How do you all sharpen?

S

SuzukiGS750EZ

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Dec 30, 2008
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Seems everytime I use my sebenza it's not the sharp I put on all my other knives. No matter what I do. I use a sharp maker. This is the only knife in 15 years of sharpening that I've never had ease sharpening and I've sharpened both harder and softer steels. What do you guys so that works? Is it the angle I sharpen at our my specific knife?
 
Strop. If that isn't enough, I use my ceramic rod. I have yet to need anything more abrasive than that.

Is it possible that your not hitting the apex due to the slight factory convex?
 
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I am new to sharpening and purchased a DMT Magna Glide Kit about a week ago. Since then, I've brought back the following knives that have seen daily use over 8 years:
- Global Santoku
- Global Paring Knife
- Spyderco Delica 4

Still trying to get a hang of it, but it's definitely "practice makes perfect", as my most recent edge (Global Santoku) is razor sharp and push cuts cleanly with ease. I should revisit the paring knife and Delica. All three of the knives were exposed to 4 different grits.

My primary CRK user is a 21 Small Insingo. I don't intend on neglecting that edge, so I will likely maintain it with a strop.

I have a dull Sage 1 that I will be working on this evening, followed by a Queen Cutlery sharpened CPM154.

It will take me a while before I have the confidence to work my CRKs with anything rougher than a strop.

Just an FYI: CRK does sharpen knives for free, all you have to do is cover shipping to and from.
 
NjBillk has got a good point, have you done the sharpie trick? You may have highly refined/polished shoulders.
 
S35vn is fairly stubborn as a steel, i have harder steels that sharpen easier than s35vn.

I use a 400 grit, 1000, 4000, and 8000 to sharpen and polish my CRKs.
Once sharp, it does hold it for an acceptable amount of time.
 
I use DMT diamond bench hones for my Sebbie -- well, all my blades, 99% of the time. Diamond is the only stuff that can cut the very hard vanadium carbides in S35vn and similar steels (S30V, D2. CTS-XHP). The other 1%, I go to an ancient Black Arkansas bench stone to put an insanely sharp edge on my high carbon blades (52100, Carbon V), but only occasionally.
 
I use the lansky 5 stone setup and finish with different levels of stropping. I have a fairly nice set of Norton waterstones that have been used once by me, and I nearly destroyed a new benchmade adamas. After that, I have been to timid to bring them back out.
 
Lanksy and a strop. I have been happy with the edges on my CRK. I can never seem to get a good edge on my carbon steels: SR101, 1095, L6 (fully recognizing my own fault there), but CRK had always gotten very sharp for me. I think it is because I spend more time on them and watch the edges more carefully.
 
KME sharpener with their diamond stones and then a few passes on a Stropman strop. Leaves a nice looking edge with some bite.
 
I use a sharp maker and it's quick to maintain the edges to hair popping sharp but is slow if you need to reprofile. Use the sharpie trick to make sure you're getting to the edge and not just polishing shoulders. It's possible your grind doesn't quite match the Sharpmaker 20 degree angle. If not, you may want to use diamond stones to reprofile so it's easy to touch up from there on after.
 
Just use some sand paper or a diamond against the 20 and reset the edge. Its a pia for most to keep up with the factory convex edge.
 
I mainly use my Sharpmaker, although I have used my Lansky also. The Sharpmaker does an amazing job for me.
 
A few passes on sharpmaker white stones and strop does great for me.
 
SuzukiGS750EZ said:
According to the sharpie, after about 5 passes on the 20 aside, all the sharpie is removed...
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I use either a Lansky or KME with diamond stones and ceramic stones. Finish up with a strop.
I use the sharpie to ensure the apex is reached, once the sharpie marks are gone, that tells me I have the correct angle. I will continue to sharpen until the edge starts to form a burr. Then, I'll switch to the other side and do the same thing. I use the ceramic stones to remove the burr and I've gotten into the habit of stropping to finish up.
Just because the sharpie mark is gone doesn't necessarily mean the apex is sharp.
 
I got it. I knocked down the shoulders and then sharpened until all the sharpie was off the edge, then a bit more. Push cuts paper now. I must may not have been touching the whole edge. I've had the knife for life 3 years lol
 
nyefmaker said:
I use the sharpmaker or vintage crock sticks as CRK recomends.
Click to expand...

+1. CRK's recommendation of using the Sharpmaker is the main reason I bought one to use with my CRK's. I'm very glad I did. It's the easiest for me to use and I can sharpen most any blade design I have. I know other systems are very capable and effective as well; the Sharpmaker holds it's own for sure. :thumbup:

And I remember buying the Crock sticks setup maybe 20-ish years ago. Great old-school system. Although real old school is my grandfather sharpening his knives using the bottom side of his ceramic coffee cup. :)
 
Initially I used the sharpmaker. Its easy to use and the results are good, however the sharp edge does need touching up after some usage. I also have the wicked edge system. This I use with all other knives I have except CRKs. Reason being CRK recommends the sharpmaker which maintains the convex edge of the factory. From my experience, those shares with the wicked edge, is sharper with longer edge retention. With the crks sharpen with sharpmaker, I do need to retouch the edge more with less usage.

Now, my sebenza has been reprofiled with a v edge. So far so good, I managed to retain the point with minimal steel wastage (thank god they were a lot of youtube videos on how to reprofile and use the system correctly). And now the edge is scary sharp and able to maintain its sharpness for longer. I only used diamonds stones and ceramics up to 1600 grits. Balsa and leather strops are on the way. :)
 
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