Thread: Sharpening a D2 knife blade: some photos, observations, and opinions

Originally Posted by Puffin

I might do a follow-up post showing any change to the finish from then using a 1 micron diamond stone followed by 1 and ¼ micron diamond emulsion on strops...

…might….ok, probably will - in time.


With diamond abrasive stones the difficulty to sharpen in my view is not a consideration that need be factored into a choice of blade steel. I have folders here in CPM-S110V and the previously mentioned CPM-20CV and CTS-XHP, and that all follow the same sharpening process for the same excellent end result as for the PSF27 pictured earlier.

This leaves the trade-off primarily between the properties of toughness, edge retention, and corrosion resistance, and to be honest there seem to be plenty of fully-stainless knife steels now available that push the limits across the full spread of the toughness – edge-retention spectrum. The remaining steels (tool steels) used for performance blades (3V, M4, Maxamet etc.) might not be no-care, but in the main, they too, have sufficient amounts of free chromium to reportedly only need an oily wipe down after use - the sort of maintenance most hunters would be used to applying anyway from the plain carbon-steel days.

By persisting with using sharpening abrasives of significantly lower hardness than diamonds, hunters are probably excluding many of the newer blade steels from consideration, or if purchasing them anyway, seem often enough to be reporting having difficulty in maintaining the edge.

The question of whether to continue using earlier generation knife steels probably depends on how frequently someone is prepared to be touching up their edge when butchering, and for carrying the extra weight of gear for doing this?

Answering this for myself: not any more, not now that it isn’t necessary.

As well as trying out a small number of latest generation steels when replacing my old knife, I also purchased a set of bonded diamond stones, threw out my accumulated collection of abrasives (that in that one purchase had all become obsolete) and have not looked back.

https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....-review-52321/

https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....v-steel-52926/

For what it’s worth these Venev stones get my strong recommendation. Bonded diamond stones have the abrasive right throughout a layer of binder, so unlike the plated diamond stones - such as the DMTs, where once the diamond is worn or comes off the backing then the stone has lost effectiveness - the bonded stones can be rejuvenated repeatedly by refacing to expose fresh diamond.


A follow-up also on another of the points raised in the OP; the folder below has an example of a double bevel as a result of a 0.5mm difference in the thickness between two of the stones I used. That results in just a 4moa change in the angle of application in my sharpener, but in the photo it can be clearly seen in the offset reflections off the two faces (maybe view the image with a bit of enlargement to see this). I either adjust the difference out, or in this case have left it – as the finishing stone is fortunately the thinner of the two (put your geometry hats on!)