I guess this is what I plan to do to the VG10 delica. what cheap diamond plate would you recommend? what do you use after the Atoma 140? Any other lessons learned or tips are appreciated.
If you really want to hog steel you'll extend the life of the pricey Atoma by first using a cheap China-made '80 grit' diamond plate. These are found on Amazon or AliExpress. They are so coarse and lumpy that they are only suitable for regrinding. But they actually last a good while. They are thin plates that sometimes come mounted on semi-hard foam. They need to be (re)mounted on a thicker, metal plate for regrinding. After the 140, you could go to the Atoma 400.
When regrinding you can use a fair bit of pressure unlike the lighter pressure you'd use for sharpening. The larger surface area distributes the pressure so the diamonds won't tear out.
They need to be (re)mounted on a thicker, metal plate for regrinding.
Thank you for the detailed advice! Very helpful. If I may ask one more question, how did you mount it to a thicker metal plate? For someone who doesn’t have scrap metal laying around should I just go to a hardware store and ask for metal plates or is there a better way? And is this some kind of metal glue?
I had a worn out Atoma so I glued the plate on top. The Atoma is the same width as the plate. I just used Elmers and it held fine. Epoxy would work better if needed.
This is the only knife I've thinned out. I used Harbour Freight diamond plates freehand.
Not the prettiest but it cuts like a dream.
I did the same thing with my Cold Steel AD-10 that was stupid thick behind the edge. Haven't worked up to trying it on my Spydercos yes. They aren't that bad.
I sharpened a similar edge oh my shaman. I (accidentally)found that a slightly convex edge held a longer edge on my shaman.
I managed it to do it with a combination of free hand sharpening , the sharpmaker and the precision sharpener.
