Moving away from the sharpmaker.

4

4Dsteel

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Jun 8, 2007
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I have used my Spyderco Sharp maker for a while. I get ok results with it, I just can never seem to get a razor sharp edge or well even close to it. I just always end up rounding the edges. I( also have the Spyderco 303m which I carry in my bag, This does ok but its really small and I have big hands so I need to hold it suspended from my thumb to pointer finger.
This really isn't productive and its very unnatural.

So id like a bigger stone, but I don't know how big the spyderco bench stones are, and they seem pretty expensive. I was looking at Norton stones also

Any recommendations.


also when you sharpen with a bigger stone, do you hold the stone in hand, or sit it in the table.
 
Can you get it to where your blades will "POP" hairs off your arm?
 
have you considered a different way to sharpen knives? i use a set of cardboard wheels to sharpen my knives with. it only takes a few minutes to sharpen a knife with these wheels. i have been sharpening knives for about 24years and have used a sharpener similar to lansky called an ez sharp and ceramic sticks which i did use to finish up my edge with. after learning how to use these wheels, i gave my ez sharp away. if someone tried to take my wheels, they would be pulling back stumps, lol. there are cheaper wheels but thats exactly what they are. here is the link to the origonal wheels if you want to check them out. www.sharpeningwheels.com feel free to email me if you have any questions.
 
moving-van.jpg
 
I would suggest trying the sharpie method. Take a sharpie and mark the edge of your blade. When you bring it to the stones, do a few light strokes. It should remove the marker from the very edge of the blade. If it does, than we know you are actually sharpeing the edge. If the only marks are removed are not at edge of the blade, than you would be removing the bevel.

Have you tried to back bevel the knife at the 30 setting, than sharpeing it at the 40? It sounds to me that you are hitting the bevel and not the edge of the blade. I had the same problem for the longest time on my MOD CQD MARK II but once I removed some of the bevel, I could finally get that thing sharp.

Here is a picture that I found floating around the site. This should help explain why you aren't getting an edge.




You want to be doing the first picture, which will give you a micro bevel. You probally are currently doing the 2nd picture, just hitting the bevel. You are going to need to do the 3rd picture and remove some of the bevel (do this at the 30 setting).

Once you do the 3rd picture, go back and do the first picture at the 40 setting and you should be good to go.
 
If you are not getting results with the sharpmaker, unless you are doing something terribly wrong, you are not hitting the edge. The angle must be fatter than 40 degrees. You will need to reprofile before the preset angles on the sharpmaker will be effective.
 
I'm terrible at feehand sharpening and don't know much about knives and such, but I have tremendous luck with my DMT guided sharpener. It has much smaller stones than you are looking at but they are quite effective. Mine came with extra coarse, coarse, fine, and extra fine diamond stones, but I think the best they offer now only has three stones and you can buy a fourth to go with it for about fifteen dollars. My edges shave a very clean streak down my arm and I don't bother stropping.
 
Sharpmaker sux, for some of us. I also get an ok edge - or at least, my EYE Brand knife slices through cardboard boxes ok. It cuts hair, but I wouldn't call it shaving. (Yes, it does need reprofiling and, now that I think of it, I should long ago have glued some waterpaper around the stones.) The right side stone is loose, so I don't know what angle it is. And it wants to round off the tip. I find it works better if I push the blade forward. And I liked it better when I used the stones flat in the base to sharpen a cheapo 6" kitchen knife. .....gee, it's nice thinking aloud :D - maybe I should try freehand with stones. It'd feel a lot better than those ceramics.
 
You people and your "Kits"... whatever happened to being a kid with a file and a pocket stone? I'd be one of those, and i can shave my legs after about a minuet with my trusty pocket stone. So why spend your money on a "sharp maker" when you can go down to the hardware store and pick up a full sharpening stone (about 6 bucks) or a regular little pocket stone (about 3 bucks)? If your edge is REALLY that bad, just go pick up a file (about 8 bucks at TrueValue) and file down your edge to whatever you want, then finish with a stone. I'm telling you, SHAVING SHARP in no-time.

(Oh, and if you have big hands, then you should get a bigger stone, the pocket stone is about 2 and a half inches long by 3 quarter inch wide by a quarter inch deep.... so big hands dont work to well...)

Keepin it simple ;)

~ King Gimpicus ~
 
I don't know what knives you are talking about. You can not, and even if you could, you should not file a knife edge/blade down on a modern knife steel. Yes, on an axe, that is possible, but not on a knife. Yes, it is the recommended finish on a traditional bread slicer, but that is a pretty special application. Your edges will always be inferior.

For those, who knock the Sharpmaker, without having tried one: I suggest you try one first or maybe you go and challenge WadeF to a little sharpness competition (do a search) if you think you can easily beat the Sharpmaker.

I think it has been mentioned in nearly every thread about the sharpmaker: The Sharpmaker alone is not enough. You need a coarser abrasive that will reduce a thick edge. I have always recommended an X-coarse DMT stone (they are very affordable at 6") and you can lean it against the rods. On a properly thin edge I have yet to see someone struggle with a Sharpmaker. A bit of wobble in the rod position is completely irrelevant.

You are not doing yourself a favor to go with something else when the Sharpmaker is not working. It means simply that you are sharpening at a steeper angle than the Sharpmaker is set at, which means you are never going to get the cutting ability that you should be seeing on you knife. The 20 deg. of the Sharpmaker should be really considered to be the maxium angle that you sensibly put on any knife. 20-25 deg. per side is an angle that most professionals recomment for an axe (and some go even lower).

The Sharpmaker is not a guided jig and requires a bit of practice but with that you can prevent easily rounding over the tips.

Now, this is not knocking good old style freehanding. The advantage is that freehanding you have access to the largest selection of abrasives, and with a lot of care, you can beat the results of the Sharpmaker, but it is not easy. And truth to tell, the Spyderco ceramic rods are very good abrasives and a $5 Homedepot stone doesn't come close in quality to the Spyderco ceramics.
 
I've asked this question in another thread, but received no response.
Who set 40 degrees as the optimum angle for the Sharpmaker? Is 40 degrees the most common angle used on blades? Personally I prefer 30 degrees or less.
 
Dreamer,
Can't speak for everyone, but 40 degrees works best for my kitchen knives. They chip and roll too much at 30 degrees.

King G,
Most of my sharpening gear is just for fun. However, I'll say this for the SharpMaker "kit". It is very fast and efficient on my kitchen knives. When I have time to fool around I like to use my bench stones on them. When I just want to get them sharp without a lot of fuss, I use the SharpMaker.

Also, some folks prefer not to scratch up their knives learning to use bench stones. For them the SharpMaker is a reasonable alternative.

Each to his own.
 
Dreamer said:
Who set 40 degrees as the optimum angle for the Sharpmaker? Is 40 degrees the most common angle used on blades? Personally I prefer 30 degrees or less.
Click to expand...

matt321 said:
Can't speak for everyone, but 40 degrees works best for my kitchen knives. They chip and roll too much at 30 degrees.
Click to expand...


I agree with both of you.

Dreamer, remember that the Sharpmaker is sold to the world, not just to knuts. Most people who are going to use the sharpmaker will be sharpening knives that do not have premium steel. Matt321 is correct in his assessment that such steels will not hold up to use with a much narrower angle than 20° on a side. Sal says as much in his DVD that comes with the Sharpmaker. 20° on a side is optimal for standard steel.

For knuts with high grade steel blades, a 20° edge angle does not take advantage of the greater strength of the premium steel. So knuts tend to use 15° or less.

Knarf

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In God I trust.
All others bring data.
 
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