I need pics of Sharpmaker in action

L

lerner

Joined
Sep 1, 2008
Messages
125
I must sound like an idiot, but I cant visualize where the knife goes in a Sharpmaker. (I dont own one yet.)
What mantains the "constant angle"?
How is the Sharpmaker better than the cheaper crockstick or vee-rod systems, as pictured at knifecenter?

Pics under 200KB:) or links would help.
 
I should have mentioned I dont do videos. (I'm on 56K dialup, so I havent installed a player. Life is simpler this way.:cool:) But still, thanks.
 
Picture yourself at a bench. On the bench in front of you is the Sharpmaker. Protruding upward from the base of the system is two ceramic triangular rods - they are canted at about 30 degrees from vertical, forming a "V".

Your knife is in your right hand (let's assume you're right-handed). Your right thumb is extended over the spine of the knife, pointing toward the tip. You extend your right arm and the knife (blade is vertical as if you were going to cut something) touches the right Sharpmaker stone (which is angled 30 degrees from vertical, remember?). THe blade edge rests against the stone with the hilt, or bottom end of the edge, touching the stone. You draw the knife toward you and slide down the stone at the same time. At the belly, your wrist moves to make your hand (and knife) rotate downwards, so the belly of the blade attacks the stone at the same angle as the straight portion of the edge did. You stop just before the tip slides off the stone or touches the plastic base at the bottom of the stone. Repeat on the left stone.

Does that make any sense? It's easier than running ou in the shop, taking pictures, loading the pictures on the computer, resizing them, saving them, uploading into photobucket, then uploading here.
 
Lerner PM me and I will send you the cd that came with my sharpmaker(or the little booklet if you don't have a cd player).It really is a good way to sharpen,the only thing to be careful of is to avoid coming off the stones with the tip of your knife as it will round the tip off.
 
Man I feel stupid. I stumbled accross a picture in a tutorial totally made for chicks. I thought the brass rods were to keep the angle constant.

I'm kinda dissapointed. I heard so much about the sharpmaker. But its not going to be more consistant than freehanding. And its for touchups, not re-bevelling. I'll have to be satisfied with my Lansky, plus a steel or strop.

Thanks again for your efforts.
 
The Sharpmaker is essentially freehanding, but it's much more easy to be consistent. It's much easier to hold a knife straight up and down than to angle it from horizontal. Essentially all you do is hold the knife straight, move it down, and the Sharpmaker sticks do the angling for you. It is extremely easy.
 
lerner said:
Man I feel stupid. I stumbled accross a picture in a tutorial totally made for chicks. I thought the brass rods were to keep the angle constant.

I'm kinda dissapointed. I heard so much about the sharpmaker. But its not going to be more consistant than freehanding. And its for touchups, not re-bevelling. I'll have to be satisfied with my Lansky, plus a steel or strop.

Thanks again for your efforts.
Click to expand...

That tutorial that you linked to is awesome. Props to the guy who spent the time in putting that together. I'm impressed.

As for the Sharpmaker, it works as a great compliment to something like the Lansky or Edgepro. I rebevel all my stuff on the Edgepro (used to use a Gatco) and then finish the edge on the Sharpmaker and strop. You will, in all actuality, be happy you got a Sharpmaker to add to your sharpening arsenal. It makes it very easy to keep a consistent angle, and easier yet to achieve and maintain a hair-splitting edge.

Travis
 
lerner said:
......
I'm kinda dissapointed. I heard so much about the sharpmaker. But its not going to be more consistant than freehanding. And its for touchups, not re-bevelling. I'll have to be satisfied with my Lansky, plus a steel or strop.

........
Click to expand...

It's too bad you think that, Lerner, because I think you'll be missing out on a very fine sharpening device. It is indeed more consistent than "freehanding" (traditional benchstones) as Bobofish pointed out.

I too have a Lansky and it hasn;t seen the light of day for almost 2 years now since getting the Sharpmaker. The Shaprmaker will not re-bevel your blades though, unless you have the diamond stones or you use wet/dry clipped to the stones (this works well). I say "will not" meaning it just isn;t feasible to spend that much time, though the Sharpmaker would do it given time and patience beyond any norm.

