Sharpening BM710 with Sharpmaker

ayz

Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Messages
685
How do you do it?

1. I don't know the angles to use on the blade, and

2. It seems like the edge on the blade is a bit rough, but still ridiculously sharp (out of the box). Should i sharpen it with just the coarse stones and not try to get the extra fine edge with the white smooth stones?
 
Hi,

Did you get the video with the sharpener? If so, it is an excellent resource to answer your questions.

If not, there is a forum here related to sharpening, that has a lot of good info in it.

Good luck,


Thomas Zinn
 
I recently successfully reprofiled my 710HS to a 30 degree inclusive edge bevel with a Sharpmaker. IT TOOK ABOUT FIVE HOURS :eek: My 710HS came dull and the bevels were way off.

The instruction St. James refers to are excellent.

Definitely use a marker to check your progress. I found I had to reapply it at regular intervals. Also, I found it helpful to clean the stones after about 50 strokes to each surface -- the stones have more bite when they're clean.

I was able to give it a semi-polished adge with the ultra fine rods. I finished with a few strokes on the flats of the fine stones on the 40 degree inclusive setting followed by some more with the ultra fine. I'm very pleased with the results. Now I retouch by giving it a few strokes on the white flats at 40 degrees. Very simple.

You'll need to use only the corners of the rods for the recurve section. I don't use the corners all the way to the tip -- I've found that's a good way to round it off. :barf: I do the tip with the flats only.

Good luck!
 
When I used to have only lunsky sharpener that costed me $50, it took me many hours working in a garage to reprofile my M2 blades. Not mentioning several cuts I had to take. When I figured out that the time I used on doing this could be used on something else instead, for example work. I calculated that time spent costed me more than cost of Edge Pro Professional model. I decided to get it then and I did get the Apex model ,and happy now. Becase it takes only minutes to reprofile ANY steel blade. I should have gotten it before I spent $50 on Lunsky, but I wanted to save money back then. Greedy man pays twise, true that.
 
When I reprofile a blade I use double sided tape to attach two strips of 200 grit sandpaper to the stones on my sharpmaker, followed by the brown and then the white stones to polish the bevels. Saves a lot of time and money and I'm very happy with the results.
 
I just reprofiled my BM Griptillian D2 to 30 degrees using the Edge Pro and even with the 120 stone it took probably 15 minutes to reach the burr. After that I took it through the rest of the stones and finished with the 3000 grit tapes. I then started over at 40 degrees which just took a few swipes with each stone. The I hit the Sharpmaker whites, corners and flats at 40 degrees then a leather strop. All in all it probably took me 30 plus minutes....not the 5 hours it would take trying to do it with the Sharpmaker brown rods.

I will keep the new edge on this thing at razor sharp using just the Sharpmaker at 40 degrees and a quick strop on the leather.
 
Just use 40 deg and back bevel once in a while just as the video says.

use of the whites or only corners of the whites or the gray rods or stropping is really up to you and depends on what kind of edge you like to have. All my edges are razor polished (Ultrafine rods + strop). Its really a decision you have to make for yourself. But hey, you won't ruin anything if you try around a bit. Just use the grays first, if you don't like it, go to the whites. Or go back to the grays after the whites and see how they compare. With the few strokes you need for a new knife you won't remove appreciable amounts of material.

Oh, AND: If it ain't broken, don't fix it. If it is sharp and performs to your expectation, don't sharpen it. If you sharpen it once it has lost its sweet edge, it is much more rewarding.
 
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