Thread: Hone of the Day

Originally Posted by celticcrusader

Decided to have a little fun with my own little pocket knife, a Spyderco Bob Lum made in Japan made from VG10, thought I would try and put this little knife in the same sharpness levels of razor territory, I have in my knife sharpening kit stones going from 400 right through to a Naniwa 12K, well all I will say the knife was finished on the Naniwa 12K stropped on leather and yes indeed it did pass the HHT and I now have a shave ready pocket knife .

Nice even bevel Jamie. I'm impressed if you did that free hand. I usually rely on my KME unless it's a scandi or houcho.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Nice even bevel Jamie. I'm impressed if you did that free hand. I usually rely on my KME unless it's a scandi or houcho.

Thanks, Oz, no I didn't freehand although I have done many times with my kitchen knives, I recently purchased for myself a nice bit of kit a Hapstone sharpener, made in Ukraine a very well-engineered system for a very decent price, I already owned a few stones which fitted this system, I also use a digital bevel box so I get extremely accurate bevels, I always go with a 15 degrees on my pocket knives I think that's what Spyderco also state for their knives.

Can’t beat the jigs for small knives and folders or fixed blades where you want a perfectly even and polished bevel. There are many good jigs out now. They all pretty much do the same thing, for me it is about the quickest set up. A couple years ago I ordered one of the wazoo, Russian jigs and was put on his waiting list, but the guy never came through and I got tired of calling and emailing him. It looked like a well-made machine, though a bit large and complex.

Now, there are a variety of good stones available for most jigs.

Have you tried the Diamond Matrix stones, I bought them for the Edge Pro in 650,1100, 2300 and 4000, expecting great things and was unimpressed?

I have to play with them some more, they do need to be flattened, mine were way out and they are tougher than expected, I used a 140 Atoma, then smoothed with a 600.

There is a good post from the guy who makes them for Edge Pro, about flattening and maintenance, he says to use a synthetic nagura or a Rust Eraser to remove load up and keep wear down, they do load up easily, a PIA. And pricy.

I see CKTG has new 80 and 250 grit Matrix for $74 &66 each, doubt I will be getting those.

I get better results with EP stones to 1k then strop on, 2k wet and dry and Kangaroo glued to a blank with .50 CBN.

Knife guys love those polished bevels. For folders they look cool, if you are a honer, it is kind of expected now days, everybody wants to see your knife and expects a polished edge.

Spyderco says 15 primary and 19-20 micro. I don’t do the micro.

Originally Posted by celticcrusader

Decided to have a little fun with my own little pocket knife, a Spyderco Bob Lum made in Japan made from VG10, thought I would try and put this little knife in the same sharpness levels of razor territory, I have in my knife sharpening kit stones going from 400 right through to a Naniwa 12K, well all I will say the knife was finished on the Naniwa 12K stropped on leather and yes indeed it did pass the HHT and I now have a shave ready pocket knife .

Attachment 311768

Pretty Spyder, Jamie-I now have a few of those, as my oldest son had to leave all of his knives and pistols with me when he moved to Japan. They are quality knives-just don't cut any boxes with that shaving edge lol!

Originally Posted by sonnythehooligan

Thanks for the advice! I'm trying to take the guesswork out of my honing sessions. I'll get back at it this weekend and report back.

In regard to this, I tried a different loupe. I ordered a less powerful 10x lighted loupe. My other one was a 30x, and it was not lighted. For some reason the 10x is picking up what I couldn't see through the 30x- I can definitely tell the difference between the edge on my good shaver vs the edge on the one that was almost there.

My "almost there" has spots where there's a good apex, but then other spots where it hasn't met perfectly yet. It is good to know what needs attention! Back to the stones...

GD Abrams on my La Veinette coti. Always a spectacular combo between these two.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Can’t beat the jigs for small knives and folders or fixed blades where you want a perfectly even and polished bevel. There are many good jigs out now. They all pretty much do the same thing, for me it is about the quickest set up. A couple years ago I ordered one of the wazoo, Russian jigs and was put on his waiting list, but the guy never came through and I got tired of calling and emailing him. It looked like a well-made machine, though a bit large and complex.

Now, there are a variety of good stones available for most jigs.

Have you tried the Diamond Matrix stones, I bought them for the Edge Pro in 650,1100, 2300 and 4000, expecting great things and was unimpressed?

I have to play with them some more, they do need to be flattened, mine were way out and they are tougher than expected, I used a 140 Atoma, then smoothed with a 600.

