Mini grip vs. Sharpmaker

adinb114

adinb114

Joined
Feb 25, 2011
Messages
651
For the life of me, i can't sharpen my Mini Grip on the sharpmaker. I have the standard rods. All my other knives sharpen well on this system, not the mini grip. I can sharpen it freehand with diamond hones fairly well, but the sharpmaker wont do anything. Ive tried everything, both settings, diffirent amounts of pressure, to no avail. It must be said that im not a sharpening wiz :eek:, but usually i get my other knives to hair shaving sharp. My worry is that with the freehand sharpening, i've over time made the bevel to obtuse to be sharpened on the sharpmaker, any reccomendations, or do i just suck at sharpening?
 
The overall factory grind on the Mini Grip is something very obtuse like 60*. The sharpmaker will only do 40* and 30* respectively. You need to remove a lot more metal before you can actually sharpen the knife. At this pount, yo should have a nice smooth spot where it is being reprofiled (at the shoulder). Wrap your Sharpmaker stones in sandpaper and it will work much faster. Try using 220 grit Wet/Dry automotive paper.
 
RevDevil said:
The overall factory grind on the Mini Grip is something very obtuse like 60*. The sharpmaker will only do 40* and 30* respectively. You need to remove a lot more metal before you can actually sharpen the knife. At this pount, yo should have a nice smooth spot where it is being reprofiled (at the shoulder). Wrap your Sharpmaker stones in sandpaper and it will work much faster. Try using 220 grit Wet/Dry automotive paper.
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Now that i look at it you're right. the shoulder is shiny, ill do the sandpaper trick right now, Thanks:)
 
I use a lansky system, and I found on my mini grip that the angle was at 25 per side....50 inclusive.

Idk if that helps, but i guess you have to reprofile a bit to get more of a slicer
 
I have a BM 940 that was having the exact same problem. I ended up doing a ghetto reprofile freehanded on a diamond sharpener, now it sharpens up on the Sharpmaker real nice. Almost as nice as a Spyderco.
 
Whenever I sharpen a knife on a Sharpmaker for the first time, I use the Sharpie trick so I can tell when I'm actually sharpening the edge.

Blacken each side of the bevel with a Sharpie. Take a few swipes on a Sharpmaker rod. Then look at the edge to see where you are hitting. If the cutting edge is still black, you aren't sharpening yet, but only changing the angle of the bevel. I often times use a hand lens under a bright light, maybe cause my eyes aren't as good as they were, but mostly cause I want to see down to the very edge. If there is any black on the very edge, you aren't there yet.
 
TTpower said:
what blade steel does benchmade use on the mini grip?
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i'm pretty sure most stock ones are 154cm. in the past it might have been 440... i think you can get other steels such as d2 with the customizable options on the benchmade site and some runs have been done with better steels such as m390.
 
My mini-grip is 154CM. I don't recall having to spend a lot of time re-profiling the factory edge, but I may have, it's been years ago now. I maintain it on my SharpMaker as well. And yes, I agree, use a Sharpie and coat the grinds so you can see what's being sharpened. Once you get the profile, in my experience, the 154CM from Benchmade takes a nice, sharp edge which seems to last fairly well for SS.
 
Mini grip is know sharp thanks to sandpaper and sharpie. all is well in the world.
 
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adinb114 said:
Mini grip is know sharp thanks to sandpaper and sharpie. all is well in the world.
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Good to hear. Now that you have that experience out of the way you should be able to tell when you need to whip out the sandpaper again.

IMO, even though I own an edge pro I think that if need be people could use the sharpmaker + sandpaper to sharpen just about any knife there is. Very versatile system. :)
 
au5t3n5 said:
i'm pretty sure most stock ones are 154cm. in the past it might have been 440... i think you can get other steels such as d2 with the customizable options on the benchmade site and some runs have been done with better steels such as m390.
Click to expand...

Make that "440C". Benchmade has never made anything with no-name "440"
 
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