Newbie butchers 710HS on sharpmaker

C

cds1

Joined
Jan 24, 2004
Messages
237
Call me an idiot, if you will, but I neglected to follow the common sense approach of practicing on a less valuable, easier to sharpen knife first. I did my first sharpening attempt on a brand-new 710HS.

The instructions that came with the Sharpmaker seemed simple enough. Nevertheless, I wore the tip right off the knife, and ruined the factory edge instead of improving on it. I guess it's not as simple as it looks (or perhaps I should stick to my day job) :rolleyes: . No more sharpening expensive knives for me until I can get good results on some of my more "disposable" knives. I'll have to send that 710 out for some professional "rehabilitation".

Regards,
cds1
 
First of all, don't panic. We all achieve less than perfect results from time to time. Your problem is repairable -- send it to Benchmade and they will put a good edge back.

Second, practice on those old knives. It isn't hard, but it does take some learning. Make sure you have the knife held vertically on each stroke. Don't stroke all the way to the tip or you will round it off. Keep the pressure of the blade against the rods light but steady, don't push against them. I like to put the Sharpmaker on a kitchen counter, and stand up to sharpen, this way the work is at elbow height. Sitting down and reaching up slightly always made problems. Finishing up with stropping helps to break off any wire edge -- you may have a pretty good edge but that wire edge has to be removed to know it. I strop a few strokes each side on my shirt sleeve or pants leg. :)

Stay with it. Some day soon you'll be able to smile about all this, too.
 
This weekend I touched up a 710 I got in a trade recently, using the Sharpmaker. I've practiced on the kitchen knives quite a bit and I can raise a burr, wipe it off and generally get decent results. The 40 degree angle on the Sharpmaker seemed to be the better fit on the 710 (based on the black marker on the edge bevel-trick). However, one side of the blade sharpened up really nicely, but the other side was getting uneven contact with the rods (I used the brown/medium flats, followed by the white/fine angles). End result was fairly sharp, and the problem is probably that I hold the knife slightly differently when doing the two sides. I'm going to try Esav's suggestions next time.
 
Esav,
Very good recommendation about placing the device on a table or counter and standing to sharpen. It took me a few knives to figure that one out myself, but once I did, I can see the angle of the blade in relation to the rod much better and keep it constant much easier.
 
A couple of more suggestions that might help:

Hold the knife in a sabre grip, that is, with your thumb along the spine of the blade.

I find I control the vertical better when I hold the knife with the tip very slightly raised, with less tension on my wrist.

I also get a wider grind on one side than the other on most knives. This may be due to an asymmetrical original grind or it may just be that we are right- or left-handed and slightly tilting the knife. As long as each grind is even along its length, and not too far off the other side, it shouldn't matter.

I've come to prefer the 40 degree edge on working knives. The only time I use 30 degrees is on something like the Shabaria, which is a slicing blade with a thin hollow grind. I also like the 30 degrees as a back-bevel on a thick blade, after putting a 40 degree secondary bevel on it.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Don't stroke all the way to the tip or you will round it off... Keep the pressure of the blade against the rods light but steady, don't push against them...
Click to expand...

Those are probably the two biggest mistakes that I was making. I was stroking all the way to the tip, and I was also pressing very hard against the rods. I probably did way to many strokes as well, thinking that the M2 probably requires alot of pressure and alot of strokes to get sharp.

Thanks for the advice and encouragement.

Regards,
cds1
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Your problem is repairable -- send it to Benchmade and they will put a good edge back.
Click to expand...

:D You mean they will ruin the edge even worse? When I sent my Ares in to have its Omega springs repaired, they "sharpened" the edge for me as well. By "sharpened", I mean they took my wide, highly polished convex edge w/ a coarser hair-popping microbevel, and ground on a horrid excuse for an edge that I'd expect to see on a welder's chip hammer rather than a cutting tool. :barf: Took me an hour to fix it again.
 
the possum said:
:D You mean they will ruin the edge even worse? When I sent my Ares in to have its Omega springs repaired, they "sharpened" the edge for me as well. By "sharpened", I mean they took my wide, highly polished convex edge w/ a coarser hair-popping microbevel, and ground on a horrid excuse for an edge that I'd expect to see on a welder's chip hammer rather than a cutting tool. :barf: Took me an hour to fix it again.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... good point. The whole reason I was attempting to sharpen my brand-new 710HS is because the factory edge was hardly sharp. Maybe I should send it elsewhere to get a good edge put on it.
 
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