Sharpening Hawkbills & Reverse S Blades: How to?

[JD Spydo]

I have several of Spyderco's Hawkbills and Reverse S style blades. I currently have what I believe are good methods for sharpening them. But I'm always trying out new equipment and new methods. So I would like to compare what you all do to sharpen knives like the Harpy, Spyderhawk, Superhawk and 3 Matriarchs PE & SE. I'm always trying new methods of my own and I find these types of blades challenging to say the least.

I know many of you out there are also fans of Spyderco's Hawkbills and Reverse S type blades so tell us how you sharpen yours. List any equipment and it doesn't have to be Spyderco's because I've been hearing that DMT has a sharpening system that accomodates PE Hawkbills very well.

Also I don't mind sharpening manually and sometimes I find it the best way to go with these types of specialty blades. You all can also include Spyderco's unusual blades like the Captain and Zulu. So let's talk about sharpening Spyderco's unique blades>> how do you do it? What equipment do you use? and be sure to tell us whether or not it's Spyderedged or plain edged. I'm willing to learn more.

 

[Sezman716]

Well what I'd do is buy the sharpmaker rods. At least the three "ceramic" ones and then get a rubber pad to place them on a flat surface so the will not slide and free hand it on the corner of the stone with light pressure and then jus keep up on the edge by "stropping" it on the UF rod. Should work regardless of edge shape or with serrated cuz you'd just be using the corners of the stone

 

[Bigfattyt]

ceramic sticks are great for this.

Narrow strops work as well, depending on the severity of the re-curve.

 

[JD Spydo]

Well what I'd do is buy the sharpmaker rods. At least the three "ceramic" ones and then get a rubber pad to place them on a flat surface so the will not slide and free hand it on the corner of the stone with light pressure and then jus keep up on the edge by "stropping" it on the UF rod. Should work regardless of edge shape or with serrated cuz you'd just be using the corners of the stone

"Sezman" that sounds like an excellent set up. By having those corners facing upward I can see where it would give you more control under more pressure. I'm going to try that out myself. I was just getting ready to order an extra set of 204 Sharpmaker rods this next check and now I believe I'll be ordering 2 sets instead.. Now I can see where that would work great with PE Hawkbills and Reverse S blades but on the serrated Hawkbills and RS blades I'm still inclined to stay with my Spyderco 701 Profile kit. I just haven't yet found anything that can do Spyderedges like the 701 Profiles.

I have some sheet rubber about a 1/4 of an inch thick which would work good to lay them on and it's tacky enough to keep them from sliding. I"m going to try that out ASAP. I'm also wondering if there just wouldn't be some type of a way to clamp them down with the corner sticking up without risking chipping or snapping the rod. They are brittle and you have to be careful that's for sure.

But I can certainly see where you can apply some decent pressure and get a little more leverage than you can with the Sharpmaker.