Endura 4 Sharpening Problem...

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getpower

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Sep 24, 2008
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So, I have a couple of Endura 4 knives, one is a user and gets abused (well, not really abused, but used more than any of my other knives) and used all the time.

I also sharpen my knives with a spyderco sharpmaker. I love the sharpener and think it works pretty well.

But the user Endura 4 is nearly impossible to sharpen. I try to use a rough grit conventional stone before I use the sharpmaker to back-bevel the edge. The problems that I am having is that the blade on the Endura 4 is too thick, so it takes forever to get a shallow edge on the stone, and when I try to use the sharpmaker, it doesent contact the cutting edge of the blade, it just contacts the upper-sides of the cutting edge, therefore, I cant get the cutting edge sharpened.

Has anyone else had this problem? Can you help me and tell me what to do to get the knife sharp again?

I really cant afford the diamond stones for the sharpener, so I would appreciate if it was left out of the suggestions. I know it would maybe be ideal, but like I said, I cant afford right now.
 
I wonder how come your edge came out so thick. You should be sharpening the knife with the wider angle set, not the acute one. If anything, instead of holding your knife straight, tilt it a bit when you pass it through the sharpmaker.
 
Well, if you don't have access to coarser stones, I suggest you go to a shop, get them to profile it for $7-$10 or something, and then maintain it yourself on the sharpmaker.

If you're taking off the shoulders of your bevels, you need to learn the mechanics of sharpening. That means the angle is too steep and you're actually making the angle of your bevels thinner. If you want to sharpen the edge without dropping your angle, you've gotta use a more obtuse angle so that you get the edge directly.
 
You probably need to reprofile it, you can use the coarse stones and use it to reprofile but it'll take atleast half an hour. Another option would be to take it to a knife sharpener or knife maker to reprofile the blade for you.
 
I assume by "back-bevel" that you're using the 30 degree slots? Spyderco's normally come with an edge angle of 30 degrees so you shouldn't have to back-bevel unless you've either completely lost the edge (bad case) or have been sharpening it on the 40 degree "edge" for a white (best case).

The back-bevel isn't supposed to get the knife sharp. It's designed to remove shoulder from the knife making the cut easier. Graphics would explain better, but there are some good ones that come with the Sharpmaker.

Do what I did when I got my SMF and run a sharpie down both sides of the edge and sharpen about 50 strokes both sides on the corners of the brown rods. Look at the edge and you should be able to see where the metal is coming off. Do another 50 strokes or so and then move the the flats for another 50, and then the corners of the white for 20.

Then flip it around to the 40 degree edge side and do that standard 40-40-40-20 rotation from corners to flats brown-white.
 
Thanks guys, that helps a lot.

Yeah, what had been happening is while trying to sharpen on the 40 degree edge, I was taking metal from the shoulder of the bevel. Maybe Ill try the 30 degree back bevel for a while, the switch to the 40 after a while.

It just takes a long time because of the stones that I have to deal with.
 
i had the same problem with my delice 4 wave. The only solution is to remove metal with a diamond stone. And as soon as you removed enough metal to be able to use the 30 degree rods it will be razr sharp again.
 
So, I got the Diamond Sharpening rods finally.

I did something like 20 strokes on the corners and the sides on the 30 degree side, then switched to the 40 degree side and did the 4 steps with the stones that the sharpmaker came with.

The knife is sharp, although, I still cant get the knife as sharp as my new military. The Mili can slice through anything and its factory sharp still, I cant even get my Endura close.

Can you guys help me with some techniques using the diamond stones?

Should I also be using the diamond stones with the 40 degree edge also?
 
I did what Zozo did. Only I took it WAAAYYYY down. I took it so far that I even managed to scratch the saber bevel so I got to polish that, too.
I now have an Endura Wave with a primary bevel about 3.5 x longer (deeper?) than stock.
This was a LONG time on the DMT diamond. Pushed til my thumbs were sore.
But it was the only way to get a truly scalpel edge on it. The stock is thick and the profile is chunky.
But now it is THE sharpest knife I own. MAYBE the Fallkniven U-2 comes close, but it is far thinner.
After polishing out MOST of the scratches I made, I got wise and TAPED the blade bevel to keep from doing it again.
Had I it to do over again, I think I would have just opted for the serrated blade to get the effective angle more acute.

:)

What kind of shops will reprofile for $5-$7 ? oops, meant 7-10.

oh, and the diamond I used was a flat stone freehand.
 
Lavan said:
I did what Zozo did. Only I took it WAAAYYYY down. I took it so far that I even managed to scratch the saber bevel so I got to polish that, too.
I now have an Endura Wave with a primary bevel about 3.5 x longer (deeper?) than stock.
This was a LONG time on the DMT diamond. Pushed til my thumbs were sore.
But it was the only way to get a truly scalpel edge on it. The stock is thick and the profile is chunky.
But now it is THE sharpest knife I own. MAYBE the Fallkniven U-2 comes close, but it is far thinner.
After polishing out MOST of the scratches I made, I got wise and TAPED the blade bevel to keep from doing it again.
Had I it to do over again, I think I would have just opted for the serrated blade to get the effective angle more acute.

:)

What kind of shops will reprofile for $5-$7 ? oops, meant 7-10.

oh, and the diamond I used was a flat stone freehand.
Click to expand...

A DMT XX Coarse will turn it into a full scandi grind in 15 minutes. Another 15-20 minutes to polish it out to looking presentable and you have quite a cutter on your hands then!

To the OP, if you are using diamond rods you may need hundreds of strokes to get from over 20 per side to 15 per side. Just keep checking with a sharpie every so often and you will get there, but it may take a while. Once you completely reach the edge at 15 per side future sharpenings will be a breeze at the 20 per side setting. You shouldn't have to reset the backbevel too often, and unfortunately on saber flat grinds like the Endura you have to remove a lot of steel to set your backbevel.

Mike
 
getpower said:
So that's it huh?

Just go at it until it looks right?
Click to expand...

Go at it until you can remove all of the sharpie marks all the way to the bottom of the edge on each side at 15 degrees. It is critical that you get all the way to the edge, using a loupe or a radioshack lighted microscope ($10) can help you see that you have brought the scratches from the diamond grit all the way to the edge. Like I said it may take hundreds of strokes depending on how thick the steel and how fat the angle is (and what steel it is), but eventually you will get there. I used medium pressure with my Diamond rods with no ill effects, but others have said they tore out diamonds using anything but light pressure. YMMV. I do know I have used huge pressure on my DMT XX Coarse benchstone and after 2 years of heavy use it still cuts strong. You can also do 1 side at a time until you reach the edge, then switch it over.

Good Luck, Mike
 
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