Sharpening an Swss Army Knife

D

DrivebyTrucker

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Nov 8, 2005
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Edited:

The gerber pocket sharpener has ceramic rods. They have a version that is the same size and shape but with diamond rods. But mine has ceramic. I like it for knives that fit. But the swiss champ blade just slips through.

The other sharpener is the smith pocket sharpener. That has carbide. It sucks and will be thrown away. It's a piece of junk.

Richard, I appreciate the link. I plan to learn paper wheel sharpening. It think it's a must have skill for what I have and use. Especially for my larger knives, machetes, axes, shovel, etc.

But I would like a pocket sharpener for my SAK. And, I would prefer that whatever sharpener is recommended has been tested and proven on an SAK. Example: I've used the gerber sharpener on a very thin blade pocket knife from countycomm. But it just doesn't work with the swiss champ.

Obsessed: Is my mora craftsman and spyderco native both 30 degrees? Maybe. I don't know. I just know it polishes up the edge nicely on both. It seems to create or in this case, maintain a secondary bevel on both. Maybe if I took a thicker flat ground knife or a fully convexed blade, it would create a secondary bevel at 30 degrees. But the swiss champ blade is just to thin for this sharperner. I think the sharpmaker would work. But I was really hoping for a cheap, fits on your key chain, alternative that someone has used on their SAK.

For freehand sharpening, I was using a fine diamond plate. But I do have a fine Arkansas stone that I could try using to finish the edge.
 
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the carbide scrapers are the worst thing you can use on a knife. it tears metal away and leaves a jagged edge. if you want a method for sharpening that will give you shaving sharp edges check out the paper wheels. they work great and you can sharpen a knife made from any steel out there in minutes. here is a link to the thread. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=578787
 
Victorinox sells quite good sharpener, either pocket size (you have to do freehand sharpening) + V slot that is ceramic/diamond coated for final touch up, or the bigger ones.

My suggestion is to learn sharpening freehand, a skill you can transfer to any other knife.

One note: the steel is quite soft, so you can't expect to sharpen it at 20 degree inclusive and the edge holds up. The recommendation is 35-40 inclusive.
 
Is this the one with coarse/fine diamond inserts? Not sure if your sharpener has the carbide inserts. But, avoid the carbide 'scraper' side if it has one. Not good for edges.

Having said that, the downside of trying to use one of these pre-set angled devices is that it'll only work best if it's angle exactly matches the edge angle of your blade. That will be rare. If the edge of your blade is at a thinner angle, then only the very edge will contact the sharpener. That's OK, if pressure is maintained very, very light (ESPECIALLY with the soft steel on a SAK). It'll basically put a microbevel on the edge. If pressure is too heavy, it'll just grind excess metal off the very edge, and likely leave it blunt. If your blade's edge is at a thicker angle, only the shoulders of the bevels will contact the inserts, and it won't touch the edge at all. You'll need to keep grinding away, until the bevel is completely re-shaped to the sharpener's set angle. That will likely take a long time on a small sharpening surface like this.
 
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I make my own sharpner. It works wonders on a knife like that one that you are talking about. I carry a kershaw leek for years now. I use this sharpner and I can shave the hair off of my arm.
 
DrivebyTrucker said:
So far the best results have been sharpening free hand with a flat diamond plate But I can't get it shaving sharp. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Missed this question in my earlier reply. As mentioned, the SAK's blades are quite soft, compared to other steels. They will take a very fine edge, but need to be handled lightly. That might be hard to do on a diamond hone (what grit is yours?). Diamond is very aggressive, and will create and erase a burr in nothing flat, on simpler steels. Unless the diamond is a very fine grit, I'd avoid trying to finish your edge on it. And if it is fine, then pressure must be very, very light when using it. My favorite hone for finishing a SAK's blade is a fine/UF ceramic FLAT hone. I recommend a fully flat hone, as opposed to rods (round or triangular). The round rods or the corners of triangular rods will exert a lot of pressure on the edge. On a softish blade like this, it can roll or otherwise blunt a sharp edge easily, if pressure is just slightly too heavy. Using very light pressure on a smooth, flat hone works much more reliably.
 
Just use the ceramic side of your Gerber sharpener. If you want to learn sharpening, you will find tons of material to read here.
 
Buy a good system, sharpen in the morning and use the knife through the day, easy process, I bet you dont use the knife enough to need 'field sharpening'.

