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Is it worth sending in a Spyderco knife for a sharpening?
- Thread starter cards94
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Hey cards, you can send it in and they will take care of it for you, but do you own the sharpmaker? If not I would highly recommend picking one up. You can keep all of your knives scary sharp with very little effort. Great tool.
Yup I own the Sharpmaker and like it but I'm having a little trouble with the tip. Left side of tip is perfect and right side of tip not so perfect.
I dropped it one day and it suffered a little wound. I've been working on it but can't seem to get it to look like the other side. I don't want to risk messing it up so that's why I'm thinking about sending it in for touch up.
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Fair enough. Just out of curiosity, do you have the diamond rods? They are pretty much a "must have" for the sharpmaker.
I don't think I have those. I just have whatever rods they give you with the basic setup, but I'll check them out. Thanks.
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The only time I sent a knife into Spyderco was a Shabaria with $5 return shipping. It came back with a letter that it was "sharpened" but it would not slice paper. Basically it had the same sharpness of when I sent it in. And definitely no spa treatment, this is not Benchmade you know.
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I actually sent in my waved Delica the other year for this. There was a slight chip in the edge near the tip. I am a diffident sharpener at best, and no matter how hard I tried, I wasn't able to get the chip out with my Sharpmaker. I sent it in with a $5 bill and got it back about a week later with a factory edge just as good as when it left.
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I might get tarred and feathered for this but I purchased a Chinese knockoff copy of a popular but pricey consistent angle sharpener with the initials EPA. I couldn't be happier with the results.
No, it's not. If it were then the pm2 would likely be a $200 knife.
Good point.
No, it's not. If it were then the pm2 would likely be a $200 knife.
But maybe then they would offer blade swaps like benchmade does...
I think that the only way to fully destroy the edge of a knife while sharpening is if you use power tools. Say a belt grinder, paper wheels or something like that.
Sharpening takes so little steel on each pass that it is easy to see if you are doing it right or wrong. And somehow is part of the learning curve of being a knive owner/user. Besides, while I try to keep my knives looking good, I don't worry about keeping them NIB. No tool stays long without scratches, stains and markings of all kinds. Otherwise you should consider not using them and just displaying it in a transparent case.
I would say get some stones and go for it. I do own the sharpmaker but for heavy stock removal situations (dent, broken tip, etc.) it just doesn't cut it. At least with the stock grey and white rods. Maybe the diamond rods help.
Mikel
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They do. I have only send knives to spyderco to have them polish some scratches out of the blade. I had them sharpen it too while it was there, to clean up the bevel.
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Hi John, do you have a sharpmaker? I sharpen my Tasman a couple of times a week on the sm. Nothing to it, and it stays razor sharp. Nothing wrong with sending it off if you like but just be aware that it's really easy to maintain on the sharpmaker. :thumbup:
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I would rather pay $110 for a knife without an option of blade swap, than add $90 for insurance.
I do, with the medium and fine rods that it came with...I was going to PM you but I think it would be more useful to have it public to lurkers etc...how do you sharpen the Spyderedge hawkbill on the Sharpmaker?
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I've got the Diamond, Medium, Fine & Ultra Fine rods and if you have to remove much metal on any of the harder steels you will be a loooog time even with the diamonds. The problem with having to make a lot of passes on the Sharpmaker is consistency which is why I use an Edge Pro or Wicked Edge for reprofiling. Years ago when all I had was a Sharpmaker I spent many hours trying to remove chips and dings and was never 100% happy with the results until I got something that was better for this purpose. I still use the Sharpmaker but I set my edges to 15° or 20° with one of the previously mentioned systems so I can carry the Sharpmaker in the field which works great!
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Well, everyone is going to have a little different technique, but I'm happy to give you a quick rundown of how I do it. As far as serrations go, I just use the corners of the fine stones and sharpen like normal. The only difference is instead of alternating sides I do 3 swipes on the cut side to every 1 on the flat side. I always do this on the 40 degree setting because all I'm really trying to do is add a microbevel. One other thing I change on a serrated blade is when I'm doing the flat side I tilt the knife so I'm hitting the edge at about 5 degrees instead of pulling it straight down at 20. Probably not necessary, but it works for me. All you are really trying to do on the backside is remove any burr. That's really all there is to it. And if any of that sounds like too much trouble then you can always just sharpen it alternating sides exactly like you would a regular knife. That works just fine too.
As far as a HAWKBILL goes, just follow the same recipe but slowly drop the handle as you are pulling down so the edge stays relatively perpendicular to the stone.
One point I will make is that a serrated edge is MUCH easier to maintain than to repair. I keep my SM set up in the kitchen and I always give my serrated edges about a 30 second touchup after any major usage. In the long run it ends up being less work than letting them get really dull and then spending 15 minutes repairing the edge...with the added bonus that you've always got a razor sharp knife.
Well, everyone is going to have a little different technique, but I'm happy to give you a quick rundown of how I do it. As far as serrations go, I just use the corners of the fine stones and sharpen like normal. The only difference is instead of alternating sides I do 3 swipes on the cut side to every 1 on the flat side. I always do this on the 40 degree setting because all I'm really trying to do is add a microbevel. One other thing I change on a serrated blade is when I'm doing the flat side I tilt the knife so I'm hitting the edge at about 5 degrees instead of pulling it straight down at 20. Probably not necessary, but it works for me. All you are really trying to do on the backside is remove any burr. That's really all there is to it. And if any of that sounds like too much trouble then you can always just sharpen it alternating sides exactly like you would a regular knife. That works just fine too.
As far as a HAWKBILL goes, just follow the same recipe but slowly drop the handle as you are pulling down so the edge stays relatively perpendicular to the stone.
One point I will make is that a serrated edge is MUCH easier to maintain than to repair. I keep my SM set up in the kitchen and I always give my serrated edges about a 30 second touchup after any major usage. In the long run it ends up being less work than letting them get really dull and then spending 15 minutes repairing the edge...with the added bonus that you've always got a razor sharp knife.
Sounds good to me, thanks for the advice! I'll try that out on my Tasman.