carbide sharpener questions (can't use inhouse search)

[Last Visible Canary]

I have here 3 types of carbide sharpeners, and I was wondering if anyone has tried them. Theres the carbee sharp, wich advertises itself as having 2 cutting edges, a burning round side, and a honing set of small bumps. It's a mutli function chunk of carbide thats fairly small, but reletively cheap at 12$ a peice.

Theres 2 variations of the corona carbide "file". does anyone know what they mean by "file"? is it an actual set of file teeth cut into a carbide insert? or is it just a sharpened peice of carbide that they call a file... The smaller 5" rubber coated handle would be pretty awesome because it's so slim and portable.

Then theres 2 types of carbide bars. theres the carbide scrapers that are refills for scrapper bars used in wood working, and then theres machining tool bits, wich you can get in several sizes, but they aren't really available locally. the benefit of the machining ones is the longer length, making them more controllable in the hand. There are also carbide inserts, wich you can get in higher grade carbide with a pre-formed cutting edge. If you could make a small portable handle for it, you could carry around 3 inserts without really adding any weight to the package.

I've seen how carbide bits work on a mill and on a lathe, but never in hand use. has anyone used any of the items here as a knife sharpener, and if so how did they perform?



carbee sharp:

corona carbide "file": "CORONA CLIPPER AC 8300 BLADE SHARPENER 5" "

slightly different corona carbide "file", seemingly with a ceramic rod on the other side

"Hyde 11180 Carbide Scraper Blade"

machining blanks:

carbide bar
http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=619-1235&PMPXNO=16718984&PARTPG=INLMK32

carbide insert
http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=344-3329&PMPXNO=940699&PARTPG=INLMK32

 

[Jason B.]

You will not find much love for those sharpeners here they tend to do more damage than good.

 

[thombrogan]

I tried rebevelling a chef knife after reading some info about carbide scrapers in the Himalayan Imports FAQ and probably would've had better success if I had clamped the knife down to something stationary. Using a cutting fluid (or straight Ballistol) helps reduce some chatter, but skill and practice help more.

 

[Liist]

I have a $4 Smith's carbide sharpener from Wal-Mart. Most useless piece of crap ever, although the ceramic spot can smooth things out. I'm not getting any carbide anytime soon because of it.

http://smithsedge.com/products/product.asp?id=44&cid=10

Here it is, don't buy it.

 

[knarfeng]

You will not find much love for those sharpeners here they tend to do more damage than good.

+1 on that.

 

[Grapevine]

The carbide sharpeners may not be much good for sharpening, but I learned from an old woodsman that they throw sparks great when used to scrape a fire rod. I took apart my useless Henkels sharpener with the carbide wheels and now those wheels are attached to my fire steels. They do throw quite a bit of spark.

 

[shecky]

If you understand the hows and whys of sharpening, they can work OK. Among carbide sharpeners, I'd prefer the freehand carbide sharpeners. I've had reasonable success with that Hyde scraper blade. It seems to work better on some types of steel than others. Soft stainless is a no go. Burrs too easily. Interestingly, soft carbon steel (machete, Okapi) does OK. Basically, a carbide blade like I have functions like a file with a single burr.

I have used one of the preset V-shaped carbide sharpeners to do a quick re profile job on a blade that had a thick edge. The results are crude, but reasonable.

As I said, if you understand the hows and whys of sharpening, they can work OK. Unfortunately, the preset carbide sharpeners in particular seem aimed at folks who have no knowledge about knife edges, and the results they get are crude at best.

 

[Last Visible Canary]

they tend to do more damage than good.

right as I read that, I remembered the feeling of a knife snagging on a carbide v sharpener. That a carbide edge will grab onto a nick or ding or dent if to much pressure is applied and make it much worse is a good enough reason for me to stay away from them.

I may just buy one of the straight bars and test it out on my ontario field knives just to see what it's like though...

 

[Jason B.]

Buy a ceramic rod or something from DMT your better off.