Sharpening benchmade grip on sharpmaker

S

SuzukiGS750EZ

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Dec 30, 2008
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I dunno if any of you visit the maintenance section or if i just posted in the wrong section but i want to bring it into here, hopefully more of you will see it.

"So, i use a spyderco sharpmaker for my sharpening. I know how to use it well and haven't messed up a blade yet. I threw my Partially serrated benchmade griptilian 551s on there and im a bit stumped. The serrations push cut through paper, and so does the plain edge, but then it rips, but theres no imperfection in the blade. could it just be the paper? I tried it out on a callus and it slipped right through, so to me its sharp, but the paper thing confuses me. Any ideas? No bur on the blade or anything. I can shave with it, one pass hairs gone, i can split hairs, i can "filet" the skin on my hand lol just a callus. It hasn't been used yet... just messed around with paper, it sat in the box for a while and when i tried to see how sharp it was it wasnt to my liking. The serrations are amazing as is the PE but i just wanna know why it wont slice paper all the time lol. and if i stab it through a tissue and pull it back and forth it cuts and doesnt rip, mind boggling..."
 
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Wow, pretty confusing post. :confused: You are more likely to receive help if you can clean it up a bit and make it easier to understand. :)
 
Look at the edge under BRIGHT light and see if you can find shiny speckles. If you can, then you've got some dull spots on your edge.
 
THG said:
Look at the edge under BRIGHT light and see if you can find shiny speckles. If you can, then you've got some dull spots on your edge.
Click to expand...
That's an awesome trick to use, if you see something, you've not nothing, if you see nothing, you've got something. Another good method is putting the edge on the finger nail of you thumb, and if it digs in, it's sharp, if it slides off, it's dull.
 
Roger999 said:
That's an awesome trick to use, if you see something, you've not nothing, if you see nothing, you've got something. Another good method is putting the edge on the finger nail of you thumb, and if it digs in, it's sharp, if it slides off, it's dull.
Click to expand...

I do the nail trick too, but to me the light trick is more accurate. I've gotten edges with shine that can catch nails, but they end up dulling quicker. (And by catching the nail, I mean that I can hold my left hand with my fingers limp, hold the knife in the other hand, and barely touch the nail of the dangling fingers and feel it dig in). Here's something I've run into:

After heavy cutting, my edge is dead (as evidenced by both the light and nail tricks). A few swipes on rods or stones gets the... Let's call them "teeth..." to stand back up, so in the light, it LOOKS like my edge is now good under the light. However, if I run my finger or something (pants, whatever) across the edge, it kinda "knocks the teeth back down." The edge dulls again quicker if I cut with this edge. So to get my "perfect, 100%" edge back, I have to keep up the sharpening until I can run my finger across the edge and there's still no shine.

Anyway, basically for me, if there's no shine, then you can bet it will catch your nail :D

I guess I'm just really, really nitpicky about my edges.... My dad thinks I'm nuts :o
 
Roger999 said:
That's an awesome trick to use, if you see something, you've not nothing, if you see nothing, you've got something. Another good method is putting the edge on the finger nail of you thumb, and if it digs in, it's sharp, if it slides off, it's dull.
Click to expand...

I do the light trick thing too. I also did the nail trick and it does catch. IDK, i noticed if i hold is slightly angled it goes right through.
 
Sounds to me like you should try a strop with green stropping compound to finish your edge. I like to do that after I use the sharpmaker.
 
After using the flats of the white Sharpmaker stones, I strop the edge on the pad of my hand to remove any remaining burr. I can feel the final burr being removed by my hand and it leaves a great edge.

This technique was taught to me by a guy who used to be a barber.
 
I sharp stone sharp maker on the combo side of edge and push cut at 26 degrees celcius on card board workz grate. :p
 
It does sound like you've got a dull spot(s) on your blade. I love the Sharpmaker, but have had uneven edges plenty of times from using it. That's not its fault, but my own from rushing through the sharpening.
Don't know if this will help you or not.
What will typically happen is I'll have an edge that will cleanly shave hair and pushcut paper when I check it, but leave fuzzy edges or tear during part of the cut when slicing paper or even an index card. I usually leave it alone, but sometimes go back to the corners of the medium stones to reestablish a slight burr on one side, then the other, then back to the flats of the medium, and corners of the fine stones, being careful to maintain the edge angle throughout the stroke. I have to slow way down to make sure the edge is not only in proper contact with the stones, but also that it keeps moving at a constant speed. With a blade that has a straight portion then a belly that quickly sweeps to the tip at the end, it can be challenging to get an even edge throughout the "sweep", because I tend to quickly swipe that last portion when I'm in a hurry(this will round the tip a little over time, too). Since I do it on both sides, sometimes it results in an edge that is sharp, but at a steeper angle toward the tip.
Try to keep your wrist fairly straight while using the Sharpmaker. The other problem I create for myself when using it, is that even after years of practice, I still want to keep my elbow up, hand above the knife, and use exaggerated wrist movement to follow the stone with the edge.
 
Hi Suzuki,

When I used to train our demontrators to use the Sharpmaker, I used to tell them that I was #2 teacher. a 10X-12X lupe was #1 teacher.

Geting a close look at the edge helps understanding of how an edge is formed and works.

sal
 
Got it! i had to reassemble a cell phone charger for a friend (her cat chewed it lol) and so i used the serrations to get at the wires and the PE for the rubber around the cord where the charger end meets the wire. I came home, sharpened it up and voila it cuts fine!
 
Sal Glesser said:
Hi Suzuki,

When I used to train our demontrators to use the Sharpmaker, I used to tell them that I was #2 teacher. a 10X-12X lupe was #1 teacher.

Geting a close look at the edge helps understanding of how an edge is formed and works.

sal
Click to expand...

Magnification is definately the key for catching any burrs. Once I got my lighted microcope the quality of my edges improved dramatically.

Mike
 
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