I cannot sharpen serrations for the life of me. -Help-

Fred Sanford

Fred Sanford

Gold Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2006
Messages
3,142
Hey folks,

I've been sharpening knives for a while now and I can get all of my PE knives shaving sharp, and most of the time even past that. I can get 'em sharper than they come from the factory. I use Diamond DMT stones and/or my Spyderco 701 Profile stones. I do it all freehand.

I used to have a Sharpmaker and it just wasn't for me. I couldn't get things sharp on it like I can by freehand sharpening on DMT + Profile stones. I also had poor luck with the Sharpmaker on serrations.

For a while I could get serrations half way decent with the 701 Profiles. Now I cannot. My Profile stones are not worn down either. At least not the spots that hit the serrations. The larger rounded part of the 701's don't even fit the serrations right. It still leaves a gap. I'm confused by this. I figured that the little points on the 701's would do the small scallops well and the larger rounded part would do the larger scallops. NOT.

So, my problem is this. I cannot get a SE Salt I sharpened for the life of me. NO matter what I do the damn thing just tears paper. No part of it will even cut. It just tears everything.

It's gotten to the point where I'm thinking I'm going to have to send anything I own that is serrated to Spyderco when they get dull.

Does anyone have serrations that they can get back to factory sharp? Would you mind sharing how you do this? Any links to any YouTube videos?

Thanks.
 
I usually use the Profiles and that "Duckfoot" thingy to sharpen serrations.

I have also used the corners of conventional stones.

Is this an issue just with the H1 Salt or are there other serrated edges that are an issue, also?
 
orthogonal1 said:
I usually use the Profiles and that "Duckfoot" thingy to sharpen serrations.

I have also used the corners of conventional stones.

Is this an issue just with the H1 Salt or are there other serrated edges that are an issue, also?
Click to expand...

Hmm.....that's a good point. It may be the H1. I can sharpen VG-10 serrations OK but not great. The only other serrated knives I have are all VG-10 and either haven't been used yet or they still don't need sharpened.
 
While I'm thinking about it,

I usually sharpen serrations one at a time on the "dished" side and knock off burrs on the "flat" side in one bouncy stroke. However, sometimes I do as shown in the Sharpmaker video - I just find that the serrations become less pronounced with the shown Sharpmaker method.

Perhaps you just need to try a different methedology.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top