Sharpmaker Question

P

PharmD921

Joined
Dec 11, 2012
Messages
4
I have had my Sharpmaker for a while now. Just recently really learned how to use it well. I have sharpened all the knives in the house to the point they will easily push cut the thinnest wrapping paper the wife has. I screwed up the "edges" of the medium stones working on some fillet knives when I first got it, so I ordered new stones, which i received today.

The wife already managed to drastically dull a wusthof paring knife so I decided to take action.....here in lies the rub. Sharpening that knife, and subsequent wusthof steak knives I noticed the new stones leaving small chips in the edges. This absolutely did not happen to these knives the first time around. I decided at that point to try some harder steel. I went and "dulled" a D2 griptilian on a piece of stainless cable, then proceeded to work. In about 5 min I have it as sharp as I ever did without any of those DAM chips in the blade.

For you guys who know more than me....which I am sure is most of you...why did new stones bring about those little chips and what can I do about them?

I kept the old stones because the "flats" are still good, only the edges got demolished by the fillet knives.

Second: I ordered the ultrafine stones as well. If I use those on the 30 degree back bevel side is it possible to get the "mirror" I see some folks on here have on their blades? I have no other equipment but the sharpmaker and all the stones that go with. Up until a couple weeks ago I was totally useless at sharpening a knife.
 
PharmD921 said:
I have had my Sharpmaker for a while now. Just recently really learned how to use it well. I have sharpened all the knives in the house to the point they will easily push cut the thinnest wrapping paper the wife has. I screwed up the "edges" of the medium stones working on some fillet knives when I first got it, so I ordered new stones, which i received today.

The wife already managed to drastically dull a wusthof paring knife so I decided to take action.....here in lies the rub. Sharpening that knife, and subsequent wusthof steak knives I noticed the new stones leaving small chips in the edges. This absolutely did not happen to these knives the first time around. I decided at that point to try some harder steel. I went and "dulled" a D2 griptilian on a piece of stainless cable, then proceeded to work. In about 5 min I have it as sharp as I ever did without any of those DAM chips in the blade.

For you guys who know more than me....which I am sure is most of you...why did new stones bring about those little chips and what can I do about them?

I kept the old stones because the "flats" are still good, only the edges got demolished by the fillet knives.

Second: I ordered the ultrafine stones as well. If I use those on the 30 degree back bevel side is it possible to get the "mirror" I see some folks on here have on their blades? I have no other equipment but the sharpmaker and all the stones that go with. Up until a couple weeks ago I was totally useless at sharpening a knife.
Click to expand...

5-7 of them scattered about the whole edge.
 
I'm curious as to how the edges (corners?) of your older Sharpmaker rods got damaged or 'demolished' by the fillet knives? What exactly has happened to them? Are they chipped, or have they just become 'slow' (non-aggressive)? Ordinarily, these ceramics should last years (if not a lifetime), so long as excessive pressure isn't used with them. If they're just slow, they might just need a thorough cleaning. Ceramics will load up with metal swarf pretty fast, so they need to be cleaned regularly. If not, the swarf will clog the abrasive, and it will lose it's aggressiveness.

The 'chips' (more likely dents) in the softer steel of the kitchen knives, after sharpening on the new stones, might've been the result of bumps or other imperfections in the surface of the ceramic. Sometimes, new ceramic hones will be a little bumpy, and most times, the bumps can be worked off with some burnishing (using another ceramic) or just during normal use. It's possible you might've dislodged them afterwards, when putting the new edge on your D2 blade.
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
I'm curious as to how the edges (corners?) of your older Sharpmaker rods got damaged or 'demolished' by the fillet knives? What exactly has happened to them? Are they chipped, or have they just become 'slow' (non-aggressive)? Ordinarily, these ceramics should last years (if not a lifetime), so long as excessive pressure isn't used with them. If they're just slow, they might just need a thorough cleaning. Ceramics will load up with metal swarf pretty fast, so they need to be cleaned regularly. If not, the swarf will clog the abrasive, and it will lose it's aggressiveness.

The 'chips' (more likely dents) in the softer steel of the kitchen knives, after sharpening on the new stones, might've been the result of bumps or other imperfections in the surface of the ceramic. Sometimes, new ceramic hones will be a little bumpy, and most times, the bumps can be worked off with some burnishing (using another ceramic) or just during normal use. It's possible you might've dislodged them afterwards, when putting the new edge on your D2 blade.
Click to expand...

I killed the old edges with the fillet knives by pushing WAY too hard. I had no clue how to use the thing and saw the video where it said to push a flexible blade sideways. I was pushing like he**. Lesson learned. The chips seem to actually be missing metal. I have a 10x magnifier from my days in entymology class and looked at the edge with that. Can I just rub the new stones together to get rid of any imperfections? When sharpening the D2 grip the new stones seemed to be more coarse than the old ones. I got the same level of sharpness but had to use the white stones more than normal. I attributed that to the use and abuse i put the flats of the old stones through when sharpening the fillet knives and tons of others.
 
