How to touch up on a kme?

lzeplin

lzeplin

Joined
Apr 18, 2012
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I have a kme sharpener, I've had it for a couple years and it works good. My only problem is doing touch up's. How do I get the blade the same in the clamp every time. I have a angle cube, but it takes me forever using the sharpie method and the angle cube..
Is there a easier way to put the knife in the clamp, without taking a 1/2 hour adjusting it? Thanks for the help
 
that klr is a sweet little scooter!
Keep logs for each knife to get close. Where is the blade relative to the two reference marks, 30 minutes will become 5 using your sharpie and cube. I establish bevel at ~20 degrees per side, and touch up quickly with sharpmaker. Because my BM 20CV and M390 edges are so incredibly long-lived, I've been thinking about going to 30° cumulative. Long-lived, as in it's been almost a year of just touchups! and yes, I'm Jones-ing for a thinner grind behind the edge. Grow you will if you practice.
 
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lzeplin said:
How do I get the blade the same in the clamp every time. I have a angle cube, but it takes me forever using the sharpie method and the angle cube
Click to expand...
good point.

i have several guided systems, with and without clamps. i write down 2 data points per knife, measured with a digital caliper, on my phone in the same notes file. this definitely helps me to re-setup the system faster and with more confidence.
over time i realized that once i ground the perfect bevel, revisiting the guided system for touchups is really not the way to go unless you have much leisure and nerves of steel (patience).
you spend so much efforts to get the edge perfect and after slicing up 2 sheets of paper (as cut test) the edge would already need a touchup: a 440CN blade on a Ganzo knife, for example!

If the last sharpened knife on my (non-clamp!) guided system was the PM2 and i henceforth only use the system for resharpening or touching up the PM2 and no other knife, then i don't need to reconfigure the system and i also wouldn't need the digital caliper (or any other measuring device) ever again. I would just put the system on the table, place the knife on the magnetic tableau (a matter of 2sec, unless i want to tape the blade to protect it against scratches), and "go ahead" right away. No time or energy wasted on the device configuration. However, in practice, it remains a hassle to use the system for touchups imho: you need to also pull out the box with your collection of small stones, prepare the stones, go through several grit steps and still have to strop in some way (guided stroppoing or freehand stropping), clean the stones, put everything back in order.

On a clamp system you will have the problem of writing down the exact clamp position (location) in relation to the blade (where is the frame of reference?, where is axis origin?). Not only the location (x, y coordinates) but also the alignment (0degrees to the frame?). How do you write down the exact KME configuration for knifeA on a piece of paper? And who does that? :rolleyes:

That's why i swore, after my interest in LANSKY and buying the EXDUCT (TAIDEA oem), to never buy or use a clamp-based system again. My other system offers clamping capability but i installed magnets instead.
 
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You shouldn't have to get too exact. First thing is to always put your knives in the clamp in relatively the same position. If you're not already, you should be clamping about mid-length of the blade and I try to use the first clamp line (that being the one closest to the stand not the edge) and the blade should be parallel to the clamp's edges. Granted, some knives will require some adjustments to this but the bulk of knives should be able to clamp in this way. This will get you pretty darned close on your left/right, in/out. Then it's really about the angle. I don't use an angle cube. Played around with that and found it tedious and unnecessary. Repetition in setup, a marker and the angle guides should get you there.

I've resharpened many, many, times on the KME and this has pretty much always worked for me. It should only take a few minutes. If you want, take pictures of your knife in the clamp for reference.

Now, for just touch ups between actual sharpenings, I would recommend you get a strop or two and use those. Maybe get one with something like CrO for lower-alloys and one with diamond for the higher alloys.
 
Good idea here guys, I have a set of digital calipers never thought about using them. For my edc blade I like a 600 grit tooth edge. It just works better for me. I have a sharpmaker with the ceramic stones brown and white . I also have strops green & black compound. But I perfer a 600 dmt edge.
 
lzeplin said:
I have a sharpmaker with the ceramic stones brown and white . I also have strops green & black compound. But I perfer a 600 dmt edge.
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You said "I perfer" and I hear ya ;)
Point being, personally i lost my interest in "preferences", i just want to get the resharpening task at hand as pro-like fast'n efficiently done as possible. I don't care about the perfection of grind and polish anymore. My sole aim nowadays is to get the scary sharpness back, and as fast as possible, and no matter what the grind and polish looks like. Like a pro. In a way that i could show a friend or relative how well (=fast'n efficient) i do it and they'd be somewhat impressed.

