Sharpmaker Angles

B

bubblewhip

Joined
Dec 18, 2009
Messages
248
I've been looking at a spyderco sharpmaker to maybe make my sharpening process a little bit easier, however what urked me was the blade angles they give you. 45 degrees and 30 degrees. I kind of like a very shallow 22 degree angle for an EDC knife because most of my task require a very sharp and precise cutter and not necessary a strong knife. 30 Degrees I would use for my survival and fixed blades because I think 30 is strong enough to take that sort of abuse. I have no clue why spyderco thought it was necessary it put a steep 45 degree angle on a blade.

I was wondering if there was any way to use the sharpmaker to give you a 22 degree angle.
 
The sharpmaker is 15 and 20 degrees per side, 30 and 40 inclusive. Its designed for kneeping a blade tuned up so keep in mind that if you really dull up a blade its not going to be very effective.
 
It's 30 degrees and 40 degrees (not 45), but as knifenut1013 said, those are the inclusive angles. Each side will be 15 or 20 degrees.

If you want other angles, the SharpMaker is not for you. Consider the DMT aligner system.
 
I find the sharpmaker to be very limited. Forget about repairing an edge or reprofiling.........and as you said only sharpens at two angles. With that said you can put a pencil under the base and tilt it. I have found that it alters it about 5 degrees.
 
If you are comfortable sharpening by hand, just use the stones without the base. Use the "magic marker technique" to coat the edge and you can easily see where contact is being made.

For precision at a choice of angles, the "Edge Pro" seems to be the most favored system.

Peter
 
22 degree angle isn't very shallow I use a lansky at 17 degrees, and I wish I could go smaller 3~5 degrees. Since you said your edges are already set at a 22 you WON'T be able to reprofile to the sharpmaker's angles with the sharpmaker alone. I'd go with a lansky system set on the 20 degree, but get the diamond set of lansky not the natural stones. Or you can get the aligner which has better stones, but you won't know the angles!
 
Keep in mind that the angles on the lansky clamp sharpening system are dependent on the width of the blade being sharpened. A wide blade will sharpen as a significantly shallower angle than a narrow blade. And, as the sharpener sweeps an arc as you sharpen the edge, the sharpener actually puts a continually variable edge on the blade. It will be the steepest closest to the clamp and be the shallowest where the blade/stone junction is furthest from the clamp. The quoted angles are rough estimates at best.

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hlee said:
Keep in mind that the angles on the lansky clamp sharpening system are dependent on the width of the blade being sharpened. A wide blade will sharpen as a significantly shallower angle than a narrow blade. And, as the sharpener sweeps an arc as you sharpen the edge, the sharpener actually puts a continually variable edge on the blade. It will be the steepest closest to the clamp and be the shallowest where the blade/stone junction is furthest from the clamp. The quoted angles are rough estimates at best.

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And they're not even correct. Using Tangent = opposite / adjacent on a 1" deep 1/8" thick blade, I calculated the angles of my Lansky to be:

17 hole = 12.5 degrees
20 hole = 16.5 degrees
25 hole = 20 degrees
30 hole = 23 degrees
 
I believe I remember hearing in the Sharpmaker DVD that they settled on 40 degrees because that was the best compromised angle to get any blade steel to a razor edge. Remember that they designed this sharpener in the 1970's (Patent issued 11/4/1980) before many of the current super steels were thought up.

They later did a slight redesign on the Sharpmaker to provide a 30 degree setting for back beveling.
 
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bubblewhip said:
I was wondering if there was any way to use the sharpmaker to give you a 22 degree angle.
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If you already had the sharpmaker, you could make a jig of sorts to hold the stones at the desired angle instead of using the ones built into the base.
 
Slimman said:
I find the sharpmaker to be very limited. Forget about repairing an edge or reprofiling.........and as you said only sharpens at two angles. With that said you can put a pencil under the base and tilt it. I have found that it alters it about 5 degrees.
Click to expand...

I believe everything has it's own limitations, still I am using sharpmaker for over four years and found it very good system. I agree just two angles 30 and 40 inclusive is limitation, but put rubber bend over top of rods and you will cut 6 degrees, which will make 24 (and if you want 34) inclusive available. Need repair or reprofile - get coarse stones: either sharpmaker's diamonds or any flat coarse stone clamped to the flat of the rod with binder clip will do a good job.

24degsettings.jpg


this is my sharpmaker at 24 degrees with stones coarser that x-coarse DMT(80 grit).
By the way, if you search BF and Spyderco forum, you will find many additions to sharpmaker. It is good tool, easy to use, still need to understand basics of sharpening, it is not complicated.
 
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