I own a sharpmaker 204,and it has kept all my knives very sharp.But one particular knife refuses to be sharpened no matter how many times I let the sharpmaker at it.Does anyone have any alternative system I could use?(Please keep in mind I am a beginer and if it wasn't for the pure simplicity of the sharpmaker I wouldn't even be able to use it)Thanks for your help.
-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Help!!! Another sharpening question
- Thread starter RAGS
- Start date
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2000
- Messages
- 3,625
What knife are you trying to sharpen? There are a number of factors and I am more than willing to help you in any way possible. But here are a few pointers.
The sharpmaker will sharpen just about anything, with the right style.
Make sure the crock sticks are not bunged up with metal. Use a Nylon pad and abrasive cleaner on them.
Maybe the knife has a very poor steel like 420J2 and won't take an edge, or the knife you are working on has a high angle and you have not reached that point yet. Spyderco are about to offer some diamond covers to make stock removal faster. The issues go on and on. Give me a little more detail and I promise I will help you and get this sorted. Oh and you may not be removing the wire edge as well... Don't worry it will all make perfect sense!
------------------
Wayne.
"To strive to seek to find and not to yield"
Tennyson
Ranger motto
A few useful details on UK laws and some nice reviews!
http://members.aol.com/knivesuk/
Certified steel snob!
The sharpmaker will sharpen just about anything, with the right style.
Make sure the crock sticks are not bunged up with metal. Use a Nylon pad and abrasive cleaner on them.
Maybe the knife has a very poor steel like 420J2 and won't take an edge, or the knife you are working on has a high angle and you have not reached that point yet. Spyderco are about to offer some diamond covers to make stock removal faster. The issues go on and on. Give me a little more detail and I promise I will help you and get this sorted. Oh and you may not be removing the wire edge as well... Don't worry it will all make perfect sense!
------------------
Wayne.
"To strive to seek to find and not to yield"
Tennyson
Ranger motto
A few useful details on UK laws and some nice reviews!
http://members.aol.com/knivesuk/
Certified steel snob!
- Joined
- Apr 27, 1999
- Messages
- 6,117
The General is right, it would help a lot to know what type of knife is giving you trouble. On the other hand, if your knife just has too obtuse a grind angle and you haven't been actually removing material at the edge, you can probably diagnose this by yourself. Paint the sides of the edge with a black marker or paint. Try some swipes on your Sharpmaker in your usual manner. See if the shiny line where you removed ink is at the edge or behind the edge. If it is behind the edge your bevel is too obtuse for your Sharpmaker rod angles. See if you get better results with the rods in the more open V (higher angle) position in the Sharpmaker.
If your sharpening is not reaching the edge (your ink was removed away from the edge) you need to remove more blade material (known as reprofiling the edge). Reprofiling is hard to do with the comparitively fine grit of a Sharpmaker. You may want to get a simple silicon carbide bench hone and work free hand to get rid of the ink. If you worry about scarring your blade while trying this, put some tape on the side of the blade and only leave 3/16-inch or so behind the edge exposed.
[This message has been edited by Jeff Clark (edited 03-21-2001).]
If your sharpening is not reaching the edge (your ink was removed away from the edge) you need to remove more blade material (known as reprofiling the edge). Reprofiling is hard to do with the comparitively fine grit of a Sharpmaker. You may want to get a simple silicon carbide bench hone and work free hand to get rid of the ink. If you worry about scarring your blade while trying this, put some tape on the side of the blade and only leave 3/16-inch or so behind the edge exposed.
[This message has been edited by Jeff Clark (edited 03-21-2001).]
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2001
- Messages
- 1,190
I have one of the old sharpmakers in the courdura case that came with these diamond sleeves. They are awesome for reprofiling a stubborn edge before moving on the the ceramics. (The diamond sleeves will actually get the edge to shaving sharp . . . QUICK!) The best way to find out is to follow the above desciption with a marker!
Yeah,the problem seems to be that the angle is too high,the sharpmaker is not reaching the edge of the blade,but rather the side.Where can I get those diamond sleeves that were mentioned.I think that might help me re-shape the profile of the edge.Thanks for your help guys.
- Joined
- Jun 9, 1999
- Messages
- 4,729
RAGS, the diamond speed sleeves have been discontinued for about 2 or 3 years now. I've heard lots of rumors off and on that they may be reintroducing them, but right now they're still not available. Jeff Clark suggested an excellent and inexpensive way to reprofile a blade at the end of his post, you may want to give it a try. You can get coarse Silicone carbide or aluminum oxide bench stones for less than $10 at just about any hardware store. Also, you might want to check out Joe Talmadge's sharpening FAQ in the forum Tutorials/Archives section. It has very detatiled instructions for reprofiling an edge using the sharpmaker.