Sharpmaker stones too smooth

J

jscalia

Joined
Dec 11, 2006
Messages
126
Why is it that my sharpmaker stones feel "smooth" when I'm trying to sharpen despite aggressively cleaning all the metal off with abrasive cleaners. Is there a hard coating that needs to be scraped off of them to be effective?
 
I use Hoppes #9 gun solvent on mine. Its available at any gun store or Wal Mart. I use a rag and wipe them down every ten strokes or so. It makes a huge difference in the cutting acions of the stones. A difference you can really feel.

I'd try soaking them in the Hoppes solvent overnight, then scrub them with a Scotchbrite pad.

Good luck,
Scott
 
Good old WD40 seems to work to, maybe the slickness is caused by an oil buildup on the rods and they need to be degreased. If thats the case maybe Windex would work as well???
 
Which rods are you talking about? The whites should feel fairly smooth. The only texture you should be feeling with your thumb.

Even the grays are not really rough. They are meant for sharpening, not for reprofiling (rebeveling). For such work you need something more aggressive.
 
Anyone ever try a DMT Fine or Extra Fine? I've been toying with the idea to add some more "teeth" to medium rods, which seem too smooth to me, even though I regularly scrub them with abrasive cleaner.
 
I use coarse DMT with Sharpmaker. I lean it against flat and clamp it with binder clip.
 
I mean use the DMT to lap the sharpmaker rods, giving them more "teeth" against the steel.
 
I have the medium benchstone, which I assume is the same as the medium rods (grayish brown)

I clean it about every two or three knives, but I only use it as a touchup stone - on knives that are not too bad, or as the last step before stropping. If I need to take off metal I use a different stone. Diamond, or SiC

I have no doubt that Hoppes #9 would work, but I haven't tried it. I generally scrub mine with a brush and some comet, or run it through the dishwasher.
 
RobbW said:
I mean use the DMT to lap the sharpmaker rods, giving them more "teeth" against the steel.
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I know this is what Leonard Lee recommends, but actually, according to Sal, that will grade them finer (the ceramic crushes the diamonds and the diamond dust fills the voids) and he recommends against it, if you don't want them finer (well he said that with regards to the white rods). Considering that I have M, F, and UF, I don't really see any use in doing it. If I want something finer or coarser, I just use a different rod. It is not that you are going to make a coarse ceramic out of the grey rods anyway.
 
There have been quite a few reports here on BFC of Sharpmaker rods with "problems" ranging from chips/imperfections to warpage. I have noticed that the flat sides on newer Sharpmaker rods are often irregular, not flat. My understanding is that ceramic hones and rods have to be lapped to be made true and flat, it appears this isn't being done fully in some cases. I suspect this could result in some having smoother or glazed areas that don't cut as well. Maybe lapping them down yourself would work as some have suggested, maybe not .... could be something wrong in the way some rods are fired.

I would contact Spyderco, maybe they'll replace them.
 
on the dvd Sal recommends rubbing the gray (look brown to me :)) rods together to break the glaze.
 
DoW:The Sharpmaker rods are not lapped at all. Only the UF stones are tumbled. During the sintering (firing) the rods can warp, happens on occasion. They are rarely perfectly true, but that usually doesn't matter functionally. The UF stones are essentially F stones that are tumbled after firing which essentially grades them finer.

Hardheart: The grays are differently sintered. They are open-pore sintered, rubbing them against each other breaks open the pores, it is not really a glaze, its more that you open the pores (best I can describe it), but that happens over time anyways. The grays can in principle eventually also wear away....never heard of anyone actually managing to do that though.
 
HoB said:
DoW:The Sharpmaker rods are not lapped at all.
Click to expand...
Interesting, and appreciate that information .... and IMO therein lies a problem since it renders the flats far less useful.

They are rarely perfectly true, but that usually doesn't matter functionally.
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Well obviously I disagree :) unless all you intend to use is the corners. All the medium Sharpmaker rods I've seen lately are essentially concave, kind of hollow and irregular in the middle of the flats. Haven't seen any newer white rods so can't comment on those.

HoB, do you happen to know if Spyderco's ceramic files, the triangular in particular, are lapped?
 
scottang1 said:
I use Hoppes #9 gun solvent on mine. Its available at any gun store or Wal Mart. I use a rag and wipe them down every ten strokes or so. It makes a huge difference in the cutting acions of the stones. A difference you can really feel.

I'd try soaking them in the Hoppes solvent overnight, then scrub them with a Scotchbrite pad.

Good luck,
Scott
Click to expand...

