What sharpening techniques are used to sharpen the "premium" steels ie S30V, ATS34, BG42, D2, A2, etc. I have heard these steels are very difficult to sharpen.

Thanks.

Just use a diamond or ceramic stone .I do it freehand with a diamond rod ,very easy.

I use waterstones to sharpen all of the steels you mentioned. S-30V takes longer to get to a high polish but gets there fine.
I really like my Tormek machine with a 4000 grit waterstone for a lot of knives but with some steels and blade shapes I prefer a flat stone.
I think Shapton Waterstones are the best I've tried. Norton cut quick but don't leave as fine a scratch pattern. King brand stones are pretty inexpensive and work quite well. I always carry a King 1000/6000 grit stone with me when traveling it works quite well for light to medium duty sharpening.
Diamond stones and rods cut pretty quickly but I prefer a more polished edge than they will give. I even have Micron level diamond paste but it still doesn't get as fine a polish as some of my waterstones. They are probably the best thing to stick in your backpack though.
I don't really care for Arkansas Stones. They are messy when used with oil and don't cut fast enough to be easy to use. Good ones are also comparatively expensive.
I've sharpened with various grades of sandpaper and found it to be OK if you have a easy way to get sandpaper but otherwise it can get expensive.

My favorite strop is available from woodworking supply companies. They are call "Wood is Good" strops. They are a composition surface and are firmer than leather so they don't roll an edge over like leather will. They sell a powdered Aluminum oxide that works OK with them but my favorite is "Herbs yellowstone" from woodcraft. It cuts faster and finer than any other polish I've tried and I've tried a bunch!..................DJ

I have a Spyderco Sharpmaker and it's very easy to use. It came with two pair of triangular ceramic stones, a coarse pair and a fine pair. The base has a 30-degree and 40-degree (inclusive) setting. It has worked for me on all the tough premium steels like S30V and even ZDP-189. It packs up in it's own case so it's small enough to pack in the field at hunt camp.

I would recommend that you avoid any of those V-shaped pull through sharpeners. They can mess up a nice edge quickly by cutting back the blade shoulders too acutely. They're quick but won't give you an edge that "holds" for very long.

Good luck.

Another vote for the Spyderco Sharpmaker. Biggest asset is its speed. Once you've got the angles correct on your blade it touches one up in seconds and takes a dull one to a near shaving edge in less than 2 minutes, all the while being nearly idiot proof.

Sounds counter intuitive, but you can get blades too sharp for normal uses such as skinning.

My technique is to use a Lansky diamond system and put a 20 degree edge on progressing to the finest and then I run them over a diamond thingy that's shaped like a thin stone I have to touch up.

I'm not saying this to tell people that my system is better or even good. It's to garner criticizm and comments (constructive I hope).

What's wrong and right with my system and do I also need to get a knife steel to knock off the "burr"? Here's a link that gave me the idea and my brother-in-law who used to be a butcher said I need a "steel".

Knife Steel

$bob$

quote:

Originally posted by LDHunter:
My technique is to use a Lansky diamond system and put a 20 degree edge on progressing to the finest and then I run them over a diamond thingy that's shaped like a thin stone I have to touch up.

I'm not saying this to tell people that my system is better or even good. It's to garner criticizm and comments (constructive I hope).

What's wrong and right with my system and do I also need to get a knife steel to knock off the "burr"? Here's a link that gave me the idea and my brother-in-law who used to be a butcher said I need a "steel".

Knife Steel

$bob$

LD, if you have a burr on your knife edge you aren't proceeding onto fine enough stones. The burr should be polished off.
With a knife steel all that you are doing is straightening out the burr from one side to another. Your edge will last longer without a burr....................DJ

DJ,

Thanks... That's what I've always thought but I kept hearing people talk about needing a "steel".

Since I got my Lansky I've been able to sharpen my knives to fine razor edges that seem to hold up. I usually don't have a burr but usually just went back to a super fine stone and worked it out when I've seen them.

I've not dulled my S30V or D2 blades yet though....

$bob$

As mentioned a steel only re-establishes the wire edge. I love my steel for quick sharpening in the kitchen where I don't have time to use a stone and where a toothy edge is desired for slicing veggies and meat. That said if you sharpen a knife properly you won't need a steel. When you sharpen an edge, whether it's for a chisel or a knife you remove material at a suitable angle on one or both sides of the blade. When you develope the wire edge you have gone as close as possible to the "finite edge" of the tool. You then polish off the wire edge and it should be sharp as hell as well as having an edge that lasts well.

the chef

Prior to this year I have been using the gatco system with the coarse, medium and fine stones. I have been getting decent results, but this year I got the extra fine and ultra fine stones. Wow, what a difference they made. The system allows for consistent angle, but he finer stones really produce a true razor edge. Then I finish it off and maintain the edge with a 4" wide strip of cowhide stropping.

Go to the fallowing websites thay are where I learned how to put a shaving sharp hair poping edge on all my knives. And I also learned while there what it means to rase a "burr" on one side of a knife blade then the other. I second the Spyderco sharpener. It works great on my knives made of A2, VG-10, ATS-34, 440HC, and Carbon-V.

The knife forum
the blade forum

Thay both have forums strictly devoted to the art and skill of knife sharpening. You will find out all you need to know about sharpening knives and just as important how NOT to try to sharpen your knives. Beware there are far more blade dammaging sharpening gimmicks out there than sharpening systems that actually work.

IT IS FAAAAAAR EASIOR TO KEEP A SHARP KNIFE SHARP, than try to resharpen it once dull as a marble.

I'm a knife maker, and use a Lansky for sharpening. If I have a small burr on the edge after using the Lansky, I flop it back and forth till it comes off and then do the final finishing using the finish stone Lansy sells. Then, I hone the blade using leather glued to a large 3"x18" board, smooth side of the leather glued on one side, and the rough side on the other. I hold the 1" board in a vise, rough side up first for a dozen strokes, then flip the borad over and repeat on the smooth side. That process gets all of the tiny burrs off, which is what honing is all about.
The most important thing in sharpening is keeping the edge bevel flat on both sides. The only way I can do that is with a Lansky type system, where the blade is held in a fixture so the edge bevel doesn't get rounded by doing the sharpening by hand. In doing it by hand, I have a tendency to rock the blade during the sharpening stoke, which leaves the edge bevel rounded, or curved and not perfectly flat like it needs to be for a great edge.