Alright, For all the M4 Whores out there...

Am just waiting for my first M4 knives to arrive. I have no experience with M4 but love D2
Any tips on maintaining the edge with M4 steels. What media are people using to sharpen? Diamond, ceramics, strops?

Other than ease of sharpening and greater edge retention, toughness etc. any differences or comparisons to other blades people care to share would be great too. I see a lot of collectors scrambling to procure M4 for their safes but I havent seen a lot of reviews on M4 as a working knife. Thanks and happy monday to all

My M4 blades are easier to sharpen than the D2 ones. Usually I go for the medium stones on my Sharpmaker and finish with the fine ones. I have an old horsehide strop I finish the edge on.

My 806SBK arrived a little less than I expected and it now cuts everything with ease. Not being an expert in edge geometry and all, all I know is M4 takes a strong sharp edge and keeps it.

As promised to the guy I got the AFCK from I'm using it for both kitchen and table chores. Other night I used it for deboning chicken and the size and balance equals my better kitchen knives.

That's my contrib.

I've heard absolutely nothing but praise about M4, they say it loves thin edges.

Sharpening will be the same as any other steel, nothing out of the ordinary.

I am very excited to try it out. Especially putting some thin edges on them. I find that most knives are relatively dull from the factory and perhaps I'm being hard to please but "shaving sharp" isn't sharp enough. It should shave easily without any catching or scraping. To date the only knife that I own that is sharp enough to shave my face with is the S30v clip point blade on my leatherman TTI. I sharpened and stropped it myself and I could comfortably shave my beard with it no problem. I attribute this to the shallow edge of the grind though Like 17degrees. My other knives are sharp but shaving wouldn't be pleasant they will pop hairs and scalp injuns no prob though! Cant wait to give M4 a try. To me scary sharp is when you can shave tiny curls from bible leafs!

I've settled on using a sharpmaker an aftermarket addition. The diamond rods that you can get for it took FOREVER to put a new angle on my M4 806. After some experimenting, I've settled on the solution shown below. It's a DMT extra course diamond stone. I wrap my hand around the plastic portion and the sharpmaker stone which keeps it in place. Not as fast when changing sides but it cuts MUCH faster than anything else I have access to. If you need to reprofile M4, you can spend $20 to get the DMT stone and get it done fairly quickly. Once the angle is set, you can just the regular sharpmaker medium and fine stones to get a great edge on it.

Good info! Thanks TD. Initially I plan to maintain the factry edge. If through use and experimentation I think I'd like a sharper profile angle I may splurge and have a professional reprofile it. I am pretty good at working other peoples anlges but have tried to reprofile a Fallkniven F1 before and the results were a disaster. Many people seem to swear by the sharpmaker though...think I may have to spring for one soon.

For simple as is the Sharpmaker works very well. It pays to watch at least 10 minutes of the DVD that comes with it, and the Sharpie pen trick marking the edge really helps. That and practice.

Joe, I thought the DVD was only 10 minutes...

I'm using my M4 AFCK alot.
Just bought an Edge Pro APEX kit#4.
Brought the edge down to 21 degrees and it is holding it very well. I occasionaly will polish the edge up to mirror finish, especially if I know I am going to be showing her off to someone.
With a couple of licks from the 1000 grit stone she's scary sharp in a few strokes.
The Apex was SO WORTH the money.
word of cation would be to keep the table very clean or the metal and sand from the stone might possibly rub some of the BK finish off.

quote:

Originally posted by Blueram234:
The Apex was SO WORTH the money.

The EP changed my life!