Sharpmaker problem

M

Mike14_07

Joined
Apr 20, 2015
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28
So im trying to figure out what im doing wrong. My tenacious will get super sharp with my sharpmaker, use it once boom dull as crap. I use the corner all the way till about a 1/4-1/8 from the tip, hit the flats, the kick the knife out, so the tip is perfectly perpendicular to the stone, and hit the tip area. Go onto the fines and ultra fines. Knife will get way sharper than it was out of the box then cut one thing and boom dull. Any tips? And is that the perfered method for getting the tip?
 
Hey Mike may I ask where you purchased your knife from? I'm asking because I read a thread similar to your situation and his knife turned out to be a clone. What is it that you are cutting? When sliding the blade down the rod you can bring the tip to the middle of the rod. Just don't slide it all the way back. From what you are saying you seem to be doing it right. I've also seen some people go down and up on the rods on each side. Everyone has a different way. I personally do it just like Sal showed us. Works just fine for me.
 
I rarely hear complaints about 8CR14MOV, it's a good all around steel and should hold the edge better than that, perhaps a bad heat treat? Maybe the edge was overheated from factory grind? And what's that you are cutting? Lots of factors.

What you can do is follow the instructions on taking off the edge (apex) by cutting into the medium Rod like Sal did in the video, this should remove the weak edge and then you form a new edge and see if that holds better
 
Hi Mike, can i assume that you are certain your edge is free of any burrs or wire edge when you finish sharpening? This can sometimes cause an edge to feel quite sharp but then dull almost instantly. I would strongly recommend purchasing an inexpensive 10 or 12x loupe. You will learn a LOT about your sharpening with that little tool. If you are certain that you have a clean apex then I would agree that you should be seeing better performance that what you are describing. Again though, a loupe will answer many of your questions.

As an aside, when sharpening tip of knives with lots of upward sweep, I simply raise the handle as that will maintain the angle and prevent dragging the tip off the stone. You should not have to move it "outward".
 
you probably got a wire edge. you could get a strop to finish the job, it's cheap, will work wonders and last for years. If you go with DLT trading, get the bark river white compound. the other grits are not necessary and they do not cut into the steel as well.
 
I bought the inife from walmart.com, had the best price at the time. It wasnt very sharp at the time. How do i keep from getting a wire edge? That may be my problem. On the tip, how do do you get all of the tip with out kicking it to the side? If i dont, the edge only hits the corner of the stone not the flats. How do you take off an edge?
 
I also am noticing after the belly of the knive the whole upward sweep of the edge is slightly shorter than the flat edge on all the knive ive reprofiled with my diamond stones
 
Mike14_07 said:
I bought the inife from walmart.com, had the best price at the time. It wasnt very sharp at the time. How do i keep from getting a wire edge? That may be my problem. On the tip, how do do you get all of the tip with out kicking it to the side? If i dont, the edge only hits the corner of the stone not the flats. How do you take off an edge?
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eh? just follow Sal's instructions, with practice you'll get it, and get a strop for finish and maintenance.
 
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You can see what im talking about on my esee
 
i'll bet wire burr as well. hard to see and feel sometimes. super sharp until you cut anything that folds it over. the rest is all grip angle. it's very hard to maintain the angle while moving your hand. i still use the sharpie often as i tend to move at wrong angles myself sometimes and not notice it.
 
So a strop will finish off the burr? Is there a way to not get it with the sharpmaker? Ive been using the sharpie on the esee, cleans the the sharpie off evenly just getting a weird edge. The flat bottom looks perfect, then the round part is alot taller, and the tip gets a bit shorter. I go slow to maintain the blade straight
 
Mike14_07 said:
I bought the inife from walmart.com, had the best price at the time. It wasnt very sharp at the time. How do i keep from getting a wire edge? That may be my problem. On the tip, how do do you get all of the tip with out kicking it to the side? If i dont, the edge only hits the corner of the stone not the flats. How do you take off an edge?
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Hi Mike, you need to follow the curve of the tip by raising the handle, not by kicking the knife out sideways. By doing that you are following the curve by changing the sharpening angle. If that doesn't make sense, imagine that if you kicked the handle out far enough you would be running the edge directly into the stone at 90 degrees. Make sense now? Take one of your knives and raise the handle about 30 degrees lay the tip against the flat of the stone and you will see that it lies perfectly flat without kicking the handle out at all. If you are always kicking the handle out like that then that's probably why your edge bevel has become more obtuse at the tip. You've got a lot of reprofiling work to do buddy. :p I assume you have the diamond rods or cbn rods for the SM?
 
I saw this post and wondered if I could help. Then I saw who the last poster was and I knew that it was covered.
Trust Surfingringo! :)
I could throw in a geometric description but it boils down to holding the knife so that the abrasive meets the blade at the same orientation regardless of where you are on the blade.
Phrased differently if you were cutting on a board you couldn't slice with the tip without lifting the handle, so you should sharpen the same way that you cut.
 
I got a strop from the river site: Fromm Razor Strop 2 1/2" X 23" and it works very well. Just need stropping compound.
 
Mike14_07 said:
Gotcha makes sense. Ill give that ago and order a strop this afternoon. Any recomendation?
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Mike, when working on the last half inch or so of the tip, (and when you have to remove a lot of material) you can raise the handle and do a "up and down/back and forth" motion without the tip ever leaving the stone. You will get a rhythm and even get kind of a circular motion going. This will remove material WAY faster than trying to make individual downstrokes. Once you start to reach the apex on both sides you can slow down and use just downstrokes. Just a tip to save you some elbow grease and time.
 
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I'd suggest while keeping the whole blade section vertical, make sure the edge tangent is at 90° against the stone. I mean on the flat part of the knife, the handle is horizontal. Reaching into belly and tip, point the blade down so you still 'slice' the stone at 90° angle.

Hope I'm making sense. This video by Ken illustrates the same thing but blade is horizontal instead.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JFhUXgYS0Os

I don't think 8Cr has high tendency to have stubborn burr. Finish with light pressure edge leading stroke. Alternate the sides.
 
Here is a video from the sharpening wizard who's first knife product was the Sharpmaker. It is a four part video series which should solve your problem.

I use my Sharpmaker according to the instructions. Back bevel is 30 degrees inclusive, and the primary micro bevel is 40 degrees inclusive. Works great on 95% of the knives I sharpen. The 30 degree back bevel only has to be used about every 30 sharpenings if your knives have good steel. The fine rods should remove every wire if you lightly use them to finish the primary edge sharpening.

Here is the great video #1 of 4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB0r6GvESGg
 
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