Damn, I really just screwed this edge up?

[Expidia]

Funny thing the last one before this one was my best and on a $550 MSRP Chris Reeve knife and it came out perfect.

Yet, on this Benchmade I’m ruining it.  First off I started with the LAA as the blade is rather short.  Started at 15 degrees to re-profile.  As I was doing the scrubbing on the right side trying to raise a burr on the left side I noticed the right side bevel was smaller than the left.

So I figured it was the canting of the blade to one side a little due to the LAA locking down the moveable side against the immovable side.  I didnt have a small piece of chamois to offset this, so I switched the holding device to the Tormec adapter.  As I was still working the right side I noticed the handle was still canting over to the left a little.  So I corrected for this, but now had to increase the angle more acutely as I was working the left bevel to make up for the wider bevel that was already formed on the right side. So I moved a degree down on the left side to 14 degrees and stayed at 15 on the right.  The micro adjusters gave me just enough spread to do this.

I can send this knife into Benchmade and they will replace the blade for me for like $30-40.  I even hit the right thumbstud even though I blue taped it I see I wore a piece out of the thumb stud.  Im a righty anyway, so I can live with this and use my dremel to round that stud off a little.

But I had to stop before I finished because I had different multi faceted bevels forming near the heel on both sides.  This was because while spending more time scrubbing up and down in those areas I couldnt get close enough to the choil as the thumb stud being too close I was working the area an inch before the choil harder in that area and started causing the bevel to rise in a slight bow.

Pheew.

Where do I go from here?  Now I know on these small thumbstud knives to remove the blade from the handle.  That would have solved much of my sharpening dilemma.  But do I start from the back and try and straighten out the back edge or do I work my way back from the tip to get at this bowing bevel.  I want to remove as little metal as possible, but I get sick looking at this blade with a bow in it now and need it to be perfectly straight again.

This ticks me off as of course this is not a Benchmade I bought used, it had to be the one I spent $200 on brand new.

Helllpppa . . . wadda I do now?

*thats grease or oil near the thumb stud and I put some swell vertical scratches on the other side on the blade with the stones.  Never did tht type of damage yet, on a brand new blade too.

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[Organic]

Yeah, that doesn’t look good at all. To get rid of the recurve you’ll need to remove a lot of material towards the heel. Like you suggested, I’d say take the blade out of the handle, remove the thumb studs prior to sharpening and then spend a good amount of time scrubbing at the heel until the profile looks right again. Once you’ve done that, start the whole progression over again. I like to check that I’m hitting the same angle / reaching the apex with every stone using the sharpie method and a magnifying device. I also check my angles with each grit change. This prevents me from ending up facets on the bevel.

[Expidia]

Ya, thats what I figured.  You are not reaching for a burr after each stone correct?  Only after the 100 profiling right?

And you are right about the dual thumb studs.  Now that you mentioned it I looked inside the stud and see a star type socket to remove them.  I thought they were all pressed in like the chris reeve knives are.

[Marc H]

A suggestion or recommendation in retrospect, post any questions to the forum before sharpening a blade or knife style you have no experience with.  It’s often better and easier to have the experience shared by others before you start a new knife from those that have “been there done that”, already.

When starting any sharpening job, I do scrub each side individually to draw a burr.  I have found that the height of the bevel may change when I scrub the opposite side to draw the burr there.  For instance if I start to scrub the left side, as clamped, the burr rolls over on the right side as the bevel height is profiled on the left side.  That left side bevel will shorten once I switch to scrubbing to the right side bevel as the rolled-over burr is knocked off the right side knife edge and the burr then forms and rolls over to the left side.  I don’t worry too much about the difference to the bevel heights at this point. When I go back to working on the left side, again, I will knock off the rolled over burr to the left.

It’s not till I follow-up these individual one sided scrubbing strokes with alternating bilateral strokes, left-right-left-right, that the bevel heights will really even out. Then at that point I’ll be able to judge what I’m working with and be able to see how much difference in the bevel heights I may have.  I have learned through experience not to worry too much about the bevel heights until I have drawn the burr to both sides and reached the apex.  The bevels tend to even themselves out if the knife is clamped fairly vertically and if I kept the amount of my individual side scrubbing work, relatively even.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

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Expidia

[Expidia]

OK thx, I didn’t start this blade as a newbie as I have 30 blades under my belt and like I said the last expensive folder I did came out almost perfect.  I did not think the thumb studs were going to cause me an issue.

I didn’t know they could be removed until Organic pointed this out to me.  I thought most were pressed in.  Sharpening these smaller folders with only the blade clamped now seems a lot smarter.  Less chance of getting anything in the pivot even though I taped the knife.

But it being an “assisted” folder I really didnt want to get into opening it and watching springs fly out!

I did this blade before I had the new allen screw.  As soon as I clamped it in the LAA at 15 degrees the stones were already hitting the OEM lower screw.

