Hi, I'm fairly new to knives and a complete newbie to sharpening. I've been looking at sharpening systems and have decided on either the DMT dialfold magna guide or the spyderco sharpmaker, and was hoping to get some second opinions on these two systems and which one you prefer. Any help would be much appreciated!
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New to Sharpening
- Thread starter lulwut.
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I have made my own sharpner my self.
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If at all feasible, I'd get both. Use the DMT for reprofiling/fixing damage and the SM for touchups. Since the SM only allows for 30* and 40* included angles, you'll have to reprofile many factory edges (which tend to be more obtuse) to fit one of those angles. The DMT would be good for doing this.
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That'll handle touch-ups easily. Either with the guide, or freehand if/when you wish to pursue that down the road. If you do use the Aligner or Magna-Guide (for Dia-Folds), I would recommend a coarse or XC hone also, if you ever need to do some heavier grinding or re-bevelling.
Both of the systems are useful, for completely different reasons. But I do believe the DMT system is more versatile overall.
The DMT system, as mentioned, is much better for re-bevelling jobs, for several reasons. First, diamond hones will remove steel much more quickly than the ceramics of the Sharpmaker. This becomes hugely apparent, the bigger and thicker the blade becomes. The second advantage is the guide, which obviously makes re-setting a bevel on a blade much more consistent and accurate. The third advantage is the availability of a full range of grit choices in the hones, from XC through EEF. A fourth advantage is a great one: the clamp can be used with any bench hone as well, so you're not limited to just the dedicated hones with the Aligner/Magna-Guide system.
The Sharpmaker is great, after the blade has a good bevel on it. For daily/occasional touch-ups, it's about as easy & convenient a system you'll ever find. The downside to using ceramics, on any system, is that they won't remove steel quickly, and extended sharpening sessions will load up the ceramic with steel swarf, which makes them even less aggressive. For this reason, it's much more important to make sure the ceramic stays relatively clean. There are some diamond 'sleeves' available for the Sharpmaker, which add some aggressiveness. But, it's just the one grit choice, and it's still relatively 'fine' as compared to other diamond hones. They're also pretty expensive, for what you get. IF you don't have any plans to do heavy re-bevelling on your knives, and if they already have some decent bevels on them, the Sharpmaker might be all you'll need. That's provided you don't fall behind on touch-ups and let them get too dull, after which you'll begin to notice the limitations of the system.
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I agree with David. If you can only get one, go with the DMT. I suggested getting both just because crock stick style sharpeners like the SM are so darn handy for touchups, but the DMT will work fine in that capacity as well.
Welcome to the forum. These kinds of questions come up all the time. The problem, most of the time, is that the person asking which kind of sharpening system to buy typically doesn't know how to sharpen a knife. If you know what you're doing, all of these sharpening systems will work. If you don't -- well, they're are not magic.
The first step is not to buy a system but to take the time to understand how an edge gets sharp, which in simple terms means learning how to raise and remove a burr along the entire length of the edge. Both sides. Much of this means learning how to match the stone angle to the edge angle or reprofiling (grinding down the edge until the edge angle does meet the stone angle).
Lets say you buy a Sharpmaker, an excellent system, and your knife edge is 30 degrees inclusive (15 on each side) from the factory. You sharpen it at the 30-degree setting and your edge will get sharp, with any skill at all on your part, because the edge angle meets the stone angle. If you use the 40-degree setting, it will get sharp even faster, because you're creating a micro bevel. (See Sodak's sticky).
You could still get in trouble because your edge was very dull and you didn't sharpen long enough to raise a burr. Or your edge would quickly degrade because you didd't remove the burr.
But what if you try to sharpen a nice Benchmade with a 50-degree edge. You're not likely to ever sharpen that knife because you'll just be grinding away at the shoulders of the edge, not the apex. Then you'll swear and say the Sharpmaker is junk, which it isn't.
So the first step before you buy a sharpening system is to invest in yourself: learn the theory of sharpening. After that, the question of what sharpening system you want will answer itself.
The first step is not to buy a system but to take the time to understand how an edge gets sharp, which in simple terms means learning how to raise and remove a burr along the entire length of the edge. Both sides. Much of this means learning how to match the stone angle to the edge angle or reprofiling (grinding down the edge until the edge angle does meet the stone angle).
Lets say you buy a Sharpmaker, an excellent system, and your knife edge is 30 degrees inclusive (15 on each side) from the factory. You sharpen it at the 30-degree setting and your edge will get sharp, with any skill at all on your part, because the edge angle meets the stone angle. If you use the 40-degree setting, it will get sharp even faster, because you're creating a micro bevel. (See Sodak's sticky).
You could still get in trouble because your edge was very dull and you didn't sharpen long enough to raise a burr. Or your edge would quickly degrade because you didd't remove the burr.
But what if you try to sharpen a nice Benchmade with a 50-degree edge. You're not likely to ever sharpen that knife because you'll just be grinding away at the shoulders of the edge, not the apex. Then you'll swear and say the Sharpmaker is junk, which it isn't.
So the first step before you buy a sharpening system is to invest in yourself: learn the theory of sharpening. After that, the question of what sharpening system you want will answer itself.
Thank you for all the help and advice. I've decided to go with the DMT system because it is more versatile and I'll be able to freehand with it once I've gotten better at sharpening an edge. I've really appreciated all the help! And Twindog it seem like you were right about the question answering itself because the more I learned from the posts in this thread and reading around the internet, the DMT system kept looking like the better and better choice haha.