Sharpmaker is slow for me: what's wrong?

[Brett]

I have a knife with a beautiful Damasteel blade that I've been struggling to sharpen with my 204 Sharpmaker. The original grind had a very different profile than the 40 degrees of the Sharpmaker, so I spent a lot of time using the medium rods to try to reprofile the edge. I must have run the blade down the rods over 500 times on each side. Progress was made, but I still had a long ways to go. Then, last week, I ordered a pair of the new diamond Sharpmaker rods. They arrived yesterday, so last night I sat down with my knife, expecting to have it reprofiled in "under a minute" as other threads had suggested. Well over 100 strokes and many minutes later, the edge still wasn't fully reprofiled. It was a lot closer, and the diamond rods were definitely working much faster than the medium rods, but it still seems like my progress is much slower than other Sharpmaker users report.

Am I doing something wrong? As far as I can tell, I'm doing it exactly as indicated on the Sharpmaker video. Is there a trick to getting good bite from the rods? Or maybe Damasteel is just harder to sharpen than, say, ATS-34?

On a related topic, should the corners of the diamond rods be used, or only the flat sides? Do you clean them like the ceramic rods? And how frequently should the ceramic rods be cleaned? I think this last question was answered on the video, but I forget the precise answer.

-Brett

 

[rdangerer]

Use the search engine to uncover a rich set of content on sharpening with words like:
204
Sharpmaker
Lansky
Gatco
edgePro
strop
grinder
diamond

etc...

Here are some threads to get you started... but there are MANY others:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=188061&highlight=lansky
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=187084&highlight=lansky
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=186276&highlight=lansky
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=182200&highlight=lansky
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=162280&highlight=lansky


If you are truly trying to reprofile an edge to a different angle (and it sounds like you are) you'll find many like me who have found that other methods are far more efficient, from jig type sharpeners (Lansky, Gatco, DMT) to bench grinders (with special wheels), to belt sanders to flat bench stones.

Diamond stones help a lot. Take it easy with coarse and x-coarse diamond until you know what you are doing...scratches can be deep if you slip or go too far.

Reprofiling takes some elbow grease, so being able to get aggressive and remove some material quickly is in order once you know what you are doing and are at little risk of hosing up a nice knife. The 204 is not a particularly aggressive approach even with diamond sleeves as you have discovered.

The 204 excels with many serrations, and in touching up an already profiled knife, as long as the angles on the 204 are very close to or slightly more steep (higher degrees) than your edge profile (either that, or you have to tilt the knife edge slightly to get a higher degree angle).

Anything motorized can be aggressive. Diamond stones in a situation (jig, bench) where you can use some force can be aggressive.

 

[Brett]

Thanks for the response.

I have read the wonderful sharpening FAQ and done a few searches of the boards. As you suggest, there are so many threads on sharpening, Sharpmaker, Lansky, etc that a search pulls up hundreds of matches, which does make it harder to find the specific information I'm looking to find.

Anyway, what I'm really asking is whether or not the rate at which I'm able to sharpen knives sounds reasonable, or if others are able to remove metal much faster. If the former, then it's just a question of elbow grease and I'll keep doing what I'm doing. It does work, after all, just rather slowly. If the answer is the latter, and other are able to dramatically reprofile edges with 20-50 swipes on the diamond rods, then I must be doing something wrong.

Your do directly answer this when you say:

The 204 is not a particularly aggressive approach even with diamond sleeves as you have discovered.

Some other posts praising the diamond stones made it sound like after 100 swipes I'd have nothing left but a bloody stump where my knife hand used to be, while your assessment is much closer to what I have observed.

-Brett

 

[Sal Glesser]

Hi Brett. We have not found damasteel particularly hard to reprofile. The only thing that I can think of without getting a lupe on the edge is that the edge is very thick. You might try looking at the edge with a 8x to 15x lupe, use 20 strokes and then look at it again to see what is happening at the edge.

sal

 

[Brett]

Originally posted by Sal Glesser

Hi Brett. We have not found damasteel particularly hard to reprofile. The only thing that I can think of without getting a lupe on the edge is that the edge is very thick. You might try looking at the edge with a 8x to 15x lupe, use 20 strokes and then look at it again to see what is happening at the edge.





sal

Thanks for the response. I think you're on the money regarding the edge thickness. Over the weekend I grabbed a couple other knives that were somewhat less than sharp (both were Benchmades, coincidence? ) and gave them the full Sharpmaker treatment, starting with the diamond rods and progressing to the ultrafines. In both cases, the diamond rods did their job quickly and I was able to get very sharp edges.

Comparing these knives to my troublesome Damasteel blade, the two obvious differences were the blade steel (both Benchmades were ATS-34) and the thickness of the edge. The Damasteel edge is much thicker; it appears there's about 2-3 times as much metal contacting the sharpening rods as on the other knives. I'm betting this is the biggest factor.

I'll try taking a closer look at the edges to see my progress, if I can get my hands on a lupe...

-Brett

 

[Jameson]

Brett,

I am surprised that you are having trouble with this steel, and not with your Benchmade ats-34 steels. Those are hardened at or near 60 and, for me at least, have made for tougher sharpening. So if you are getting through those somewhat fast, then maybe you are not applying enough pressure, in fear of scratching/damaging the damasteel, or it is much harder than what you are used to. Try laying a coarser hone along the 204 V and using that for a bunch of strokes till you get closer to where you wanna be bevel wise. Then you might only need 10 mins or so to finish up. Good luck.

JC