How sharp can you get a knife with the sharpmaker??

singularity35 said:
I stopped counting strokes a long time ago. I just go on with the sharpening until it gets to a level that I'm satisfied with. Only then do I change grits. :)
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I agree totally. I dont count strokes, just trying to give a halfway estimate.

Do you strop your knives? Such as on that hait whittling edge.
 
singularity35 said:
I stopped counting strokes a long time ago. I just go on with the sharpening until it gets to a level that I'm satisfied with. Only then do I change grits. :)
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I used this strategy on my second knife this weekend. I worked on my s90v Military. No counting, just estimating, lol. My estimate is that it took probably three times as long as the first blade I sharpened (440c), but it's ridiculously sharp now. It shaves effortlessly, and slices fruit and other food like warm butter. After cutting through some plastic, cardboard, and a few other things, I think this may be the sharpest, best cutting knife I've ever handled. I was only able to get a somewhat polished back bevel, but it still looks really good. I probably should have gone a little longer on the medium stones before moving forward. That's my guess, anyway. I'm still learning and getting a feel for sharpening, but again, I'm very pleased with my Sharpmaker purchase. Thanks to everyone for sharing tips and tricks.

The blade has a weird red reflection because I was wearing a red shirt, but you can still see the edge pretty good.

 
Very nice. I'm sure the S90V is a handy piece of steel, when it comes to making cutting look easy. How well does it hold an edge?
 
L2bravo said:
I agree totally. I dont count strokes, just trying to give a halfway estimate.

Do you strop your knives? Such as on that hait whittling edge.
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I have a set of strops that I now only use to polish bevels. These days I prefer a coarser edge for my edc knives.
 
I feel as if its just me, but I get terrible edges on my sharpmaker lol. The inclusive angle of the knives I used it on were believed to be under 40 degrees as well being--my (now sold) all black PM2 and a benchmade 755 mpr (possible above 40, not sure) Anyhow I've closely examined the 40 degrees rod holders and I feel as if one of the rod holders isn't at 40 degrees. Anyhow I'll try to verify this some day or just sell my set.

I have the sharpmaker up to the UF stones and I even have the Congress ruby stones at 320 grit for reprofiling. Nowadays I just freehand everything on my shapton glass and arkansas tri hone. Haven't touched the SM in months.

EDIT: I never did get to verify my rod holder placement with an angle cube or like device, but I think the sharpmaker rod was in fact 40 degrees, rather my bevel on my knife was too thick from reprofiling at a steep angle.
 
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Bladenoobie1 said:
I feel as if its just me, but I get terrible edges on my sharpmaker lol. The inclusive angle of the knives I used it on were believed to be under 40 degrees as well being--my (now sold) all black PM2 and a benchmade 755 mpr (possible above 40, not sure) Anyhow I've closely examined the 40 degrees rod holders and I feel as if one of the rod holders isn't at 40 degrees. Anyhow I'll try to verify this some day or just sell my set.

I have the sharpmaker up to the UF stones and I even have the Congress ruby stones at 320 grit for reprofiling. Nowadays I just freehand everything on my shapton glass and arkansas tri hone. Haven't touched the SM in months.
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That's probable since there are only a few people out of every hundred who can't make an SM work. :)
 
Pord said:
This might be a dumb question, but how do you know that you are sharpening at a 30 degree angle when you use your Norton India Stone?
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It's actually a little less than 30, more like 25. I know this because, I can see the angle against the stone is less than it looks on the 30 degree setting on the SM. Also, when I take it down on stones, it makes full contact on the 30 on my SM. So in the end, I guess the geometry of my blade, has 1. back bevel, 2. primary bevel, 3. micro bevel.

I hope that I am not confusing this situation, by not explaining correctly! Don't make more out of this than is really there. It's really actually simple. What you need to do, is get a beater knife, and try different things with it. But it has to be of a decent steel, so you can actually see what you are doing works.
 
Bladenoobie1 said:
I feel as if its just me, but I get terrible edges on my sharpmaker lol. The inclusive angle of the knives I used it on were believed to be under 40 degrees as well being--my (now sold) all black PM2 and a benchmade 755 mpr (possible above 40, not sure) Anyhow I've closely examined the 40 degrees rod holders and I feel as if one of the rod holders isn't at 40 degrees. Anyhow I'll try to verify this some day or just sell my set.

I have the sharpmaker up to the UF stones and I even have the Congress ruby stones at 320 grit for reprofiling. Nowadays I just freehand everything on my shapton glass and arkansas tri hone. Haven't touched the SM in months.
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There has to be a pretty simple fix to your problem. Are the bevels on the knives the same on each side? That can yield funky results in my experience. Are you positively sure, that you are keeping the blade straight up and down? Just throwing ideas here man.
 
