-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
HELP sharpmaker with ESEE 6
- Thread starter monsterod
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2007
- Messages
- 2,787
use a sharpie, a marker on the edge, and check to see what part of the edge you are hitting with the stone.
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2006
- Messages
- 2,437
I think using the 40 degree setting will be just fine. If the process is taking too long, then perhaps you could wrap the Spyderco rods with sandpaper to speed up the process. I would start with 80-120 grit then switch to 220 (automotive finishing wet/dry paper works the best) and then on to the regular Sharpmaker technique. I would stay on the flats of the stones for the better sandpaper life. Stay on the coarse grit paper until you set the bevel as described in the Sharpmaker documentation. Then refine your edge with the other grits.
I think you will find that the ESEE 6 factory bevel will be at minimum 40 degrees inclusive and probably more. Thus the Sharpmaker will take a very long time. This will be true of a large proportion of factory edges. In the case of ESEE, their edges are very well done but they are a little more obtuse than I like them. I use flat stones to flatten that bevel out a great deal...to maybe 25 - 28 degrees inclusive. The I microbevel with the Sharpmaker. 30 degrees for the ESEE-3 and 40 degrees for the 4, 5, and 6.
I re-profiled my ESEE 6 with my DMT diamond set-up. Took a little while, right around 3hrs (I have nicely used diamond hones) and after stropping to a mirror polish it's probably the sharpest knife I own at this point. Much sharper than the stock edges on XM-18, Benchmade and Spyderco even after the stropping but then again stock edges can't ever compare to a hand sharpening. Sharpie will tell you if you're hitting the right points, this is the key to a quality sharpening.
This matches my experience exactly (except I have no XM-18).
Here's the pic of the re-profiled and sharpened ESEE 6. It is a mirror polish, don't know if it's visible enough with my crappy pics.
Outstanding job on the coating strip!!! How did you do it? Chemical or mechanical?
Thanks for the kind words! Actually this was done by a member of the ESEE forum, Salve7. He did the deep acid logo etching, chemical peel, sanded the whole knife for about 3-4 hours and applied cold bluing to it. I had him stop there so when the knife came to me I sanded down the bluing on the blade just the right amount to create a well used look and still retain some corrosion resistance. I also have a matching Junglas with the same treatment. I really like how they came out, the dark you're seeing on the blade and the logos is the bluing that was applied and I kept the bluing intact under the scales for rust resistance since it was stripped bare.
Last edited:
