Last night I tried to sharpen my new Endura 4 ZDP-189 to 15°. The manufacturer's bevel angle was >15°, as the Sharpmaker rods touched only the shoulders of the bevels, not the apex. The steel was way too tough to reprofile with the brown rods. Though I do have Congress tool ruby rods 320 grit which would have done the reprofiling quickly, they leave a few striations at the shoulders, a cosmetic issue I wanted to avoid.
Using the KME with the spherical rod guide mounted upside down and the knife held near the spine (narrow blade) I did get 13-14° as measured on an inclinometer. I went through the grits from 100 to 1500. Only after removing the blade from the jaws did I realize I had not reached the apex on one bevel. I had used the Sharpie, but the trace remnant at the edge was obscured by the metal chaff and not seen by my weak eyes. A resharpening was less successful. 15° on a narrow blade is difficult as the wings of the plastic knob just behind the jaws prevent a full stroke of the stone, at least on one side. Also, the u-shaped metal fixture that holds and clamps the jaws interferes and gets abraded by the stone at this low angle. The bump-and-grind of this second attempt caused the blade to shift in the clamp (despite tape on the spine), and you know the rest...
I'm going to find a round plastic knob of a smaller diameter to replace the clamping knob, but I don't know what to do about the jaw itself. I don't think the pen knife jaws address my difficulty, as the problem at this low angle is not the jaws but the u-shaped fixture holding them.
Having screwed the appearance of the blade, I'll use the Congress rods today and at least get a 15° bevel to smooth with the Sharpmaker.
ZDP-189 is a beast in my limited acquaintance. I ended the night with a reasonable 20° microbevel, smoothed as well as I could. It still caught on paper (chips or wire edge remnant?) but would probably saw through cardboard forever.
Has anyone dealt with this clamping issue and made a successful workaround?
Please forgive this long recounting of my abysmal adventure.
Using the KME with the spherical rod guide mounted upside down and the knife held near the spine (narrow blade) I did get 13-14° as measured on an inclinometer. I went through the grits from 100 to 1500. Only after removing the blade from the jaws did I realize I had not reached the apex on one bevel. I had used the Sharpie, but the trace remnant at the edge was obscured by the metal chaff and not seen by my weak eyes. A resharpening was less successful. 15° on a narrow blade is difficult as the wings of the plastic knob just behind the jaws prevent a full stroke of the stone, at least on one side. Also, the u-shaped metal fixture that holds and clamps the jaws interferes and gets abraded by the stone at this low angle. The bump-and-grind of this second attempt caused the blade to shift in the clamp (despite tape on the spine), and you know the rest...
I'm going to find a round plastic knob of a smaller diameter to replace the clamping knob, but I don't know what to do about the jaw itself. I don't think the pen knife jaws address my difficulty, as the problem at this low angle is not the jaws but the u-shaped fixture holding them.
Having screwed the appearance of the blade, I'll use the Congress rods today and at least get a 15° bevel to smooth with the Sharpmaker.
ZDP-189 is a beast in my limited acquaintance. I ended the night with a reasonable 20° microbevel, smoothed as well as I could. It still caught on paper (chips or wire edge remnant?) but would probably saw through cardboard forever.
Has anyone dealt with this clamping issue and made a successful workaround?
Please forgive this long recounting of my abysmal adventure.
Last edited:
