sharpening questions & help needed

N

newknife

Joined
Jul 6, 2008
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I need help with sharpening.

I just purchased a spyderco native and a cold steel lawman. Would this be a good sharpener for these knives?

http://www.knifeworks.com/spydercotri-anglesharpmakermodel204mf.aspx

Also, I have a bravo-1 and I've been told only to use a strop on it. Why is that? How would other sharpeners damage the knife? The reason I ask is because I have a strop but I'm not very good at it or I'm just doing it wrong and can't seem to get the knife sharp. I've been working at it today and I think I'm actually making it dull.


Thanks....
 
The sharpmaker is an excellent sharpener for maintaining edges and for touchups. It's not quite the ticket if you need to do serious rebeveling, but since your knives are new you shouldn't need to do anything like that for a while.

The Native probably has edges that are close to 15 dps, or 30 degrees inclusive. The Sharpmaker has a 30 degree and a 40 degree setting for the rods so it should work fine on the 30 degree setting. I'm not familiar with the angles that cold Steel uses so you'll have to use the Sharpie trick to see whether the 30 or 40 degree settings will work for the Lawman.

The Sharpmaker should come with an instructional DVD. I'd recommend that you watch it a couple of times (it's not long) and then practice on some older knives. I used my kitchen knives to get started with my first Sharpmaker. Some people buy a couple of cheap beaters and practice on them. When you start to get comfortable with what you're doing, then you can try working on your better knives. Eventually, you may want to get a set of the ultra fine rods for the Sharpmaker to put a more polished edge on your knives.
 
You should learn to freehand rebevel on a stone or at least use a device like the Edge Pro. The Sharpmaker is an excellent tool for the final edge but doesn't have the grit for heavy rebevelling.
 
Pick up a cheap 6" bench grinder and check out the paper wheel system, only takes a little practice and you'll get hair splitting results....on all your knives.
You can google paper sharpening wheel, and get a few venders.
 
Moved from General Knife Discussion to Maintenance, Tinkering & Embellishment ...

newknife, sharpening isn't difficult but it can be complex, and takes practice. The Sharpmaker is a very good place to start. It will do basic edge maintenance for you with a short learning curve, and may help you understand what is actually happening when you sharpen.

Later, you will find you can do freehand or strop but don't try to learn everything at once! :)

Here's a couple of links to help with convex edges, the kind that benefit most from stropping:

Convex Grind FAQ - http://home.nycap.rr.com/sosak/convex.htm
Convex Sharpening the BRKCA Way - www.barkriverknives.com/convex.htm
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Moved from General Knife Discussion to Maintenance, Tinkering & Embellishment ...

newknife, sharpening isn't difficult but it can be complex, and takes practice. The Sharpmaker is a very good place to start. It will do basic edge maintenance for you with a short learning curve, and may help you understand what is actually happening when you sharpen.

Later, you will find you can do freehand or strop but don't try to learn everything at once! :)

Here's a couple of links to help with convex edges, the kind that benefit most from stropping:

Convex Grind FAQ - http://home.nycap.rr.com/sosak/convex.htm
Convex Sharpening the BRKCA Way - www.barkriverknives.com/convex.htm
Click to expand...


Are there any other good "Kit's" that you would recommend for use on the sypderco and cold steel?
 
Sharpmaker is best for beginner, and for many knives with edge less then 40 degree. Also get diamond rods for it.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
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