I Can't Shave

T

Tracker2

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Sep 11, 2007
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After watching the Sharpmaker video, I attempted to sharpen an out-of-the-box Buck 110 that was fairly dull. Although I got it to slicing paper easily stage, I got no where near the shaving hair stage.

I'm a newbie at this. Are there common mistakes that newbies tend to make using this system? I tried to follow the instructions as closely as possible but to no avail. I know that sharpening is an acquired skill but I thought that the Sharpmaker was supposed to compensate somewhat for this.
 
The most common problem when just starting with a sharpmaker is matching the edge angle of the knife to the sharpening angle of the Sharpmaker. Until the anlges match, you are rebevelling, not sharpening.

Mark all along the edge with a Sharpie.
Take about 3 passes on the Sharpmaker.
Take a close look at the edge. (A hand lens is helpful, but not essential if you have good eyes.)

Wherever the sharpie has been removed, that is where the Sharpmaker is hitting. If you aren't removing the sharpie at the very edge, you are not sharpening the blade, but rather still adjusting the angle.

Keep working with the corner of the coarse rod until you can mark with a Sharpie and remove the whole coloring. Then you can follow the instructions that came with the Sharpmaker.

Hope that helps.
 
Good advice. It may take a bit of effort the first time, but once you've established the new bevel, you should have no trouble (and very little effort) maintaining a true razor edge with the Sharpmaker
 
It depends on what you mean "easily" but if it cuts paper with no or very little effort it is probably shaving sharp... (note: it's usually meaning shaving hair on your arm, not your facial hair (that's bit more difficult :)), which of these have you meant?)
 
Aahhh...that makes sense. I'll bet I went to the other steps too early. Thanks for the advice.

And no, I'm not trying to shave my face, lol. I'm trying my arm hair like the guy in the video. I did get to the point where the blade cuts paper much much easier than any other knife in the house so at least I'm going the right direction. Will do some more "work" tonight using the marker. Thanks again.
 
For what it's worth, I've learned not all arm hair is the same. Last year I was trying to impress my brother-in-law with how sharp my edges were on his Henkels. His arm hair would not come off! It has the consistency of steel wool.
 
It's cheating, but if you shave with the grain it'll come off easier than going against the grain, know what I mean?

'Shaving' sharp is really sharp as hell and will shave hair whichever direction you shave in, but if you want to feel like you're getting closer, try going with the grain/direction of hair on your arm or wherever and you'll likely get it to shave if you can cut paper easily with it.

Just a case of practice makes perfect. good luck.
 
I new to the Sharpmaker also. I would say stay with the gray stones until the knife is about the sharpest you can get it. I find the white stones, take the bur off, ruff edges, and polishes the edge.

In a way an edge with a little bite to it seems to cut better for me. When I do use the white stones I can get the edge to slice newspaper very smoothly.
 
if the sticks are not hitting directly on the cutting edge you can angle the knife slightly toward the opposite stick from the one the blade is contacting as you run the blade down the stick. repeat for the other side. this is one way of "cheating" so to speak getting a blade shaving sharp without having to spend hours trying to re-bevel a blade.,,,VWB.
 
Whoah... It's going to take my HOURS to rebevel the blade? I'm definitely not working it enough! Just for the record, I've got the Sharpmaker 240 with medium and fine stones and a 30 degree angle and I believe the Buck 110 came with a 26 degree angle.
 
if you are only using a sharpmaker to rebevel an edge then yes its probably gonna take several hours to do it. the stones with sharpmaker are just too slow for this type of task. they are meant to sharpen a blade, not rebevel it. you are gonna need a coarse grade diamond sharpener and a steady hand to do any quick rebeveling of a blade. thats why i was explaining how to "cheat" a bit with the sharpmaker and obtain a hair shaving edge without spending a lot of time and getting fustrated.,,,VWB.
 
DrThunder88 said:
Wait, shaving goes with or against the direction of the hair?
Click to expand...

