New Spyderco sharpmaker WHY WONT MY KNIFE GET SHARP?

M

Matt Morrow

Joined
Aug 10, 2013
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Hello blade fourms i recently purchased a sharpmaker and i cannot get my knife push cutting sharp for the life of me! I have watched the video and have sharpened and re sharpened four times and still not a decent edge. Spyderco claims you can get a push cutting hair shaving edge after doing twenty strokes of all the angles. What am i doing wrong i`m following the DVD exactly? I am using (sadly) 440A steel.
 
I have had difficulty with lower end steels as well, perhaps you are using too much pressure. With a steel like that you need to be very gentle or you will get no where. Try coating the edge with sharpie to see where the rods are contacting the edge your angle may be too obtuse for the pre set angles. Also, the 20 per side is just a suggestion, you may have to do more or less depending on the knife. good luck - Stanley
 
dopenerd said:
I found the same thing. try a worksharp .it works fast
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Check out the guy's lovely results in the other thread, in regards to his worksharp. He managed to burn up some Elmax knives. Nice.

Matt, I can get edges with mine, as well as many others here, that are scary crazy sharp. First thing you need to do, is sharpie the edge. This will tell you after about 6 or 8 strokes, where you are hitting on the edge. My guess, is that you are not hitting the edge, but rather the shoulders. This being the case, you will need to reprofile the edge. Or in other words thin it down some, to where the SM stones will reach it. This has to be done on a flat stone of some sort. Something like a cheap $5 Norton from Home Depot will work fine. But then you are into freehand sharpening. The other common mistake, is that people do not hold their knives completely vertical, throughout the stroke, which leads to exactly nothing. No sharpening action going on there. I will promise, that if you do it right, you will get the edge you are after. Good luck sir.
 
Did you break in the rods by rubbing them with a kitchen scrubby and some cleanser? I like Bartenders Friend kitchen cleanser for the tough jobs.

The rods are sometimes a little slick when first manufactured and you need to remove that slickness which is almost like a coating on them. Once removed they give a much better bite to the steel. You can hear and feel the difference.

Then I would work on kitchen knives and sharpen until you get them sharp. Then go to your really good knives. Tape the blade with blue painters tape so you don't scratch them accidentally. Then put black ink on the edge with a Sharpie as mentioned previously. If you are following the Sharpmaker instructions you will have a 30 degree back bevel and a 40 degree primary edge bevel.

I have sharp knives and I never obsess about push cutting as I'm using my knives for cutting things other than hair. For that I have a razor with a very very fine thin edge. But a razor is not a knife and sometimes folks tend to confuse the two. They get their knife razor sharp but are then disappointed when it dulls quickly after just a few cuts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB0r6GvESGg
 
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Watch the video where Sal "breaks in" the new stones, this helped me a lot when my SM was brand new.
 
Sharpmaker stones are set at specific angles. It's quite possible that your knife doesn't yet have those same angles. If so, 20-60 strokes on the medium stones might not remove enough metal to match those angles yet. Until the angles do match, there is no sharpening happening to the edge, only rubbing above it. Once the angles DO match, then 20-30 strokes per side on 440 steel will result in a very nice edge, and the Sharpmaker is a good tool for maintaining your knife. But first you gotta do the grunt work... Sit down with the medium stone and start scrubbing. Don't bother switching sides. (Actually, many Sharpmaker users purchase the diamond stones for this as it turns it into a 5-10 minute job instead of 30 minutes.) Coat the bevel (only) with a black marker. Keep the blade vertical, and don't use much pressure at all. Once the angles match, the stone will remove that marker letting you know that it's time to switch to the other side. Once you have matched the angles, do your 20-30 switching strokes, then move to the fine stone for another set of 20-30. You should wind up with the edge you wanted.

Stitchawl
 
I can almost guarantee that you're hitting the shoulder and not the edge. The sharpmaker is a fantastic tool for keeping your knives sharp, but it's really not very good for restoring a super dull blade. You might try the diamond stones for that. I haven't used them.
 
Fanglekai said:
I can almost guarantee that you're hitting the shoulder and not the edge. The sharpmaker is a fantastic tool for keeping your knives sharp, but it's really not very good for restoring a super dull blade. You might try the diamond stones for that. I haven't used them.
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Agree with this.
 
I used the diamond sharpmaker stones to reprofile a FHM Balisong that had a >40 degree edge as received so the regular stones never touched the edge..
 
I was having a hard time getting a sharp edge with the sharpmaker also. I returned it and got a wicked edge. That solved the problem!
 
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