Scar Tissue

[Cheddarnut]

Well peeps, i finally did it.
I've been putting it off for months, but i was in the mood last night and decided to face my fear...of sharpening ZDP-189.

And i have this to say: meh.

It was an non event, with no surprises or secret reverse pressure techniques. It was on par for me with, say VG-10. Seriously.
The reason i believe i was underwhelmed was because the very last steel i sharpened was 440V. Do we have any 440v fans in the audience?

THAT steel lives up to its sharpening reputation.

So i wanted to pass this experience along for any who may be hesitant to dive into zdp because of its reputation for difficult sharpening.
Ironically when i bought this blue delica years ago, it was because i never wanted to sharpen (because i never had) and zdp was supposed to hold its edge for everish.

Looking forward to pulling the trigger on a zdp endura now that i've tamed the supersteel beast. Cheers.

[Evil D]

It's not harder to sharpen, just takes a little longer and responds better with light pressure as opposed to hard pressure. If you try to force it sharp you'll just create burrs, and burrs tend to chip off ZDP more than other steels i've worked with.

[yobohadi]

Sharpening isn't too bad... Reprofiling on the brown stones with a Sharpmaker is a true test of your patience. If I ever have to do that again I will shell out the cash for the diamond stones.

[bammann45]

Its funny my biggest sharpening headache is not S30V or BG42 or M4 or ZDP... its my damn Henckels Pro S kitchen knives. I don't know what hardness they take then to but they regularly make me pull my hair out. I even purchase diamond rods and ultrafine rods on the other end for the sharpmaker and they still devil me.

[Blerv]

I completely agree.

The thread title is pretty vague though and the tags are abundant. I hope it doesn't get filtered by the system.

[DeathBySnooSnoo]

Congrats on popping your ZDP cherry...

Like it has been mentioned, ZDP seems to like a very light touch. But once you have got that down, it doesn't take much to sharpen it. My Stretch is wicked sharp all of the time, I usually just free hand it on some DMT stones.

[phillipsted]

I concur on the light touch. I have sharpened almost all of my ZDP knives at this point - Caly Jrs., Stretch, Dfly2, Delica, Caly 3, Mule...and I know I'm forgetting a couple... The only one I haven't touched up yet is the Walker sprint.

When I set up the WEPS on each of these, I carefully set it up so that I was doing almost no re-beveling. I re-established a consistent bevel, worked them to a small burr, polished them out to 1 micron on the polishing tapes, and closed with a light hand stropping.

I had the same reaction you did, Cheddar - meh. It took a little longer than VG-10, but it responded consistently.

And edges are SUPERB. True laser scalpel territory.

TedP

[SpyderNut]

[QUOTE=Cheddarnut;755422]...Do we have any 440v fans in the audience?...QUOTE]

Heck yeah, man! I still have a thing for CPM 440V. (Might be due from my undying love for my Starmate ). Ha!

~M.