Bronco
Moderator
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2000
- Messages
- 7,585
This weekend some of us responded to a thread in which a forumite asked for recommendations on what sharpening system to purchase; either the Spyderco Sharpmaker or the Edge Pro Apex. While some very good comparisons and suggestions were made, a recurring theme that resulted from this analysis was that the Sharpmaker was superior to the Apex when it came to sharpening recurved blades.
While this is generally true, Comrade Changbenza shared with us how he has addressed this minor shortcoming of the Apex system by affixing a wooden pencil or dowel to the aluminum plate that comes with the Apex upgrade kit (it doesn't have a stone and is used in conjunction with 3000 grit polishing tapes). Comrade C's ingenious recommendation involves taping sandpaper over the rounded profile of the 6" dowel, thus allowing you to take full benefit of the mechanical advantages afforded by the Edge Pro, while still being able to follow the reverse contours of the recurved edge.
Following on the heels of this bit of brilliance, I subsequently had the thought yesterday at work, that if Apex owners were to simply remove the brass colored spacer between the grip ball and the moveable plate attachment point, it might be possible to expand the "jaws" of the system wide enough to actually secure one of the triangular ceramic hones from the Sharpmaker system (point down, of course). Well, I'm happy to report that I went home last night, gave it a try, and sure enough it worked like a charm.
Having recently received a beautiful large Apogee from Darrel Ralph with an extremely wear resistant S90V blade, I found that with this setup I was quickly and easily able to improve on the already sharp edge that arrived on the folder. I guess this is just one more reason why it's good to have both of these excellent systems at your disposal.
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Semper Fi
-Bill
While this is generally true, Comrade Changbenza shared with us how he has addressed this minor shortcoming of the Apex system by affixing a wooden pencil or dowel to the aluminum plate that comes with the Apex upgrade kit (it doesn't have a stone and is used in conjunction with 3000 grit polishing tapes). Comrade C's ingenious recommendation involves taping sandpaper over the rounded profile of the 6" dowel, thus allowing you to take full benefit of the mechanical advantages afforded by the Edge Pro, while still being able to follow the reverse contours of the recurved edge.
Following on the heels of this bit of brilliance, I subsequently had the thought yesterday at work, that if Apex owners were to simply remove the brass colored spacer between the grip ball and the moveable plate attachment point, it might be possible to expand the "jaws" of the system wide enough to actually secure one of the triangular ceramic hones from the Sharpmaker system (point down, of course). Well, I'm happy to report that I went home last night, gave it a try, and sure enough it worked like a charm.
Having recently received a beautiful large Apogee from Darrel Ralph with an extremely wear resistant S90V blade, I found that with this setup I was quickly and easily able to improve on the already sharp edge that arrived on the folder. I guess this is just one more reason why it's good to have both of these excellent systems at your disposal.
------------------
Semper Fi
-Bill