Pord said:
This might be a dumb question, but how do you know that you are sharpening at a 30 degree angle when you use your Norton India Stone?
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Hey pord, don't get too worried about the exact angle. I don't think it's really that important at first. If you want a 30 degree bevel it would be nice to have each side exactly 15 degrees. But if one is 17 and one is 13 it's probably not going to make much of a difference to your edge once you add the micro bevel. Also, as long as you are staying below your micro bevel angle of 20 per side, I don't think it's going to make a massive difference on a working edge....within reason of course! I mean if you put a 6 degree per side primary bevel on the knife, the edge is going to be less strong, micro bevel or no. But if you shoot for 30 and come in at 26? Or 34? I just don't see it making a huge difference. Now if you want to fruit ninja hairs like singularity, you probably have to get a bit more OCD.

P.S. singularity! I'm calling foul on those big ole tree trunk thick hairs or yours! Cheater! ;-).
 
Surfingringo said:
Hey pord, don't get too worried about the exact angle. I don't think it's really that important at first. If you want a 30 degree bevel it would be nice to have each side exactly 15 degrees. But if one is 17 and one is 13 it's probably not going to make much of a difference to your edge once you add the micro bevel. Also, as long as you are staying below your micro bevel angle of 20 per side, I don't think it's going to make a massive difference on a working edge....within reason of course! I mean if you put a 6 degree per side primary bevel on the knife, the edge is going to be less strong, micro bevel or no. But if you shoot for 30 and come in at 26? Or 34? I just don't see it making a huge difference. Now if you want to fruit ninja hairs like singularity, you probably have to get a bit more OCD.

P.S. singularity! I'm calling foul on those big ole tree trunk thick hairs or yours! Cheater! ;-).
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Haha, took some explaining for me at a salon to get a baggie of hair from a female friend. The hair dresser somehow though that I was going to use the hair for some kind of black magic love potion. I had to look around for hair to test on since I don't have much hair and when I started using hair to test sharpness, the wife's hairbrush just wasn't providing enough. :D

The strand look huge but their not really. The hair is really shiny hair too.

baggieofhair.jpg
 
singularity35 said:
Haha, took some explaining for me at a salon to get a baggie of hair from a female friend. The hair dresser somehow though that I was going to use the hair for some kind of black magic love potion. I had to look around for hair to test on since I don't have much hair and when I started using hair to test sharpness, the wife's hairbrush just wasn't providing enough. :D

The strand look huge but their not really. The hair is really shiny hair too.

baggieofhair.jpg
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LMFAO! Man, you've gotta go post this over in General on the "you might have a knife problem if..." Thread!
 
L2bravo said:
Very nice. I'm sure the S90V is a handy piece of steel, when it comes to making cutting look easy. How well does it hold an edge?
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Yeah, it cuts like a dream. I'm curious myself. I've only owned the knife for about a week, and sharpened it on Friday. I'll know soon enough, I guess.

That hair picture... I can't handle it.
 
singularity35 said:
Haha, took some explaining for me at a salon to get a baggie of hair from a female friend. The hair dresser somehow though that I was going to use the hair for some kind of black magic love potion. I had to look around for hair to test on since I don't have much hair and when I started using hair to test sharpness, the wife's hairbrush just wasn't providing enough. :D

The strand look huge but their not really. The hair is really shiny hair too.

baggieofhair.jpg
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That is some kind of disgusting bro! I shave my wig, so no dice there. My daughter has long blond hair though, but it is way fine! LOL.
 
Surfingringo, I just pulled the trigger on a fully SE Endura, I am interested to see the power of this beast. They were out of the Salt series.

Aside from killing the hell out of some giant Spanish, what else does your Pac Salt do? I cut a ton of cardboard, thick nasty triple thick heavy duty stuff. I wonder how it will do against that?
 
L2bravo said:
Surfingringo, I just pulled the trigger on a fully SE Endura, I am interested to see the power of this beast. They were out of the Salt series.

Aside from killing the hell out of some giant Spanish, what else does your Pac Salt do? I cut a ton of cardboard, thick nasty triple thick heavy duty stuff. I wonder how it will do against that?
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Nice! Too bad you couldn't find the salt, but oh well. On the positive side the endura has steel liners and a better blade shape (IMO) than the pacific salt. All I have used mine for so far is fish and a little food prep. Sounds like you're itching to put yours through the ringer. Let us know how it goes.
 
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