Thread: shaved with Spyderco Calypso Jr. ZDP-189 knife I reprofiled myself!

Wow! WOW! I recently reprofiled my Spyderco Calypso Jr. in ZDP-189... this knife was tree topping sharp when I first got it factory fresh, but my first session cutting boxes just made it shaving sharp...over the months, it's gotten less and less sharp, albeit quite a light saber.

I decided recently to reprofile it with a convex edge using a mouse pad and 500 and 1000 grit sandpaper... I was going to try 1500 grit paper, but thought I'd graduate to my diamond pasted strop and some cardboard/paper stopping to finish it off.

After about 20 minutes of diamond pasted stropping, and 20 minutes stropping on a manilla folder, I tested it on the back of my hand... shaving sharp! I stropped it a bit more on the manilla folder, and decided, what the heh! Let's try a cheek!

Really smooth! I just did one pass, and just a portion of one cheek, but I took a somewhat dull knife and brought it back to shaving sharp! Woohoo!

I think I'm going to hit the diamond pasted strop some more and see if I can get it back to tree topping/hanging hair sharp... I'd love to say I did that *from scratch* with this difficult to sharpen steel.

Anyone else here mad enough to try shaving with what most people would consider a knife, not a razor?

As a "knife" guy - collects 'em, restores 'em, grew up around them (my father has a *huge* collection) - I can say that I've shaved a small area with a knife that I had gotten to extremely sharp.

But it sure wasn't pleasant, and it wasn't something that I would do again or on anything more than a cheek.

I've shaved one side of my face with a Theirs-Issard Sabatier 9.25" chef's knife that Iwas re-beveling. I use an Edge-Pro, and took both sides down to 10*. My progression went all the way to .5 Chome Ox, and the shave off of it wasn't bad, actually. I only went WTG, but it didn't pull or hurt at all.

After my shave I gave it a 15* microbevel for some durability in the kitchen.

Ben

Shaving with a knife, huh? Nope... not me, I'm convinced there is a reason for the shape of a straight razor blade and suspect the shave will be better than with an implement not so designed. That said, it's possible for sure, knives, double bit axes etc. have been used over the years. "Gramps" who used to post over on SRP is the only one I know of who shaved entirely with a belt knife and who did it with the proper audience.. Have a peak at the story, it's a fun read. By the way, Gramps and several of his family were bless/cursed with beard growth that would require twice a day shaving to look his best. His avatar *is* a picture of himself.

Regards

Christian