Having sharpened a few Busses on my sharpmaker, I have found that they are pretty thick right behind the edge, and the angle they come from the factory with is much greater than the angles on the sharpmaker. If you are dead set on using the sharpmaker, you will need to bring the included edge angle down to something less than 40 degrees before using it, or get the diamond rods and spend a couple hours at it (if your knife is typical of the three small ones I have). Get yourself a jeweller's loupe so you can examine the edge to see when and if you start getting all the way to the edge. When I first got the sharpmaker, I thought I was hitting the edge, then, after talking to a helpful guy out at the spyderco factory outlet store, I bought a loupe. When examining the edge under the loupe, it was readily apparent that I wasn't nearly there yet. As for the fine rods, if you are truely hitting the edge, you should sharpen on the fine rods with a very light touch. All that being said, I find that once you get the preferred edge angle on one, the best way to keep them sharp is "steeling" them on a ceramic rod. If you live in the Denver, metro area, drop me a line. I would be more than happy to give you a rundown on sharpening methods. I have a sharpmaker, edge-pro, eze-sharp, all manner of strops, belt grinder, and water stones. I am pretty good on all of the aforementioned methods (there are probably quite a few people on here that are better, but I get good results). You might also consider the sand paper on a mouse pad method.
