What grit do you finish your general purpose pocket knives?

DMT fine (600 grit) seems to produce the best cutting edge for most of my knives. I find that honing on a coarse DMT (325 grit) and finishing with a few very light strokes on the ultra-fine (1200 grit) works best for D2 and S110V.
 
I carry a Mini Grip everyday and rotate through 3 and all three are sharpened to a mirror finish at 17degrees. Even when it's not off the Wicked Edge sharp it's still sharper than most pocket knives.
 
Ive always been a big fan of the DMT 600 diasharp. Strop on some 3 or 1 micron paste and it will be extremely sharp with great performance. It's the reason I started use a tormek with 600 grit diamond wheel almost exclusively for folders and small fixed blades.

That said, there are some steels i just like a good polish on and will finish around 3k-8k grit.
 
An actual recent experience . Putting aside for the moment the ultimate in edge longevity .

Here is the setting :
Two identical Case Trappers , both SS (both even were jigged dark navy blue dyed bone , so no excuses for one having superior handle traction 😂 ) .
Here are the differences at the edge :

one knife ~stock bevel angles , full 75mm factory edge length and coarse toothy grind from the factory ; I touched the edge with a super small steel to get any roll out of the edge then quick minimal passes with Spyderco Ceramic Triangle rods ; medium , fine and ultra fine held freehand . Just the bare minium to get the edge arm hair scrapeing sharp. Still markedly toothy . The edge had been used numerous times on tame materials and other paper ropes but the edge most defiantly would bite into the flat of my thumb nail and scrape arm hair . (no rolled edge anywhere)

the other knife ~stock bevel angles but polished through six or so grits up to Norton 8,000 on the Edge Pro Apex (old edge from before I cut the blade shorter ). A few days ago I modded to a SHORT Wharncliffe 45mm actual edge length (yes I put a new thumb nail knick into the blade).

The test medium :
Tightly twisted "rope" made from brown paper like what is used to make corrugated cardboard boxes .
~6mm diameter.
these ropes are used to hold machinery in place in shipping crates and are looped around parts and tied.

I took the first knife / coarse toothy 75mm edge to the first loop . Holding the loop near the edge and making the rope have tension on it I draw sliced from the plunge grind toward the tip .
I could feel the buzzyness of the coarse grind while I drew the edge through the rope (hate that but some must like it) ; took most all the length of the edge and significant force on the handle to cut through the rope.

I took the second knife with the refined and polished (jig sharpened ) SHORT 45mm edge to another rope loop . Held the rope the same way , next to the cut and with tension on the rope, started the cut at the plunge grind and began to draw slice toward the tip . . . . there was only the slightest, lightest, slick, sliding sensation (love that; don't you 😉)
it cut through so quick and easy I don't know if I even used the whole blade length .

Happy Dog !

I have to sharpen more often . . .

Happy Dog !
PS : rope not doubled over into a tight loop ; just a big loop held in tension.
 
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My Delica currently has a Sharpmaker brown triangle finish. It's a bit coarse but still catches hair above my arm. For my next sharpening, I plan to try up to a 2000 grit Naniwa and strop. That will be a while though. If I have a traditional folder, one blade will get as fine a finish as I can manage and at least one of the others gets a finish on the brown Sharpmaker triangles.
 
I normally sharpen with a DMT 600 Diasharp, or CKTG 1000 diamond stone, and finish on a 1 micron diamond strop.
 
My EDC either a Guardian Tactical.025 Elmax or Kershaw Livewire Magnacut. Both knives were ground on 1000 CBN, honed on a Tormek with Tormek’s honing compound and finished with a Tormek honing wheel with Tech Diamond Tools 1 micron diamond paste to 85/95 on a Bess Tester. I strop whenever the apex looses it’s super sharp edge (above 110 or so). I like to be able to push cut and can strop my knives back to sub 100 in short order with the wear resistant steel unless I really bugger up the edge. I like a refined edge because I can.
On others knives I finish at 600 and hone on the Tormek Honing wheel with their paste. I believe in most cases the end user will believe their knives perform better with teeth and the “teeth” does make the knife able to slice longer between sharpenings, albeit duller. When the edge is polished, once it starts to dull, it can’t get the job done. Toothy finishes perform better than polished, as they start to degrade. That’s why I use a toothy edge on customers knives.
 
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Gottagofishn said:
My EDC either a Guardian Tactical.025 Elmax or Kershaw Livewire Magnacut. Both knives were ground on 1000 CBN, honed on a Tormek with Tormek’s honing compound and finished with a Tormek honing wheel with DMT 1 micron diamond paste to 85/95 on a Bess Tester. I strop whenever the apex looses it’s super sharp edge (above 110 or so). I like to be able to push cut and can strop my knives back to sub 100 in short order with the wear resistant steel unless I really bugger up the edge. I like a refined edge because I can.
On others knives I finish at 600 and hone on the Tormek Honing wheel with their paste. I believe in most cases the end user will believe their knives perform better with teeth and the “teeth” does make the knife able to slice longer between sharpenings, albeit duller. When the edge is polished, once it starts to dull, it can’t get the job done. Toothy finishes perform better than polished, as they start to degrade. That’s why I use a toothy edge on customers knives.
Click to expand...
From a couple decades of "testing" both edges in cardboard , from single wall to quadruple wall , . . . this is almost daily testing by the way as I unbox machines almost ever day . . .
And since quadruple wall cardboard is the " toughest " thing I cut as in what puts the most stress on the blade near the handle ( I still don't need 4mm thick knives). The MOST EDGE DULLING media I cut is a kind of wear resistant rubber like material which will consistently dull "regular " blade alloys to unusable in less than a day no mater what edge is on it.
I have gleaned these facts :

