Benchmade Altitude Questions (Micro bevels & Edge Finish)
- This topic has 4 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 04/13/2020 at 5:24 pm by
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Hey guys! I’m a total newbie at sharpening, but I finally got my WE130 last week and have been having a blast. I also added the 800/1000 grit, and 1500/2200 grit stones to my kit. I’ve sharpened about 10 cheap knives so far (waiting to break the stones in more before I tackle my Benchmades).
My main questions are about when I finally sharpen my Benchmade Altitude. I will only use this knife to skin & debone elk and deer. I use the gutless method, & I am very careful about not hitting very much bone and hair when dressing the animal. I settled on this knife because of the S90V steel, and my goal is to be able sharpen it in such a way that I can break down an entire elk without needing to re-sharpen or have to do any touch-ups in the field. I’m an “ounce counting” hunter, so I really would not like to have to carry a sharpener in the field (although I’m considering making a small leather strop to throw in my pack). Below are some of the knife’s stats:
Blade Steel: CPM-S90V
Blade Thickness: 0.090″ (2.286mm)
Factory angle: I read on one site that this comes with a 16-degree angle (32 degree inclusive), but I haven’t confirmed that yet.
My two main questions have to do with the angles I use for the bevel, and the final edge finish. I’ve done tons of reading and forum searching on angles, but I’m finding lots of different answers depending on the type of steel and purpose of the knife. I also can’t find posts that pertain to my exact questions, so I’m hoping some of you might be able to help me out. I’m especially interested to hear from any elk hunters, or if you’ve played around with this specific knife.
As far as the primary bevel, my understanding is that 16-degrees is fairly steep for most hunting knives (many recommended hunting knives be around 20-22 degrees). However, some have suggested that steels like S90v are able to handle a 16-degree angle and still have great edge retention. Is that true? As I said, I want this knife to be razor sharp, and stay razor sharp, through an entire elk. Also, should I put a micro bevel on this knife to make the edge last longer? Say, for example, I make my primary bevel 16-degrees, and add an 18-degree micro bevel to it…will this still give me that razor sharp slicing motion I want, but make it last a lot longer? Again, I’m open to any possible way to make this knife perfect for breaking down an entire elk without needing to be touched up (if that’s realistic).
My second question has to do with the edge finish. I’ve read a lot of information about polished vs. toothy edges. If my only objective for this knife is slicing meat and skinning (trying to cut the hide from the skin side as much as possible to avoid cutting the hair), what edge finish is going to give me the sharpest, longest lasting results? Do I want to polish the knife as fine as I can (in which case I need to add some strops to my kit)? Or, will my knife actually cut better with a more “toothy” edge? If it’s the latter, how should I go about it? Should I just take my knife up to the 1,000 grit stones and stop, or should I go all the way through the 2200 grit, and then come back with a few light passes of a lower grit?
Please help! The more I read about knife sharpening the more overwhelmed I’m getting because there’s just so much to learn, but I am definitely having a lot of fun researching all this. Thank you very much!
– Jess
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That’s a neat looking blade. Given the steel, it should have good wear resistance in those moments when you do have to go through the hide from the outside and will go through hair and dirt. 16 degrees per side will be very acute and you’ll need to take care when skinning if you’re planning on keeping the hide intact to mount or make a rug. With a blade that sharp, it will be very easy to accidentally put holes in the hide, especially around the chest in underside of the neck. Overall, you’ll want a semi-toothy finish; maybe 1000 grit and a little light stropping with grit in the 4-5 micron range. Than little bit of stropping will give you a slightly convex edge that will help with durability. If you find the edge is simply too sharp and you’re putting unwanted holes in the hide, then you can add a micro-bevel at around 20 degrees very easily.
-Clay
It seems like a tall tale, but we found in my outfitting business that, once we started sharpening on the Wicked Edge and had really well formed bevels, we could easily complete 1 elk with no touch-ups and could go as far as 4 elk if we were in a pinch and couldn’t do a touch-up in between. We’d sometimes find ourselves in that situation on opening day of 1st rifle season. I had a group of clients that hunted with me every year and then went on to do a multi-animal hunt in Utah. They’d take their Diamond Blade knives and instruct the guides to use only those, and they found that they could go through all the animals in the hunt with just the one knife, without resharpening. So that was an elk, mule deer, moose and bear. It seems extreme, but maybe possible since those Diamond Blades are super hard. At any rate, just one elk should be no problem. I typically use three knives though for field dressing an elk because I also quarter it in the field. So I use the Browning FTD folder because I really like their hide blade for unzipping the legs and ringing the abdomen. With that method, the hide blade only cuts from the inside out. Then I use the drop point blade for the skinning. For cutting the meat, I use a folding fillet knife from Benchmade. It’s extremely light and works great in working around the spine and ribs for removing the backstrap and around the hip joints. It’s also a little longer so it only takes a couple quick slashes to remove the shoulders.
-Clay
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