Sharpening a Benchmade Skirmish

J

JReilly

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Apr 12, 2007
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So ive recently aquired a Benchmade Skirmish from the BST forum of this website, and i dont expect to have to sharpen it for a while, but im curious. What should i sharpen it with? Im not a big fan of the idea of a spyderco sharpmaker, it seems like it doesnt have enough portability, or exactness, but ive never tried it. Right now im looking at perhaps a lansky system, or a set of either arkansas or diamond stones, as i know i want to be able to freehand eventually. What should i get? Please keep in mind the light recurve blade of the skirmish.

Thanks in advance
-Reilly.
 
The sharpmaker is plenty portable and will follow the recurve, while as the Lanksy will drift at steep curves. (the front will be steeper than the rear and so-on)

Free hand, I recommend the Spyderco Profiles
 
The lansky's stones do fit in the recurve of the Skirmish. A 1" belt sander would work, or any either narrow stone or round one. It's s30v, so I'd get a diamond stone or a water stone, that Arkansas one will get you no where fast.
 
The Sharpmaker works very well on recurves, not to mention serrations, and it's no slouch on plain edges either. I moved on to benchstones due to using mostly plain edges without recurves, but still bust out the Sharpmaker for recurves and serrations. Either way, the Sharpmaker works much better than the Lansky for me. In fact, it was the futility of sharpening my EDC on the Lansky, which was a recurve at the time, that led me to the Sharpmaker. As for what gives you the better edge, it depends on what grit and what cutting you are doing to see which one gives you the "better" edge.

Mike
 
The regular Lansky stones are just Alum Oxide, fast cutting, but not as fast as diamonds. Neither leave as fine of an edge as ceramics though
 
on a skirmish the sharpmaker works fine, diamond rods are only needed when ya have a really dull knife of pretty hard steel, ya shouldnt need 'em for most jobs imho. but since your skirmish is S30V if it gets really dull they will help.
 
The only disadvantage of the Sharpmaker that I can see, is that it doesn't really remove sufficient material to change the bevel angle appreciably. I don't know what the factory edge of the Skimish is, SIFU says it works fine so that is good enough for me, but BM has put out a few knives with edges larger than 20deg per side which really need to be reprofiled before the Sharpmaker is of much use. If the edge is already at about 15 deg per side, there is pretty much nothing that beats the sharpmaker for portability, quickness and you have to go pretty much to great lengths to beat it on results, especially if you buy the UF stones to go with it (only $8 each).
 
Try stropping on leather strap (loaded with white polishing compound) glued to a piece of wood before sharpening. 6 times one way, 6 the other. Alternate 5 times. Then once 1 way, then once the other.

(It's amazing how stropping can restore the edge. It'll make your knives last longer than constant sharpening).

If this doesn't work, a Lanksy's recommended.
 
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