Benchmade RIFT 950 Owners!

ZippoThisKnifeThat

ZippoThisKnifeThat

Joined
Oct 7, 2009
Messages
1,861
I am at loss with my Rift. I had purchased this knife used a while back and had an extremely dull edge. For my life I cannot not bring this knife back to SHARP.

I am using a Spyderco Sharpmaker and had been using the 40 degree setting. I own the Medium, Fine, and Ultra Fine rods and have tried using all three in sequence, yet this knife will not get sharp?! :confused:

It can now cut paper, which it could not before. Yet it is still tearing and not slicing.

ANY hints, tips, tricks on how you guys sharpen your Rift's on a Sharpmaker would be wonderful!

I really don't want to sell this knife because I am having sharpening difficulties. Touching up/sharpening all my other knives has never been an issue, until the Rift.

Thank you!
 
You need to dump that knife while you still can!!! Send it to me and I'll get rid of it safely for you :D

Seriously, even 154CM can be difficult to sharpen if it gets dull. Add that to the the marginal capacity of the Sharpmaker to reprofile a blade and you are stuck with a long, long process. My suggestions would be:

1) get a more aggressive sharpening surface or system. The DMT aligner, GATCO or Lasco system, or other system that will remove more metal than the standard Sharpmaker rods and will shorten the time on the stones. Diamond rods for the Sharpmaker can speed things up a little as well.

2) make sure you clean the ceramic rods often. I use COMET dry scrubbing cleaner and it works great at getting the tiny, gray metal particles out of the ceramic surfaces of the rods. You can really notice a difference in the texture before and after you clean the rods.

3) Don't spend long periods of time sharpening the same knife on the rods in a single sitting. Give yourself a break every 5-10 minutes and you'll be able to keep a more consistent angle. My angle starts to wander after a few minutes.

4) if all else fails.....give it up and send the Rift to me :D

good luck
 
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My Rift seems to sharpen up the fastest out of all the knives I own. I use a Sharpmaker so I really dont know what to tell you.

Maybe send it Back to Benchmade so they can reprofile it and see if that allows you to keep the edge how you want it.
 
Do not send it to BM for a re-profile.

It's gonna take time and skill with the sharpmaker.

My recommendation is getting something better...by better, I mean faster, there are several setups available, look into them.
 
I just sharpened my 154CM EDC Rift last night and it is tree topping hairs right now. It had become convex over the last 2 years of EDCing it everyday and sharpening it when it needed it. And with the talk in another thread of someone having bad performance of Benchmade 154CM I decided to reprofile it and see how long it would go before it won't shave. It is very sharp now. I doubt it is as sharp as some others can get but it is good enough for me.

I do not use a Sharpmaker so I can only offer some advise. One would be to get a coarse grit sandpaper and wrap around the rods. Another would be to get a coarse stone (diamonds might be best?) and lean against the rods. If you can reprofile the edge so that you are getting to the very edge then it should sharpen up fine.

Have you done the Sharpie trick? After one pass is there zero black along the very edge when looking with a magnifying glass? If there is still marker then you just need to spend more time on it so that you get down to the very edge.

If you can not get it sharp you can sell it to me! :D Or I would sharpen it on my edge pro to whatever degree you want and put a mirror polish on it with my strops and 1 and 0.5 micron diamond for free, just pay the postage. First class with delivery confirmation and a small box is only about $3.50 each way.
 
After much frustration with the Sharpmaker I've recently gone back to my old medium Arkansas benchstone for sharpening my Benchmades. In a similar light couldn't get a good edge on my 950 and on the stone got a very decent toothy edge on the 154cm blade. The SM is good for touchups but a drag for anything really dull, never mind anything in D2.
 
I have gotten good results by making passes only on one side until a burr forms, then after that doing the other side, then finally following the directions.
 
you should raise a burr so you know youre hitting the very edge.

you can grind away at one side (I've been told you can switch, I dont know honestly) until it forms, then switch to the other side till it forms on the other side. burrs always form on the opposite side, you can feel it with your thumbnail by going gently from the spine to the edge (ie away from the direction that you would cut yourself going). eventually youll need to tilt in slightly and do two or three passes very lightly to grind it off.

you should be able to pop hairs off the coarse brown stone easily.

if you need to cut a lot of material off, wrap sandpaper around the stones.
 
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The sharpmaker is not designed to work one side until a burr forms. Sure you can do it, but many many people use it with great success without forming any burr.

Saying it MUST be done could confuse people especially when it goes in the face of the instructions given in the directions and DVD. It CAN be done as an alternative method to make your knife sharp if alternating sides is not working for you. The good thing about forming a burr is that you know both sides have met in a sharp point.
 
FlaMtnBkr said:
The sharpmaker is not designed to work one side until a burr forms. Sure you can do it, but many many people use it with great success without forming any burr.

Saying it MUST be done could confuse people especially when it goes in the face of the instructions given in the directions and DVD. It CAN be done as an alternative method to make your knife sharp if alternating sides is not working for you. The good thing about forming a burr is that you know both sides have met in a sharp point.
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you're right, you dont have to have to, but I certainly recommend it to know you are hitting the absolute edge. this is especially a problem when reprofiling because you will end up with what is in effect a microbevel.
 
Thank you all of you for your input and advice. I had tried the sharpie trick....I will try again. Maybe I do have to reprofile the edge to 40, because there is still a bit of sharpie left over. The knife's tip also seems to be uneven with the rest of the edge.
 
Because the Sharpmaker has only two edge angle choices you often have to reprofile your knife to one of those angles. And reprofiling on the Sharpmaker can be very time consuming. Spyderco sells some diamond rods for the Sharpmaker, that might be the cheapest alternative to speeding up the reprofiling process, especially for harder steels.
 
Diamond rods. Get them. Probably the most important step in sharpening is with your first stones/rods.
 
The Sharpmaker is an excellent system for keeping a sharp knife sharp. I've found that sharpening my knife, every day that I use it, about 10 strokes on each side will keep the edge razor sharp. If you have to bring an edge back to life a SM can do it, but as said, prepare for the long haul. Also as said, keep the stones clean, and the diamond rods for the SM will make things go MUCH faster.
 
Sharpening 154cm had a learning curve for me as well. I don't use gadgeted sharpeners much anymore, i did years ago but i freehand sharpen now. Practice makes perfect.

BENCHMADE has the LIFEsharp, send it to benchamde if you are at a loss. Has that been mentioned?
 
ron_m80 said:
BENCHMADE has the LIFEsharp, send it to benchamde if you are at a loss. Has that been mentioned?
Click to expand...

It's an option but not the best option. How does that saying go, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Becoming proficient at sharpening is a very useful skill.

Also sometimes I find that lifesharp takes a little too much metal off when they sharpen. It's not too big of a deal but it still bothers me.
 
I sent one of mine to benchmade's lifesharp several years ago and couldn't believe how much metal they took off. I will never do that again. After bout 5 trips there I don't believe there would be any blade left.:confused:
 
Mine came with one side <20 degrees and one side well >20 degrees, so the Sharpmaker would not work. I put a 15 degree per side edge on it with the Edge Pro and that fixed it.

Bottom line: The Sharpmaker does not work if wither side is > 20 degrees. Solution: thin the edge so both sides are < 20 degrees. You don't need an Edge Pro to do it. A course bench stone will work just as well but the result won't be as purdy.
 
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