It's a fine system I think. I liken it to laying a nice ceramic benchstone on your bench, fastening it there so it won;t slide, and tilting one end of your bench up to approximately 75 degrees. Then, lowering it and tilting the opposite end when you want to do the other side of the knife's edge. That Sharpmaker is easier, of course. :D
 
i got my sharpmaker and added the diamond rods as well with my order .. i took a kitchen knife that my dad had put through his grinder to "sharpen" it and was a total mess, worked on the blade for a while and got it razor sharp.... i had to reshape it because it had these waves on the edge that looked kind of like a terrible serration attempt because my dad tried to freehand the knife on the grinder.... so finally got a good shape on the blade with the diamond rods then went ahead and put a good edge with the 30 degree angle.
 
k13pt0 said:
i got my sharpmaker and added the diamond rods as well with my order .. i took a kitchen knife that my dad had put through his grinder to "sharpen" it and was a total mess, worked on the blade for a while and got it razor sharp.... i had to reshape it because it had these waves on the edge that looked kind of like a terrible serration attempt because my dad tried to freehand the knife on the grinder.... so finally got a good shape on the blade with the diamond rods then went ahead and put a good edge with the 30 degree angle.
Click to expand...

don't mean to sound rude or anything but what exactly is the benefit of the diamond rods? do they just last longer, give a quicker or better sharpen or what?
 
Yes, everything you just listed in your question.

The normal medium and fine rods that come with the Sharpmaker are fine for sharpening, as long as we don;t let a hard tool steel like D2 get too dull before attacking. Also, those rods aren;t coarse enough to rebevel an edge if you're inclined to do so. I don;t have the diamond rods (because I'm cheap!), but I understand they're more coarse than the medium ceramics.

The Shaprmaker medium rods are about 600 grit and the fine rods are about 1200 or so.....somewhere in there. Much too fine for rebeveling....at least, in any reasonable amount of time.
 
StretchNM said:
Yes, everything you just listed in your question.

The normal medium and fine rods that come with the Sharpmaker are fine for sharpening, as long as we don;t let a hard tool steel like D2 get too dull before attacking. Also, those rods aren;t coarse enough to rebevel an edge if you're inclined to do so. I don;t have the diamond rods (because I'm cheap!), but I understand they're more coarse than the medium ceramics.

The Shaprmaker medium rods are about 600 grit and the fine rods are about 1200 or so.....somewhere in there. Much too fine for rebeveling....at least, in any reasonable amount of time.
Click to expand...

Ok then. The reason I'm asking is because I recently bought this sharpening system from spyderco (I used to send them to benchmade and they sharpened my BM43 for me, but I wanted to do it myself). I don't think I have anything with D2 or any steel of that strength, so I should be fine with the medium rods for now.
 
SecSpyral said:
don't mean to sound rude or anything but what exactly is the benefit of the diamond rods? do they just last longer, give a quicker or better sharpen or what?
Click to expand...
the main reason i got the diamond rods was to take off alot of steel from dull knives and set the edge quickly and i could then fine tune the edge with the other 2 stones that already come with the Sharpmaker... that is the only reason i got them, for most knives that i have i just use the standard rods to maintain the edge... im considering getting the Ultra fine rods later on, but for know the regular fine rods are getting the job done

-Abe
 
k13pt0 said:
the main reason i got the diamond rods was to take off alot of steel from dull knives and set the edge quickly and i could then fine tune the edge with the other 2 stones that already come with the Sharpmaker... that is the only reason i got them, for most knives that i have i just use the standard rods to maintain the edge... im considering getting the Ultra fine rods later on, but for know the regular fine rods are getting the job done

-Abe
Click to expand...

I think I was just avoiding them due to the price. Isn't it like 50 dollars for a set?
 
the msrp from Spyderco says 69.95... but i picked up the set at yourcornerstore.com for 37.08 + shipping and handling.

-Abe
 
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