Sharpmaker making trouble

CPP

CPP

Gold Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2014
Messages
1,518
I have had my Sharpmaker for several years and sharpened several knives with a variety of different steels on it with varying results. Usually, I am able to get a sharp, consistent edge without much difficulty, but sometimes I get flat spots–especially right before the tip. There is no pattern between results and blade steel or shapes that I can see. Has anyone else had this problem? I have tried the Sharpie Method to mixed results, I keep my head over the blade as I sharpening it to make sure the blade is connecting with the sharpening rods and I am careful to apply consistent but pretty gentle to the knife as I pull it through. For the most part, it's not too bad and going from CBN rods to medium to fine and then stropping I am able make the bevel pretty consistent at least to the naked eye. Looking at it closely though I can see just how uneven the bevel is. I was thinking that a sturdier and more closely guided sharpener like the Wicked Edge might leave even less room for error than the Sharpmaker. Any thoughts?
 
I've had that issue after many perfectly sharpened blades, I hadn't cleaned the stones/rods/triangles in a while and knives were hitting steel not stone in some spots. I think I used ajax or bar keepers friend and scrubbed them until they were back to original (this with black/gray marks->white, brown with black/gray marks->brown). May not be your issue, but if you haven't cleaned in a while or ever, worth a try to get them factory fresh again.
 
I've had my Sharpmaker for several years too and the plastic rod base has kind of loosened up so the rods don't sit at the exact angles they used to.

That along with some other reasons is why I've asked the wife for a KME for Christmas.

The Sharpmaker is a good beginner sharpener but the more you get into sharpening, the more you'll realize how actually limited it is.
 
Thanks for the replies. I think my first step will be cleaning the ceramic rods. And then a sharpener upgrade… and then learn freehand?
 
CPP said:
I have had my Sharpmaker for several years and sharpened several knives with a variety of different steels on it with varying results. Usually, I am able to get a sharp, consistent edge without much difficulty, but sometimes I get flat spots–especially right before the tip. There is no pattern between results and blade steel or shapes that I can see. Has anyone else had this problem? I have tried the Sharpie Method to mixed results, I keep my head over the blade as I sharpening it to make sure the blade is connecting with the sharpening rods and I am careful to apply consistent but pretty gentle to the knife as I pull it through. For the most part, it's not too bad and going from CBN rods to medium to fine and then stropping I am able make the bevel pretty consistent at least to the naked eye. Looking at it closely though I can see just how uneven the bevel is. I was thinking that a sturdier and more closely guided sharpener like the Wicked Edge might leave even less room for error than the Sharpmaker. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I've found the upswept, curved portions near the tips of blades more vulnerable to the 'flat spotting' you mention. Especially near the tip, the steel is almost always thicker there, ground at a more obtuse angle, and therefore needs more work to thin adequately and make as sharp as the rest of the edge. The combination of a smaller contact area in these upswept portions, and the need for heavier grinding there, means it's very, very easy to overgrind small portions and leave those glaringly obvious flat spots along the otherwise curved edge profile.

I've found the best way to avoid the flat-spotting is to make sure the sharpening passes are always made THROUGH the upswept portion in consistent, sweeping passes heel-to-tip, as opposed to trying to 'scrub' the spots you know are in need of thinning. If you get in the mode of trying to 'fix' those portions with selective scrubbing, at least some flattening or straightening of the upswept portion is always going to result. It's much easier to make these even, sweeping passes on a larger stone (bench-size), as smaller hones are tedious and very slow to work with one-direction, linear passes. There's a natural tendency, for me anyway, to try to scrub with a small hone, just to speed up the work. It doesn't help that the SM ceramic hones are already not very aggressive anyway.


David
 
I thought long and hard before getting a wicked edge,glad I did it's a great bit of kit imho.
 
CPP said:
I have had my Sharpmaker for several years and sharpened several knives with a variety of different steels on it with varying results. Usually, I am able to get a sharp, consistent edge without much difficulty, but sometimes I get flat spots–especially right before the tip. There is no pattern between results and blade steel or shapes that I can see. Has anyone else had this problem? I have tried the Sharpie Method to mixed results, I keep my head over the blade as I sharpening it to make sure the blade is connecting with the sharpening rods and I am careful to apply consistent but pretty gentle to the knife as I pull it through. For the most part, it's not too bad and going from CBN rods to medium to fine and then stropping I am able make the bevel pretty consistent at least to the naked eye. Looking at it closely though I can see just how uneven the bevel is. I was thinking that a sturdier and more closely guided sharpener like the Wicked Edge might leave even less room for error than the Sharpmaker. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Do you rotate the blade as you approach the tip, to better follow the curved area? A guided system should provide better results, but all sharpeners have a learning curve, so if you're otherwise happy with your Sharpmaker results, might try figuring out this issue first (unless of course, you're looking for a Xmas present excuse...) ;). In all seriousness though, it might be time for a sharpener upgrade.
 
If you look down the rod you should see the blade touching the centre of the flat. What you move the knife down, assuming a normally curved blade, you need to angle it down to keep the point of contact right in the middle of the flat. If you keep the blade horizontal then as you reach the curved part it will touch only at the corner and at the wrong angle.
 
Agree with what others have mentioned. Just wanted to comment on this " I keep my head over the blade as I sharpening it to make sure the blade is connecting with the sharpening rods"

Try backing up a bit. I find when I get to "over" the Sharpmaker, it's hard to rotate the blade to hit the end/tip correctly. My arms are to crunch up against my side and restricted. I step back a bit and and put the sharpener in front of me. It just frees up your arms.

Also, I try not to visually focus on the blade angle so much. The harder I look at it, the more "wobble" I get. It's kinda like riding a bike over a plank. If you look straight down at the plank as your riding, you're probably going to fall off. It's better to look ahead just a bit. Same concept when driving. If you keep looking at the white lane on the side of the road, you're going to veer toward it. I hope that makes sense.
 
try this!i always set up my sharpmaker with a mirror behind it,and follow my strokes looking in the mirror,for me it prevent the knife wobble's,and i always clean my rods every 9 or 10 sharpening's.
 
blanex1 said:
try this!i always set up my sharpmaker with a mirror behind it,and follow my strokes looking in the mirror,for me it prevent the knife wobble's,and i always clean my rods every 9 or 10 sharpening's.
Click to expand...

a mirror! what a great idea I never would have thought of...
The plan is for the boys to use the Sharpmaker to maintain edges made consistent and sharp with KME. The KME is a training tool that eliminates the dimension of angle from knife sharpening for my oldest who could not maintain verticality. When we reintroduce the SM into the workflow again a mirror will be in use. THANK YOU.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top