Spyderco Sharpmaker "Stropping"

Wowbagger

Wowbagger

Gold Member
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Sep 20, 2015
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Well as you know I don't use strops. (I am lying . . . I used a strop just last night to finish a toothy edge I sharpened on a 700 grit Norton . . . but that's the last time . . . never again . . . I don't want hair to start growing in my palm)

But anyway . . . what I am talking about is trying to correct a polished, refined, edge at the end of the day where it is just a little dulled and maybe slightly rolled here and there.

You know
like some of you come home and before you go to bed you strop your EDC on a cloth or leather strop.

Intellectually I have reservations about using a soft(ish) strop. Even if it doesn't destroy the edge geometry of my carefully Edge Proed edge . . . as a few of you have valiantly and patiently tried to explain to me . . . well then my second reservation is that the little areas on the edge that are starting to roll are not really going to be properly or adequately corrected on a soft strop like a hard stone or a steel would do and it is just going to scrape at the surface of the strop. We are not talking wire edge here we are talking rolled and it seems to me the rolled edge is more robust.

Be that as it may I have farted around with my mini steel trying to use it for this sort of thing and I agree with those who say it is folly.

I am drawn to my ceramic crock stick for the purpose but the cheep crock sticks are such lumpy sticks of poo I have given up using them even as a steel to push the rolled edge into alignment.

So to get to the meat of this post. The Sharpmaker ultra fine stone dropped to such an inexpensive price the other day I moved it from my "save for later" list to my shopping cart and bought one. My first Sharpmaker product. I figure I will hold it free hand like a slip. If I like it, who knows, I might just order a Sharpmaker.

I have been drawn to the narrow corner sharpening surfaces on these stones for some time now partly for serrated blades (see the Cold Steel Super Edge neck knife shown (I know, I know it won't sharpen all of that thing)) and partly because I can put that corner right into a poorly ground knife edge and touch it up until I have time to reprofile the questionable grind. Just last night on the inexpensive knife I sharpened on the 700 there was a little dip near the tip of the blade. I wound up using the 90° corner on the Norton stone to get down into it.

Finally and getting back to what I was saying about stropping at the beginning of this post. My idea of stropping is using a fine stone. This Sharpmaker stone might just be the ticket to end of the day "stropping" that I have been looking for . . . fine but hard enough to unroll some very slightly rolled edges.

Or maybe not.
Stay tuned. (I haven't used it yet)

PS: The stone / rod is very, very straight. I ran across some one in these forums saying they had a Sharprmaker stone of one grit or another that was bowed. Mine's really straight. And talk about smooth / fine ! ! ! ! It feels like one of the Shaptons at at least 8000 but more like 15,000 !

Anybody know how it compares grit wise ?

 
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Using a ceramic to maintain your edge is what EdgePro recommends.... for example, demonstrated in this video (at 3:05)...

[video=youtube;z0OdxC7pV9Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0OdxC7pV9Q[/video]
 
I've bought regular strops from sharpening supplies, I've also made my own leather strops from horse butt leather, bare basswood strops, and basswood strops with diamond spray. But I decided to try the knives plus strop block. With the one paring knife which I use as a letter opener, the knives plus strop block has been very effective in restoring a dulled edge (actually, just a portion of the edge was dulled and I stropped only that part so I was able to compare).

All that said to engage you on your intellectual reservations to use a softish strop. I'm not trying to convince you of anything but simply to engage in discussion as I, too, have been thinking about this topic.

So comparing the hardness of the steel in your blade edge versus the hardness of the soft strop, as you move the blade edge against the soft strop, wouldn't you expect the strop to give way first and that the only parts taken off would be "debris" off the blade? Similar to what would happen if you were standing to the side and back of an unwashed dusty car with an underinflated beach ball and you throw the beach ball alongside the car door panel. You'd have to throw the ball with a lot of force before the car door panel would even give, much less dent but the beach ball grazing the side would remove the dust where the ball was in contact with the car. Do you see anything wrong with this thinking?
 
Rey HRH said:
So comparing the hardness of the steel in your blade edge versus the hardness of the soft strop, as you move the blade edge against the soft strop, wouldn't you expect the strop to give way first and that the only parts taken off would be "debris" off the blade? Similar to what would happen if you were standing to the side and back of an unwashed dusty car with an underinflated beach ball and you throw the beach ball alongside the car door panel. You'd have to throw the ball with a lot of force before the car door panel would even give, much less dent but the beach ball grazing the side would remove the dust where the ball was in contact with the car. Do you see anything wrong with this thinking?
Click to expand...

Does the beach ball have compound on it?
 
There are a good number of people that use the Sharp Maker as an everyday (or nearly so) touchup tool. I think it's fantastic for this use. You'll eventually have a microbevel that grows into a macro-bevel, but that's expected. Then you just sharpen to create a proper edge again and begin the process over again.

I personally think the ultra fine is "too fine" for this, as it's going to polish up a microbevel pretty quickly and will remove any toothiness in the edge. It will be very push-cut sharp for sure. The ultra fine is ~3 micron, so very very fine.

Brian.
 
Hi,
What was the price? They were available online for ~$13 this last year.
Click to expand...

$10 w/ship

Thank you for the info. I haven't followed it all yet but will. :thumbup:
 
Using a ceramic to maintain your edge is what EdgePro recommends
Click to expand...
Oh yah ! I had forgotten. My set didn't come with a ceramic rod. I thought I might get one after seeing a non related vid of a guy repeatedly dulling and sharpening a good sized knife with just the rod (and maybe a strop; it's been a while.
 
cbwx34 said:
Does the beach ball have compound on it?
Click to expand...

