Sharp Maker may retire my Wicked Edge

[fan of fanboys]

The white set that came as standard with the SharpMaker - yes fan of fanboys, the Spyderco Tri-Angle Sharpmaker 204MF - will get your new Spyderco knives very very sharp - more than most people can stand. Your arm hairs fall away and bleeding is ever so easy .

i don't own any spyderco knives. would be for my sebenza 21 and my kitchen knives and my skinning knife.

but that still answers my question. thanks!

 

[fan of fanboys]

is the sharpmaker better to buy and use than the ken onion worksharp?

 

[bh49]

When you have a new spyderco with a factory edge thats never been sharpened maybe used very lightly. What stones are best to use to just touch up the edge or if i want to make the factory edge even sharper?

There is no simple answer to your question. All depends on condition of your knife and what do you want to do with knife. If you used your knife lightly to open several envelopes and using your knife mostly for push-cuts, just use flats of white and than Uf stones. If you used your knife lightly to brake down several cardboard boxes and would like to have toothy edge you will need to use medium. I usually test the knife. If it can push cut a printer paper and I want something better - fine rods, if it doesn't - medium. For last couple years I seldom using fine, mostly on my kitchen knives. medium rods, which are about 600 grit are giving me a good edge for most of use and if you use light strokes, the blade will shave.

i was looking at the worksharp ken onion but the tri-angle is $100 less. love to pocket that money if same or better experience with tri-angle sharpmaker

Sharpmaker will not give you, what worksharp can and opposite. Even with diamond rods repairs and reprofiling will take much longer than worksharp, but nothing can beat sharpmaker at touch-ups.
You can use sharpmaker to sharpen knives of any brand as long as edge less than 40 degrees, otherwise you will need to reprofile first.

 

[MTS49]

I enjoy using the Sharpmaker, but for me there was a learning curve. I'm no sharpening expert, but with a little practice I have been able to get some really nice edges.

I can confirm everyone's statements about reprofiling, it's a challenge especially if you don't have a EP/WE fixed angle system. If the sharpie test shows that you are not hitting the edge, then you are in for some work to get the back bevel knocked down. For me, instead of the diamond or CBN rods, I got some Congress Moldmasters in 240 and 400 (...IIRC...) and affix them to the flats of the medium rods. So far I have only done a Flash 2 in Aus8, but it worked really well. CPM S30/90/110V/others could really still take a while I would imagine. But if you don't have the space, money, or desire to buy one of the fixed systems, I think it's a decent work around. Especially for $15-20 in MM or Ruby stones.