Freehand sharpening destruction

C

crunch9876

Joined
Jun 22, 2011
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Hello guys well I have a spyderco sharpmaker and I usually sharpen using the preset angle usually the 40 side. It I decide I want to learn to sharpen free hand my question is can I due this with the backside of th sharpmake. I know it's possible my question is it good for a beginner and if so anytips would be great
I will start with my benchmade griptilian I decided to freehand this knife because of the usual problems people have had when using the sharp maker to sharpen this knife.


Question 2 let's say I do it and something goes wrong and I just about destroy the edge. Can I fix it easily. If not will benchmade fix it if I send the knife in.

I usually us the sharpmaker for all my knifes but I've been told it will be better to sharpen the grip freehand. Instructions would be nice but the main point of this post is for you guys to tell me if the sharpmaker works well for freehand and if it's good for beginners
 
I also have a Sharpmaker and am learning to freehand sharpen as well.

Till I get the hang of it, I only use the Sharp,aker for my good knives. I pick up junk knives on the Bay and use those to learn on. You can usually get a bunch of old, very dull kitchen/butter knives for cheap.
 
+1 for practicing on 'inexpensive' knives, or at least knives you won't be concerned about messing up. Get the feel for the technique on a cheap knife first (like a kitchen knife). And keep in mind, the Benchmade's steel will likely be tougher to sharpen, when you do get around to doing that one. Trying to 'learn' technique from the get-go, on a very tough steel, is usually an exercise in frustration.

A simple carbon steel blade (non-stainless) is ideal. No significant carbides to make thing tougher for you, and carbon steel always rewards good technique with a very sharp edge. Some 'cheap', no-name stainless steels won't even do that, necessarily; they're sort of a gamble.
 
The rods laying on the back of the Sharpmaker work fine for moderate sharpening needs but you will find they cut very slowly if you try to resurrect an extremely dull or damaged blade. A cheap Norton carborundum stone will work a lot faster for major rehab work, then use the SM rods for final honing.
 
sure it works, just start going back and forth adn eventually it will sharpen it. you gotta use a lot of pressure though. use the entire stone.
 
Bill1170 said:
The rods laying on the back of the Sharpmaker work fine for moderate sharpening needs but you will find they cut very slowly if you try to resurrect an extremely dull or damaged blade. A cheap Norton carborundum stone will work a lot faster for major rehab work, then use the SM rods for final honing.
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Good advice. The Sharpemaker rods aren't going to give nearly the same amount of feedback as a benchstone. Use cheap knives and a Sharpie. Keep the stone wet with oil or soapy water.
 
crunch9876 said:
...can I due this with the backside of th sharpmake.

There are two positions where the Sharpmaker can hold the rods perpendicular to the surface you are sharpening on. The first placement is on the bottom of the Sharpmaker. This is a very stable location, but you will find that you can not get the entire edge back to the handle due to the distance from the side of the stone/rod to the side of the Sharpmaker base. The second position is just like you are putting the stones away after a sharpening session. It is the position that is suggested for sharpening Pinking shears in the video. This way you can get all the way to the choil/ricasso/ handle but I find that the stones do rock a little bit.

Question 2 let's say I do it and something goes wrong and I just about destroy the edge. Can I fix it easily. If not will benchmade fix it if I send the knife in.

If you really mess up your edge, it will take signficant time to reprofile down to the Sharpmaker angles. This is assuming you created an inclusive angle that is more obtuse than the Sharpmaker angles. Benchmade will resharpen the plain edge portion of the blade but you are on your own for the Serrated section.

I usually us the sharpmaker for all my knifes but I've been told it will be better to sharpen the grip freehand. Instructions would be nice but the main point of this post is for you guys to tell me if the sharpmaker works well for freehand and if it's good for beginners
Click to expand...

The Sharpmaker is a more controled version of freehand sharpening in my opinion. Do "they" say why it is better to free hand sharpen a Benchmade Griptillian? Just curious.

Oh and yes a regular old hardware store bench stone will be much faster at removing metal, but you will still want the Sharpmaker rods for edge refinement.
 
crunch9876 said:
Hello guys well I have a spyderco sharpmaker and I usually sharpen using the preset angle usually the 40 side. It I decide I want to learn to sharpen free hand my question is can I due this with the backside of th sharpmake. I know it's possible my question is it good for a beginner and if so anytips would be great
I will start with my benchmade griptilian I decided to freehand this knife because of the usual problems people have had when using the sharp maker to sharpen this knife.


Question 2 let's say I do it and something goes wrong and I just about destroy the edge. Can I fix it easily. If not will benchmade fix it if I send the knife in.

