I got my first SAK (Super Tinker) Need advice

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DracoKrys

Joined
Jan 17, 2018
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A few days ago I bought a Super Tinker and I was obsessing over the edge and the large blade seemed to get dull, it would struggle to slice through paper as easily as the small blade. I didn't buy and don't have any sharpening tools so I used the bottom of a coffee mug. It seems to have worked relatively well, it now slices paper almost as easily as the small blade, but I'm afraid to use it now, as I don't want to dull and resharpen it on the mug in case I'm doing something wrong. The tip is blunter than the rest of the blade and not as pointy as the small one. I noticed that the tip hits (I don't know the technical term) a piece of metal when I snap it shut, I think that may be the issue. Is it possible to resharpen the tip? Am I ruining or have I ruined the blade by sharpening it on a mug? I have a friend who can sharpen knives but I won't be seeing him for a couple of months.

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Did my best at taking a picture. I'm aware I might just be obsessing over nothing
 
Not to be critical but get a simple sharpening hone (Norton Combination) and learn to sharpen it yourself. Not difficult, SAKs have relatively soft steel. I carry a Tinker in pocket or Deluxe Tinker in belt pouch. Love them both. Knife sharpening is a simple skill to learn with lots of online videos/web pages to show you how.
Rich
 
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DracoKrys said:
Thanks :) I love the tinker too
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I often carry a tinker, or a recruit, and I have yet to use a real stone on them.
All I do is hone them and touch them up on the bottom of a coffee mug as needed.
Ive also got a pocket pal and tinker which I do the same to and I can always keep them shaving sharp.
 
DracoKrys said:
.... The tip is blunter than the rest of the blade and not as pointy as the small one. I noticed that the tip hits (I don't know the technical term) a piece of metal when I snap it shut, I think that may be the issue....
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There's a current thread over in the Traditionals Forum about this ("blade rap") and the general opinion seems to be that it will go away with a few sharpenings. The coffee mug isn't a bad solution, but for $10 - $15 you can pick up a pocket-sized stone. (Although you'll even read about people going out and finding a fairly flat river rock to sharpen with!) There are tons of videos online to learn from. I've tried a lot of things over the years and my current favorite is a couple of EZ-LAP diamond pocket "stones" (4" x 1"), one in 600 grit and one in 1200 grit. Frankly, for most touch-ups the 1200 is all I need. Victorinox makes a nice ceramic rod with a pocket clip that is designed for their knives.

Sharpening can be fun and relaxing and is a rewarding skill to develop.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure you haven't done any harm to the knife.
 
Once you learn to sharpen . . . after some time . . . don't rush it but the next step is to reprofile the edge bevel. Doing this to a Swiss Army Knife blade will bring you huge rewards in cutting performance as well as edge retention.
Like I said don't worry about doing this now but latter FOR SURE.

The factory angle of the SAK (Swiss Army Knife) is too blunt and wide (see diagram in video).
Making it a narrower angle pays huge dividends. I learned this out of frustration one day while throwing caution to the wind; sharpening my SAK to a narrower angle because nothing else was working. It would go dull in no time over and over until I reprofiled it.

THEN I saw Cliff Stamp's video like twenty years latter. In other words I'm not a Cliff Stamp fan boy . . . . he is saying in this video what I found to be true long before he made the video.
 
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PS : these guys are with me in that pouch every single day I work, at my day job or in my home shop. The edges are custom beveled for a range of purposes.
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Thank you all I was worried something was wrong! I'll ask my sharpening buddy to try and do the bevel for me. The same guy said he was going to make a knife for me and if I decide to buy that I'll get a proper sharpening stone. Someone said I could use rock from a riverbed, could I use a rock from a beach as well? There's a stony beach nearby.
 
Riverbed rocks will get you a workable edge if the edge is totally wasted, you'll still want to sharpen it with your coffee cup.
Here's what I do: After getting the edge on the bottom of the cup, I 'strop' it on the top of the cup. That ceramic is real smooth and seems to polish up the edge.
 
Stropping a bit on some denim or leather or flat hard chipboard could help too. The material on the bottom of a coffe mug is fine but the rounding of the path can make it harder to keep your angle consistent and you may miss a small burr. The stropping will smooth out the edge and help knock off any burr that was missed.

Also check your different mugs as I've noticed that some of mine vary in grit. I have some medium, fine and extra fine ish in my cupboard.
 
Rich S said:
Not to be critical but get a simple sharpening hone (Norton Combination) and learn to sharpen it yourself. Not difficult, SAKs have relatively soft steel. I carry a Tinker in pocket or Deluxe Tinker in belt pouch. Love them both. Knife sharpening is a simple skill to learn with lots of online videos/web pages to show you how.
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I would suggest the same for the Vic. I almost always sharpen one on the Norton Combination stone on the fine side. It is not expensive. Sharpens real fast. If you are using knives, you need to learn at least some fundamentals of sharpening. If you are worried because the Super Tinker is fairly expensive, I'd get one of the less expensive SAKs, perhaps a Centurion, Bantam, or Spartan and use the knife and resharpen as necessary. Then you'll have more confidence with the more expensive Super Tinker.
 
I often use the back of my leather belt and strop the edge back to a keen sharpness. This works great as long as the knife is not seriously dull.

If you use the bottom of a coffee mug, make sure the drink the coffee first. :p:D
 
find yourself a ceramic "dogbone" type of tool abut $6.00 ? AND learn the sound and feel for when you have the right touch
 
I'm a little late to the party, but this reminds me of some issues I've encountered when sharpening stainless blades. Do you lead or trail the edge when you sharpen? For some reason, I've never been able to sharpen the softer stainless of my Vics and my 4116 Krupp blades with a leading edge. Once I learned about the trailing edge method, I was able to sharpen my Vics on coffee cups and bricks as well as sharpening stones. I also trail the edge when I use a honing steel.
 
KuduCuckoo said:
I'm a little late to the party, but this reminds me of some issues I've encountered when sharpening stainless blades. Do you lead or trail the edge when you sharpen? For some reason, I've never been able to sharpen the softer stainless of my Vics and my 4116 Krupp blades with a leading edge. Once I learned about the trailing edge method, I was able to sharpen my Vics on coffee cups and bricks as well as sharpening stones. I also trail the edge when I use a honing steel.
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I've been experimenting lately with the trailing method on various traditionals. I'm using variously 600 and 1200 grit diamond, a Vic pocket ceramic rod, an Opinel mini-steel, and a superfine ceramic rod. I've been pleased with the results and the ability to raise and then remove a very fine burr.
 
As a kid, I always sharpened by hand on the trailing edge. That was the way my Dad did it. As I got older, I went with the leading edge (or pushing the blade into the stone) like you are trying to cut with the blade. You're normally doing the trailing edge method with strop. So, both methods work as far as I'm concerned.
 
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I was taught to "shave" the stone, so push sharpen.
One of my grandfathers (b1911 d1963) used a circular motion when he sharpened his knives.
Yes. His 8 inch bench stones had rather concave face. I do not know how long he used them, or how often.
 
Buy you a used sak spartan ,usually about $5 on the bay,- practice sharpening on that ,till your confident /comfortable you will gain so much from this experience it will open up the real joy of knife ownership...
I wish someone would have shared this thought with me 10 years ago,it would have saved me a ton of money-hassle.
 
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