Coarser Rods for Sharpmaker?

Well guys, I got my stones the other day and so far I'm not impressed. They do remove steel very well, but my stones are very uneven. One stone will fit snug and perfect in the slots, but another one will be so loose that the angle is completely off. It's a real pain trying to get them to the same angle. I think these stones would be perfect for the Sharpmaker if the manufacturing tolerances were better. For me, it's not worth the effort to try and keep each one at the correct angle. Back to the drawing board I guess.
 
don't get too discouraged. i just chipped away at the stone until I was able to get them to fit correctly. it only took about 10 minutes. i still think they are worth the extra effort. they cut nicely even on the harder steels.
 
The stones that are the real problems are the 150. One fits very tight in the slot, while the other one is extremely loose. I used a protractor to measure they're actual angles. The tight one is a few degrees small, while the loose one is way too large. I'm going to try and work with them tonight, so I'll see what happens
 
Interesting. I kind of have the same problem even though I've been a big fan of knives for a while now (still can't sharpen freehand) and the grit of the sharpmaker drives me crazy.

How do you "chip off" the ruby stones so they fit?

And for Saunterer's rubber-banding a diamond benchstone on one of the rods technique, what are the approximate dimensions of the benchstone? 4"x 1"? 6" x 1"?

Also, all this talk about stones not fitting in the slots properly kind of makes me worry about my Sharpmaker stones. A couple have some "wiggle" when I put them in. Should I be worried about that messing up the angles?
 
Hmmm... I wonder if you can buy an extra SM rod, break it into smaller stubs that will fit into the slot but be just a bit higher, then epoxy your ruby stones onto those stubs. That way the "foot" of the ruby stones will be the SM rod stubs and fit exactly into the slots. You'd just have to epoxy them on exactly straight so the angle is correct.
 
If they're loose, a little cellophane tape around the bottom will tighten them up. Use a little at a time and keep the layers consistent on all 3 sides. Might sound a little weird but it should work, I've done it before with round ceramic rods in my old crock stick sharpener when the base holes wore open a bit from lots of use.
 
Blue Sky said:
If they're loose, a little cellophane tape around the bottom will tighten them up. Use a little at a time and keep the layers consistent on all 3 sides. Might sound a little weird but it should work, I've done it before with round ceramic rods in my old crock stick sharpener when the base holes wore open a bit from lots of use.
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I do like the tape idea, but with all the trouble these rods have caused me, I'm more inclined to just try a bench stone rubber banded to the regular Sharpmaker rods.
 
coolcrow said:
I do like the tape idea, but with all the trouble these rods have caused me, I'm more inclined to just try a bench stone rubber banded to the regular Sharpmaker rods.
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I just got my Sharpmaker two days ago and have had varying degrees of success. I did find that my practice knives (aka: my cousin's pieces of junk) were either beveled differently than the SM's presets, or were so ridiculously dull that I needed to find a way to make faster progress than I could with the included medium rods. I thought I would try rubber banding my oval diamond sharpening steel to one of the rods. That definitely sped things up, although it was a bit of a hassle to keep turning the SM around (since I only have one diamond steel), so initially I would just do 20 or 30 strokes on one side, then turn the SM around and do the other side, then reduce the strokes per side and repeat.

After experimenting on four of my cousin's knives (only one of which was forged), and a couple SAKs, I found that my best results BY FAR were on the SAKs. Might that be due to the difference in the type of steel in the various blades? Will higher quality steel always be able to take/produce a sharper edge? Or maybe I just need more practice!?! :o
 
I have the Spyderco diamond rods and I'm not really too impressed with them. I've had much better results using a clamp system with diamond hones for all my reprofling needs. I still do all my touching up on the Sharpmaker. You might want to look into a DMT, Lansky, or GATCO clamp set with diamond hones.
 
coolcrow said:
The stones that are the real problems are the 150. One fits very tight in the slot, while the other one is extremely loose. I used a protractor to measure they're actual angles. The tight one is a few degrees small, while the loose one is way too large. I'm going to try and work with them tonight, so I'll see what happens
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Just lap it on a coarse diamond plate or silicon carbide stone for a bit if it is too big. The dimensioning on them isn't exact, but at least they're straight and very cheap compard to the time and effort needed to reprofile on the standard sharpmaker rods. BTW, I've had a couple of bowed Sharpmaker rods that I've had to replace too, so nothing is perfect.
 
Another thing you can do is clip wet/dry paper to the standard Sharpmaker rods. I've done it and it works well. I started with 320, then 400, then went to Sharpmaker mediums. You could go lower to say 220 I suppose.

A Forumite said earlier that the standard rods may not be tough enough for S30V. For what it's worth, I haven;t had a problem with two (now three) S30V blades using standard SM stones.
 
coolcrow said:
I really don't want to have to spend close to $100 to get the diamond rods. Thanks again for all the help guys.
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Had no idea they were expensive down there. Usually pricing is the other way around, but I picked up the diamond rods for ~$60 a few days ago in Vancouver. Maybe someone online has them for less. I used them to reprofile my nemesis, the ZT 0200 in 154CM. I have been able to sharpen every knife except that one to my satisfaction, but no more! It was a breeze to reprofile, and now it's just as sharp as the rest of my knives.
I'm gonna reprofile all my knives to more acute angles this weekend now that I have these. I'm gonna reprofile everything! Axes, lawnmower blades, kukhris, machetes, my watch, the counters, my toothbrush (insert demented laughing here).....
 
Twindog. Thats a great idea about the 15 degree ramps. Real simple to do but I gotta admit, I never thought of it. Of course you could make them any angle that you needed. THANKS.
 
StretchNM said:
Another thing you can do is clip wet/dry paper to the standard Sharpmaker rods. I've done it and it works well. I started with 320, then 400, then went to Sharpmaker mediums. You could go lower to say 220 I suppose.

A Forumite said earlier that the standard rods may not be tough enough for S30V. For what it's worth, I haven;t had a problem with two (now three) S30V blades using standard SM stones.
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I've recently tried the sandpaper technique you talked about, and it really worked well. I do believe it's going to be my new standard for re-profiling on the Sharpmaker.
 
Be careful with the Spyderco diamond hones. They're great for what they were designed for but ... they don't last long and as they wear, they will rust creating pockets below the rust pits which cause the diamond surface to come off in flakes. My point is to be GENTLE when you use them, don't expect them to last like the DMTs and and don't put them away wet. High quality closed cell wet/dry sand paper clipped to the hones is as good an alternative until the Congress company can come up with a better quality hone we can use that fits the SM openings at the higher (SiC) coarse grits.

NJ
 
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