Sharpening a Commander with the Sharpmaker

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intjMastermind

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Jun 4, 2007
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So I've been trying to sharpen my Emerson Commander on the Spyderco Sharpmaker. I'm running into a problem, it seems that Ernie Emerson's edge is a bit steeper than the 40 degrees (20 a side) available on the Sharpmaker. After about 30 minutes of stroking, about 700-800 strokes, with the gray medium coarseness stones, I've put a bit of a double-bevel onto the blade. The top 1/4 of the blade is at my 20 degrees, and the bottom 3/4 is at whatever angle the blade came from the factory.

So should I continue sharpening at 20 degrees to finish off the blade? I'm estimating it will take another 2-3 hours, maybe 4000 strokes or so, to get the whole blade down to 20 degrees. Keep in mind, this is a chisel edge, so if I sharpen one side to the standard 20 degrees, the blade will be quite a bit narrower than 40 degrees. How will this affect edge strength and cutting ability?

Or would it be better if I kept the original factory angle? If so, how do I recreate that angle on the Sharpmaker?
 
If you check emerson's website you will find pictures of how they recommend sharpining their knives.

junoir
 
i would go to the EKI site, read the article/instructions on sharpening, get the right stone and sharpen it by hand the correct way, sharpmakers dont work so hot on EKI's imho and i wouldnt wanna change the whole bevel on it.

the sharpmaker is a wonderfull thing and works great on most stuff, use one myself all the time but they dont work well on EKI's the angles are wrong, i suppose ya could cock the knife at the right angle (ie not the typical straight up/down) and get a burr then strop it on something to remove the burr, it sounds to me ya are trying to sharpen it like a std "V" grind and a commander isnt a std "V" grind.

i wouldnt change the bevels, ruins the resale for one, and i have seen 3 commanders folks did that to and 2 of them were funky and didnt cut well anymore, one did ok though i suppose but IIRC it was rebeveled by a pro.

but personally i would not do that.
 
i used my sharpmaker on my 13 and had great results. i found that you have to sharpen the swept in angle normally as you would any other knife for about 3-5 strokes and then twice holding the blade nearly flat on the otherside. this gave me amazing results, but it takes a couple test runs to get the hang of doing it.
 
the finds on the '13 and commander are different thus they are different to sharpen, the '13 is a lot like a '12 and those 2 work ok on the SM, the commander just doesnt line up correctly on the SM though ya can use one its the hard way to do it imho.
 
Sounds to me like you've taken too much metal away there. I also struggled to get an edge on my Commander that I was happy with. I eventually bought a Sharpmaker so that I could sharpen my serrated Para-millie and thought I would try it on the Commander as well. I checked out the EKI website instructions and sharpened only the one (flat side) and then removed the burr. You can't sharpen it like a normal knife due to chisel grind. You gotta proceed with caution to avoid removing too much metal and making the knife totally blunt. The results I got are the best I have had to date on this knife.

It shouldn't take more than 5-10 strokes on the white sticks to put a decent edge on your knife. I would send it back to EKI and get them to resharpen it properly for you.

Bear in mind Emerson does not recommend a shaving sharp edge on his knives. You need a working edge, not one for slicing paper. That type of edge doesn't last. Don't feel bad, sharpening Emerson's is a challenge for most people!
 
Before you go to far. Strop the knife using a leather strap or on heavy cardboard, 9 out of 10 times that's enough to bring back the edge without removing any metal. If that doesn't work use a fine diamond rod to lightly touch up the blade, 2 or 3 passes ought to be fine with stropping afterwards.

I hope this helps.
 
I use spyderco pro files on my commander and finish with 0.5 micron compound on leather. great results but you gota do it by hand
 
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