Is it, as so many seem to say, impossible to regain the original sharpness of serrations when you resharpen?
IMO, yes. You can come close, but it's difficult to match the original sharpness.
I realize they will eventually round off, but aren't the corners of the rods on the Sharpmaker designed to sharpen serrations?
The Sharpmaker corners allow the sharpener to reach into the serrations sufficiently to grind the edge in each "tooth". The rounding of the corners is a byproduct of the normal use of the 203/204 ("normal" being to draw the edge and points across the corners of the rods), but is incidental to the loss of sharpness in the individual teeth.
The problem is that the NIB sharpness comes from a variety of things. Each tooth is uniformly machine ground with a very shallow angle. It's difficult to match this uniformity by hand (even on a Sharpmaker). The NIB edge is probably also polished, and most people don't have a convenient means of stropping a serrated edge (tho I don't doubt there are ways to try).
Wouldn't the fact you only really sharpen one side (except to remove the wire edge) make it, in fact, easier?
Yes, except for the polishing/stropping as I mentioned above. Also keep in mind that by design, the 203/204 will NOT give your serrations the flat uniform angle they had NIB. The most shallow angle allowed on the 204 is 15 degrees (only 20 degrees on your 203), which is typically the bevel angle found on each side of a plain-edged Spydie. You can see (particularly on a combo-edge model) that the serrations are cut at a more extreme angle (relative to the plain edge). Hence each use of the 203/204 puts a small edge bevel on top of the primary bevel of the serrations.
This action has several benefits and drawbacks.
Plus:
- You can get a workable edge back on the serrations faster than if you tried to work the whole serration back down to the same angle.
- The resulting edge will be thicker (hence not as smooth-cutting), but will be stronger (less likely to chip, roll or dent).
Minus:
- You don't get the same silky smooth cutting action of the NIB edge.
IMO, the hair popping sharpness NIB was only good to impress people (and maybe myself). The serrations work just fine for everday tasks even if they're dull, so my hand-sharpening to less than NIB status is more than adequate for real work.
FWIW, I keep a plain-edge knife (usually Wegner Jr) with me also to impress people (and myself) with my sharpening technique. It can be done, and without too much difficulty on a plain-edge knife, but less so on a serrated edge.
You just have to ask yourself how important it is to slice toilet paper when deciding on that new knife. If NIB edges are important, then go with a plain-edge (I think that's why so many BF members do), but if a working knife is more important, go for the serrated if that's the nature of your work, and get over the loss of the NIB edge.
Like any marriage or relationship ... there's never anything else like the "first time", but you get over that when you realize you have a knife with an edge that'll never let you down when it counts.
[This message has been edited by Longden (edited 02-14-2000).]
