Spiderco Tri-angle Sharpmaker

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FlaSVT

Joined
Jun 26, 2006
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I've recently joined this site after lurking for sometime and it seems like this is a good place to get some useful information. I recently acquired a knife collection from my grandfather. Some of the kinves are very dull and in need of sharpening. Since I'm not a long time knife collector, I'm not sure how to go about sharpening them. I ran across a site that is giving away a Spiderco Tri-Angle Sharpmaker. Here is the sharpener they are giving away -Sharpmaker Is the Sharpmaker a decent shapening tool to start with and use? Is it easy to use? If it is, maybe I'll buy one if I can't win that one.

TIA
 
Welcome to Bladeforums.

The Sharpmaker is one of the easiest-to-use sharpeners on the market. And one of the best IMO.

I own one and have sharpened everything from knives to scissors to hatchets.

Spyderco made its name with their sharpener before the knives took off.

Highly recommended. :thumbup:
 
Which sharpener is best depends on what you are trying to do. If a blade is really dull or damaged, you might need to reprofile the edge, or remove alot of metal to get to a sharp edge. If your sharpener has a fine grit surface, this could take forever. If your blade is in need of a light tune up, on the other hand, a fine grit sharpener is perfect.
A coarse grit sharpener removes alot of metel quickly, and is good to shape the basic edge. then you start over with progressively finer gtit sharpeners, until you get to the fineness of edge you want.
Some of us like a coarser, toothy edge and others of us like a very fine, polished edge. Both sides have merit. Again, it depends on what you are doing.
The Sharpmaker is a good sharpener. There are a number of others as well. The sharpmaker has ceramic and diamond stones available, as does the Lansky, and the DMT and the Edgepro, I think.
Welcome aboard!:thumbup:
 
Welcome to Bladeforums!

moving-van.jpg
 
There are so many options with sharpening that it's hard for a beginner to know where to start learning. Asking a lot of questions here in the Toolshed is a good way to learn the terminology, at least. :)

I strongly recommend the Sharpmaker for a beginner. Not only will it do a reasonable job but it will help you understand what is actually happening when you sharpen a knife -- the DVD that comes with it is easy to learn from and very complete.

Traditional sharpening is not done with rods, like the Sharpmaker uses, but with a benchstone. This is a skill you should pick up eventually.

Not knowing what kind of knives you've gotten, it's hard to say what would work best. For example, if they are high carbon steel traditional pocketknives, the Sharpmaker should do an excellent job on them.

Her's a few websites you can look through:

EDC Knives Sharpening FAQ
http://www.edcknives.com/pdf-files/Sharpen_v2.pdf

Knife Maintenance and Sharpening
http://forums.egullet.com/index.php?showtopic=26036

Sharpening Made Easy
http://users.ameritech.net/knives/knives1c.htm
 
First, let me apologize to Cougar_Allen for posting in the wrong forum, hopefully I’ll figure out this internet stuff some day. Thanks for moving it for me.

Next, thanks for all the helpful information on the Sharpmaker. I don't know a lot about the knives I've been given but there are some Bucks and what I believe to be some seahourses (?) in the collection. Grandpa was always carving something. He also had some that he used for hunting and fishing.

I'm going to take the advice given above and spend some time reading other posts so I can learn more. I also plan to take several of the kinves to a local knive dealer and see what he can tell me about some of them. I know that most of them are probably not worth much money but they do have some sentimental value.

Thanks again for all the help and info. Now I'm off to see if I can win that Sharpmaker.
 
Like has been said already, there are several good methods for sharpening knives. The Sharpmaker is probably the easiest to get a feel for and good results in a short time. Its a sharpener that everyone can use. I recommend them.

BTW, I entered the give away too. Im not trying to dillute your chances but I really would like to have another one. I love free stuff. Especially free good stuff.
 
If the knives are true collectables you might be better off to leave them be. I hope one or more of the avid collectors that hang out around here will chime in, as they can give you clearer advice in this area than I.

Mark
 
MeDoctor said:
If the knives are true collectables you might be better off to leave them be. I hope one or more of the avid collectors that hang out around here will chime in, as they can give you clearer advice in this area than I.

Mark
Click to expand...
True. If, for instance, you've got an old Buck 110 made out of file steel, you don't want to go polishing off the patina. Probably best to see what you've got before you start modifying knives.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Traditional sharpening is not done with rods, like the Sharpmaker uses, but with a benchstone.
Click to expand...

The rods convert to a benchstone using the base, the Sharpmaker isn't just a simply v-rod setup. The rods also work well freehand as small slip stones. Traditional use of rods as sharpening tools is very old, round files, butcher steels, the chakma for khukuris, etc. . The use of a v-rods setup is a recent popularization but it isn't unique to ceramics, I have seen benchstones used in the same manner and the same principle is used in traditional wet wheel honing.

FlaSVT said:
Is the Sharpmaker a decent shapening tool to start with and use? Is it easy to use?
Click to expand...

Yes and yes, combine it with a very coarse benchstone you can find at any hardware store to handle any necessary shaping which is very likely unless you intend to sharpen only Spyderco knives.

-Cliff
 
Cliff said:
The rods convert to a benchstone using the base.
Click to expand...

It is just me or are the flats of the Sharpmaker stones actually concave? When I'm sharpening on the flats, it does increase the contact area, but still not hitting the flat as it just hits the forward lip of the rod.
 
Mine are not, I can take the fine stones and grind them against a piece of steel and watch the center load. If you are on any significant angle to the hones you will hit either the far or close corner of course. If they are hollow you can just lap them flat.

-Cliff
 
lol, I swear this this getting ridiculous, me and my Spyderco adventures (thanks to Lebaron). Mine are definatly concave.
 
Someone has to get the defects, maybe you should apply for a job in QC on the basis of being able to hand select at random all the potential rejects.

-Cliff
 
Okay, rubbed the grey stones against the white stones and this is what I see:



sh.jpg


So I guess I was wrong last night and it's not concave. But it does appear on the stone to be 3 distinct ridges (the lips and the high mark between them. If the ridge is far off to one side, I guess you can see where I got the impression of concavity. And I do hit the lips a lot.
 
Well, they were never meant to be completely flat. The rods are not trued after firing nor is it necessary. As you noticed yourself, it is very difficult to maintain a constant lateral angle so that you hit the center every time, but since the contact area on the corners is very small, you are increasing the contact area substantially anyways. Instead of this academic question whether they are flat or not, the important question is really:"Does it work?"
 
The question didn't arise from whether they work in the vertical setup or not. It was whether they work as a benchstone.
 
You can actually use the edges as a benchstone, this would not require a flatness. Traditional sharpening stones were often of odd shapes, you really don't need nice square edges for sharpening. In general though, the wider the contact area the better.

-Cliff
 
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