Sharpmaker - Wow!! and ... am I where I should be?

S

Steve6387

Joined
Jul 1, 2013
Messages
494
My baseline: Am a longtime knife owner who never really made an effort to get anything more than a barely functional edge by freehand sharpening with cheap, dual sided stones I had lying around. Got ok results but it was clear I had a lot to learn. I recently decided to focus on sharpening and learning more.

I just bought a Sharpmaker with the standard med and fine grit rods. With very little time and effort I have both my rat folders (Aus8) able to cleanly cut phone book and copy paper. While I won't say hair "pops" off my leg and arm the blades clearly dry shave easily. Is that where I ought to be? I don't think I need a mirrored, surgical edge. Given what I do with my knives (Box cutting, plastic cutting, gen edc and camp duties) my guess is something that fine would not suit my blades or use anyway.

Something tells me it will take me longer to get the hang of the Sharpmaker with my larger fixed blades but am looking forward to seeing where it takes me.

Thanks for reading and any thoughts appreciated.
 
I like my Sharpmaker too and just recently I finished the final edge/apex on a 12inch Bolo type knife with the Sharpmaker. The edge is insane. The beauty of the Sharpmaker is that although the contact surface is small (so you still have to be aware of that), the pressure on the stone is quite low due to the setup. Some folks I heard attach the Sharpmaker to the workbench for bigger knives but I would not do that. In fact once I have the edge where I want it to be, I let completely go of the Sharpmaker on slick surfaces. That way it can easily slide sideways which prevents me to be able to put too much pressure on the stones in the first place. I do quite a bit of a pulling motion to cover the whole length of the blade. Even with the medium (brown/gray) stones you should be able to treetop some hair on your wrist, provided that you use little pressure and have minimal burr.
 
awestib said:
I like my Sharpmaker too and just recently I finished the final edge/apex on a 12inch Bolo type knife with the Sharpmaker. The edge is insane. The beauty of the Sharpmaker is that although the contact surface is small (so you still have to be aware of that), the pressure on the stone is quite low due to the setup. Some folks I heard attach the Sharpmaker to the workbench for bigger knives but I would not do that. In fact once I have the edge where I want it to be, I let completely go of the Sharpmaker on slick surfaces. That way it can easily slide sideways which prevents me to be able to put too much pressure on the stones in the first place. I do quite a bit of a pulling motion to cover the whole length of the blade. Even with the medium (brown/gray) stones you should be able to treetop some hair on your wrist, provided that you use little pressure and have minimal burr.
Click to expand...

Those are very good points. :thumbup:

I've even placed the base of my SM on a couple of wine corks laying on their side; they serve as 'rollers' in effect, allowing the base to move sideways if my touch gets a little too heavy. It's a good way to practice for that light touch. :) And recently, I even supported the base on the palm of my hand (hand held flat w/NO grip), whlle sharpening the blade with the other. That adds an interesting dimension to 'freehand' sharpening with the SM, and can be good practice as well.


David
 
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