Sharpmaker Help

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kevinb17

Joined
Dec 1, 1999
Messages
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Got a sharpmaker 204. I have touched up the following knives with good results: Axis, Native, A-F Covert, Ontario Old Hickory carbon kitchen knives, CRKT Sealtac, and a cheap chinese SAK knock-off.

Some of the cheap stainless steel kitchen we have did just OK.

One Ka-Bar jack with 1095 was stubborn. Back-beveling helped and it is utility sharp but I'd like to get it sharper.

Just got a Wenger SAK and the pen blade sharpened up pretty nice but I can't get the main blade sharp at all. I did the standard four steps--no help--back beveled and tried again--still no signicant improvement.

Any suggestions on how to get the Ka-Bar and SAK as sharp as possible?
 
kevinb17, you may not be grinding down far enough on the first step. "Far enough" is when the bevel on both sides meet to form the edge, and in a dull blade, it may take a while before this happens.

One way to do test for this would be to see if the vertical blade catches on your thumbnail (at 45 degree angle). If it just slides off, then the bevels haven't met yet.

Another method is the burr method which requires grinding just once side of the blade and periodically checking the edge to see if a burr has formed. The burr is an indication that the edges have met also.

See the sharpening FAQ on this website for some more tips (particularly on the burr method), but essentially once you get that edge defined (in the first step) the remaining 3 steps should be a piece of cake.
 
Cliff, as I understand it, the four steps are:

1) brown stone, using corner
2) brown stone, using flat
3) white stone, using corner
4) white stone, using flat

The book/video suggests 20 strokes per side on each step, but it would seem that the first step contributes the most to shaping the edge geometry, and therefore reasonable to assume that's where someone would spend the most time (ie more than 20 strokes) when working a dull blade.
 
Longden, thanks for the advice. Went back and ground away with the edge of the medium stones, and got something much better. Guess I was too worried about "oversharpening".

Practice makes perfect, and I'm trying to do that with my less expensive blades!

The four steps are as longden described, in order of agressiveness. Serrated edges use only the corners (duh!).
 
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