Sharpmaker disappoints

K

kypatriot

Joined
Mar 5, 2010
Messages
14
Hey ya'll,

Well was glad to get the Sharpmaker but have been disappointed from the start. Wondering if I just got a lemon, which can happen with any product. My complaints:

1. Very sloppy fit of the stones into the base. They wobble around, which cant be good for accuracy/consistent edge angle. I'm talking .25 inch of play in the end of the ceramic rod or more. Only two stone sets.

2. Takes freakin forever to get something sharp. A benchmade folder gets decently sharp but I have worked on a Henckle paring knife for an HOUR still barely acceptable, rough shave. I can get nearly as good of a result from the steel in the Henckle wood block.

3. I'm following the Spyderco guidance, and have experimented with different degrees of pressure. I have had much more success with hand stones at about a quarter the price so I'm done unless someone out there can let me in on the secret. Thougt this would be quicker/easier.

Frustrated and will likely send it back. Might try the dMT hand held stones or convexing. Not gonna do the edge pro b/c of the set up hassle.
 
I find the Sharpmaker is great for maintaining an edge, not so great for getting the initial edge at the angle-per-side needed.

You have been keeping the stones clean, yes? Clean stones help.

For getting the initial edge on a knife, I prefer more coarse stones - diamonds, SiC, natural. Heck, even good old wet/dry is fine.
 
The sharpmaker is a dream ( the best ) IF the angle matches perfectly ( extremely rare ). Get a DMT and grind that sucker:thumbup:.
 
yes, it is good for maintaining...i was getting frustrated with mine the other day...i was sharpening my D2 para at 30 and it wasnt getting anywhere and i switched to 40 and it made a world of difference...and after the UF rods and a strop loaded with 1 micron diamond spray i can whittle hair:D:D
 
I have cleaned them, as I am trying really hard to like this $50+ system more than a cheap little diamond hand stone.

Another thing I have noticed is that not only do the rods wiggle around, they dont sit exactly square in the base either. Doesnt matter when sharpening on the edge of the stone but on the flat this makes it tough to keep consistent contact.

Guess I expected better engineering in a relatively expensive sharpening tool. On another thread someone mentioned they got better results just using the rods horizontally free hand. Maybe I'll try that. Silly though, since the whole point of the thing is to help keep a consistent angle. Might as well get a benchstone and be done with it.
 
They should call it the Honester instead of the Sharpmaker.

All it is good for is finishing and fine tuning, not full on sharpening and removing material.
 
kypatriot said:
I have cleaned them, as I am trying really hard to like this $50+ system more than a cheap little diamond hand stone.

Another thing I have noticed is that not only do the rods wiggle around, they dont sit exactly square in the base either. Doesnt matter when sharpening on the edge of the stone but on the flat this makes it tough to keep consistent contact.

Guess I expected better engineering in a relatively expensive sharpening tool. On another thread someone mentioned they got better results just using the rods horizontally free hand. Maybe I'll try that. Silly though, since the whole point of the thing is to help keep a consistent angle. Might as well get a benchstone and be done with it.
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The stones do have a little slop, but considering your pressing down on the stone, that is the angle you'll be sharpening at. They aren't going to bounce around while sharpening.

If the stones aren't sitting square when sharpening on the flats then it could be a molding / finishing error. Really no way to tell unless we see some pictures.

I've had excellent success keeping my knives sharp with it, but if I have to work on something like neglected kitchen knives or a factory edged Strider I pull out the diamond rods at 40 degrees to reset the bevel.
 
GrinderMcgee said:
All it is good for is finishing and fine tuning, not full on sharpening and removing material.
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Oh really? Then you haven't used the diamond rods.

To the OP, if it had stone wobble when it was new then I would see about having Spyderco replace or repair it.

I love my Sharpmaker, it works for me. I'll venture to say that sharpmaker success is 90% user competence, like all sharpening, it takes practice.

I can pop hairs all day long after a sharpmaker run.
 
