Sharpening Vanax

[hendrix]

My main EDC is a Quietcarry Drift with vanax steel. I would like to sharpen it but would conventional aluminum oxide stones be sufficient? I haven’t invested in diamond stones and would like to avoid diamond just for one application but what do you guys suggest?

 

[Rangen]

My main EDC is a Quietcarry Drift with vanax steel. I would like to sharpen it but would conventional aluminum oxide stones be sufficient? I haven’t invested in diamond stones and would like to avoid diamond just for one application but what do you guys suggest?

I'm no metallurgist, but it looks to me as though there's enough vanadium in there for the harder-than-Alox carbides to be an issue.

You could experiment with a cheap diamond plate of around 1K grit, and see how it does. Or you could get a cheap diamond plate of around 3K grit, sharpen up to that point on your alox stones, and use the 3K for refinement. That might work well. It would be a way of checking on diamond performance vs. your Alox stones without a large investment.

This being KKF, of course the right answer is to get some good resin-bonded diamond stones, and then buy more high-carbide knives to justify the purchase.

 

[jedy617]

vanax sharpens up so wonderfully on my diamonds. Never tried alox on it, but I think it should be possible to do a fine job, will just take awhile

 

[M1k3]

Start at a lower grit, 300-500 or so, finish in the 1K-4Kish range.

 

[hendrix]

Thanks everyone for the advice. Just used my usual progression and should have done this before I asked:
SG 320 -> SG 500 -> CP 800 -> CP 3000
Nice edge now but not as pleasant sharpening experience as with the high carbon lower alloy steels.