Leaf Jumper K390 (Serrated)...Sharpening Tips?

I don't know the guy, though he has won some adherents with his sharpening methods (on non serrated knives) and his tests of 15V vs Maxamet and K390 if I recall correctly. (I don't follow any of these folks.)

Otherwise, I can't and don't vouch.
 
Blues said:
Yep. I can definitely see where the issue would lie. Thankfully, they're on sale for an extremely reasonable price, (I went to National Knives, a site supporter and a true gentleman), so the world won't collapse around me if I muck it up a bit.

I bought it primarily on the spur of the moment from curiosity, and its being handy for tasks in the garage and around the property, from getting trash ready for pickup to odd jobs.
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Didn’t see this before! I’ve been buying from Rob for years now…awesome dealer and as you stated.. true gentleman!
 
Blues said:
I don't know the guy, though he has won some adherents with his sharpening methods (on non serrated knives) and his tests of 15V vs Maxamet and K390 if I recall correctly. (I don't follow any of these folks.)

Otherwise, I can't and don't vouch.
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He may be great at sharpening plain edges, but he has a lot to learn about serrations. I suggest you not follow his example.
 
yablanowitz said:
I set up the SharpMaker with the corner in on the left stone and the flat in on the right. I do alternating heel to tip and tip to heel strokes on the left to ensure I'm hitting both sides of the scallops, and I tip the blade to put the flat of the blade flat on the stone when I do the back, but scratches don't bother me. On the rare occasions (like maybe once a year) that I need to sharpen my K390 SE Police4, I run through diamond, then CBN, then brown and white ceramics and sometimes even break out the ultra fine rods.

Serrations are ground all at once on a shaped wheel. All the scallops are parallel. You need to pay attention to all three axes when sharpening serrations. Roll and yaw obviously affect the edge angle, but for serrations, the pitch is critical. Find the blade pitch that aligns the centerline of the scallops vertically and keep it there. If you get the point too high or too low, the rod corner won't ride in and out of the scallops, it will bridge across them, grinding away the points and leaving the rest of the scallop untouched. Some rounding of the points will occur and actually helps make the teeth less prone to snagging, but too much and you don't have serrations any more.
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Late to the party, and my opinion isn't worth much. But this is how I've always done my Spyderco serrations, since the 90's. The part in red is VERY important to get it right!

Only difference is I ever so slightly lift the blade on the flat side so I'm just knocking the burr off the serrations, and not sharpening all the steel on the flat side. Yes, I get a few scratches this way too. K390 (and most of the extreme steels) requires diamond rods (I don't have the CBN), and I move to brown, then white ceramic. I also will touch on the ultra-fine rods with some of the high-hardness, fine-grained steels (like 63-64RC or more).
 
SpyderPhreak said:
Late to the party, and my opinion isn't worth much. But this is how I've always done my Spyderco serrations, since the 90's. The part in red is VERY important to get it right!

Only difference is I ever so slightly lift the blade on the flat side so I'm just knocking the burr off the serrations, and not sharpening all the steel on the flat side. Yes, I get a few scratches this way too. K390 (and most of the extreme steels) requires diamond rods (I don't have the CBN), and I move to brown, then white ceramic. I also will touch on the ultra-fine rods with some of the high-hardness, fine-grained steels (like 63-64RC or more).
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That's how I do my wife's serrated paring knife. So it looks like my technique is still relevant.

Just not sure how the brown rods of the Sharpmaker will work with the K390, however. The steel on her Victorinox paring knife is a different animal altogether.
 
Blues said:
That's how I do my wife's serrated paring knife. So it looks like my technique is still relevant.

Just not sure how the brown rods of the Sharpmaker will work with the K390, however. The steel on her Victorinox paring knife is a different animal altogether.
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I've only sharpened one of my K390 knives so far (a PE Endura), and I started on the diamond rods without even thinking about it. Sorry I can't be of any assistance.
 
SpyderPhreak said:
I've only sharpened one of my K390 knives so far (a PE Endura), and I started on the diamond rods without even thinking about it. Sorry I can't be of any assistance.
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No worries, J. I've got plenty of tools to get the job done. Now it's up to me to use them and make things better instead of worse. ☺️

(When the time comes.)
 
I can't do serrated blades. The few I've had I am too OCD to drag the points down a rod which rounds them out, so I sharpen one serration at a time, which takes too long.
 
Just received the Leaf Jumper along with a sibling. This is one very cool knife.


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