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For any type of sharpening, whether freehand or with a device, it helps to know the theory behind sharpening and what is going on. I suggest trying to read some FAQs and online articles on sharpening and try to wrap your mind around what needs to happen to get a sharp knife. Once you understand the why, it is easier to look at what you are doing to see what needs to happen to make the knife sharp. I understand basically what needs to happen and I can get my knives pretty darn sharp, but I still don't know everything and therefore still can't get my knives as sharp as others.

Like others have said, the sharpmaker shines at touching up blades. It is not great at removing a lot of metal (although possible with extra stones or lots of time). Once the angles on your knife match up with the angles on the sharpmaker then it is a great device that many have great luck with. It also helps with the sharpmaker to use it often and touch up a blade as soon as it starts to lose it's edge. It is a lot easier to touch up a semi-sharp blade a couple minutes at a time a few times a week then trying to get a dull knife sharp which can get frustrating. Everyone usually start making mistakes and get sloppy when they are frustrated.
 
One of the biggest wastes of money in the sharpening world around. Ok if you absolutely cannot sharpen a knife and you have a relatively sharp knife ground to the angle to match the sharpmaker.

I have better things to do than to sharpen a single knife for 8 hours.
 
The Sharpmaker excels at sharpening two angles. And ONLY two angles. If your knife is a different angle when starting out, and you don't use the diamond rods, it IS going to take you a long time to get it sharp. It is necessary for the Sharpmaker rods to re-profile your edges to match their angles. That is not going to happen quickly the first time you sharpen a particular knife with the Sharpmaker, even with the diamond rods. It takes time to match those angles. But...

... once your knife does match the angles of the Sharpmaker, it's a very quick five minute re-sharpen and a one minute touch-up from that point. Had you been lucky and started off with a knife with the same angle, you'd LOVE the Sharpmaker because it's so quick and easy. Unfortunately, you didn't. And you didn't realize that you needed to completely re-profile the edge which takes a hell of a long time with just the brown stones.

This is similar to buying truckload of logs for your woodstove, and trying to buck with a hand held Sven saw instead of a chain saw. Once the wood is all bucked up, it's easy to split it. Getting to that point is the problem.

Stitchawl
 
5.56 said:
Oh really? Then you haven't used the diamond rods.

To the OP, if it had stone wobble when it was new then I would see about having Spyderco replace or repair it.

I love my Sharpmaker, it works for me. I'll venture to say that sharpmaker success is 90% user competence, like all sharpening, it takes practice.

I can pop hairs all day long after a sharpmaker run.
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I'm glad you find success with it. I feel the 50 dollars for the diamond hones is money better spent on a good bench stone.

I spent 5 hours trying to reconfigure the edge on a 4" belt knife before I turned on the grinder for 5 minutes. You want an extra set?
 
I have ALWAYS used the sharpmaker like systems for years past, the original "Crock Sticks". They only had one angle, but they always worked on the knives I sharpened with them like the buck 110, schrade LB7, Puma, etc. I saw the sharpmaker as an advanced version of sharpeners I am very familiar with.

I have very little wobble if any. The rods have to be pressed into the base fully. I use the brown medium, white fine & white ultra fine with terrific success. I think it helps that I am used to this type of sharpening system. I do wanna get the diamond rods one day to help speed reprofiling.

To me, the biggest problem out there is EVERY company uses a different angle to sharpen their knives. Many will have say a 20 degrees on one side and a 22 degrees on the other. I have seen this way too many times in cheap knives all the way up to $500+ knives. So this can drive you nuts. I use the sharpie trick, this works excellent for me as well as others who have recommend it. I reprofiled my strider SMF, which is very hard S30V by the way in One hour. Strider uses a weird 23 degree angle. I reprofiled it to 20 degrees and its excellent. Using the sharpie, I could see parts of the blade that need attention. After all the areas were worked ( reprofiled ) even, I went over the whole edge. Scary sharp.

You ( no one in particular ) have to understand knife edges, sharping, the sharpmaker, everything involved. You just dont put the sticks in the V, swipe them 20 times and have a shaving edge, it doesnt work like that. Use the sharpie trick, its a lifesaver.

