Sharpmaker Mirror Edge?

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ricklee4570

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Aug 12, 2010
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Is it possible to polish up an edge to mirror status using the Spyderco Sharpmaker and finishing with the Ultra Fine stones?
 
ricklee4570 said:
Is it possible to polish up an edge to mirror status using the Spyderco Sharpmaker and finishing with the Ultra Fine stones?
Click to expand...

Nope, you're going to need a lot more grits than just the 3 or 4. Even with stropping afterwards, you aren't going to have a mirror (at least with what I've seen and experienced).
 
Heiheit said:
Nope, you're going to need a lot more grits than just the 3 or 4. Even with stropping afterwards, you aren't going to have a mirror (at least with what I've seen and experienced).
Click to expand...

My spyderco UF benchstone does a mirror polish...
 
Heiheit said:
Nope, you're going to need a lot more grits than just the 3 or 4. Even with stropping afterwards, you aren't going to have a mirror (at least with what I've seen and experienced).
Click to expand...

+1

I never saw anything near a polished edge with the sharp maker
 
Mirror, no

Highly polished and very close, yes

The UF ceramic is comparable to a 8-10k waterstone so its close but you will still see scratches in the edge finish. Final finishing with a 1 micron diamond compound will usually take you to a pure mirror finish with no visible scratch pattern.

You can also lap the UF ceramic with a fine diamond plate to produce a finer finish. A lapped ceramic will be in the 12k+ grit range and produce a very nice polish with a scratch pattern only visible under magnafication.
 
ricklee4570 said:
Is it possible to polish up an edge to mirror status using the Spyderco Sharpmaker and finishing with the Ultra Fine stones?
Click to expand...
I also don't think you can. If you look at SoLo's video how he sharpens his knife freehand, he uses the same setting but instead of the triangular rods on the sharpmaker he uses the a diamond benchstone, the medium and fine ceramic reprofile rods and the ultrafine benchstone from Spyderco and strops afterwards. The result are way better than on the spyderco sharpmaker so I wonder if it's the more continous forth and back with somewhat more pressure? I wonder if we could use down and! up motion on the sharpmaker on one side to archieve similiar results or just start practicing freehand. As we say in german: "uebung macht den meister"
Thanks!
 
I use the ultra fine rods and although it may not be mirror polished under magnification...it is pretty dang close!! Looking at my edges with my naked eye it looks pretty polished to me and I am very happy with the finished result!!
 
Yeah to me 'mirror' starts at a 1000 grit EP stone or the 8k Norton, but it's really not if you look close enough. Shiny enough for me though.
 
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