Sharpening Stainless Steel and Japanese High Speed Tool Steel
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This is a video, posted in July of ’16, of a Japanese Aritsugu knife my sister purchased as a gift for me at their store in Kyoto. They sharpen in two stages. First, a master hones the edge on an abrasive drum in a direction parallel to the edge. Next, another master puts the final bevel on by the traditional waterstone method, perpendicular to the edge. If you watch the video, you’ll see that there are a lot of minor defects on the edge. The video was taken before the knife was ever used, so the defects are just a part of the knife. It’s incredibly sharp, but this seems to be a result of the very low bevel angles. From what I could see without actually touching a stone to the edge, the edge was convex sharpened to 12 degrees, inclusive. The edge is so thin, you think of foil, or the flexible edge of a straight razor.
I’ve only used the knife a half-dozen times, and haven’t checked it with the ‘scope since. I’ll try to do so in the next few days.
Yes, I’ve only used it on soft veggies like tomatoes. And it’s so incredibly sharp you wouldn’t believe it. Wheeee! It easily does the paper-thin tomato slice Mark showed us.
Mr. David, Thanks for posting the YouTube video. It was very interesting and informative. It feeds right in with my experiences that drove me to start this Thread / Topic in the first place. Maxamet is just one more of the what I choose to call “Japanese Super Steels”, (JSS), to add to the list of steels with the disappearing edges while sharpening. I don’t feel so bad anymore, hearing there are others out there, that have repeatedly experienced similar issues, as I have, while sharpening these JSS. I find it particularly interesting the counter-intuitive methods tried and ultimately utilized to overcome sharpening difficulties with these steels. His referring to the Maxamet steel, and all the JSS, for that matter, as more ceramic-like then steel-like is a great analogy.
One problem I see is there is a limited production and use of these JSS due to the high price points. It makes me wonder is it worth the expense and inconvenience to buy and try to use and sharpen these JSS. Maybe the steels or the methods of making these steels is just in it’s infancy and is evolving till the makers get it down. I guess we’ll see in time.
Marc
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I haven’t had the same experience at all with my Spyderco Native in Maxamet. I’ve now sharpened it twice since I got it, just matching what looked to me like a 3 micron finish at 16.5 degrees and I’ve been very happy with it. No chipping or anything else and the edge has held up great to all kinds of use. I’ve carried it every single day since June and used it lots.
-Clay
Clay would you please post your stone progression and medium types used. Thanks
I’ve only used the 1500# diamonds and the 9 micron films. The scratches that the 1500# diamonds leave are right around 3 microns, nearly identical to the original grind of the edge from Spyderco. The first time I touched it up, I only used the 1500# stones and the second time, I used them again but added some strokes with the 9 micron films because the stones cut more deeply than the films and the films are quick at knocking off the higher ridges from the stones. So I still have scratches that are roughly 3 microns wide but aren’t very deep.
-Clay
I haven’t had the same experience at all with my Spyderco Native in Maxamet. I’ve now sharpened it twice since I got it, just matching what looked to me like a 3 micron finish at 16.5 degrees and I’ve been very happy with it. No chipping or anything else and the edge has held up great to all kinds of use. I’ve carried it every single day since June and used it lots.
I remembered that you had previously posted about that exact knife and how impressed you were with it’s performance. That’s part of the reason I wanted to post the video here. Perhaps there is something to the notion of Spyderco having put out some of these knives with a poor heat treatment and you managed to get one of the good ones.
Perhaps there is something to the notion of Spyderco having put out some of these knives with a poor heat treatment and you managed to get one of the good ones.
That’s the first thing that came to mind for me when I watched the video. Maybe just a bad batch.
-Clay
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