Sharpener said my Spiderco Delica VG10 is cheap steel & hard to sharpen

It is astounding to me that we have not seen a single picture of the said knife yet after 8 pages.

C calldoug
Would you post a pic or a link to the pic, please?
Or I can help doing it if you send a message to me.
 
Fixall said:
Sounded to me like the sharpener was using a bench grinder or something similar. Do ya think careless sharpening could be causing the steel to overheat, ruining the heat treat and causing a “chippy” blade?
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Good point, I was thinking of overlapping wheels and not one on each side.

So the question is, was there a shower of sparks?
 
Rhinoknives1 said:
My Custom Culinary knives have a asymmetrical edge. Most Japanese knives are sharpened this way and not on a sharp maker... I deliver and sharpen my own culinary knives with a 40-60 or 30-70 edge depending on the knife. You want the shorter side on the inside of the body. Chisel ground Sashimi knives are the same.. you want the tall side of the edge on the outside of the body. There are lefty & righty Chisel ground knives even if Ernie hasn’t figured this out yet!!
You are incorrect! Cutco are 440A Steel, ———not VG-10.....
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You are correct I meant my Shun Chef's knife.
 
herisson said:
P ponykid : you mean the Sharpmaker won't do (half or more) of the job for you ? That's right, it's very near to free hand sharpening. To reprofile an edge (and many factory edges need to be reprofiled, at least in my book) you are better off with a Lansky guided sharpener (at least for mid sized blades). Or a belt grinder, but this one will allow very few errors...
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Yes I use a clamp system. I have maybe 3 different brands and none are great but I cant afford to invest in a nice one. amd with the clamp systems I dont think one knife I have bought has been the same angle as whats available on the handheld clamping systems I know the Sharpmaker is more a touch up device but even when watching videos I don't see how a person can consistently hold that same angle on each side let alone repeat it again down the road. just seems like using a plain flat stone would be more consistent and easier to replicate?
 
Rhinoknives1 said:
My Custom Culinary knives have a asymmetrical edge. Most Japanese knives are sharpened this way and not on a sharp maker... I deliver and sharpen my own culinary knives with a 40-60 or 30-70 edge depending on the knife. You want the shorter side on the inside of the body. Chisel ground Sashimi knives are the same.. you want the tall side of the edge on the outside of the body. There are lefty & righty Chisel ground knives even if Ernie hasn’t figured this out yet!!
You are incorrect! Cutco are 440A Steel, ———not VG-10.....
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yeah I don't think these makers are trying to achieve asymmetrical edge grinds intentionally
I understand the idea but these are on knives geared more towards self defense not kitchen knives.
 
Rupestris said:
I'd like to know which custom makers are setting there bevels with a sharpmaker so I can avoid buying from them. They probably put the primary grinds in with an angle grinder and shape the handles with a hatchet too.

My daily carry for the past ten years has been a Spyderco in VG10.

If every knife I owned was VG10, I would not be disappointed.
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One is a maker who is known for Karambit style knives. I spent a good deal of money (for me) on a HAK with a curved blade. when I got it it was not really sharp and edge bevels were different. when I asked him what he used he said a sharpmaker. I returned it to him to fix and after 2 weeks it came back a little sharper with same edge bevels he didn't change them at all. He gets 300-500+ for his Karambits

another is a maker probably less known but still well known and every knife I have received form him (probably 6 over 5 years) has had edge bevels that were different and I had to "fix" them to the best of my ability. he makes a style that cant be found anywhere else otherwise I would not have been a rpeat customer. but his quality is declining and he is one of those "custom" makers who is now selling his name to production facilities and also lying about his logo means it was made with his hands
 
marcinek said:
Actually, the fine rods on a Sharpmaker, designed for VG10 Spydercos, are ceramic. Like the bottom of a coffee mug. So you could easily touch up VG10 on a coffee mug (or the fine rods of a Sharpmaker).

