quote:

Originally posted by djpaintles:
Offgrid, I just ordered a couple of the CBN stones after reading your reviews several times. Looking forward to seeing how well they work! Thanks for your reviews even if they cost me a few hundred! LOL

Have you ever tried any of the less expensive organic bonded versions? I went with the metallic bonded ones - in for a penny in for a pound but did wonder about the differences between them.......dj

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:

quote:

Originally posted by djpaintles:
Offgrid, I just ordered a couple of the CBN stones after reading your reviews several times. Looking forward to seeing how well they work! Thanks for your reviews even if they cost me a few hundred! LOL

Have you ever tried any of the less expensive organic bonded versions? I went with the metallic bonded ones - in for a penny in for a pound but did wonder about the differences between them.......dj

Cool! What grit stones? Steels you’re going to be sharpeneing?

I have not tried any of the other bonded stones.

quote:

Originally posted by djpaintles:
Sharpened my first blade with the CBN edge pro stones. The 400 stone was a little too slow to set the edge on my S90V Spyderco Military so I reset the bevel with an Aotama Diamond stone which is FAST but leaves some nasty scratches. I got down to a very sharp edge but which still had to many scratches in the pattern and not a mirrored edge like I expected. I thought it was due to the Aotama but it turned out that the edges of the CBN stones were too sharp and were causing the extra scratches. I knocked off the edges or the stones with a little diamond plate and started over. The stones were just GREAT! One of the sharpest edges I've ever done. I had to be extra careful in my normal "Murray Carter" style 3 fingers and a thumb grabbiness test, I could barely touch the edge without it digging into my fingers. Of course it glided through magazine paper and popped hair without touching skin. It's sometimes hard to describe exactly how keen an edge is but this one was as good as I've ever done and was the first blade I've done with the CBN stones. So first impression is very expensive but awesome stones.

I also REALLY liked the Venev diamond stones. IMHO EVERYBODY should at least try the little pocket stone! Amazon carries them for less than $10 and it should be a no brainer to try one and then have it for your field kit. MUCH the best diamond stones I've ever used. They feel much more like a regular water stone than any of the coated technology diamonds I've ever used (and I've tried most). I was extremely impressed. Do yourself a favor and at least try the little $9.60 pocket stone from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-...292&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Let me know if you disagree with me. :-)


I can't wait for them to get the finer grit pocket stones back in!

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:

My experience with the Atoma 400 grit vs CBN 300. CBN cut faster/digs in and better feel. I don't care for the Atoma stone other then using it to flatten Shapton/Chosera stones.

Before sharpening these steels I certainly was in the polished edge camp, no longer. I like the edge of a 300/700/few light passes with 1 micron strop. I'll still sharpen to a polished mirror edge for friends, that's fun. For my own knives and how I use them prefer the performance of the toothy/stropped edge. Suggest to try finishing with with a strop/1 micron and maybe picking up a 150-200 grit CBN stone if you want faster removal when re-profiling an edge.

Order the Green Rizla+ cigarette papers so were comparing same test cut media!! Keep you from shaving all the hair off your arms! Length cut test I believe is a good edge for EDC and a reasonable place to stop.

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:
Where did you buy the CBN stones?

The two Youtube sharpeners. Big Brown Bear and Michael Christy. They certainly have different approaches. BBB toothy/strop edge. I appreciate how he's chasing super steels/hardness with the knives he's making. MC, goes as far as he can with a polsihed/mirror edge. I've taken some of the super steels to a polished edge (.025 strop), lotta work, more opportunity to mess up! I get the further we take a edge from dull, the longer it will last. Not sure it's worth the extra effort especially with a steels like S110V and Maxamet? I like seeing how sharp I can get a edge with the least amount of stones/strop. Long way push cut on the cigarette paper I believe is plenty sharp. The Native 5 Maxamet I sharpened, owner cuts packing banding, I knew that. He said he would have preferred just little more bite. If I sharpen it again, probably 300/700/5 micron strop or 300/strop. A polished edge would have done poorly for him. I've talked to Ken Schwartz, well know sharpening guru, bought some emulsion from him. He offers .003 micron emulsion, crazy fine! He's in MC camp. Also bought a few things from Jenede Industries, he's in the coarse stone, strop camp. Interesting talking to these guys, their approach. We simply have to figure out what edge works best for us or the people we sharpen for... I don't charge for sharpening, I enjoy it so much! Although a friend previously owned a restaurant, I sharpened 10-12 knives monthly for several years. Charged him a meal!

