Question on using the Sharpmaker.

[sph3ric pyramid]

When you sharpen with the Sharpmaker, do you sharpen with the blade perpendicular to the base, or with the edge perpendicular to the base?

I recently acquired a Dodo, and I can't figure out which would be most effective.

It seems that if I sharpen with the edge perpendicular to the base, I'll get the most benefit out of the dropped point, as the edge will be contacting the material at a 90 deg. angle. But I remember some people saying otherwise.

 

[slices]

When all else fails , read the destructions
The blade is always supposed to be perpendicular to the base. If you start to change the angle of the blade, you'll lose your constant angle, which is what make the Sharpmaker work so well.
You CAN use just the tip of the triangular hone instead of the flat on a plain edge.
This works faster than the flats & is especially effective for recurved blades like the DoDo.
Just keep an eraser handy to clean the hones often cause they'll load up much faster than the flats..

If you can't get a knife to sharpen at the edge,(as determined by a magic marker),while holding it perpendicular to the base, then it needs to be reprofiled. But don't change from perpendicular.

 

[sph3ric pyramid]

I understand all the basics fine, as I've been using it as my main Sharpener for near two years. But my question is more on the edge geometry, and getting the best out of it through sharpening as I haven't ever really used a knife with a weird edge like this before.

It might be that there won't be any significant difference, but even a slight increase in usability is good.

 

[ColoradoDave]

If you want to maintain a consistent edge angle, then the edge at the point of contact with the Sharpmaker rod needs to be perpendicular, front-to-back relative to the base, throughout the sharpening "stroke." Any deviation, or failure to hold the blade perpendicularly left-to-right, will result an uneven/inconsistent or unknown edge angle.

With a sheepsfoot or Wharncliffe, for example, of course this would mean that you simply hold the blade perpendicular to the base (or horizontal) and keep it consistent while sharpening. With a drop point, or any other blade with a curve, I envision the tangent at different points on the curved part of the edge, and then attempt to keep the tangent horizontal where the blade is in contact with the rod. To the extent that you are unable to maintain this "front-to-back edge perpendicularity" (whew!) you wind up with a more obtuse edge angle ... which might not be so bad, in-and-of-itself, except for the fact that what's really happening is that your sharpening is inconsistent, and therefore slower, less predictable, and not repeatable.