Sharpening tips

[Bloke]

Possibly the most important thing I've learned is contrary to what I've always been told about sharpening, and that's to avoid making a burr, or at least make as little burr as possible. This seems especially important with high carbide steels as those carbides tend to rip out depending on how you're sharpening and some steels seem borderline brittle when it comes to burrs and when you think you're removing them or bending them straight you're actually just breaking them off, and then you move on to the next grit up and continue the same burr creating/breaking process only to end up with a pretty polished bevel that is either not very sharp or goes dull the first time you cut something because the apex is a mess. So, possibly the best sharpening advice I can give is, instead of relying on the formation of a burr to tell you you've reached the apex, use a bright light source and look for the edge to reflect light. Make progressively shorter/lighter/cross hatching edge leading passes alternating sides and try to leave the edge as crisp as you can before moving on to the next grit. A very slight micro bevel between grits can also help here.

Couldn't agree more. Any time you intentionally raise a burr, you're wasting steel IMO. It takes more strokes to raise one and remove it than it does to simply get the edge sharp.

If your knife doesn't cleanly slice paper, it's not time to progress to the next grit. Regardless of what grit you're currently at.

Lastly, like you mentioned, light strokes are key. If you can't do your finishing strokes on the sharpmaker without using your off hand to hold the base and steady it, you're using too much pressure.

:)

[Pelagic]

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I do whatever is necessary to have a good tip. The military, pm2, police 4, and to a slightly lesser extent, the Para 3 all have tips that are borderline too pointy/acute for high hardness, low toughness steels, depending on the kind of work you're doing. I don't even know how I broke this one off exactly. I was using it to strip the wires going to the license plate lights on my truck and noticed my tip was broken off (maybe lost 1 millimeter). I used an angle grinder to gently make a drop point beginning about 8mm from the tip. It now has a much stronger yet still functional tip. Kinda looks like an endura.

In sharpening, I just try not to round the tip off like everyone described. Go slow, take your time, get it right. If the tip needs more work, I focus on it. As long as you don't get lazy you should be fine.

[samdasnake]

This post has made me want to give guided sharpening systems a try. I've always just used freehand stones, but that KME video sure does make a guided system look appealing!

[tps3443]

I usually just get a paper slicing sharp edge at 200 grit, it feels decently sticky sharp. After I’ve finished that, I make sure I cannot see the edge, or any silver lines on it, after this I very lightly sharpen it still utilizing 200 grit, only the weight of the stones. A good edge to me, It almost looks like a black blur when looking straight down at it. There shouldn’t be any reflection or a line at all on the edge.

After the sides are perfectly center, and evenly, and equally sharp, and you cannot see the edge with a light shined down on it, I move to 600 grit after doing about the same thing at 600 grit. I will reduce the angle by 1dps and strop. Reducing the angle before stropping allows you to strop as much as you want. After 600 grit, the knife is very shaving sharp, but after stropping, it is even sharper.

I’m not a fan of microbevels. They don’t stay sharp long for me for some reason. Although, I just tried one last night. 16.75DPS, then a 20.50DPS microbevel. The knife easily shaves, we will see how long it stays that way.

With just a 15DPS edge and no microbevel, I’ve gotten S110V to stay shaving sharp so long I gave up trying to dull it! It was nearly 400 feet in cardboard, and it still shaved.

[Evil D]

I usually just get a paper slicing sharp edge at 200 grit, it feels decently sticky sharp. After I’ve finished that, I make sure I cannot see the edge, or any silver lines on it, after this I very lightly sharpen it still utilizing 200 grit, only the weight of the stones. A good edge to me, It almost looks like a black blur when looking straight down at it. There shouldn’t be any reflection or a line at all on the edge.

After the sides are perfectly center, and evenly, and equally sharp, and you cannot see the edge with a light shined down on it, I move to 600 grit after doing about the same thing at 600 grit. I will reduce the angle by 1dps and strop. Reducing the angle before stropping allows you to strop as much as you want. After 600 grit, the knife is very shaving sharp, but after stropping, it is even sharper.

I’m not a fan of microbevels. They don’t stay sharp long for me for some reason. Although, I just tried one last night. 16.75DPS, then a 20.50DPS microbevel. The knife easily shaves, we will see how long it stays that way.

With just a 15DPS edge and no microbevel, I’ve gotten S110V to stay shaving sharp so long I gave up trying to dull it! It was nearly 400 feet in cardboard, and it still shaved.

1) You're not comparing apples to apples. Just by comparing a 15dps edge to a 17dps edge you'll see that the 15 will likely shave easier. Shaving is also not the best method of measuring sharpness, as there are many levels above shaving sharp.

2) I would advise you to first evaluate yourself and your technique before anything else. Assuming that micro bevels must be the problem is also assuming that your technique is flawless. Keeping an open mind and being hard on yourself will make you a better sharpener.

3) If you find that micro bevels are causing your edge to dull quickly, you've screwed up somewhere.

[tps3443]

I usually just get a paper slicing sharp edge at 200 grit, it feels decently sticky sharp. After I’ve finished that, I make sure I cannot see the edge, or any silver lines on it, after this I very lightly sharpen it still utilizing 200 grit, only the weight of the stones. A good edge to me, It almost looks like a black blur when looking straight down at it. There shouldn’t be any reflection or a line at all on the edge.

After the sides are perfectly center, and evenly, and equally sharp, and you cannot see the edge with a light shined down on it, I move to 600 grit after doing about the same thing at 600 grit. I will reduce the angle by 1dps and strop. Reducing the angle before stropping allows you to strop as much as you want. After 600 grit, the knife is very shaving sharp, but after stropping, it is even sharper.

I’m not a fan of microbevels. They don’t stay sharp long for me for some reason. Although, I just tried one last night. 16.75DPS, then a 20.50DPS microbevel. The knife easily shaves, we will see how long it stays that way.

With just a 15DPS edge and no microbevel, I’ve gotten S110V to stay shaving sharp so long I gave up trying to dull it! It was nearly 400 feet in cardboard, and it still shaved.

1) You're not comparing apples to apples. Just by comparing a 15dps edge to a 17dps edge you'll see that the 15 will likely shave easier. Shaving is also not the best method of measuring sharpness, as there are many levels above shaving sharp.

2) I would advise you to first evaluate yourself and your technique before anything else. Assuming that micro bevels must be the problem is also assuming that your technique is flawless. Keeping an open mind and being hard on yourself will make you a better sharpener.

3) If you find that micro bevels are causing your edge to dull quickly, you've screwed up somewhere.

I can get a microbevel to stay sharp, but it is hit or miss for me. I think I am confusing my own sharpening sometimes too. For example, my Spyderco PM2 is at 14DPS, with 20dps microbevel. And my Spyderco Military is at about 17DPS with 20.5dps microbevel.

My PM2 has a microbevel, and it has stayed sharp along time. I actually just stropped it today at 19.25dps after about a week of neglect and it brought back that really good sharpness very quickly.

[ZrowsN1s]

Depends on what you are using to sharpen.

Also the knife tips durability is dependent on the steel your knife is made out of. My stainless steel AUS -A10 cold steel spartan pocket knife will stay razor sharp for about a weeks time of heavy use. Mainly chopping wood & cutting card board. Compared to my high carbon, powdered steel Benchmade Osborne that I swear will stay razor sharp for a good couple months!! But the unfortunate part about the Benchmade is that i have to either send it in or get It professionally sharpened because of how hard the steel is. It's so hard that it takes a skilled hand to produce a burr when sharpening it!! On of the best knife makers/sharpeners I know who has 40 years experience said it was a ***** to get razor sharp. That being Lyle Brunckhorst! Who was able to produce a burr AND get my benchmade razor sharp. BTW carrying 3 pocket knives as EDC should be practiced by everyone! Totally legit & very useful! Love it!

:D Welcome to the forum Tarman.
So many different ways to go when sharpening, so many stones, systems, setups, techniques. It may leave a rougher edge than some other mediums, but I find that diamond stones will cut anything. And a pasted strop can help with "finishing" edges.

[Zatx]

Regardless of the sharpening system you use, the key to sharp tips is to never draw the tip more than halfway across the surface of your sharpening medium. If using a belt sander, never go more than halfway across the paper. If using stones (of any kind, wicked edge, edge pro, hapstone, bench stones, etc.) never pull the knife more than halfway across the stone.

[JD Spydo]

ON my C-60 Ayoob model I have at times in the past clamped the heel of the blade and worked on the tip with a 3M diamond file and finished it with a set of Spyderco 701 Profiles.

I've also had some good luck de-burring the tips of some blades. But this has been an interesting thread because a lot of people are now aware of the importance of a really well honed, super sharp blade tip. Some models are more important than others.