Smoothing out sharpmaker Rod

jonnymac44 · Jan 28, 2008

One of the white, fine rods for my sharpmaker has a very small chip in it that causes blades to "hop" for just a second as they pass over it. Not a huge jump, but you can definitely notice it. It takes away from the smoothness of the pass. Anybody know of a good way to smooth it out? Wet/dry sandpaper? What grit? Scouring pad and comet? What do you guys think?

Cheers,
jon

Frank Hillary · Jan 28, 2008

Jon,

jonnymac44 said:
One of the white, fine rods for my sharpmaker has a very small chip in it that causes blades to "hop" for just a second as they pass over it. Not a huge jump, but you can definitely notice it. It takes away from the smoothness of the pass. Anybody know of a good way to smooth it out? Wet/dry sandpaper? What grit? Scouring pad and comet? What do you guys think?

Cheers,
jon

Use a diamond stone. If a big chip then use course stone and then finish of with very fine then polish withwet and dry silicon carbide.

Regards
Frank

annr · Jan 28, 2008

jonnymac44 said:
One of the white, fine rods for my sharpmaker has a very small chip in it that causes blades to "hop" for just a second as they pass over it. Not a huge jump, but you can definitely notice it. It takes away from the smoothness of the pass. Anybody know of a good way to smooth it out? Wet/dry sandpaper? What grit? Scouring pad and comet? What do you guys think?

Cheers,
jon

I had the same thing happen to me and I figured that I have to toss it. The thing that frustrated me was that I don't know how or what damaged the rod. Do you know how yours got damaged? Obviously I want to avoid more chipping and wondered if chipping is a common experience.

DainBramage · Jan 28, 2008

annr said:
I had the same thing happen to me and I figured that I have to toss it.

But aren't there still two other good sides (or corners)?

jonnymac44 · Jan 28, 2008

Yes, there are still two good corners

I just wanted to know how to smooth out the rod to satisfy my curiosity.

Frank_Zuccarini · Jan 28, 2008

I'm pretty sure that I read over on the Spyderco forum that All Spyderco bench stones are composed of 15-25 micron particles, but differentiated by various firing techniques and diamond surface preparation. If the Sharpmaker rods are the same, then you may be significantly altering the sharpening grit by sanding it in any way. Proceed with caution.

Frank

jonnymac44 · Jan 28, 2008

Frank_Zuccarini said:
I'm pretty sure that I read over on the Spyderco forum that All Spyderco bench stones are composed of 15-25 micron particles, but differentiated by various firing techniques and diamond surface preparation. If the Sharpmaker rods are the same, then you may be significantly altering the sharpening grit by sanding it in any way. Proceed with caution.

Frank

Interesting, thanks for pointing that out, Frank.

heavydutysg135 · Jan 28, 2008

Frank_Zuccarini said:
I'm pretty sure that I read over on the Spyderco forum that All Spyderco bench stones are composed of 15-25 micron particles, but differentiated by various firing techniques and diamond surface preparation. If the Sharpmaker rods are the same, then you may be significantly altering the sharpening grit by sanding it in any way. Proceed with caution.

Frank

This is absolutely correct as far as the fine and ultrafine stones go, the medium is made of a different material that can be lapped. Even if you were to remove the chip with a diamond stone you will turn that section of your rod into an Ultrafine.

Frank Hillary · Jan 28, 2008

Hi

heavydutysg135 said:
Even if you were to remove the chip with a diamond stone you will turn that section of your rod into an Ultrafine.

The rest of the rod will be stil OK. That chip is only a small portion of the length. Maikig it smoather does no harm.

Regards
Frank

Bucktool_02 · Jan 28, 2008

When my Sharpmaker rods develop chips, I ignore it until I can afford to replace the rod. When I do get a new one, the old one goes into the kitchen drawer so I can use it to 'steel' between sharpening sessions.

I have tried lapping out the nicks that are on the flats of the rods on my DMT hones with some success. But a chip that's on the corners of the rods, especially a big chip, seem hopeless. I don't see how I can lap it out without significantly altering the shape of the triangle rod.

Frank Hillary · Jan 29, 2008

Hi,

Bucktool_02 said:
But a chip that's on the corners of the rods, especially a big chip, seem hopeless. I don't see how I can lap it out without significantly altering the shape of the triangle rod.

Small chips can be honed out OK and the corner used. The lager ones can be smoothed and that corner of the rod cant be used anymore but the flats can. If the chip was left as is then the flats couldnt be used.

Regards
Frank