Spyderco Sharpening Rods

M

Munky88

Joined
Jun 1, 2008
Messages
1,844
I have noticed that my knifes seem to cut significantly better when sharpened with just the corners of the coarse rods. Does anybody else notice this?

Even for push cuts, so its not just the micro serations. Am i just rounding the edge with the white stones or whats going on here? This is with a delica mostly.
 
I'm in the same boat., sort of. I found that when I use the flat sides of either rods(coarse or ceramic) I mess up what I've already sharpened. Now what I do is start with the corners of the coarse rods then skip to the corners of the ceramic rods and then I call it done. Don't know what I'm doing wrong either., Any advice for us?
 
do you notice an improvement from using the fine ceramic rods, or do you just do it because its there?
 
mainly because they're there, but it does seem to smooth out the edge, if that makes sense. With the coarse rods it seems to be a.., "toothier" edge.
 
use the marker trick, it sounds like you are not accually sharpening the complete edge.
 
I think the corners produce even a coarser edge than the flats. Could that be what your noticing?
 
Billy Mays here for the remarkable Spyderco knife sharpener, a sharpener that will let you slice, dice and cut amost any material known to man with only a few swipes of your favorite knife, ax or lawnmower blade! Actually, the Spyderco sharpener is a pretty good system, but, aside from the DVD, they don't give you much information. I never know which angles to use or how many times to swipe the blade against the stones. And how about those horribly pesky chisel grind knives? What do you do with those? I wish they'd just criss-cross the rods and let you swipe the blades down the middle, sharpening both sides at the same time. That way you could change the angle yourself and not sweat the strokes.

Still, they work pretty well for me, though I hate cleaning them. My rods still have metal streaks on them, which I assume is normal.
 
As long as it's getting sharper and not duller, you're not doing anything wrong.

As has been said, the toothier edge will slice better, while the smoother edge will push cut (shave, etc.) better. Nothing wrong with going either way, just match to your needs.

The reason the corners seem to put on rougher edges is that when you move from a flat to a corner, you're significantly increasing the pressure where the edge contacts the stick, because you've reduced the surface area the force is applied to. Hence, it will cut deeper with the same amount of force from your hands, just like a sharp edge on a knife will cut more easily than a dull one. Also, the corners likely have less wear on their grit, which makes them cut faster/deeper too. The disadvantage with spending lots of time on the corners is that the smaller surface area gives less space for your edge to "rest" on, and therefore makes keeping a consistent angle more difficult.
 
Faster, perhaps, though that goes both ways as to whether it's better or not, depending on how much steel you want to remove. Usually the corners are intended primarily for serrations. Keep in mind that focusing a lot of sharpening on the corners will also wear them down more quickly.
 
Confederate said:
And how about those horribly pesky chisel grind knives? What do you do with those?
Click to expand...

I believe both the DVD and the owner's manual tell you how to take care of it-yup, page 17, except it's for a chisel, which happens to be chisel ground. Now extrapolate the information from there and use it when the rods are in their regular knife sharpening position. All my kitchen knives are chisel ground, no problem using the sharpmaker.

Confederate said:
I wish they'd just criss-cross the rods and let you swipe the blades down the middle, sharpening both sides at the same time. That way you could change the angle yourself and not sweat the strokes.
Click to expand...

If you changed the angle yourself while using criss-cross rods, presumably by changing the side to side tilt of the blade, you would end up with one side being a greater angle than the other side, with the one side being the exact reciprocal of the other. Not beneficial for any purpose.

Munky88 said:
I have noticed that my knifes seem to cut significantly better when sharpened with just the corners of the coarse rods. Does anybody else notice this?

Even for push cuts, so its not just the micro serations. Am i just rounding the edge with the white stones or whats going on here? This is with a delica mostly.
Click to expand...

I would try the sharpie trick as knifenut mentioned. I have all 4 sets of rods, but I very rarely use anything but fine and ultra-fine as I do regular touch-ups rather than all-out sharpening. And I use corners as well as the flats. Go slow, use even, light pressure, just enough to keep the blade steady.
Hope this helps.
 
knifenut1013 said:
use the marker trick, it sounds like you are not accually sharpening the complete edge.
Click to expand...

That's what I'm thinking. Once I got the dynamics down(which will vary slightly with the different blade profiles), I stopped using the corners all together.

Try to concentrate on keeping the edge flat on the stone through the whole stroke, adjusting for the curve of the belly and for the taper. At first you'll see the thin grey lines on the stones, and as you achieve more of a single flat plane, you will see wider and/or multiple lines on the stones.

My advice is practice(alot!!!) on the same knife, and think of the edge as a single plane that has to be cut all at once. The marker trick will help you get there.

My technique on the sharpmaker is taken from traditional stone sharpening: sharpen one side until you push up a wire, then move to the other side. This for me eliminates alot of unneccesary strokes, and assures a nice flat edge.

Good luck and practice, practice, practice!
 
What I've found is that you need to practice on an inexpensive blade preferably carbon at first, be patient then go onto other steel or more costly knives.Get the hang of it.

Sharpen slowly and without too much pressure, take time and this will give improved technique and better sharpness. I disliked the Sharpmaker at first because I was too hasty and was applying far too much pressure, slow down.

If the knife already feels keen enough then leave it,don't go on slavishly throughout the stones,you need to check the blade frequently, I often just touch up on the white stones if the blade is already sharp.

As for the DVD I found it faintly ridiculous like some advert,the manual is far more useful,but you need to read it thoroughly before tackling things and keep it beside you when sharpening. It's clear and well laid out.

Somebody was having problems with cleaning the rods. I use old fashioned scouring powder, it's cheap and it cleans up the rods with warm water very well indeed.Got to watch out for dropping them though......

Hope this helps because Sharpmaker is a very clever system which certainly gets easier the more you use it.
 
Here's a few tips to getting the most out of the flats from my own experience:
1. Angle consistency cannot be compromised. Make sure the knife is vertical every centimeter of every stroke.
2. Know how much pressure to use. Grinding away is ok for stock removal. A light touch is more appropriate for getting a nice fine edge.
3. The flats of the coarse stones can sharpen a decent knife (like my cheap walmart buck 110) to the point where it can fairly easily shave hair off of your arms and legs with just a little bit of stropping. If you practice sharpening with the coarse flats until you can do this then you'll be able to make better use of the fine stones as well.
4. A blade sharpened with a rougher grit will cut better longer than a knife sharpened to the same sharpness with a finer grit stone. This makes no damn sense to me at all but it seems to be a consistent fact.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top