Beside learning how to sharpen these super steels to my liking. Also like to see how steep of an angle I can put on them. My S110V PM2 at 30 degrees is holding up great. Obviously that edge has limit, but so do all knives depending how we use them.

A few weeks ago bought some 1/8 thick Basswood. Adhered it to 1x6 aluminum blanks with double stick tape. Dirt ball simple to make. So far only tried it with 1 micron emulsion, worked great. Little easier to keep the edge keen, not roll it over... Basswood is a little harder then the more common Balsa-wood strops.

quote:

Originally posted by djpaintles:
I got to try a couple new goodies today. I picked up a TSProf K02 from Amazon. Instead of ordering from Russia I saw it on Amazon ordered it and it was here in 2 days. Lots better than waiting on production and then shipping from Tsbilsi Russia.

The TSProf is WOW!!! I used the Edge Pro for years, The TSProf is in a whole new league. It's a very nicely made thing and has several extremely well thought out features. It's a clamped system with very versatile clamps and an awesome flip mechanism to do both sides. Another super slick feature is that the clamps will hold all sorts of stones. You could clamp a regular Waterstone in and make it work! If you are thinking of upgrading to the Ferrari version of guided sharpener this is it. It has 2 flats engineered in to use an angle guide with, It has spring loaded stone stops to keep from running your stone of the edge while helping you to use All of the length of the stone. One of it's BEST features is the length of the arm. Since the pivot point is much further away you don't change your grinding angle as severely as on a curved blade, this is a huge advantage. It's like moving your blade a couple times on the shelf for a longer knife. IMO the seriously well worth looking into, it's not cheap but isn't more than a couple nice knives either.

I have a Wicked Edge too and liked it for shorter blades. The WE is always going to be faster since you can work both sides at the same time. It's also going to be twice as expensive to buy stones and strops for since you need 2 of each! I'll probably only use the WE for doing lots of shorter blades and when I have less counter space.

I also looked into the Hapstone sharpeners available from Gritomatic (and Amazon). I chose the TSProf over the Hapstone R1 but I think a beginning sharpener might be a good bit better off with a $159 Hapstone M2 vs a more expensive EdgePro Apex. The Hapstone not only is less expensive but looks like it might be a better tool than the EdgePro flat out. The M2 has a magnetic shelf to hold knives steadier and a double point brace to hold a curved knife more accurately plus a support that slides up in front of the shelf to keep the blade from tipping. It seemed pretty impressive for $159 but I haven't used one yet. ;-)

Last but not least I tried the Gritomax triple set of diamond 1"x 6" stones. for $84 they are IMO a real bargain. They fit right into the TSProf and cut through S110 like butter. Might not be useable on an EdgePro but I'll probably end up with an extra set for travel etc. Pretty cool deal to get long lasting better technology bonded diamonds in 6 grits for less than $85 delivered.

Anyway I'm hoping that all this stuff will help me get my knives as nicely polished as Offgrids. I can get the gloss but not always without too many scratches. May end up liking the toothier stuff anyway. ;-)

Anyway Good Luck and Good Sharpening all!...........DJ

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Originally posted by offgrid:


Ready for this?! I picked up TS-Prof also. Yep, TS-Prof is WOW!

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Originally posted by offgrid:
TS-Prof is great sharpener!

I'm using two clamps if I can on Spyderco knives because of their distal taper. Because of the long arm, knife can be a little off center. Mine came with springs in front of the stops. I replaced the springs with O-rings, prefer a more positive stop. With the springs I accidentally over came the front stop and mashed the holder on a nice edge, oops!! Didn't have the stop quite adjusted right.

I etched my CBN stones with Ferric Chloride last month. No big deal, non eventful! Did it outside, rubber gloves, long sleeve shirt, goggles, soak the stones for 10 minutes, rinse thoroughly. 1500 and finer stones cut a little more aggressively, not as much change on 300/700. Guessing I'm good for a hundred knives. My CBN stones did not come with aluminum backer plate. You'll have to remove your stones from the plate to etch.

https://www.digikey.com/produc...n?mpart=415-1L&v=473 Bought lots of stuff from them over the years, good service.

For a polished/mirror edge the Spyderco UF Ceramic is the ticket. Works well after the 1500 grit CBN. Bought it here https://jendeindustries.com/

Kangaroo strops and a bunch of these sleeves here http://www.oldawan.com/new-ite...1x6-edge-pro-stones/

Spyderco PM2 Maxamet edge is holding up great! Like to have a 8" Chef knife in Maxamet!