Whats the consensus on me using the 50 grit to start from the choil and reprofile that recurve bevel out.  I’m glad this happened on my own knife instead of a friends.  The style of the blade is similar to many of my folders.  I have done others, but none with studs so close to the choil and not realizing it until I got to the 400 grit.  I spotted the multibevels developing with the loop and saw I was devleoping the recurve.  I hate to go for a new blade, its not the $30 as much as losing it for another 6-8 weeks.  I just got this one and two others back from Benchmade and it was a 7 week turnaround time.

Good lesson though on how to almost ruin a blade.  Benchmade will probably send me just a thumb stud.  I’ll try and save this blade for practice because if they send me another blade without me have to return the whole knife again . . . the first thing I’ll do when I get the new blade is put on another Wicked Edge . . . Yikes!

On the burr from watching youtube vids I notice some go for a burr with each grit change.  I usually only draw the burr on the first set of stones like the 100’s.  On these premium steels thats what takes most of my time is drawing that first burr.

[Marc H]

Expidia, when one ask others to relate their prior experience it’s not an indication that they lack experience or expertise.  There’s no way with all the different knives out there, no matter how experienced I am, that I can know just how to handle every knife I try to sharpen. I don’t care if I have sharpened 1000 knives before.  If I’ve never sharpened a knife like the next one, I am in effect a “newbie” in relation to that knife.  I’m glad to get someone’s take on it or guidance if they have the experience, to share, that I may lack, especially if it makes my job easier and my results better.  In turn they may ask something I can help them with down the road.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

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Dwight Glass, Expidia

[Organic]

Yes, I typically only go for burr formation on the first set of stones, but I always check that I’m hitting the apex with the sharpie / scope method.

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Bitcounter, Expidia

[Marc H]

I use the same method as Organic.  Even though I don’t draw a burr with each grit I do verify by feel and visually by magnification that I have reached the apex with each stone grit.  I also check or verify and adjust my “set” sharpening angle, with a digital angle cube with each and every grit change along the entire progression.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

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Expidia

[Mikedoh]

Here is a 2 page thread with some info on disassembly. It talks mainly about de-assisting, but you can get an idea if it is something you want to try.

 

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/removing-the-axis-assist-on-an-emissary.1034314/

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Marc H

[Expidia]

Mikedoh wrote:

Here is a 2 page thread with some info on disassembly. It talks mainly about de-assisting, but you can get an idea if it is something you want to try. https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/removing-the-axis-assist-on-an-emissary.1034314/

OK thx mikedoh, I tired watching a youtube on disassembly but I could aonly get as far as taking the screws out on this BM Emissary model.  I could not get  the handles even off so there was no point to watching further.  I did get the thumbstuds off and was able to get it resharpened but the LAA even 15 degrees would hit the jaws, so I went back to the Tomek adapter.   Even starting with the 50/80 grit I still couldnt get all the recurve out so at 11:30 Im calling BM to see if I can just have them send me a new blade. Its SV30 so its probably $40.  I’ll watch that vid. Thx

Ya, I thought it was a vid but as you said its a two page thread.  I’ve actually read that post before.  This is not an easy knife to disassemble as discussed in the thread. Ill probably just send it back to them to resharpen.  That is probably the cheapest way to go.  If they want to charge me to resharpen, I’ll just have them install a new blade.

[Expidia]

Dupe

[Marc H]

Expidia wrote:

Even starting with the 50/80 grit I still couldnt get all the recurve out

I have used a Bastard Metal File horizontally across the length, of a clamped knife blade, (scrubbing heel to tip), to level and reshape the edge and had good results.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

2 users thanked author for this post.

Expidia, Organic

[Expidia]

Thx Marc, I’ll try that.  I got it down pretty good on the re-profile but there still is a slight depression on the edge on the side of the blade that still bothers me that goes to the bottom of the bevel, because of that there is a small depression on the “side” of the blade.

Actually, I just spoke with BM.  She said a new blade is $30 (coated blades are $40) and they can’t send just a blade.  She said the thumbstuds are free.  So taking another look at it if I took a file the blade I’d have to bring the edge all the way down to the bottom of the bevel.  Thata a lot of metal gone as Organic suggested too.

I’ll just have them put on another blade and chalk it up to a lesson learned!

Thx for all your feedback.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by Expidia.

[tcmeyer]

Sorry I don’t have time to read all the above posts, but I thought I’d pipe in and note that I would never go that low in angle for a folder with a thumb stud, or really, any other folder as their use is too varied to survive such a low angle.  17 dps has been too low for my ZDP’s.  Lottsa chips.

I’ve never seen that type of screw socket.  Anyone know what it is?  Did BenchMade say anything?

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Expidia, sksharp

[sksharp]

I have to agree that 15 degs. is to acute for most folders. 18 to 22 degrees seems to work quite well on most all of them.

I have to take a lot of the folders I do down to sharpen properly. Pain in the butt however it is necessary for quite a few folders and makes sharpening much easier both in time and in results. Way less damage as well.

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Expidia

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