory edge. My normal sized blades are usually a lot sharper than that but for this one it’s good enough.
Desktop sharpening, heavy grit edition! This Kizer pocketknife has a VG-10 blade, recurved from the factory. I used to love recurved blades, but they deprive me of one of my great joys in life, freehand sharpening on a bench stone.
I had a well-used DMT Coarse which I wanted to test, so I attacked the forward swell on the recurved blade. The DMT made progress, but it was at least one step too fine for my intended task. I switched to a heavily worn, no-longer-flat Atoma 140. This diamond stone had lapped several square feet of natural and water stones, but it still had enough bite to knock the VG-10 down to a straight profile.
I switched back to the DMT Coarse to "finish"! It quickly produced a toothy but very even bevel that cut paper very smoothly, across the grain, and cut hair reliably. I did not expect that kind of performance from a coarse stone. I think a lot of use may have polished this diamond stone down to a finer grit!
The bevels look excellent and the knife cuts extremely well. My natural instinct is to polish any blade way beyond the point of practicality, but this is a $50 pocketknife, so I may just go find some cardboard. And go nuts! Now that is a good time!
Got a Reate Exo-M today. Super cool knife, but the factory edge was 
. BESS score of 375.
So ... sharpened on Tormek (CBN 140, 400, 1000 grit wheels), stropped on Ken Onion Elite with leather belt and Tormek compound. Main grind sharpened at 15 dps and the tip/tanto portion at 16 dps.
Better!
. BESS score of 375. So ... sharpened on Tormek (CBN 140, 400, 1000 grit wheels), stropped on Ken Onion Elite with leather belt and Tormek compound. Main grind sharpened at 15 dps and the tip/tanto portion at 16 dps.
Better!
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2011
- Messages
- 162
In my quest to get better at freehand sharpening narrow blades I sharpened a Böker Trapper uno today. I started with a 400 grit vitrified diamond stone and went to a 3000 after that. Went to strop after that but wasn’t satisfied. So I looked at the edge under a cheap microscope and saw that I didn’t reach the apex with the 3000 stone. So back to the stone and after that some stropping. I probably rounded off the edge from too much stropping with too high an angle. BESS was around 200.
Got slightly annoyed and went back to a Spyderco ultrafine. Did some stropping on leather with black and white compound and this was the result. I did three measurements. One was 140, one was 160 and one was the 130 shown in the picture. I’m very slowly getting the hang of it…
Got slightly annoyed and went back to a Spyderco ultrafine. Did some stropping on leather with black and white compound and this was the result. I did three measurements. One was 140, one was 160 and one was the 130 shown in the picture. I’m very slowly getting the hang of it…
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2011
- Messages
- 162
Another day another sharpening. Today I sharpened my Spyderco UKPK in LC200N. Spyderco edges are great from the factory. With some stropping you usually get a BESS score under 150. This one was no exception. I think it measured 130 or 140 after some stropping with the factory edge. Nevertheless I usually put my own edge on my knives to make them really mine.
I used vitrified diamond water stones in 400 and 3000 grit. After that I went to a 1 micron diamond on leather strop. I wasn't really satisfied and still felt a rather big burr close to the heel of the blade. So I went back to a leather strop loaded with 4-6 micron diamond compound and after that to the Bark River white compound on leather. For whatever reason I can't get a nice edge from 1 micron on leather. The nicest edges I usually get when I follow the diamond with the white compound. Love that stuff.
Anyway, here is the result:
I used vitrified diamond water stones in 400 and 3000 grit. After that I went to a 1 micron diamond on leather strop. I wasn't really satisfied and still felt a rather big burr close to the heel of the blade. So I went back to a leather strop loaded with 4-6 micron diamond compound and after that to the Bark River white compound on leather. For whatever reason I can't get a nice edge from 1 micron on leather. The nicest edges I usually get when I follow the diamond with the white compound. Love that stuff.
Anyway, here is the result:
- Joined
- Oct 2, 1998
- Messages
- 44,223
Touched up my brand new CRK Sebenza 31 after noticing that they had left a bit of a burr on the right side of the blade in front of the "sharpening choil" and on the right side of the tanto tip.
