kershaw sharpness

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uconntomtom78

Joined
Sep 26, 2003
Messages
42
Hello everyone.
Today I received kershaw bump that I had overnighted because I had been interested in this knife for quite some time. Everything about the knife screamed quality. The lockup was great, no play in any direction and the speedsafe snapped the knife open with authority.
But one thing kinda ticked me off. I have heard SO many things on these forums about how sharp kershaws were and was expecting it from this almost 200 dollar knife. The knife wouldn't even shave hair cleanly. I had to put quite some force on my skin for it to catch any hairs.
I attempted to sharpen it with my sharpmaker with no success. I gave up because it seems I would have to reprofile the edge. The dullest part was near the tip. The edge seemed extra thick there. I mean, all the grinds seemed pretty even, just the edge geometry seemed thick.
Anyway thanks for reading this rant and any suggestions besides sending it back to kershaw would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,
Tom
:)
 
I already tried to sharpen it with the sharpmaker with no success. The steel is either extremely hard to sharpen, i suck at sharpening, or it needs to be reprofiled. I don't have anything to reprofile it with so I might get some sandpaper. Any pointers from anyone on sharpening this knife? I've tried using just the corners on the sharpmaker and that didn't help. Then i used both the flats and the corners. Again, that didn't help. Where should I go from here? Sandpaper on the rods??

Thanks,
Tom
 
Sandpaper on the rods should do the trick nicely. You'll get nowhere fast reprofiling S30V with the Spyderco brown rods. I would recommend trying silicon carbide paper, maybe 220 grit. That will be fairly coarse, so be careful that you don't scrape the blade finish with it or you'll have some unsightly scratches. In fact it may be a good idea to tape the flats of the blade with masking tape. Scratching a brand new blade sucks big time. After you've established a good bevel and burr with the 220 move up to 400, 600, and maybe 800, then polish all the scratches out with the brown and white stones. Keep in mind that the sandpaper will lose it's bite very very quickly, especially the coarse grits, so don't use much pressure and reposition it frequently. Best of luck, let us know how it turns out. :)
 
You really don't want to scratch the finish on your pretty new knife so take precautions if you sharpen it using sand paper. Apply some Scotch Tape to the blade running parallel to the line of the edge, but set back about 1/8" to 3/16" from the edge. This will help avoid deep scratches.

If you are reprofiling close to the tip of the blade it may be hard to use sand paper on Sharpmaker rods. I would just use the paper on a hard flat surface like a kitchen counter. Use the side of your finger or thumb to help you to transfer your desired honing angle from the Sharpmaker to your counter top location. Put the Sharpmaker rods in the "30 degree" holes. Line up the blade vertical with the edge against the right hand rod. Press your right index finger against the spine of the blade with the right side of your finger touching the right rod. Without changing your finger position on the spine of the blade move over to the paper on the counter top. Rotate your hand 90 degrees clockwise and hone the edge on the paper while the side of your finger barely grazes the surface of the paper. This will give you a 15 degree bevel on the right side of your blade. To do the left side line up the blade vertical with the edge against the left hand rod. Press your right thumb against the spine of the blade with the left side of your thumb touching the left rod. Now you will hone the with the left side of your thumb just skimming the surface of the paper.
 
Thanks for the tip Jeff. Very clear instructions. Now all I gotta do is try it sometime and see if I can actually do it. Thanks again.

Sincerely,
Tom
 
I have sold a lot of Kershaw folders; and without exception, they have been very sharp right out of the box. The quality of your blade edge is not the norm for a Kershaw. I would suggest before you do to much to it, that you contact Kershaw for advice/they will proabably tell you to return it for re-sharpening or replacement.

IMHO
 
theoldawg said:
I have sold a lot of Kershaw folders; and without exception, they have been very sharp right out of the box. The quality of your blade edge is not the norm for a Kershaw. I would suggest before you do to much to it, that you contact Kershaw for advice/they will proabably tell you to return it for re-sharpening or replacement.

IMHO
Click to expand...

I agree with theoldawg. I own a Kershaw Avalanche and it came razor sharp right out of the box. I have the partially serrated version and I like this knife so much that I consider buying the unserrated version too. I'm sorry to hear, Tom, that you are not satisfied with the sharpness of your Bump (must be a great quality knife though). I think you should contact Kershaw and see what they suggest...
 
I've only owned one Kershaw knife, a Bump, and it came out of the box with the most beautifully ground blade, and scary, scary sharp. Sounds like QC was out for a smoke-break when your knife passed by. I'd send it back. I haven't ever re-profiled a blade, but I'd think the "bump" in the blade is going to complicate things. At the very least, do a practice re-profile or two on an old beater before you take sandpaper to your Bump.
 
Regardless of how sharp the blade was NIB, it makes little difference if the knife is going to be used, if the geometry has the initial angle so obtuse the Sharpmaker can't hit it.

Even if it was returned and resharpened, this would not solve the problem as eventually it would have to be sharpened as all knives do and then you are faced with the same problem.

Hack the metal off the edge, not using the sharpmaker, but a x-coarse abrasive as Jeff noted, then sharpen on the Sharpmaker.

If its a user I would not be concerned about scratches on the blade, this will get scratched up readily assuming you actually use the knife anyway.

-Cliff
 
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