You give a scary sharp typical cheap kitchen knife to your clumsy:p sister- or mother-in-law and let her prepare a big roast beef and salad with it and we know that the knife will be visibly dull by the start of the dinner (reflective apex spots), failing to slice through phonebook paper or cut tomato nicely. Then you utter "i can sharpen knives, i did this knife before you used it!" and she responds "oh wow, can you show me how you get it back sharp again?", and then you fail to get it back to scary sharpness under 15min, then i will consider it a FAIL. This is my newly formed opinion: if you cannot demonstrate live (hence the 15min constraint, which is still veery generous regarding the spectator's patience) in front of your folks, how you get a reflective rounded apex back to scary sharpness, then i'm sorry you still **** at it and should not even have mentioned that "you can sharpen knives". It's like claiming "yes i know French" or "yes i can play table tennis" or "yes i can play the piano" .. but when it's showtime everyone can hear/see/learn that this is NOT what they had expected when you said "i can". And they will think "well, maybe he can, a bit, but he really (still) ****s at it" :D

I once spent a whole afternoon with my RUIXIN to get a polished perfect edge on my PM2TI, after a great deal of efforts and time, giving it the full treatment including the PTS method, the grind was unbelievably accurate, the edge hair-whittling sharp, the polish microscopically clean (only 0.5micron stropping scratches left). Then i was interested in how the edge would perform in a cardboard cut test. Sure, i sliced through tens of feet with no problem. When i felt that it got harder with the slicing, i decided to stop the test. I looked at the bevel and ... was shocked that the mirror-polish had gotten all scratched up by the cardboard cut test. At that point i didn't know what to regret. Regret that i spent so much time to get the bevel all perfect? Regret that i used the fresh perfect bevel for a harmless cut test? I felt so ridiculous about the situation. That was basically the last time that i really used the system, shortly before i got the Sharpmaker, a few months back.

Getting the perfect bevel/edge back with the ruixin system (love h*te relationship:oops:) is on my todolist for coming winter when i'm on a boring day with really nothing else to do. If i see it as an activity per se for its own sake (like crocheting and knitting) and see the result as byproduct only, then sure it's acceptable for spending some lonely hours with nice music in the background.

I do have much free time at hand these days. Nonetheless, time is the key here. I don't see the fun, the point anymore, if i have 5 kitchen knives to resharpen again for the 10th time this year and i couldn't manage to do it within 1hr (max 2hrs) and still enjoy the time, every time again. So i choose to do 5 knives in 1-2hrs with an unconventional freehanding method (called 204-freehanding), and get the scary sharpness after all.

Processing knives fast with the same scary sharpness result is when i feel the point and utility (and joy) of my 1hr investment. I don't see the point anymore to just get the knife back super sharp (or flawlessly polished) with no consideration of the time/material/energy investment.

After all these years of experience and practice, all things/aspects need to be considered. Not just the finished result.

just my two ranting cents ;)
 
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if it were me - I'd make note of where its clamped for the full sharpening
then when i wanted to touch up with the KME, I'd clamp it in the same spot and get the angle close - just making sure that I'm getting the apex. no need to take forever to set it up perfectly
 
l1ranger said:
if it were me - I'd make note of where its clamped for the full sharpening
then when i wanted to touch up with the KME, I'd clamp it in the same spot and get the angle close - just making sure that I'm getting the apex. no need to take forever to set it up perfectly
Click to expand...
Oh ok so I only need it to take sharpie off at the very edge? The Apex for touch up?
 
lzeplin said:
Oh ok so I only need it to take sharpie off at the very edge? The Apex for touch up?
Click to expand...

You should always be hitting the entire secondary bevel. You might be off a little bit in the clamp position but you should still be able to get the angle close enough to match the bevel.

Again, for touch ups, I'd recommend a hand-held strop but you should still be able to get the knife back into the clamp close enough to have repeatability without spending more than a couple minutes.
 
Another option not touched on is to just put a microbevel on it when you touch up. You won't regain the full sharpness you originally had but you honestly won't notice in real world use as you can still make it push cut phone book paper if you want.

Strops would be better in my opinion but if you prefer using a guided setup don't forget a micro bevel can go a long way in making life easier.
 
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