The good news is that the burr removal on MagnaCut was very straightforward using 1 micron diamond emulsion on basswood...and a few finishing strokes on bare kangaroo leather, both from
NORTHWEST_KNIFE_GUY
. (The Reeve MagnaCut is stated to be 63-64 hrc.)
The good news is that the burr removal on MagnaCut was very straightforward using 1 micron diamond emulsion on basswood...and a few finishing strokes on bare kangaroo leather, both from
NORTHWEST_KNIFE_GUY
. (The Reeve MagnaCut is stated to be 63-64 hrc.)
I refined a Kizer Feist with an M390 blade and what looked like the factory edge. This blade cut paper and hair but it was sawing through the paper, and not shaving the hair reliably.
I didn't want to change the angle or anything, so I started with 12 micron aluminum oxide lapping film on glass. The AO removed a great deal of the scratches from whatever the factory used. I was surprised it was so fast and aggressive with this steel.
I progressed to 9 um AO, and the bevels were really starting to glow. I was not trying to get it up to a mirror finish, but I think I could have done so with just one more coarse grit and a few more minutes.
Since there were still a few factory scratches, I did not go any finer. I gave it a few passes on rough side vegetable tanned leather on plywood. Then I shaved a lot of hair, and cut receipt paper until I was satisfied that it was where it should be.
My overall impression was the AO lapping film was up to these late stages of sharpening M390. The glass and thin polyester foundation seemed to stay very firm and resisted wrapping around the edge. Since I was testing this film, I took a deep breath and gave it a few edge leading strokes to see if it was firm enough not to take a divot. The blade did not bite, and there was no damage to either the blade or the lapping surface. I'm not going to make a practice of that, I just wanted to know!
I don't know how well the AO film would work if I tried to re-profile using a lower grit. I doubt it would perform anywhere close to diamonds, so I probably won't bother to test that. I will continue to use the medium and finer grit films, though, as I want to see how long they last.
I didn't want to change the angle or anything, so I started with 12 micron aluminum oxide lapping film on glass. The AO removed a great deal of the scratches from whatever the factory used. I was surprised it was so fast and aggressive with this steel.
I progressed to 9 um AO, and the bevels were really starting to glow. I was not trying to get it up to a mirror finish, but I think I could have done so with just one more coarse grit and a few more minutes.
Since there were still a few factory scratches, I did not go any finer. I gave it a few passes on rough side vegetable tanned leather on plywood. Then I shaved a lot of hair, and cut receipt paper until I was satisfied that it was where it should be.
My overall impression was the AO lapping film was up to these late stages of sharpening M390. The glass and thin polyester foundation seemed to stay very firm and resisted wrapping around the edge. Since I was testing this film, I took a deep breath and gave it a few edge leading strokes to see if it was firm enough not to take a divot. The blade did not bite, and there was no damage to either the blade or the lapping surface. I'm not going to make a practice of that, I just wanted to know!
I don't know how well the AO film would work if I tried to re-profile using a lower grit. I doubt it would perform anywhere close to diamonds, so I probably won't bother to test that. I will continue to use the medium and finer grit films, though, as I want to see how long they last.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2007
- Messages
- 3,446
A wild Saturday night in of reprofiling knives tonight. Wanted to get the MagnaCut Native thinned, and figured since I had the stones out it was time to do the 15V Paramilitary 2 while I was at it. Both steels are great to sharpen on diamond abrasives. 15V continues to impress with its sharpenability, especially given its extreme vanadium content and high hardness. MagnaCut works nicely as well and is another favorite steel to sharpen. Both deburr very nicely and want to come up super sharp. Not the cleanest bevels I've ever done, but they will cut.
Edited for a picture in better lighting:
Edited for a picture in better lighting:
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2012
- Messages
- 6,973
A wild Saturday night in of reprofiling knives tonight. Wanted to get the MagnaCut Native thinned, and figured since I had the stones out it was time to do the 15V Paramilitary 2 while I was at it. Both steels are great to sharpen on diamond abrasives. 15V continues to impress with its sharpenability, especially given its extreme vanadium content and high hardness. MagnaCut works nicely as well and is another favorite steel to sharpen. Both deburr very nicely and want to come up super sharp. Not the cleanest bevels I've ever done, but they will cut.
They look pretty good to my eyes, perfection in edge geometry is seldom achieved and good enough is often much more than enough (assuming the apex is well formed and deburred along with acute geometry).