Major Sharpening Help Needed

J

jayz5000

Joined
Jul 25, 2013
Messages
123
A few days ago I tried to sharpen my spyderco military (FFG) on a whetstone for the first time.

I accidentally help it at a very acute angle on one side and as a result, one of the angles where the edge starts (The "V") was rounded off.

SO instead of an angle like this \/ it is more like )/ <this ? Is that clear enough? It slopes like a cirlce rather than a line on one side.

So now only one of the sides is sharp and I have tried everything I can think of to put a straight angled edge back on it and get it sharp but nothing has worked.

Does anybody have any ideas about how I could undo/fix this?
 
What type of whetstone are you using? Is it a course of fine grit? Can you gently follow the factory edge or "good edge" to find the angle to restore the rounded edge?
 
Stack or tape equal amount of quarters or coins on each side of the stone. This will give you a fairly equal angle as long as you keep it thru out your stroke. Just let the back of the blade touch the top of the coins and go forward with your stroke.
 
If I understand your description, on the side that is now "wrong" you held the spine of the knife too high? So you put a rounded off secondary bevel on your edge. If that's what you're describing, you'll need to fully regrind that edge bevel until it is flat again. Depending upon how rounded off it is, this might be a short job, or it could require removing a lot of steel.

You'll want to grind the other side of the blade too, so you maintain symmetry.

Someone skilled at sharpening should be able to correct this for you.

Brian.
 
Does anybody know a place where I can send this and have it corrected? I live in PA so if somebody knows a place around there that would be helpful.
 
jayz5000 said:
Does anybody know a place where I can send this and have it corrected? I live in PA so if somebody knows a place around there that would be helpful.
Click to expand...

Yes, these things happen. My recommendation is to always practice your techniques on old kitchen knives. The steel on those is usually soft enough to make progress rather quickly. Also, if you ruin the edges on those, they might not be left in any worse condition than then you dug them up.

Send your knife back to Spyderco, they can restore the correct bevel geometry on your knife. Everything you need to know if on their website, look under the warranty section. Moving forward, I would still advise you to practice on old kitchen knives. Maybe search through this forum and read several threads. There is a lot of very good information here archived, no reason to ignore or otherwise discard it. If you can learn from the mistakes of others, you are learning efficiently.

Sharpening requires time, patience, proper equipment, and technique. If you rush, you will make mistakes. If you have no patience, you will make mistakes, and if you don't have the correct equipment you will not progress.
 
I'd also like to know what stone you're using?

A DMT Aligner clamp on your blade, used in conjunction with a bench stone (coarse or fine diamond would be best for the Military's S30V) or a sheet of wet/dry sandpaper on hard backing, will keep the angle steady while you re-set your bevels. The broad & flat-ground blade will give the clamp plenty of surface area on which to get a hold. To me, this would be the easiest and most reliable way to get it done. Here's a video (below) from DMT, demo'ing how the clamp can be used with a bench hone. Keep in mind, they only show a few strokes to touch up an edge; re-bevelling will take quite a while longer.

[video=youtube;iZOM_3Xi8O0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZOM_3Xi8O0[/video]

I'm sure you could also send the knife back to Spyderco for a factory re-sharpening, at minimal cost (see below).

http://www.spyderco.com/edge-u-cation/index.php?item=10
"REPAIR INFORMATION
Blade Sharpening: Complimentary on PlainEdges, SpyderEdges and CombinationEdges provided. Please include $5.00USD for shipping and handling. $5.00 will cover the return shipping cost for up to 4 knives."
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David
 
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