Spyderco Edge compatibility with the Sharpmaker?

[HoosierQ]

I am pretty much a freehand sharpening guy...after years of practice and now enough maturity to have patience.

However the Sharpmaker seems just too simple, easy, and sound to pass up for touching up...especially my Spydercos.

I viewed the DVD that came with and it was good. Sal says that Spyderco often uses 30 rather than the Sharpmaker's recommended 40 degree inclusive.

So if I really have a 30 on my Spydercos, I don't want to put a 40 microbevel on it. However, my newest Endura needed a little work on the factory edge and they certainly are not 30. One side was dead on at 40 because the entire bevel was being polished at 40. The other side must have been a little more acute because that side took a micro bevel at 40. The grind wasn't perfectly symetrical from the factory. No biggie.

I plan on some harder use this spring and summer with my Para and Military and wonder about those angles.

So I guess the quesion is, what are you Spyderco knife and Sharpmaker owners finding to be the best comaptible angles? 30 or 40?

Despite the lack of perfection, these things are very sharp and I don't want to go all OCD and reprofile but that's what I would do on just about any other knife.

 

[Badhammer]

I usually go with 30 on anything that that has a full, flat grind as IMO that blade grind makes for an excellent slicer and the 30 degree bevel compliments that.

 

[bd51]

What I do is to keep the 30 degree back bevel, but when I resharpen, I put a 40 degree edge on it. Every couple sharpenings, put a 30 degree back bevel back on. This is an easy way to create a razor sharp edge in a short amount of time.

This is what I got from the sharpmaker video and I have been using it ever since on all my spydies.

 

[Jet B]

If the blade has a 30 or less back bevel already, I just use the 40 degree slots to sharpen and touch up. I got the diamond rods to make it much faster if I have a knife that needs to be reprofiled. Then, I will profile it with a 30 degree edge and then sharpen again at 40. 30 may be scary sharp, but it's not going to last as long so it really depends on what you are doing with it. I just took Sal's advice on the video too and it's been working for me.

I did get an Endura wave from the factory that had a messed up edge like yours. My sharpmaker was hitting it on the shoulder on one side when I sharpened it so it kept building a nasty burr. That's when I ended up buying the diamond stones so I could completely reprofile that thing to a proper edge. The grey stones take way too long if you need to remove a lot of metal. Now it's nice and shaving sharp.

 

[mongatu]

I prefer a 30 degree inclusive edge with no micro bevel. I usually reprofile the bevels, if necessary, to 15 degrees per side. The optional diamond rods for the Sharpmaker are very helpful for doing that.

Once I have the 15 degree bevels established, I usually run them up through the grits on waterstones (freehand) to get a nice smooth and very fine scratch pattern on the bevels. Then I mainly use the Sharpmaker for occasional fast touch ups on the 30 degree slots as needed, (when stropping the edge no longer is sufficient).