That's interesting SCOTTANG. What do you attribute to the Hoppe's #9 Solvent doing to the stone. It is a petroleum distillate and I don't recall it having any acid properties to it. However I guess some petroleum distillates do have somewhat of a caustic and a very powerful solvent action. That is interesting and I am going to try it myself. I have some G-96 solvent that I think is virtually the same make up as the Hoppe's

One thing I do when I clean my 204 Sharpmaker stones is to use Bar Keeper's Friend which is a very potent scouring powder. You usually find it in Grocery stores right where they keep the AJax and Comet cleansers.
 
HoB said:
DoW:The Sharpmaker rods are not lapped at all. Only the UF stones are tumbled. During the sintering (firing) the rods can warp, happens on occasion. They are rarely perfectly true, but that usually doesn't matter functionally. The UF stones are essentially F stones that are tumbled after firing which essentially grades them finer.

Hardheart: The grays are differently sintered. They are open-pore sintered, rubbing them against each other breaks open the pores, it is not really a glaze, its more that you open the pores (best I can describe it), but that happens over time anyways. The grays can in principle eventually also wear away....never heard of anyone actually managing to do that though.
Click to expand...

That's interesting HOB :) Now one thing I did to a set of my medium (gray) 204 Sharpmaker stones was to take one of my diamond benchstones and rough the stone up a bit. I have recently found that scoring the stone crossways rather than lengthways makes the stone abrade a bit better.

If there's one thing that I always thought that the Sharpmaker falls short on is the fact that they have never made either an extra-coarse stone for rapid stock removal of a really beat up blade. You could sell them as extras just like they do the Ultra Fine stones. But when I am traveling I usually take along a coarse or extra-coarse Norton Diamond Benchstone just for reprofiling.

But overall the Spyderco 204 Sharpmaker is the best sharpening kit to travel with barr none. I'm just asking for a minor improvement that's all. :)
 
Yes, JD, I have wondered as well, whether it might be possible to imprint a texture on at least one corner of the gray rods, so that it acts as a very fine file. I agree, a coarse diamond benchstone, the Sharpmaker and a strop is all you need even for very demanding edges, and you can even glue a piece of leather to the Sharpmaker lid and carry your strop with you without adding bulk.

DoW: No, I don't know but I don't think so. Sal said that they are already not making money on the UFs, because the tumbling is a time consuming and "expensive" and carry them only for the afficinados. Lapping ceramics would probably be absolutely cost prohibitive. There is a HUGE difference between lapping a ceramic WATERSTONE and a ceramic abrasive like the Sharpmaker rods. As I said, the grays can actually be worn, but the whites will essentially never show wear, so imagine lapping them. You would have to use diamonds and looots of them....or at least CBN, which isn't that cheap either (industrial quantities).

I mean, I agree with you to some extent, Spyderco has replaced two rods for me as well. So, yes it can happen, but the ones I have now are staight enough that lapping would even out high spots in the 10/1000 inch order of magnitude. And I don't think that is really necessary. And the one that I returned that was bend would have been impossible to flatten by lapping, because the rod wouldn't have been triangular anymore.
 
HoB said:
I know this is what Leonard Lee recommends, but actually, according to Sal, that will grade them finer (the ceramic crushes the diamonds and the diamond dust fills the voids) and he recommends against it, if you don't want them finer (well he said that with regards to the white rods). Considering that I have M, F, and UF, I don't really see any use in doing it. If I want something finer or coarser, I just use a different rod. It is not that you are going to make a coarse ceramic out of the grey rods anyway.
Click to expand...

Thanks HoB. This is good information. I love the Spyderco sharpener, but the ceramic grit particles themselves are a bit too smooth and rounded for my liking. I could actually live with the Medium and a Coarser rod. I rarely use the Fine, white ceramic. If I'm aiming for that level of polish, I pull out my Edge Pro.

On some types of steel though, I'd like a bit more agressive action than the Medium ceramic provides. Sometimes I get the feeling I'm bending/working the edge rather than taking enough off, especially with S30V. I get the edges sharp, but if I haven't recently used more aggressive stones on the Edge Pro, the edges don't last as long. This seems to be less of a problem with D2 than S30V.
 
Thanks, HoB. If I'm not mistaken Spyderco's ceramic rods, hones and files are made by Coors Ceramics, which certainly has the capability of manufacturing product to very close tolerances, but whether it's cost efficient is another question. I can tell you from having lapped a medium Sharpmaker rod with a diamond hone, it is a helluva lot of work. Perhaps this explains why Spyderco hones are priced like they are, since they obviously need to be flat.
 
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