Sharpening Grimsmo Rask Damasteel blade

[uilleann]

Just got a 2nd hand Rask.  Beautiful knife, great action.  But the blade is like butter knife sharp….. very strange.  It has a damasteel blade.  The existing sharpening bevel is very small and dull.   Will this be any different than other steels to sharpen.  Any limits on sharpening angles?

[Mark76]

I have sharpened Damasteel in the past. What I recall is that it’s stainless and behaves pretty normal for a stainless steel. So a little harder to sharpen than many carbon steels, but no problems. I didn’t record which angles I used, but in general I like to try to get my angles pretty low (perhaps with a microbevel) unless of course the edges cannot handle it. So I often start such knives at, say, 15 degrees per side and then see if they keep up. If they do, I may go even lower, if they don’t I apply a microbevel or increase the angle.

I couldn’t resist Googling Rask knives. And there are surely some very beautiful pieces. Here is one:

I’d be pretty careful if I got a knife like this, so maybe I’d start at 18 degrees. Have you got a picture of your knife?

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

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Gazillion

[uilleann]

Those are my thoughts as well.  My knife has a similar blade but different handle.  I think I will start with 18 dps and see how that looks, sharpens, and holds up.  Then I might redo it at 17 dps then maybe 16.  More than 16 will be taking too much away from the loook of the blade I think.

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Gazillion, Mark76, Marc H

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