There is a good post from the guy who makes them for Edge Pro, about flattening and maintenance, he says to use a synthetic nagura or a Rust Eraser to remove load up and keep wear down, they do load up easily, a PIA. And pricy.

I see CKTG has new 80 and 250 grit Matrix for $74 &66 each, doubt I will be getting those.

I get better results with EP stones to 1k then strop on, 2k wet and dry and Kangaroo glued to a blank with .50 CBN.

Knife guys love those polished bevels. For folders they look cool, if you are a honer, it is kind of expected now days, everybody wants to see your knife and expects a polished edge.

Spyderco says 15 primary and 19-20 micro. I don’t do the micro.

You are right there, we straight razor guys cannot be let down by our knives, a polished hair popping bevel is a must, I have a few stones the ones that have surprised me and I'm really liking them are the silicone carbide I have them from 240 grit right up to 2.5K I then have some Edge Pro stones in 6K and 8K, then I have a Naniwa 12K then some Edge Pro polishing tape which goes up to about 20K, regarding the 19 or 20 micro I may just give this a go on the final 20K polishing tape.

Here is an interesting post on Blade Forums on using the Edge Pro, (EP) Diamond Matrix, (DM), “stones”. There is a lot of good info on stone prep, which is very different from traditional stone lapping. There is also lots of good info on Knife edge polishing.

The “stones” are diamond grit, suspended in resin and of a proprietary mix/blend. The goal of DM, stone prep is to remove microscopic amounts of resin/binder without removing or damaging the diamonds, exposing more of the diamonds, not “flattening” per say.

Because the diamonds are suspended in resin (for the EP DM stones), there is some “flex” and not as deep cutting, but still aggressive. As opposed to using diamond plates. They recommend using lose 240 Aluminum Oxide to grind only the resin, not the diamonds.

Loading still does seem to be an ongoing issue. These stones are fairly new (though not the technology, there are other manufacturers each is using a different binder, resin or epoxy) and there is not a lot of feedback from users, so methods of use and best care is ongoing. They are pricy so care and longevity is/are a big issue.

The stone developer is actively seeking and listening to large scale users for feedback on these stones, he is also doing a lot of testing and calibration of a set of DM stones in active use by Edge Pro, (for over a year now with the same stones) who are sharpening an average of 10 knives per day of a variety of steels, many of which are newer “super steels” of high Rockwell hardness.

While the goal of this type of Sharpening is very different from razor honing, there are some good post, towards the end of the thread on page 8 or 9 about keeping a toothy edge with a polished bevel, best of both worlds. This for me has always been the downside of polishing a knife bevel to a high degree, it thins the edge so much, the edge does not last for any heavy use, especially at sub 20-degree angles.

These stones do not have any real application for razors other than repair or initial bevel setting in the lower grits. As stated earlier, the goals of this sharpening are very different from honing a razor. None the less it is interesting, and perhaps, down the road this technology may have some application. There is also some experimenting going on with CBN stones and turners rave about CBN wheels for turning lathe tools, which have been on the market for a few years now and very pricy.

There is a lot of good information on this subject and is actively being pursued on knife forums and some bench stone have been made, I think I will start a new thread in the Hone/honing forum so as to not sidetrack this thread and make searching by others easier.

It is interesting what the newer Jig honing for knives has done to revive knife honing for the knife community and to see how it is guiding knife stone technology and pushing the envelope. It is the jig makers who are filling the void of the large stone makers.

Edge Pro Matrix resin bond diamond stones

Ok, I seem to be on the right track here.

This is a Turner Everlasting that I had tried to hone in the past. Like my other current honing attempt, it seemed sharp and plowed through arm hairs with ease but it didn't shave well.

This weekend I gave it a look through my loupe and I could see that the apex was not formed in a few areas. I focused in on the trouble spots until I couldn't detect any issues under the loupe and then re-honed the entire edge just to be sure.

Today I had the best shave of any razor that I have honed.

Originally Posted by sonnythehooligan

Ok, I seem to be on the right track here.

This is a Turner Everlasting that I had tried to hone in the past. Like my other current honing attempt, it seemed sharp and plowed through arm hairs with ease but it didn't shave well.

This weekend I gave it a look through my loupe and I could see that the apex was not formed in a few areas. I focused in on the trouble spots until I couldn't detect any issues under the loupe and then re-honed the entire edge just to be sure.

Today I had the best shave of any razor that I have honed.

Feels GREAT when things finally come together and gives you a good shave doesn't it--