Either/or. I'm just saying that it's easier to shave with the direction of hair as a test of sharpness. You can shave with the direction of hair with a lot duller knife than you would need to shave against the direction of hair.

> \\\\ = need super sharp knife

> //// = can use 'okay' sharp knife
 
Tracker2 said:
Whoah... It's going to take my HOURS to rebevel the blade? I'm definitely not working it enough! Just for the record, I've got the Sharpmaker 240 with medium and fine stones and a 30 degree angle and I believe the Buck 110 came with a 26 degree angle.
Click to expand...

Buck's 420HC grinds pretty easy. It may not take hours.

When I adjusted my old Buck 303 with it's 425M blades, IIRC, it took me about 20 minutes working on the corner of the coarse rod until 3 passes would remove all the sharpie marks. I'm told that the old 425M steel grinds about like the current 420HC. It just takes more than the 20 passes they got in the video. 20 passes at each level is more than sufficient once the bevels match the stick angle.

However, when I adjusted the bevel of my VG10 and ATS34 blades, I cheated and used an India stone to get an approximate bevel at 30° inclusive. Then I used the Sharpmaker. VG10 and ATS34 are much harder to grind. Rebevelling a blade made from one of those steels on a Sharpmaker might well take hours.

Hope that helps.
 
DrThunder88 said:
Wait, shaving goes with or against the direction of the hair?
Click to expand...

A guy took one of my knives and tried shaving his arm hair. It was cutting some hairs but not many. When I turned to see what he was doing, I noticed he had the blade almost flat against his arm. I'm guessing he had the blade at about 5 or 10 degrees or so.

The blade should be at about 40 degrees when shaving arm hair. If the knife is sharp, it will shave a small patch right down to clean, bare skin in one stroke. To cheat just a tad, lick your finger and use it to wet the area you're going to shave. Your arm hair will be laying down flat now. This patch will shave even easier.
 
As others have mention, use the sharpie. It will tell you where you are hitting on the blade. Another word of advice is to stick with the "grey" stones until you can shave with the knife flawlessly. I was actually using my diamond rods today and was able to shave with my knife (d4 wave) after I was done with just the diamonds. After the whole process of Diamond>grey>white>Ultra fines (strop is at home :jerkit:) It is now up to my standards as useable!

I still can't get my knives to "tree top" (cut hairs above the arm/free dangling hair) but if they can shave, it will do the job. It does take pratice to learn how to use the sharpmaker. Make sure to clean the rods after a while with a green scouring pad and some commet/ajax.
 
Well if it was really dull, you will need to use the marker trick as mentioned above, since your probably only hitting part of the edge. Ive had the edge on knives be sharp only in sections using the sharpmaker before. But I personally have noticed that I've never been able to raise a burr on a sharpmaker, I learned to get good results, it's best for me to just use it to touch up, or set a microbevel after the stone. You guys who try to actually sharpen on one must really have the patience of a Saint!
 
Here is my experience with the SharpMaker:
1. Sharpening a dull knife with obtuse bevels- :( Use something else.

2. Sharpening a dull knife with acute bevels: :) Very handy for this situation.

3. Refining an edge created with a coarse bench stone like a DMT or hardware bench stone. :eek: Very effective
 
I am about to get a hold on a Sharpmaker from eBay. I also was the winner of a Rescue 93mm and I plan to ask the guys on the eBay-shop to pack them toghether. I don't plan to buy every month stuff overaseas because just the shipping is going to kill me so I plan to get some more stuff. Right now they have a set of ultrafine rods for the Sharpmaker and my question is:

ARE THEY REALLY WORTH IT? SHOULD I GET THEM NOW THAN I CAN?

The Sharpmaker comes with two sets of rods: medium and fine. I wonder if they really make a difference or I just could use that mouse pad/sandpaper method I just found out about (I guess some water-sandpaper of the finest grit is used, correct me if wrong).
I would really appreciate you tell me about this.
Mikel
 
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