In honesty, I would sharpen on concrete before touching a pullthrough cause my edges are sharper from concrete
 
I think sharpening on concrete would give me a workable edge. But I can already get that sharpening freehand with a flat diamond stone. I want shaving sharp. I find the that gerber sharpener can put on a shaving edge on a few of my knives while removing less material than any sharpening method I can think of. Much less material than sharpening freehand.
 
DrivebyTrucker said:
I think sharpening on concrete would give me a workable edge. But I can already get that sharpening freehand with a flat diamond stone. I want shaving sharp. I find the that gerber sharpener can put on a shaving edge on a few of my knives while removing less material than any sharpening method I can think of. Much less material than sharpening freehand.
Click to expand...

This is why I recommend a flat fine/UF ceramic (I use a Spyderco DoubleStuff hone). Much easier to refine & polish the bevels to a clean, pure apex (therefore thin the edge to shaving sharpness), without exerting direct, straight-on pressure against the edge itself, as will happen with the crossed, pull-through type like this Gerber sharpener. A fine/UF ceramic will remove less metal than virtually anything else. And stropping always helps, beyond that.
 
DrivebyTrucker said:
Edited:

The gerber pocket sharpener has ceramic rods. They have a version that is the same size and shape but with diamond rods. But mine has ceramic. I like it for knives that fit. But the swiss champ blade just slips through.

The other sharpener is the smith pocket sharpener. That has carbide. It sucks and will be thrown away. It's a piece of junk.

Richard, I appreciate the link. I plan to learn paper wheel sharpening. It think it's a must have skill for what I have and use. Especially for my larger knives, machetes, axes, shovel, etc.

But I would like a pocket sharpener for my SAK. And, I would prefer that whatever sharpener is recommended has been tested and proven on an SAK. Example: I've used the gerber sharpener on a very thin blade pocket knife from countycomm. But it just doesn't work with the swiss champ.

Obsessed: Is my mora craftsman and spyderco native both 30 degrees? Maybe. I don't know. I just know it polishes up the edge nicely on both. It seems to create or in this case, maintain a secondary bevel on both. Maybe if I took a thicker flat ground knife or a fully convexed blade, it would create a secondary bevel at 30 degrees. But the swiss champ blade is just to thin for this sharperner. I think the sharpmaker would work. But I was really hoping for a cheap, fits on your key chain, alternative that someone has used on their SAK.

For freehand sharpening, I was using a fine diamond plate. But I do have a fine Arkansas stone that I could try using to finish the edge.
Click to expand...

I missed this; see you've edited your OP.

It's hard to say if your Mora and Spyderco are at 30 or not. Each maker has 'specs' for their edges, but often don't hit those numbers exactly. That's why a simple, flat hone is advantageous here; it's not limited to the pre-set angle. Just a matter of laying the bevel flush on the hone, whatever the angle might be. I'd bet your SwissChamp's edge is wider than 30 degrees, and that's why it's just 'slipping through' with little/no improvement. The shoulders of the bevel are contacting, but the edge isn't, in all likelihood. Looking for fresh polishing/abrasion on the shoulders of the bevel with a magnifier would show where the contact is. Darkening the edge bevels with a Sharpie, prior to making a pass or two through the sharpener, would make that easier to see.

I have both Fine (25 micron) and UF (9 micron) DMT 'Credit Card' diamond hones, which are quite capable of producing shaving edges on their own. Not sure what grit your 'fine' diamond plate is, by comparison (what brand is it?). The fine Arkansas might do well, but those have a lot more variability in performance, as do all natural stones.
 
Update:

It's still dull. I would say the only thing it could cut is warm butter. I have to EDC my Spyderco Native with this as the blade on the SAK is virtually useless. My Native takes 20 seconds to touch up. 40 seconds if I want to shave with it.
 
SAK is recommended to be sharpened between 30-40 inclusive. I had the same problem, and resolved it by going lighter in pressure & using less abrasive material. Stropping helps a lot.

If you want something simple, try the Victorinox pocket sharpener. The slot with diamond insert is set for angle best for SAK. Although, it goes against David's recommendation, it still a workable solution, with very light pressure. You also have to accept the fact that it will leave the blade burred to one side, as the last section it leaves the sharpener when pulled through will be the last side the edge is sharpened, example if it goes / then \, then your blade will have burr pointing to \. (see the dot after the slant, it's the direction of pressure against the edge, so the burr will be pointing towards the dot.)

See some of my findings recently in this thread .

I still prefer free hand sharpening with stones, sandpaper and strop ;)
 
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