Sharpmaker and very dull knives

S

subaru

Joined
Dec 28, 2006
Messages
9
Hope this isn't too newb a question but... I've had knives all my life but just now deciding to get into sharpening. As such, I have several knives that are little more than letter openers, including many of my kitchen knives.

After reading in this forum for a while, I've decided that I'll probably get a SC Sharpmaker due to ease of use and the way many here talk it up. I have however gotten the idea that it may not be the best for taking very dull knives back to sharp.

Is this the case? If so, is there another peice of the puzzle that I'll need in addition to the Sharpmaker?

Thanks.
 
If the Sharpmaker is going to be your only sharpening equipment I would add the diamond stones to remove metal faster to get an edge back on the knife. You could also wrap the stones that come with the set with 320 grit sandpaper and just clip it on.

Another would be to take the time and learn how to sharpen freehand. Get yourself a Norton Fine India stone, some oderless keroseen and learn to put an edge on your dullest knives. Start with your kitchen knives and work your way up to your better knives as your sharpening skills improve.

I think you'll get a lot of satisfaction learning to sharpen freehand. You can then use your Sharpmaker to just touch up your knives.
 
I second the learning to sharpen freehand. Its a real joy, and the learning is too horribly bad.
 
If all you're going to use is the SM then lots of time, patience, and more time.

Extremely dull and the SM don't go exactly well together.
 
The first sharpening equipment that I ever got good edges on was the Sharpmaker. I then started to get into modifying my knives for performance and started to see the shortcomings of the Sharpmaker, and I started buying lots of DMT and Spyderco benchstones of varying grits. The Sharpmaker is great for putting finishing edges on, but I use DMT XX Coarse and X coarse stones for reprofiling knives so that they are thin enough to use on the Sharpmaker. If a knife's edge is over 20 degrees you will be spending a long time on the Sharpmaker reprofiling the knife so that you are actually sharpening the edge, so I highly recommend getting a benchstone to set a thin (under 15 degrees per side) back bevel and then finish with the Sharpmaker. Another option for reprofiling is the 1/2" triangular stones from here: http://www.congresstools.com/congresstools/catalog?action=getcat&parent=24

I believe hardheart has used those stones in the Sharpmaker base (see here: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=444326), and they would make reprofiling much more efficient in the Sharpmaker for pretty cheap, or at least much cheaper than the Sharpmaker diamond rods, which work much better than the medium Sharpmaker rods but are still very slow compared to my DMT's for reprofiling. I think hardheart said to avoid using the corners of those ruby stones, but if you are new to sharpening they would make your Sharpmaker much more useful for all around sharpening, including reprofiling, for a very cheap investment. And the sharpmaker can definately put a really sharp edge on your knife. I know as a newbie I was afraid to use benchstones, and really would have liked to had those ruby stones to make my life easier. Now that I have benchstones it would be hard to give them up, but they do start adding up quickly in cost, at least for the DMT's and Spyderco benchstones that I have bought.
 
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