Skyler J Baker

[Skyler J Baker]

Yup, although they feel smooth to the finger but seemed to feel gritty on the blade and they leave much uglier scratches than they should, at this point Ive beat them up so much trying to break them that I’m not sure if I will return them out of guilt :P. Sharpened I dunno, 30-50 times perhaps? used a ceramic hone figuring it would break it in, no luck, ground on the spine of a knife, then on some mild steel plates, no improvement. They look more and more wore each time but are no more refined, here is a picture from the last time I tried using them, the smoother portion was from last time I sharpened it, where I stopped at the 1000 grit stone, switched to sandpaper up to 2000 grit, and called it good, the scratched part was where I did edge leading heel to tip strokes through 1k grit, then switched to the 3u stones and used sweeping motions until they scratches were uniform, then reversed it again hence the crosshatch scratches near the top.
Contamination would make sense, because by some standards it feels pretty sharp, If I am really careful I once split a hair off the 3u stones, but cutting something like cloth feels like a 200 grit edge, its not uniform feeling.

nevermind I can’t get it to show up, I’ll send a link and upload it instead.

https://goo.gl/photos/ZQjGiwdnj7zJys3m6

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• 20150917_155356.jpg

[Skyler J Baker]

I actually unscrewed the set screws entirely, seems like the micro adjust screws holes were a bit small, they work well now though. Still would be helpful to have an L key for the macro adjustment knobs though.

[Skyler J Baker]

I see you guys have them completely stripped down, I assume there is no problem with exposing the side of the stone or nicking it?

[Skyler J Baker]

I’m thinking the tormek jig, it should eliminate issues with the clamp and ffg Spyderco knives should it not? The lowest I would ever take a knife would potentially be 25 degrees inclusive. I would settle for 26 inclusive that the ball joint arms should give. But I find using the stock arms, with a thick knife I hit the clamp at 30-32 inclusive. Meaning I might only get 28-30 with the ball joint arms.

[Skyler J Baker]

What did she do to that knife :sick:

I like to spend a few seconds on one side, then switch to the other and back and forth. I find this removes steel faster than spending a lot of time on one side then the other.

Also, the more acute the back bevel the faster it’ll grind out at a more obtuse angle.

[Skyler J Baker]

If anything I was probably too cautious but I can get my knives as sharp as I was expecting without stropping which was my goal. Stropping is pretty much a necessity with the stock stones at least until they are well broken in, The 1000 grit will rough slice phone book paper, strop the edge and it’ll vertical pushcut.

[Skyler J Baker]

I suspect my manix 2 will need sharpening in a few years being s110v 😉 But I’ll be more careful when I do my domino, honestly thinking of buying the ball joint arms before I do that though, the factory grind line is just so perfect.

[Skyler J Baker]

Hey guys, I may make a second post just because theres not a lot of info about them, but I think I defeated them, after they failed to be impressed by s110v I finally had enough, took them outside and lightly ground them on the metal plate around a table saw. Then I remembered I had an old lansky guided set, looked up what they were ceramic alumina oxide, so I lightly used the 3u stones to lap one of them for about 10 seconds, cleaned them off, then spend another 10 seconds on each stone.

I grabbed my plain ole s30v manix which I decided to make my beater, worked on it with the 3u, the result was much sharper, and honestly fit the image in my head of razor sharp but toothy perfectly. It would push cut phone book paper vertically, though it seems thicker than a metro phonebook, shave cleanly without pulling hair badly, and slice TP as well as my sharpmaker results.

Did I drastically reduce their life or damage them? I’m not sure. Hopefully not, but they definitely require a long long length break in period. But if your patient, or don’t mind doing a forced break in then they seem like the next best step after 1000 grit.

[Skyler J Baker]

I watched that last night after trying to fix my manix, and that is when it occurred to me. Honestly what seems to happen is it grinds away at the very tip, but leaves a small patch of steel about 1-2mm from the tip, which really confused me how that could happen. But I could visualize that if the tip is too high, it seems like the tip would be ground before the steel around the tip which is exactly what happened.

[Skyler J Baker]

Hows this? If were to guess it seems like the tip needed to angle downwards more or do I have it backwards.

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• 20150804_143557.jpg

[Skyler J Baker]

My artistic skills aren’t good enough to draw it how it was, but you can still see the tip angles up more sharply than a normal manix 2.

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• 20150804_123246.jpg

[Skyler J Baker]

Most factory knives have an attrocioous level of variation between sides, One knife I had would microbevel at 15 degrees at one side, and hit the shoulders on the other side.

[Skyler J Baker]

That is brilliant I think I may do that

[Skyler J Baker]

I kind of hate to modify my knives ,and I don’t have a dremel, but that might actually be easier.

[Skyler J Baker]

Yeah the guys are def. correct! It will take about 15-20 knives to break them in fully. After that 1k grit edges will be insanely sharp – but it depends on how you define “sharp” I define it to mean having a clean crisp apex that will penetrate something with little pressure. The next thing you get into is cutting ability – which is how well your blade actually cuts through something. This will totally depend on: stock thickness, edge thickness, and edge angle. For example… I can take a knife w/ a thin edge (say .010″ thick) and run a 1k grit stone 90 degrees into the edge completely dulling it, and then take a sniper blade works folder (SUPER thick) and put a mirrored edge on it. The primary will out perform the latter due to the geometry of the blade on most items.

1k grit, after broken in should give you a tree topping (arm hair) edge that excels at almost any EDC task. I put this edge on all my folders. Here is a video I did recently showing it cutting some phonebook paper at the end

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QiDJu_S-CE%5B/quote%5D

That is a #*$&#$*# lot sharper than I’ve managed. Well I managed to do it, ordered the pro pack with the 3u micron stone and glass blanks as well, after seeing that video I think I didn’t need to, but it along with the supplied strops should allow me to get a nearly mirrored edge if I catch the desire to do so.

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