Hi guys. My sharpening skills leave a lot to be desierd, along with my spelling skills. I Want a esee rc 4 OR 6. A few questions if I may .Will both models sharpen up on spyderco sharpmaker using medium and light rods and at what angle is best? Is the handle length on the 4 noticably short .My hands are not that big ,clentched fist 4 inches long .THANKS GUYS HAVE FUN.
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Simple to sharpen
- Thread starter Faron
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- Aug 17, 2010
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A quick search of the spyderco sharp maker on the forum will lend some good results. It has worked for many, and is not preferred by some. I have the DMT version and have put in an order for the sharp maker (for my folders as well). I believe that some have had to re-profile parts of the edge on the ESEE's as much of the process is done by hand and creates a "one of a kind" style knife.
That being said personally I don't think you can go wrong by getting the sharp maker, and it will serve you well. Also the angles for the SM are (someone please correct if I'm wrong here) but for medium rods, it's a 30 percent and light rods see 40.
Good luck!
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- Oct 17, 2009
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I think the Sharpmaker would work great for you. All ESEE knives come at a 20 degree grind per side, so on the Sharpmaker you would use the 40 degree setting. The standard rods should work just fine. I would get a good leather strop with a grey and green compound, like the ones that knivesshipfree.com sells. Finishing your blade off with that will give you a hair popping edge and remove the edge burr that forms from sharpening your knife. They even have a little video on their site showing how to strop your knife. I hope this helps!
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I highly agree with this. I do have the ultrafine rods for my sharpmaker but adding the strop is fantastic.
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i've been using my sharpmaker for a few months now and couldn't be happier. i also bought the ultra-fine rods and a few passes with it i can get the knife really shaving sharp to the point where most of the time i skip the stropping stage since i don't notice the difference now. for me, if it's sharp enough to shave, i'd rather hike than spend more time getting it hair whittling sharp.
i use the 40 deg angle (20 deg per side) setting. my hand's width is around the 4" mark as well and i find the 4's handle length to be just right even with gloves on. the thickness plays a part as well since i used to have an rc-3 (same handle length as the 4 but thinner blade) but it just wasn't comfortable for me while the 4 is.
there are triangular holes in the sharpmaker's base that can hold the rods in place at the 30 and 40 deg angles. all the sharpmaker rods are compatible with both angles.
The reason why some people reprofile there blades is that ESEE knives are sharpened by hand at aprox. 20 degrees per side. I take the newly acquired knife to the medium stones for a little longer than usual to get the 1 or 2 degree variation out.
However, stropping a V-grind never got me anywhere. It just got dull..... Probably lack of skill.
However, stropping a V-grind never got me anywhere. It just got dull..... Probably lack of skill.
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- Oct 27, 2008
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1. Make sure the edge bevel is flush with your stropping media
2. Don't press, let the weight of the knife do it for you