I highly recommend the sharpmaker for those that understand it and know how to use it. One tip I can offer is I only use the flats of the stones and not the edges. This works best fo me. I take nice slow controlled strokes. The biggest headach I have is the edges not being the same on each side of the knife as I stated above, thats where the sharpie comes in. I only use the 15 degrees for fillet and kitchen knives ( knives with very thin blades) , Everything else gets the 20 degree angle.

Try the sharpie trick, you will see more than likely that its not the sharpmaker, but the angle of the factory grinds not matching. Good Luck, give it time, you will like it in the end.
 
I have exactly the same problem Ky. Stones wobble and I'm getting very inconsistent results. Of course, I've only spent about an hour or two on the thing so I've chalked it up to "user error". It seems to do ok with the angle set at 30 and "shaping" (step 1), but steps 2 - 4 seem unfruitful at all speeds and pressures. I get a decent toothy edge from step 1, but lose it on all subsequent steps.

The only knife I was able to really get a decent result was my Sage 1. I shaved my arm pretty good last night :D I'm not giving up on it yet. I'll probably invest in the diamond rods and if that doesn't get me there, I'm going to move on to another solution. I can't imagine trying to get my D2 710 sharp on this thing.

Webb Jr.
 
It seems that a lot of people think those triangle ceramics are magic wands. When I first started using crock sticks over 25 years ago I did too. Through experimentation I realized that it is an excellent finishing and maintenance device but not a complete sharpening system. Nearly every knife that comes from the factory needs to be taken to a coarse hone and thinned out. I automatically do that with every knife I get. It seems most don't want to do that for fear of scuffing the blade up. Thinning is the first step to success. In fact the only knives I've taken directly to the SM was the last two Buck 110s that I bought which came from the factory properly thinned.
 
230grains said:
One of the biggest wastes of money in the sharpening world around. Ok if you absolutely cannot sharpen a knife and you have a relatively sharp knife ground to the angle to match the sharpmaker.

I have better things to do than to sharpen a single knife for 8 hours.
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I have to agree with this.:thumbup:


The main mission of these sharpening gizmos, is to get your money out of your pocket and into the pockets of the makers of this junk. Buy a decent bench stone and a decent pocket hone, and learn to sharpen your knife free hand. In a short while, you'll be able to sharpen your knife anay where, and anytime with no gizmos.

This is not rocket science, and theres way to much made over angles. Don't worry about it, just do it and after a while your hand and wrist learn the mussle memory of it. Take an old paring knife from the kitchen to practice on, and a dry erase marker, and a pocket stone, and start free handing. After a while you'll look at the gizmos like they were training wheels, and get rid of them.
 
i just finished rebeveling my endura. I did it by first laying down a coarse bench stone over the sharpmaker rods. I used a sharpie to determine what part of the bevel needed work. I finished the job in about an hour(the wrong angle was mostly on the left side so the right side needed just a little work). so now I know that it can be done on the sharpmaker.
 
jackknife said:
I have to agree with this.:thumbup:


The main mission of these sharpening gizmos, is to get your money out of your pocket and into the pockets of the makers of this junk. Buy a decent bench stone and a decent pocket hone, and learn to sharpen your knife free hand. In a short while, you'll be able to sharpen your knife anay where, and anytime with no gizmos.

This is not rocket science, and theres way to much made over angles. Don't worry about it, just do it and after a while your hand and wrist learn the mussle memory of it. Take an old paring knife from the kitchen to practice on, and a dry erase marker, and a pocket stone, and start free handing. After a while you'll look at the gizmos like they were training wheels, and get rid of them.
Click to expand...

I doubt many would say Sal Glesser is a peddler of junk and just out to steal the money from people's pockets. Just because you don't see the need for it doesn't mean that it does not help many people keep a sharp edge on their knife.

I also bet there is a good chance the edges that I get on my Edge pro look better than the average free hander. I will keep my gizmos and the near perfectly even stupid sharp edges that I get on today's super steels.
 
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