Sure, let's say it has polishing compound. Whether the analogy translates to rubbing compound may depend on how hard you throw the ball. But, in any case, the ball will yield first to the hardness of the car before denting the car.
 
With the one paring knife which I use as a letter opener, the knives plus strop block has been very effective in restoring a dulled edge (actually, just a portion of the edge was dulled and I stropped only that part so I was able to compare).
Click to expand...

I can imagine that would work most satisfactorily on an edge used for cutting a fairly tame and consistent material such as paper or facial hair. My "problem" is that my work EDC, which ever one of many, runs into grit, think spatters of mud and little bits of other hard stuff imbedded in rubber goods some of it hard rubber. The edge some times gets more than just rounded dull but it gets dinged dull; on a very small scale. Can't see them but can feel them on my finger nail. The best solution often is to take the edge to a coarse stone, 500 or 700, and get rid of the micro dings then a couple of finer stones.


So comparing the hardness of the steel in your blade edge versus the hardness of the soft strop, as you move the blade edge against the soft strop, wouldn't you expect the strop to give way first and that the only parts taken off would be "debris" off the blade? Similar to what would happen if you were standing to the side and back of an unwashed dusty car with an under inflated beach ball and you throw the beach ball alongside the car door panel. You'd have to throw the ball with a lot of force before the car door panel would even give, much less dent but the beach ball grazing the side would remove the dust where the ball was in contact with the car. Do you see anything wrong with this thinking?
Click to expand...

My first impulse is to try to be funny and say "but I don't have a beach ball and don't have the training to use it if I did".
But since you are being so cordial and serious I will try to act like an adult and . . .

I don't quite see what you are saying but the glimmer is that the beach ball is the abrasive particle ? Or the flexible strop material more like.

It isn't that the strop is going to ding or dent the edge but that it , I imagine rounds the edge and makes it a steeper angle. These guys have gone cross eyed, I'm sure, hearing me say it. I have watched some really well done microscope presentations proving that this DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THE CASE but as I recall this was on a shaving razor blade, not a pocket knife and the conditions and materials were highly controlled and were not cleaning up DAMAGE on a work knife but just polishing a very precisely honed edge.

As far as the beach ball hitting a tinny bit of slightly rolled edge and what happens to the blade . . . yes the beach ball would flex and not straighten the roll. It would take off some dust (?steel?) from the blade. I can feel the rolled edge pulling on the strop. Honestly I suppose if I kept going at it for 50 or a 100 strokes per side I might get things worn down to a nice edge again but I don't have the patience when I can use stones in the tens of strokes to fix the same damage. I am not willing to go with a power buff because I don't want to breath that stuff as often as I would be stropping.
 
Wowbagger said:
I can imagine that would work most satisfactorily on an edge used for cutting a fairly tame and consistent material such as paper or facial hair. My "problem" is that my work EDC, which ever one of many, runs into grit, think spatters of mud and little bits of other hard stuff imbedded in rubber goods some of it hard rubber. The edge some times gets more than just rounded dull but it gets dinged dull; on a very small scale. Can't see them but can feel them on my finger nail. The best solution often is to take the edge to a coarse stone, 500 or 700, and get rid of the micro dings then a couple of finer stones.
Click to expand...

There is that. I do recognize the futility of refining your edge greater than what it would look like with the first cut right after you honed it.

And I do see your point about why try to fix a roll via stropping because it will take a long time to do so which is in line with my beach ball analogy. My viewpoint through all this was cleaning off any remnant burr or particles off the edge after sharpening, not fixing any roll or for maintenance after using. Okay, you have me convince - maintenance stropping is useless unless you sharpen.
 
OK . . .
Big update here.

I took one of my Cold Steel Kitchen Classic paring knives, sharpened the edge using the Shapton 120 stone on the Edge Pro. I moved the stone off the edge rather than into the edge; in other words not back and forth as usually used. I lifted the stone off the blade, pushed it toward the vertical support rod, set the stone down on the blade and pulled the stone toward me. That is the way I usually sharpen. I rarely go against the edge. I have recommended going against the edge to people here and Buck recommends going against the edge but it is because it is easier to tell when you get the angle right rather than because it is going to give a better edge.

Anyway . . . got the slightest wire edge that I could doing this and then ran the stone a few passes super light, not even the weight of the stone and sharpener arm. So far better results than using a 700 water stone free hand. Judged by the way it bit into my thumb nail ala Sal Glazer Sharp Maker video.

To get rid of the slight wire edge I decided to use the ultra fine Sharp Maker ceramic rod. I didn't rub it against another rod or anything else to break it in; I just slid it out of the plastic tube and using one of the corners of the rod (not one of the flats) I took the edge of the knife super lightly down the rod, against the edge now, opposite of the way I was working so far. Just very lightly, not even half the length of the rod to do the whole edge of the knife then the other side. Checking every one or two passes for the wire edge. When it was gone I stopped. This hardly took any passes and very light pressure.

Results :
Bites my finger nail like crazy just like I like. And like only using the Edge Pro can do . . . at lest do in short order.
Easily shaves hair.
Some what sorta hair wittiling but not well.
Better results in less time than using the 700 water stone and a rough leather strop judging by finger nail bite and shaving hair.

Toothy ? You darn tootin' ! ! ! !

So . . . I think this Sharp Maker ceramic rod, even in ultra fine, may be very useful for the way I want to work.

 
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Hi. I have been using the Sharp maker for stopping for years, (commercial sharpening ) and it works.
 
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