Mine was the sharpest BM out of the box I have purchased (granted most of my knives came used).

I have found that M4 really likes a good stropping when you are done with all your sharpening.

My 710-801 cuts like a light saber. However, I did have a friend make some custom scales for a Mule in CPM M4 where the dude had cut the edge back at least 3/16"... it was VERY impressive. I have no idea what angle it was but it was the most aggressive reprofile I'd ever seen. M4 can handle it, or so it would seem.

Drew

My M4 Mule is at 9 degrees per side and the bevel is pretty wide, and the knife gets wickedly sharp and easily handles that angle. My Krein custom in M4 is at 7 degrees per side and it easily handles that angle as well for light to medium duty cutting and it gets sharper than any other knife I own (it is 62-63 RC) and has an ultra thin .007" edge. I have to say M4 is my favorite steel, and my DMT XX Coarse is my best friend when I change the angles on it.

Mike

That's good to know they can go that thin. This was interesting to me...I asked Krein how he sets the angles and he said he doesn't do anything to set a certain angle, he just does them all by hand. The angle you end up with is just what it happened to be. The man is an artist.

-fj

I just bought a mint 710HS which had a very steep edge in the belly section of the blade - a characteristic that seems to be fairy common to some of the older Benchmades.

With a benchstone/Sharpmaker combo it didn't take long to reprofile the bevel to make it an effective cutter:

quote:

Originally posted by steven andrews:
With a benchstone/Sharpmaker combo it didn't take long to reprofile the bevel to make it an effective cutter:

That's a pretty slick idea. I had seen other similar ideas with stones from other forum members, but I never saw a system utilizing the Sharpmaker base, which is great since I already have the SM and whetstones.

I still think I'm going to go for the EdgePro Apex though.

I have to be quite careful when using that method as the stone is just resting against one of the grey Sharpmaker stones. One hand holds the stone and base steady, while the other guides the knife. It takes a little practice, but I find that it takes a lot less time to back-bevel an edge this way than with the diamond Sharpmaker stones.

Very well done..Must have been an all day job.

good idea,good edge...........