Need sharpening tips on my Busse

[JediKnight86]

I have a new ASH-1 LE. It has a wide edge bevel, more than the Sharpmaker's 40 degrees. Also, the bevel is a very coarse finish. It's so coarse you can feel the grain in the metal very easily with your finger. Firstly, would doing a finer grind/polish on the bevel be helpful? Second, how can I get this thing sharper? It's certainly not "Swine Shaving Sharp" as Busse claims. I got it a little sharper on the Sharpmaker by holding it at a wider angle than 90 to the V. This blade has potential and I just need to find it!

Also, does anyone have some insight into the INFI steel? I read about it on the Busse site. Is it as great as they claim?

[Piercieve]

I have a new ASH-1 LE. It has a wide edge bevel, more than the Sharpmaker's 40 degrees. Also, the bevel is a very coarse finish. It's so coarse you can feel the grain in the metal very easily with your finger. Firstly, would doing a finer grind/polish on the bevel be helpful? Second, how can I get this thing sharper? It's certainly not "Swine Shaving Sharp" as Busse claims. I got it a little sharper on the Sharpmaker by holding it at a wider angle than 90 to the V. This blade has potential and I just need to find it!

Also, does anyone have some insight into the INFI steel? I read about it on the Busse site. Is it as great as they claim?

Why dont you bring the main bevel down to 30 and bring the edge to 40?

[JediKnight86]

Why dont you bring the main bevel down to 30 and bring the edge to 40?

Maybe, but there's got to be a reason Busse makes them like this.

[Piercieve]

Haha yea, I guess they're just really heavy duty. Its probably gonna be hard to get a good edge on such a wide angle though.

[jujigatame]

I'm not familiar with a lot of the Busse range, so is this model a big chopper or a smaller blade? What do you want to be cutting with it?

[jimbo@stn24]

Jedi,

My opinion on why your Busse was delivered with greater than 40 degree edge is either it was a mistake in the sharpening operation or it is in keeping with the hard use image they have worked to portray and achieve edge durability by sacraficing cutting performance. Either way the only things you can do to improve cutting performance to my way of thinking are the following:

1) Continue to try and smooth the edge some to allow it to pass through materials with less friction. You will need to experiment with how "toothy" or polished of an edge you like. The sharpie is your friend when trying to see where you are honing. Keep in mind if your blade is made out of something like .220" stock, you basically have an axe.

2) Profile down to 40 degrees and have a single bevel to the edge, it'll at least seem sharper than 50 degrees.

3) As suggested, take it down to 30 degrees inclusive and then put a nice 40 degree microbevel on that to gain some utility and edge useability. Or some variation of this theme. The more steel you want to remove, obviously, more work.

4) Run it down to less than 30 degrees, now your edge is going to be getting more fragile for abusing and will likely roll or chip, but if you pay attention, it should stand up.

5) Be happy with it as it is. Wouldn't be what I would do but it is your knife.

Be aware that no matter what you do, it will likely never cut/slice like a Millie or Stretch unless it has similar geometry. Best of luck, hope this helps.

[JT]

Ain't almost all Busse's supposed to be convex grind?
My Game warden is, and its a small knife. You can use a soft mousepad and some sandpaper to make a convex edge. INFI is imho quite easy to resharpen, haven't used my GW enough yet to tell how it holds the edge.