I usually us the sharpmaker for all my knifes but I've been told it will be better to sharpen the grip freehand. Instructions would be nice but the main point of this post is for you guys to tell me if the sharpmaker works well for freehand and if it's good for beginners
Click to expand...

I have tried this and it's ridiculous. The stones sit closely together in the middle and don't allow for good access. They rock around and make for an extremely difficult tool for learning to freehand.

I would suggest that you buy a Spyderco double stuff (smaller but has both grits) or a medium (grey/brown) and an ultrafine Spyderco 8" x 3" bench stone set. I use the UF bench stone to finish after DMT x-fine bench stone and it brings out a mirror polish heading for the strop.

Benchmade will re-blade your knife. $25 for satin and $30 for dlc coated. At least 2 yrs ago. I buggered up a lot pricier BM and I shocked to get a new blade installed on my baby for so cheap! I sent it in Priority mail and had it back in about 10 days. You have to call their CS office and they'll direct you to an online form for retuns.

Watch this SharpMaker video and if you have time some of his other sharpening videos. This is CrimsonTideShooter (member name here on BFC) he has a load of great sharpening videos. This one is butter knife dull to hair whittling sharp - using a SharpMaker. :thumbup:

[video=youtube;-MHe_8wTHmg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MHe_8wTHmg&feature=relmfu [/video]
 
As another safety net? Play with sharpening on a cheap-o, then on your Benchmade. And if you should accidentally hose that up? Send it off to Richard J here on the forums, and he'll send 'er back with an edge that'll make you wet yourself.
 
I don;t know why specifically they say to freehand a Benchmade but I know this from my freehand experience. No matter how good you are at it, freehanding always creates a very mildly convex edge...it just does. The better you are at it, the move closely the edge will be a perfect V shape but I think you will never get it a perfect, geometric V shape. This is actually good as convex is stronger. Some of the makers of very hard blade steel actually recommend only freehanding (Japanese-style cooking knives which are like 66RC) because that hard steel needs a the gentle convex to keep from chipping.

Here's the thing. Freehanding is very hard to do...at first. One reason for that is that the feedback loop is long...it take a long time for things to change on the blade so you cannot adjust yourself very readily. I took the plunge and got diamond stones which cut really fast and you can watch the change in the blade and make adjustments in real time. The fast cutting of the diamonds have really allowed me to learn much more quickly how to do free-handing right. I have a norton oil stone and it's nice but it will cut rather slowly (although not near as slowly as a SharpMaker stone). The sharpmaker has a very definity place even for the freehander...to touch up an edge of known geometry.
 
HoosierQ said:
Here's the thing. Freehanding is very hard to do...at first. One reason for that is that the feedback loop is long...it take a long time for things to change on the blade so you cannot adjust yourself very readily.
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This is very true, but can be circumvented by painting the bevels with a sharpie. This gives you instantaneous feedback after one or two strokes to see where the blade is hitting the stone. You could do this after every stroke if necessary. If you go slowly and carefully observe what is happening to the edge at regular intervals, I think it will be very difficult to ruin the blade.
 
Robs92XJ said:
This is very true, but can be circumvented by painting the bevels with a sharpie. This gives you instantaneous feedback after one or two strokes to see where the blade is hitting the stone. You could do this after every stroke if necessary. If you go slowly and carefully observe what is happening to the edge at regular intervals, I think it will be very difficult to ruin the blade.
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I have been using the sharpie trick more and more...especially if I am trying to remove as little metal as possible...usually a quick effort.
 
I also have a Sharpmaker, but nowadays I sharpen freehand all the time. I've watched Spyderco's video (the one they give you with the Sharpmaker), and it looks like you can sharpen it that way. My only worry would be the two rods not being perfectly even, which would make it hard to keep an even edge across the surface. In short, the Sharpmaker is really designed to use the way they show you to use it (with the rods sticking up). I'd get a good bench stone for freehanding. Also, there's no reason to worry about hurting the edge. Heck, all you can really do wrong is to put a bad edge on it. To fix that, you just put a good edge on it! :D Nothing to be afraid of.
 
Sharpie on the edge is good at all skill levels. Also, when first sharpening a nice knife get some blue painters tape at your local hardware store/walmart. Put it on the sides of the blade so you don't scratch it up when you screw up the angle on the stone (almost certain to happen while you're learning). Masking tape works too but it's more difficult to remove. On the cheapo practice knives don't use the tape, the unexpected appearance of massive scratches on the side of the blade will tell you when you've messed up. It's very difficult to actually damage the cutting edge freehand sharpening to the point that it can't be fixed by a skilled sharpener.
 
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