Difficulty Sharpening Tip of Small Sebenza

[Voodew]

Hey guys,

Lately I've been having trouble getting the "upsweep" to the tip of the small Sebenza as sharp as the flat part of the blade closer to the handle. I just can't seem to get it as razor sharp as I can with the base of the blade. I use the Spyderco Sharpmaker to sharpen my knives and I also have the aftermarket ultra fine stones to go with it.

Is there a difference in the angle of the grind towards the end of the blade?

How do you guys sharpen the end of your Sebenza? Any tips or tricks you can enlighten me with? It is driving me nuts .


Any advice is much appreciated.

Thank you in advice,

Mitch

 

[JoHnYKwSt]

Make sure you keep the edge of the blade perpendicular to the rods of the sharpmaker. This would mean as you near the belly start lifting the butt of the handle to keep the edge perpendicular. Also, the angle does become slightly more obtuse towards the tip on a sebenza. Use a sharpie and paint the tip to see where you are hitting the edge on the sharpmaker.

 

[brownshoe]

With my small and the shapmaker, i had the same dificulty. I used the diamond rods to hog off a little metal to match the sharpmake angle.

 

[BellaBlades]

Here are just some thoughts as I have been finishing up my sebbie as well last night and tonight. Slowly of course.

Just check it with a permanant marker to watch the edge.
I just finished moving my edge to a 30-40 convex edge. The last 2mm at the need just a bit more thinning out then the whole edge will be uniform and scary sharp. CRK tends to keep a steeper edge from my experience. Mine was a about 22 per side. And I moved the edge just a bit to about 30 then worked in the 40. I did use that double sided tape and put 1000 grit sand paper on my rods to work the edge just a little bit quicker. Then continued.

For the tip. Again use a marker to watch what you are doing. Move the blade as the belly gets steep. It takes more movement than you may think. Then when you put your 40 degree final edge on it should clean up the tip and make it sharp.
Just go slow and keep putting the marker on it. That is what I am about to do to finish mine.
I also keep a dewalt head lamp over the work I am doing.

 

[kidcongo]

I struggled with the same issue and the sharpmaker. The only thing I found that worked for me was to switch to sharpening the tip on a strop (black compound). Once I got some strop skills, I can get a nice edge all along the upsweep. I remember reading that due to the change in thickness of the metal towards the tip, that the geometry of the edge changes as well, so some "user-input" is required to match what CRK did at the factory.