This happened to me on my 1095 custom, you have to take the edges of the medium triangles to each other and break them in to get the most stable grit. (do this for medium/and fine). ONLY RUB THE EDGES OF THE SAME GRITS. Medium with medium. Fine with fine. DO NOT RUB THE EDGES OF A MEDIUM WITH A FINE!!!
Will take a while, but the chipping should disappear. The other thing is, many people move fast with the spyderco system and hit the edge constantly on the stones from switching from one side to the other. This causes chips. Take it easy when setting the edge down on the stone.
 
My sharpmaker was new in the box with a chipped medium rod. I sent the chipped rod back and received a new, chip-free rod back from Spyderco.
 
PharmD921 said:
I killed the old edges with the fillet knives by pushing WAY too hard. I had no clue how to use the thing and saw the video where it said to push a flexible blade sideways. I was pushing like he**. Lesson learned. The chips seem to actually be missing metal. I have a 10x magnifier from my days in entymology class and looked at the edge with that. Can I just rub the new stones together to get rid of any imperfections? When sharpening the D2 grip the new stones seemed to be more coarse than the old ones. I got the same level of sharpness but had to use the white stones more than normal. I attributed that to the use and abuse i put the flats of the old stones through when sharpening the fillet knives and tons of others.
Click to expand...

You can rub the rods together, to burnish the bumps from them. A little while after reading your post yesterday, I dug out my Sharpmaker and touched up a couple or three knives on the medium rods. I noticed even on mine, there were some little bumps felt along the edges (corners) of them, which I haven't used much anyway (I usually rely on using the flats more often). When touching up blades on ceramics, a feather-light touch is always better, and also makes it easier to feel any bumps or imperfections via feedback from your fingertips (this is how I noticed the bumps in mine). I just lightly rubbed the affected areas of the rod against the flat of the other rod, and that seemed to help. Make sure to do this lightly, so the bumps don't turn into chips.

The stainless steel in most kitchen knives (including Wusthof) is very ductile stuff. The combination of high chromium content, with not a lot of carbon content (usually ~0.5% or so, maybe even less), and relatively low hardness (mid-50s RC, most of the time) makes it very difficult, almost impossible, to actually chip it. If there is metal missing from the dings in your edges, it might've been scrubbed away by the bumps on the rods. At any rate, I think burnishing the edges of the rods, by rubbing them together, should help. Some here have posted in the past, about excessively bumpy/rough finish on the rods, and in some cases, have returned them to Spyderco to replace them. If you can't knock down the bumps in your new rods with some gentle burnishing, that's what I'd likely do. I think Spyderco has a pretty good rep for making these things right, one way or another.


David
 
Last edited:
Obsessed with Edges said:
You can rub the rods together, to burnish the bumps from them. A little while after reading your post yesterday, I dug out my Sharpmaker and touched up a couple or three knives on the medium rods. I noticed even on mine, there were some little bumps felt along the edges (corners) of them, which I haven't used much anyway (I usually rely on using the flats more often). When touching up blades on ceramics, a feather-light touch is always better, and also makes it easier to feel any bumps or imperfections via feedback from your fingertips (this is how I noticed the bumps in mine). I just lightly rubbed the affected areas of the rod against the flat of the other rod, and that seemed to help. Make sure to do this lightly, so the bumps don't turn into chips.

The stainless steel in most kitchen knives (including Wusthof) is very ductile stuff. The combination of high chromium content, with not a lot of carbon content (usually ~0.5% or so, maybe even less), and relatively low hardness (mid-50s RC, most of the time) makes it very difficult, almost impossible, to actually chip it. If there is metal missing from the dings in your edges, it might've been scrubbed away by the bumps on the rods. At any rate, I think burnishing the edges of the rods, by rubbing them together, should help. Some here have posted in the past, about excessively bumpy/rough finish on the rods, and in some cases, have returned them to Spyderco to replace them. If you can't knock down the bumps in your new rods with some gentle burnishing, that's what I'd likely do. I think Spyderco has a pretty good rep for making these things right, one way or another.


David
Click to expand...
What he said.
 
I've always wondered about chips people talk about on the rods. What I've noticed is the little anomalies on the rods under magnification appear to be maybe air pockets coming to the surface during forming process. I say this because when I examined them under magnification the periphery of the areas appeared to be more rounded and not sharply delineated like a chip.One of my greys had a very pronounced crease on the flat. I decided to concentrate my strokes on that section to see what effect it would have.When i checked on the newspaper to check the outcome the edge was sharp and smooth.My white rod had a rough patch along the corner of one rod I sharpened that also on it purposely and after a quick strop on my hand I was whittling hairs with it.So from my informal tests i've had no detrimental effects from them.Just no excessive pressure.The imperfections could be things coming in contact with them also during the green state.Just conjecture though on my part.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top