Shapmaker Ultra Fine?

BJE

BJE

Basic Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Messages
3,079
Is the Sharpmaker Ultra Fine worth getting, or does the Fine do an excellent job of making knives razor sharp already? How does the Fine rod of the Sharpmaker compare to the Extra Fine stone from my Lanksy? I will be sharpening some straight razors on the Sharpmaker when I get it, will the Fine rods do the job? Please respond soon, because I want to order my Sharpmaker as soon as possible.
P.S. Where is the cheapest place to find the Sharpmaker along with the Ultra Fine stones? I only want to pay one shipping charge?
Bonus Question: Is the 203 Sharpmaker for $20.00 shipped a good deal?
Super Bonus Question: How long do the medium rods last compared to the fine ones?
 
I don't know how they compare to the Lansky, but the UFs are a step up from the fine, when you use the flats, but the fine will already produce an edge that *easily* shaves.

How long do the medium stones last? Well, depends on how often you sharpen, but as long as you are not in a business where you use and sharpen your knifes professionally on a daily bases or are determined to reprofile many, many knives on a Sharpmaker, I would be surprised if you would wear the medium rods out within your lifetime (and that is not knowing how old your are). The fine and UF stones will last long since they are sintered closed pore....if that makes any differences :p .

I buy my stuff from www.newgraham.com. I don't even shop around. You might get the Sharpmaker a few bucks cheaper, but not much and newgraham is very, very reliable.

Personally, I wouldn't use a Sharpmaker for a straight razor at all. Its possible, but I prefer a softer medium (waterstone), in that regard the F and UF are the same, but I would imagine you have to strop less after honing when you use the UFs.
 
I've bought the ultra fine and the diamond rods for the Sharpmaker from Bestknives.com. The prices are very competitive with the other Internet vendors and the shipping is fast. I've placed several orders with this vendor in the past two weeks and I've been very satisfied with their great website ordering and fast shipping. They will also send you an email when they do ship. The turnaround time from order to shipping is way less than 24 hours and they will email you a delivery confirmation message when the order is shipped.

BTW, I've not yet used my rods since I've received them a few days ago so I cannot comment on your question comparing them with the Lansky stones. I ordered them just because I like to have all the options available to me when the need does arise. The Sharpmaker for me is for general sharpening jobs and I normally use my Edge Pro for knives that I want to stay at the factory edge angles.
 
I have the ultrafine rods, and they give you a more polished edge that can be further polished with a chromium oxide charged strop, as Ted suggests.

I got mine from New Graham. New Graham has never let me down, and if you go to the Good, the Bad and the Ugly forum, you'll see they have an outstanding reputation.

Knivesplus, another repputable dealer, sells a stropping block that's already charged with chromium oxide. I have one, and it works very well.
 
I wouldn't get an old Sharpmaker 203, they didn't have as good an angle selection as the current 204 model. I wouldn't sharpen straight razors on any kind of rod system. It is very easy to overstress the paper-thin edges on a razor. You sharpen a razor by laying it flat on a hone, so the V-assembly of a rod system is the wrong approach. The rods themselves are rather narrow for use to hone a razor, even if you lay the rods flat. It would be more reasonable to use a Spyderco ceramic bench hone for that purpose.

For most people the standard medium and fine rods that come with a Sharpmaker 204 do an excellent job. I am a sharpening nut so I bought a set of UF rods for an experiment. Much to my surprise I could get a distinctly sharper edge if I finished off on the UF rods. On the other hand I usually don't bother to use the UF rods for my everyday sharpening. The finish that I get with the fine rods leaves a very slight surface roughness that works well for practical cutting which tends to have some element of slicing action involved. If I am in a hurry even the finish left by the "medium" rods works very well.

For some stainless steel I don't find that chromium oxide stropping is very effective for me. I strop with submicron diamond dust when I want to be obsessive. I think that you would generally be better off with the UF rods. They don't cost all that much. It is easy to apply too much pressure during stropping and kind of round down your edge. You don't have that issue with the UF rods.
 
IIRC, the Sharpmaker video shows Sal Glesser sharpening a straight razor in the Sharpmaker. BUT, when he did it, he placed both white stones on the bottom of plastic stand, forming something akin to a flat benchstone.

When I first got the UF rods, I used them on most of my knives. I was impressed with how easily my knives would shave, split hairs, and push cut paper. But eventually I found that my cutting needs were best served with a knife finished on the regular fine or even the medium rods. YMMV.
 
KeithAM said:
IIRC, the Sharpmaker video shows Sal Glesser sharpening a straight razor in the Sharpmaker. BUT, when he did it, he placed both white stones on the bottom of plastic stand, forming something akin to a flat benchstone.
Click to expand...

That is what I mean to do, lay them flat, and use the rods like a standard bench stone. I watched the dvd, that is where I got the idea, but I didn't know how well they worked.
 
Sorry for the spelling error in my title. I mean Sharpmaker.
 
It has been a little while since I compared the UF rods against stropping with submicron diamond grit. One case comes to mind. Although many people find SAK's to be extremely sharp I haven't typically found that to be the case for a well worn blade. I have carried the Victorinox Adventurer model SAK for about the last 17 years. I think that I am on my 4th or 5th one at the moment. After they wear down a bit I have trouble getting a scary sharp shaving edge on them, even with decent low angle reprofiling. With a basic sharpmaker they shave, but they are more in the 440A or 425M class of sharpness rather than say an AUS-8 sort of edge. With the UF rods I get a distinctly nicer shaving edge. If I strop on .5 micron diamond dust I can slice free hanging toilet paper.
 
Jeff Clark said:
Although many people find SAK's to be extremely sharp I haven't typically found that to be the case for a well worn blade.
Click to expand...

Generally a lot of people will use sharp to simply mean cut well and the SAK blades are thinner than most modern tacticals. On your well worn SAK's do you typically run very acute angles?

-Cliff
 
well heres what i did. i bought a razor and a spydie UF benchstone. took off the particles that was sticking up on the stone surface (prolly around 100or so on each side, these are shiny tiny spots now) with a sm white rod. then made the corners of the stone a little more rounded (they are very sharp when new) first brown rod then white. and now the stone is ok for honing razors on, ive been told it will eventually get very very fine grit after some use.

i can shave with my razor right of the stone no problem, could be sharper tho. i dont really know how to hone these things yet nor strop them correctly.. i do my best. but still it shaves quite good.

my triangle rods are not completely flat or straight and using them as a benchstone is kinda ankward imo at least for a straight razor

depending on what knife im sharpening on the sm i usually go with the fine white, but on s30v im going to leave it at the brown ones to see how that works out in the future.

good luck with your sharpening :thumbup:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top