Reprofiling and a sharpmaker

J

johncm

Joined
Mar 19, 2007
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Hey guys I got a sharpmaker a while back to use to sharpen my endura as well as a variety of other knives and things in the house. Since then I've been reading some and realized that the sharpmaker is painfully slow if you're starting with a blade that needs reprofiling. I was able to put a 30 degree inclusive edge back on endura fairly easily (although I still need some work). But have worked forever on a bowie knife I have. The magic marker is showing me its working, but its just slow.

What should I be looking at to make this process a little easier? Would I just lay one of these stones up against my sharpmaker rods and go to town? http://www.knifeworks.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=5185 Would I lose the ability to do serrated edges or could I still use a corner carefully?

I feel like I jumped into my sharpmaker without doing sufficient research and wound up with an incomplete system. I figured this time I'll ask the experts what I need and who to get it from before I order it that way I get everything I need. :D
 
See my thread "Sharpening a big recurve" read the advice of Native Justice. Should work for you, too. Also, the Sharpmaker is an excellent sharpening device and garners tons of praise around here, but it isn't great for re-profiling. They do sell diamond sleeves also, and those should work great for folders.
 
I guess the diamond rods would work, but if you sharpen a lot of knives, to keep your sanity , get an Edge Pro as I did and use course stone to get job done quickly.

I have a simple system, Edge Pro to reprofile, Sharpmaker to maintain. After you have the profile you want, it's rare you will need to reprofile again.
 
I have found that for reprofiling don't waste your money on the diamond rods, got to Ace hardware and buy the adhesive backed sand paper (for the palm sanders and such) cut the rectangles into stips, then just stick those to the rods. If you use good sandpaper it goes quickly and only cost a few bucks.
 
Ya, the diamond rods work but they're expensive, and I find I sometimes get impatient and start stripping off the diamonds with too much pressure.

I've tried a couple of things. First, I bought an DMT X-coarse (not coarse -- extra coarse!) 6"x2" stone and leaned it up against the spyderco stone. Yes, this too is very expensive, but the coarseness and size of the DMT makes it a more robust solution. I've also used very coarse sandpaper ala mog's advice above. The paper strips fast but it also sharpens fast, and it's cheap. Mog, did you find that loose sand granules can scratch up the blade a bit? I did. No problem for a working knife, but I'm be tempted to using masking tape to guard the finish of a blade whose appearance I cared more about.
 
i use emory cloth instead of sandpaper myself, less loose dust, i use rubber bands to hold the stuff on the rods, or tape, works great.

i have some spyderco diamond rods and they work great but are imho too expensive, i dont reprofile enough to make them worth it, and thats really all i use them for.
 
I use the DMT XX coarse (and have used the X coarse, also very good, at reprofiling, but the XX coarse is amazing) for my HD reprofiling. It powers through any steel in quick order, and is similar in price to the diamond rods. You can lean it against the rods for angle control, or do like I do and prop it up and use an angle reader to measure what angle from horizontal you are at. I use that technique with all of my benchstones to maintain my angle to good effect.

Mike
 
Joe Talmadge said:
I wasn't even aware there was an xx coarse! Now I'll have to hunt it down
Click to expand...

Thom Brogan talked me into it, and I thank him in my mind every time I reprofile. The fabled D8XX is a great stone. It goes through S30V or ZDP-189 like they are butter. It only took a couple minutes to bring a VG-10 Native 3 from 15 per side to 10 per side, it is much faster than the X coarse. I usually try to get the last bit of reprofiling down to the last bit of the edge with the DMT fine to avoid the huge micro serrations you get from the XX coarse finish when it hits the edge.

Mike
 
I use 220 and 320 wet/dry clipped to one of the triangle stones. You can use a clothespin or a binder clip, but I use small spring clips like you'd find in a woodworking mag. Cut the wet/dry into about 2" strips and make sure you press down hard on a flat surface when wrapping the paper around the corners. Squeeze it tight when clipping, taping, or rubber-banding to keep the face taught. This keeps the paper tight against the face of the stone so you have a nice flat edge to hone on.

I grind for so many strokes on one side then pull the rod out and set into the opposite hole to do the other side. Back and forth I go. For 154CM or S30V it's (relatively) quick and painless. For D2, it takes a little longer. Then I go to the brown (or grey) rods.

You're not "reprofiling". You're "re-grinding" the edge or "re=beveling" the edge. (Thanks Cliff Stamp or Bill Deshivs...whichever corrected me once)

Re-beveling an edge takes me about 1/2 hour, including set-up time, sandpaper replacement when needed, and final honing. I've re-beveled the edges on four knives now.
 
Also, I've been rebeveling at about 12-1/2 degrees, then honing a micro-bevel at either 15 degrees or 20 degrees (depending on steel). 20 deg for D2, 15 for the others. Don;t ask me why... I don;t understand the technicalities or the science of steels. 20deg seems to give me a better edge on D2, a steeper angle works better for me on 143CM, S30V, A2, and 440C.

If you cut a spacer block about 5-1/2" x 5/8 x 1/4" thick (I used a scrap piece of white oak - I have tons of it), and set it right under the end (and swap it when you swap your triangle rod), it'll give you about a 12-1/2 deg bevel. You can use a protractor to get it right where you want it, then mark or remember the spot.

Take a small dish of water and dip your finger in it, then run it up and down the wet/dry every so often. That'll help keep the slurry moving and (I think) give faster results. Start with 320 or 440 before getting frustrated and hacking away with 220 grit. From 320 or 440, you can go straight to your medium triangle rods without skipping too many grades and still get a nice edge.

One more thing.... I remove the spacer block and use the 15 or 20 degree Sharpmaker settings when I finish with the sandpaper. It's up to you, of course, but I don;t try to shine up the primary bevel with the rods, I go straight to the micro-bevel with them.
 
the guys are right about using the D8XX dmt stone. it tears off steel like nothing else and yeah.. i do lean it on my sharpmaker stones to get set the angle but i also block it up in a jig sometimes horizontally so you can use both hands on the blade as you push the blade into the stone and a protractor to set the angle. you need to move to a medium.. then fine or superfine diamond hone to remove the deep scratches the extra course stone leaves though but it works really fast.
 
I absolutely love the D8XX. I got one for 2 reasons: to see just how fast it would reprofile and edge, and to use as a lapping plate for my edge pro stones. But once I started using it I stopped using my edge pro....
 
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