Sharpmaker UF

F

Frank Hillary

Joined
Mar 29, 2005
Messages
149
Hi,

I got a cople of SM UF rods. A bit disapointing. Nowhere as fine as their flat stone. And not anywhere as fine a my Lankky Saphire blue stone. Have I got a dud? it is finer that the medium white stone, but as I said not as fine as I would like.

Any coments?

Regards
Frank
 
My UF rods seem pretty fine to me. Does your UF rod have the bottom of one end painted in red?
 
I have a lansky sapphire but it doesnt work well cause it gets metal stuck to it and there is no way to get it off unless a grind it against a coarse diamond and even that doesnt do much...havent got the sharpmaker yet though.
 
Hi Irezumi,

Irezumi said:
I have a lansky sapphire but it doesnt work well cause it gets metal stuck to it and there is no way to get it off unless a grind it against a coarse diamond and even that doesnt do much...havent got the sharpmaker yet though.
Click to expand...

I had the same problem. It probably has hi spots and is galling. Dress the stone FLAT with a DMT diamond coarse stone the finish it with a DMT fine. When using the Lansky ceramic, any ceramic, use some bycicle oil with teflon and it wont load up or gall

Regards
Frank
 
Frank Hillary said:
Hardheart



My Lansky saphire blue stone leaves a far finer finish and so does me Spyderco ultra fine flat stone that I got some years ago.

Regards
Frank
Click to expand...

well, I think the UF is fired the same as the fine stones, and is just tumbled after for a smoother surface. There may have been an issue in that part of the process. Also, I have noticed that the stones are not always perfectly flat, so there may be high spots affecting the sharpening response. And of course, the bench stone has a wider surface to hone against, so there is less pressure against the cutting edge, which leaves a finer finish.

Never tried the Lansky sapphire, though.
 
Don't blaim me if it doesn't work for you, but I noticed my white, fine rods got a lot finer when I rubbed them together or rubbed then on a white fine bench stone. So you might try that with the ultrafines unless someone knows better.
 
I personally have 2 sets of the Spyderco 204 Ultra-fine stones. I have had excellent luck with both sets of mine. I got both sets of mine back around 03. Both sets of Spyderco 204 UF stones that I own are noticably much finer than the 204 fine stones. I have had great sharpening success with them.

It is highly possible you could have got a bad batch. I once got a Spyderco 302 fine Benchstone like the one you just talked about. The very first one I got had ripples on the surface of it. I immediately sent the stone back to Spyderco and they not only sent me another fine stone as a replacement but they also set me a medium grit 302 stone along with it. The replacement stone I got was excellent and so was the medium grit stone as well.

I'm thinking that probably what has happened is that you more than likely got a FINE stone that was just simply mislabeled. Or it could be the set you have may just indeed be out of a bad batch. Because all of my Spyderco sharpening equipment has just been splendid.
 
Hi matt321,

matt321 said:
Don't blaim me if it doesn't work for you, but I noticed my white, fine rods got a lot finer when I rubbed them together or rubbed then on a white fine bench stone. So you might try that with the ultrafines unless someone knows better.
Click to expand...

Done that. They cut OK, just not as fine as the Spyderco benchstone or the Lansy saphire. The bnchstone cuts fines than a Jap 8000 water stone I have. Same for the Lansky saphire.

Dont know who makes them for spyderco, maynbe the subcontractor evry now and then gets it a bit wrong. Same with Lansky diamonds, which vary a lot in quality. The last two I boght are useless.

Regards
Frank
 
[JD Spydo,

My cut finer than the mediums, but are still to corse. I think that there is probably a bit of varbility from batch to batch.

Regards
John
 
Frank Hillary said:
[JD Spydo,

My cut finer than the mediums, but are still to corse. I think that there is probably a bit of varbility from batch to batch.

Regards
John
Click to expand...

I would definitely take the matter up with Spyderco customer service. Back in 02 I got one of the first sets of the diamond stones for the 204 Sharpmaker. Within one month of use the diamonds on the stone were falling out and the stone just didn't seem right at all. I shelved them for a while and then I took them with me to the 2003 BLADE show where I knew that Spyderco would have a booth.

I got to meet Sal Glesser for the first time and I showed him the stones. He took the stones and said that they wanted to check them out for manufacturer's defects. I was sent a new set of stones within a week. I still have the new set and they have done well over the last few years.

Bottom line is: Spyderco does want you to be satisfied with the items. Also they will want to see what went wrong with the ones you have.
 
Frank Hillary said:
The bnchstone cuts fines than a Jap 8000 water stone I have. Same for the Lansky saphire.
Click to expand...

what brand waterstone? Everything I've seen has put the UF around 4-6000. If it's a Norton stone, you should cut the number in half, their 8000 is close to 4000.
 
Even 6000 I would consider high for UF rods. On thing is for sure: the corners of the UF rods are not as fine as the UF flats. But either way I am somewhat surprised that you see such a difference in the end product, how do rank the "fineness" of the rods? Do you look at the scratch pattern under a microscope?
 
Hardheart,

I made a mistake with #8000 - My water stone is a Ice Bear #10000 which is finer. Meybe I have a unusluly very fine Spyderco UF benchstobne. Bought it when they first came out.

HoB

Yest I looked under a 20x-40x microscope.

I also noticed that the corners of the rods give a rougher finish. Maybe that's me problem - Thats mostly what I use.

Regards
Frank
 
This is an interesting example of how hard it is to diagnose a problem when you aren't there to see what someone is doing. The answer is:
Don't use the edges of the UF rods (for that matter don't use the edges of the Fine rods). Harder edges will overstress on the rod edges.
 
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