Interesting Sharpmaker Results/Conclusions

bgentry said:
Hmm. It sorta looks like you aren't touching the edge near the heel of the blade. But that could be a trick of the light. On the second side, I think I clearly see that the edge bevel is wider near the heel. That's not all that uncommon either. The heel is one of the worst areas in factory blades. They tend to have lots of geometry problems there.

I think you might be turning your tanto "middle point" into a rounded belly. If you want to keep the tanto shape with the sharp transition between the two planes, then you should sharpen that blade in two sections. Do one straight section, stopping at the transition point. Then do the other straight section. Again stopping (or starting) at the transition point.



Blunting might not be the perfect description. "Rounding off the edge" is the term that's use the most here. It's very easy to do this with a strop because of the soft substrate. But you can absolutely round off a sharp edge by having poor angle control also. I'm not sure if that's your issue or not.



This implies that your SM technique is solid. ...or maybe it's just that you're having trouble with a blade with a thicker grind. The blade in the picture looks very thick. It's much harder to get a good edge on a thick blade. Thin blades are comparatively easy.



It might be time for me to re-do that post. When they changed the forum software all of the internal links in that thread stopped working. Plus it's formatted goofy because the forum software wouldn't accept certain posts. Yeah, I think it's time to re-do that. Thanks for mentioning it!

Brian.
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I only sharpen the 'bottom' blade for the tanto, and leave the 'forward' blade as factory sharp so I have something to compare against. You are probably right about rounding the middle point (or transition point) and from what I have learned that means I just need to not pull directly off the rods when I get to that part. My SM technique is not solid right now, I am not ashamed to admit that haha. BHQ claims that the blade thickness for this knife is .10'' but I don't really know if that's thick or not. I probably do round the blade when stropping, because I am not gentle when stropping with my cardboard so I will need to rethink my technique. I will try to return to practicing as soon as I have free time from school, because midterms are midterms.
 
https://imgur.com/gallery/URUrs
I think I finally figured out how to show what I did wrong! So I cut the paper in the image two times, one time with my right hand, and once with the left hand. Notice how the cut made in a left direction is torn on that knife. Now I highly doubt that this has more to do with the factory edges because I sharpened my lionsteel roundhead the same way and it does the same thing. The second image is using a factory cold steel edge, which cut on both sides similarly. Now I finally understand why people on youtube do a wavy cut test, because it makes the knife travel on both sides. This has taught me that I have a new standard for testing sharpness, how even the edge cuts on left and right cuts
Edit: I can't wait until my sic stones get here, because I REALLY want to reprofile my knives so I can determine my own angles.
 
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So I have a lot of time tonight, and I'd like to give a little update. The Moldmaster Stones have arrived, and now I am reprofiling everything for 20 per side, or 40 inclusive. @bgentry and @willic you were right, factory angles are weird, and @maximus83 thanks for recommending the moldmasters. And thanks to you all for helping me out, I was just about to give up on the sharpmaker, but now I am a reprofiling master!!! (*monster)
P.S.: I found it best to use the moldmaster stones wet, because using them dry does not help with my asthma at all haha
 
Please clarify this for me: are you equating using the Sharpmaker, with the rods in the base, as Sal does in the instructional videos, with freehand sharpening? I wasn't clear on that, probably because I was up all night in pain and my one remaining brain cell is apparently on strike.

Have fun!
 
RLDubbya said:
Please clarify this for me: are you equating using the Sharpmaker, with the rods in the base, as Sal does in the instructional videos, with freehand sharpening? I wasn't clear on that, probably because I was up all night in pain and my one remaining brain cell is apparently on strike.

Have fun!
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No, Sal using rods in the base (the ones standing up in the 30 or 40 angles) is him using rods in the base. What I like to do, especially for tanto grinds, is to take the rods out of the base, and use them as crock sticks. I equate that with freehanded sharpening more.
Now to make this a little more confusing, if you lay the base flat on its stomach, and put a rod on the triangular cutout, you can push it back and forth like a whetstone, but that has been unreliable for me because the base has no support and moves around too much
 
Mr.SATism said:
No, Sal using rods in the base (the ones standing up in the 30 or 40 angles) is him using rods in the base. What I like to do, especially for tanto grinds, is to take the rods out of the base, and use them as crock sticks. I equate that with freehanded sharpening more.
Now to make this a little more confusing, if you lay the base flat on its stomach, and put a rod on the triangular cutout, you can push it back and forth like a whetstone, but that has been unreliable for me because the base has no support and moves around too much
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Copy that. I had a Sharpmaker, so I'm at least cursorily familiar with its operational foibles. I'm glad you are having some fun with sharpening, I think it's an important aspect of our hobby which too many neglect.
 
Mr.SATism said:
Give me a second pick up my jaw off the floor and ask you how well that works for zweihänders lol
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No it doesn't work for zweihanders
What it does do is
Allows you to clamp in most any blade 2" to 6"
Presents blade to stone at precisely 90 degrees throughout entire stroke
Can be used edge leading or edge trailing
100% eliminates any hand wobble or blade deviation to stone
Consistent blade pressure to stone (adjustable)
Never wastes a single stroke
 
Cvrobinson said:
No it doesn't work for zweihanders
What it does do is
Allows you to clamp in most any blade 2" to 6"
Presents blade to stone at precisely 90 degrees throughout entire stroke
Can be used edge leading or edge trailing
100% eliminates any hand wobble or blade deviation to stone
Consistent blade pressure to stone (adjustable)
Never wastes a single stroke
Click to expand...
You've got to get a video of this in action, or at least let me peep the schematics. Will I ever make This myself? Probably not. Is it interesting? HECK YES
P.S.: there isn’t any shame in getting help to make sure your strokes are right ;) jk
 
I didn't build it for me, it's for a BF member who wanted something precise for his recurve blades. I plan on making him an instruction video
I'll post it soon as I make it
As far as schematics, there are none, I built it out of my head I'll post better pic with video

As to shame, I'm 71, I left shame at the back door a decade ago
 
I think I have a problem
https://imgur.com/gallery/F21zL

But in all seriousness I have my sharpened mini recon 1 to my friend and he used it for a whole week without touching it up and it just shaved like it was nothing!

Now unfortunately I am noticing an inconsistency because my M390 blade is sharp, but it’s not holding that razor sharpness for as long.

To me that means that I need to go back and reprofile for longer get a better burr on it, give it more TLC. This time I’ll reprofile both knives to 30 inclusive just because I want to see how good it will be for my EDC

Edit: the two knives do not act the same way when performing the same activites. I've been taking my knives and cutting waterbottles from below, XHP likes to bite in immediately, while the M390 does not. As for cardboard, it seems that the M390 bends its edge faster than XHP (or however you describe it before you need to strop). @maximus83 was definitely right about it taking at least an hour to reprofile correctly. I think I might cave in and get the 80 grit moldmasters
 
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