Thin cuts (to quote Ben Dale , inventor or the Edge Pro knife sharpener)

Polished edge bevels and sides of the knife (angle grind ) slides through the work with less effort .

Toothy edges (and grind lines ) create resistance in the cut and pick up fibers from the work therefore increasing resistance even further .


Bottom line(s) and elaborations :
a THIN BLADE 0.4 mm up to 2mm (think box knife and or paring knife (which I use almost daily for the quadruple wall )) cuts better even when the blade is dullish than a blade with a 3mm to 4mm thickness and a 100 Bess .

an acute / thin edge grind 10 to 12 degrees per side further reduces the cutting resistance even when the edge is dullish than either of those knives with a 17 to 22 degree per side and < 100 Bess
and

Polished sides with radiused transition between blade grind and edge bevel (is this what everyone is calling "convexing" (seems to be a gray area for me) then polished all the way down to the edge . . . cuts better dullish than normal grind lines with toothy BUT 100 Bess .

The only change I make for cutting the wear resistant rubber like material is to use high vanadium / high tungsten / high hardness blade alloys with the very same edge geometry and finish . These cut for days and even weeks in this rubber.

besides
a sub 2mm at the spine and 10 to 12 dps at the edge is easier to strop / resharpen to crazy sharp . For trimming my finger nails and shaving my face before I go out to celebrate yet another super successful and satisfying knife day .

(try trimming your finger nails with a 40 degree inclusive edge at any level of sharpness and edge finish you like .)
Why do we need a 40 degree inclusive edge again ? I forget .
The only way to get the blasted thing to cut for very long is to put a saw edge on it .
 
Wowbagger said:
From a couple decades of "testing" both edges in cardboard , from single wall to quadruple wall , . . . this is almost daily testing by the way as I unbox machines almost ever day . . .
And since quadruple wall cardboard is the " toughest " thing I cut as in what puts the most stress on the blade near the handle ( I still don't need 4mm thick knives). The MOST EDGE DULLING media I cut is a kind of wear resistant rubber like material which will consistently dull "regular " blade alloys to unusable in less than a day no mater what edge is on it.
I have gleaned these facts :

Thin cuts (to quote Ben Dale , inventor or the Edge Pro knife sharpener)

Polished edge bevels and sides of the knife (angle grind ) slides through the work with less effort .

Toothy edges (and grind lines ) create resistance in the cut and pick up fibers from the work therefore increasing resistance even further .


Bottom line(s) and elaborations :
a THIN BLADE 0.4 mm up to 2mm (think box knife and or paring knife (which I use almost daily for the quadruple wall )) cuts better even when the blade is dullish than a blade with a 3mm to 4mm thickness and a 100 Bess .

an acute / thin edge grind 10 to 12 degrees per side further reduces the cutting resistance even when the edge is dullish than either of those knives with a 17 to 22 degree per side and < 100 Bess
and

Polished sides with radiused transition between blade grind and edge bevel (is this what everyone is calling "convexing" (seems to be a gray area for me) then polished all the way down to the edge . . . cuts better dullish than normal grind lines with toothy BUT 100 Bess .

The only change I make for cutting the wear resistant rubber like material is to use high vanadium / high tungsten / high hardness blade alloys with the very same edge geometry and finish . These cut for days and even weeks in this rubber.

besides
a sub 2mm at the spine and 10 to 12 dps at the edge is easier to strop / resharpen to crazy sharp . For trimming my finger nails and shaving my face before I go out to celebrate yet another super successful and satisfying knife day .

(try trimming your finger nails with a 40 degree inclusive edge at any level of sharpness and edge finish you like .)
Why do we need a 40 degree inclusive edge again ? I forget .
The only way to get the blasted thing to cut for very long is to put a saw edge on it .
Click to expand...
I have read the above research and agree with that quality wear resistant steels can handle a more acute edge angle and a polished (or near polished) edge is able to cut more accurately and stays sharp longer than a toothy edge, if it is maintained. Many, in fact most of the knives I sharpen are not quality wear resistant steel, rather “German Stainless” or some other economy steel. I find when polished those edges don’t take long to dull , hence the teeth. Vadim showed on a blade with teeth the teeth can tear off and leave a jagged edge that can still cut, albeit a rough cut.
Most folks I sharpen for let their knives get to 1100 to 1300 on the Bess before sharpening with no maintenance. Those are the folks and knives I give a more toothy edge.
 
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