Well, I finally bit the bullet and decided to go after one of my scrapyards - the Yard Keeper (Thanks for the heads up KnifeGuy)







You can see in pics 2 and 3 where I didn't quite get enough grind next to the choil, but I was starting to wear the coating pretty high on the blade. Also, there's still some fine scratches here and there (needed to strop more I guess). Tools used were mousepad and sandpaper up to 2000 grit (started at 150 for shaping), and an old leather belt with some mother's billet polish (it was laying around, and I don't have any stropping compound yet).

I wish I didn't eat into the coating so much, but I had to lay the knife down pretty low to get rid of the back bevel. I also had to make about three different runs at different angles to get what I think is a reasonable convex (although the last pass did seem kind of steep). I wonder if the mouse pad is too stiff? Wouldn't solve the problem when going to the leather strop, and I'm agraid of rounding over the edge.

So how sharp is the final product? Well, it slices easily thru a scrap of the leather belt I chopped off the end, and takes hair off the arm (it does feel kinda "grabby" - you can feel it grab each hair). I did shave a bit on the face - that left much to be desired <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />

I might go after the DMDC next, but I might buy a power sharpener before going after the Infi stuff and the Dogfather. Does using a power sharpener cut down on the amount of wearing on the coating at all (assuming correct technique)? What I really want is a DFLE (maybe in the third dowbowl? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />) and an ASH 1 DC or LE.



(Dogfather not shown as it would make the other knives look puny and jealous <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />)