- Joined
- Jul 13, 2011
- Messages
- 2,090
I received a few more knives to sharpen today, and I decided to bust out the SharpMaker and have some fun. 
I remembered watching CrimsonTideShooter’s (jdavis882 on YouTube) excellent video demonstrating his SharpMaker technique a while ago and thinking that I would try it one day. Today seemed like a good day for a new project--and I wanted to spend more time with my new camcorder--so I videoed myself doing it. I believe that anyone who owns a SharpMaker should also own the diamond rods. They are not cheap, but they are worth it if you plan to use your SharpMaker to sharpen (and not just maintain). To that point, a common criticism of the SharpMaker system is that it is only good for maintaining edges. This is true if…
A) you only have the basic ceramic rods that came with the kit, and…
B) you use the SharpMaker the way Spyderco tells you to (one stroke per side).
If you buy the diamond rods and work a bevel at speed like a freehand stone, it can be used for much more... good enough for doing edge repair and reprofiling, all the way to refining and finishing. If you buy the ultrafine rods as a final step, too, then you’ve really got a pretty good system (but kind of expensive). I still prefer freehand sharpening. But you can take a knife with an obtuse factory edge that has been damaged and blunted and establish a clean new bevel with the SharpMaker.
Cheers,
Mag
==video might not be available yet. it was still processing when I posted this thread==
[youtube]jlUuKpX-z-o[/youtube]
I remembered watching CrimsonTideShooter’s (jdavis882 on YouTube) excellent video demonstrating his SharpMaker technique a while ago and thinking that I would try it one day. Today seemed like a good day for a new project--and I wanted to spend more time with my new camcorder--so I videoed myself doing it. I believe that anyone who owns a SharpMaker should also own the diamond rods. They are not cheap, but they are worth it if you plan to use your SharpMaker to sharpen (and not just maintain). To that point, a common criticism of the SharpMaker system is that it is only good for maintaining edges. This is true if…A) you only have the basic ceramic rods that came with the kit, and…
B) you use the SharpMaker the way Spyderco tells you to (one stroke per side).
If you buy the diamond rods and work a bevel at speed like a freehand stone, it can be used for much more... good enough for doing edge repair and reprofiling, all the way to refining and finishing. If you buy the ultrafine rods as a final step, too, then you’ve really got a pretty good system (but kind of expensive). I still prefer freehand sharpening. But you can take a knife with an obtuse factory edge that has been damaged and blunted and establish a clean new bevel with the SharpMaker.
Cheers,
Mag
==video might not be available yet. it was still processing when I posted this thread==
[youtube]jlUuKpX-z-o[/youtube]
I was sharpening pretty furiously, as you saw in the vid, but the Spyderco has its limitations. I've got a similar knife to do tonight, and I'm going to bust out the Naniwa Omura for that one. Hey, I'll make a vid! 