And VG10 is not hard to sharpen at all compared to more recent "super steels."
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Technically ceramic, yes, but a radically different kind. The stoneware of a mug can vary significantly in composition, but essentially the chief abrasive in stoneware clay is quartz, like in most natural stones, and so is only just barely harder than fully hardened low-alloy carbon steel. Meanwhile, the ceramic of the sharpmaker rods is sintered aluminum oxide, and contains no binders. Instead, it's nothing but high-purity alumina (typically in the 3µ range) fused by incredible heat and pressure. So it's both made of a much harder abrasive, and fused by a different (and more technically challenging) method.
 
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I've never had a problem sharpening any of my knives so far with my Sharpmaker. Back in 2002, I reprofiled my brand new large regular Sebenza (S30V) using only my SM. The knife came super-dull, and I wanted to take on the project myself, but SLOWLY so as not to risk messing up the blade by incorrectly removing too much metal at any one time. Yes, it went slowly; I worked at it here and there, on and off for a good while, but I eventually worked the shoulders down at 15 DPS and finished at 20 DPS, using the darker rods. Later, I also reprofiled a NIB Bemchmade Stryker (ATS-34) that also came dull in the same manner.

Would I recommend the SM as the best tool for reprofiling a blade? No. But in those instances, it worked for me. Like I mentioned, I wanted to go gradually so as not to do something I might regret. For normal resharpening, so far my SM has worked just fine for:

VG-10
S30V
S35VN
440A
440C
420HC
H1
X50 (Victorinox steel)
ATS-34
154CM
Gin-1 (G-2)
AUS-8
AUS-6
Old Schrade carbon steel
I believe there's others as well...

...and I'm not some sharpening master or guru, either. If I wanted to touch up an edge that isn't exactly 15 or 20 DPS, I simply matched the edge bevel angle to the rod by sight or by feel (so far, I haven't needed to use the magic marker method), or held a rod freehand.

There are 3 steels in knives I own that I haven't used the SM on yet, and those are:

CTS-XHP (I haven't used my knives in that steel enough to need to, though I am confident that I can do it when the time comes);

LC200N (also haven't used enough yet, but have full confidence resharpening will be easy);

S110V (which, TBH, I'm actually a bit concerned *might* present a problem to resharpen, though I haven't used my S110V Military enough to need it).

Jim
 
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There's no doubt that there's an art to freehand sharpening. The Sharpmaker lets you hold the knife as if you were cutting as you make the strokes but you still need to be able to feel the connection between the existing bevel and the stone.

I can't paint portraits or play any musical instrument short of a cowbell but I can sharpen knives so I'm happy.
 
calldoug said:
Spiderco Delica VG-10
Question; Is Vg-10 cheap Japanese steel

The knife sharpening guy ( does it every day ) who sharpened knife said its cheap japanese steel and that's the best I can do. ( note others tried to sharpen this knife before)
I got very upset and said this is VG-10 do you even know what that is?
He said I sure do its cheap Japanese steel and hard to sharpen and that's about as sharp as you will get it.
Im starting to think he is right.
I bought this new and paid a lot for it thinking I had some great amazing lifetime knife.
I just bought a knife for ten dollars that is much sharper than this.
I also sharpened it on my expensive Spiderco sharpener and could never get it very sharp.
I have aus 8 cold steel knives and $15 high carbon Opinel steel knives that are MUCH sharper than this, actually some are razor sharp.
I am pretty upset, this knife was like $70 or so.
So please tell me what you think.
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I'm sure you have your answer by now, but if not I would be glad to get your knife razor sharp for you if you are willing to pay for the shipping.
 
miso2 said:
It is astounding to me that we have not seen a single picture of the said knife yet after 8 pages.

C calldoug
Would you post a pic or a link to the pic, please?
Or I can help doing it if you send a message to me.
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Please send message to me and I will reply or email pictures. Tried twice and was having trouble, thanks
 
Your "sharpening guy" is clueless.

If he can't sharpen VG10, he's incompetent.
 
UPDATE from Original poster:
Images of my Delica VG-10

here are the links or images to my VG-10
If this is not right I hope someone can fix them
there are like 5-6 Images

I hope one of these works for the images
I spent a while doing this



https://imgur.com/a/dFMiR28
 
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