Spyderco Sharpmaker

[High King]

Hey y'all, I was using my Spyderco Sharpmaker for the first time yesterday, and the manual it came with said that "if knife has not reached desired sharpness, repeat process."

Does that mean to repeat the whole process, i.e., gray corner > gray flat > white corner > white flat, or just particular steps? e.g., using the white corner 60 times instead of 40?

 

[GarnetandBlack]

I don't have my manual on me, but i suppose it's referring to the whole process.

The sharpmaker is great for maintenance but average at reprofiling some bigger nicks and dings on your cutting edge. Often times I'll run through the paces after some hard use and won't achieve the sharpness im looking for, so i'll bust out the grey stones and start all over again.

Worst case scenario, the initial process cleans up the edge and preps it well if your blade needs some extra TLC.

Hope this helps

Quick aside, clean your stones after a couple uses too. Theyll load up with steel from sharpening and won't be nearly as effective.

EDIT: Diamond stones are well worth it for the sharpmaker

 

[High King]

Thanks. Also, regarding the Fine stones (white), is it normal to have metal "stains" on it? I've tried scrubbing it, but there's still a shadow of staining on my white stones which I can't seem to get rid of.

 

[knifehunt]

Thanks. Also, regarding the Fine stones (white), is it normal to have metal "stains" on it? I've tried scrubbing it, but there's still a shadow of staining on my white stones which I can't seem to get rid of.

Yes.... That is the metal taken off the blade. Use some Comet on a Scotchbrite pad and warm water, it will look like new.

 

[rycen]

If you can find it use barkeepers friend as it works better because of it being slightly acidic. Also you should color the edge with a sharpie to see where exactly the stones are hitting.

 

[GarnetandBlack]

i literally take a pink pencil eraser and go over my stones. it cleans them right up. give it a shot, its pretty effective.

also, i've heard people like to throw theirs in the utensil racks of the dishwasher.

 

[High King]

If you can find it use barkeepers friend as it works better because of it being slightly acidic. Also you should color the edge with a sharpie to see where exactly the stones are hitting.

Someone recommended that (the barkeepers) on youtube too. I'm going to give that a shot.

[video=youtube;TXcKo5wLffY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXcKo5wLffY[/video]

Actually for that matter, another user recommended the sharpie thing as well. So since this is the second recommendation (for both), I'll definitely try it out.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Hey y'all, I was using my Spyderco Sharpmaker for the first time yesterday, and the manual it came with said that "if knife has not reached desired sharpness, repeat process."

Does that mean to repeat the whole process, i.e., gray corner > gray flat > white corner > white flat, or just particular steps? e.g., using the white corner 60 times instead of 40?

I'd just recommend staying with only the grey/brown (medium) SM rods until your edge will cleanly slice paper, at a minimum. It's possible to get a shaving edge from the medium rods as well. If the edge isn't sharp enough, coming off the medium rods, to cleanly slice paper without slipping or snagging, the Fine/UF hones won't likely help. The more you accomplish with the medium rods, the less refining will be needed with the Fine/UF hones. Ideally, by the time you reach the Fine/UF, it should only take a handful of passes on each, perhaps 5 or fewer strokes.

On all rods, keep pressure very light. Start with the corners of the medium rods, and when you can see definite improvement in cutting (paper), then make a few even lighter passes on the flats of the medium rods, and look for additional improvement. If done right, you should progress from a minimum of paper slicing at the first stage (corners of medium rods), and see the slicing become quieter and more effortless with each additional step. Keep checking and re-checking sharpness after every 2 or 3 strokes. Pay very close attention to that; if you see the performance degrade from one pass to the next, STOP where you are and figure out what went wrong (pressure too heavy, errant pass or two off-angle, over-polishing the edge). Don't move to the next stage until you can once again see a continuous improvement in sharpness with each preceding stage.


David

 

[High King]

Does alternating them (like instructed) make a difference than if I were to do 20 on one side, then 20 on the other?

 

[rwasham]

Hey y'all, I was using my Spyderco Sharpmaker for the first time yesterday, and the manual it came with said that "if knife has not reached desired sharpness, repeat process."

Does that mean to repeat the whole process, i.e., gray corner > gray flat > white corner > white flat, or just particular steps? e.g., using the white corner 60 times instead of 40?

Dont move between stones until you get the desired effect. If you test the edge after the gray and it doesnt seem sharper than when you started, you probably weren't holding it quite right...It took me a while to learn this with my sharpmaker. As some of these other guys said, its a good system for doing minor touch up and working with a dull blade maybe, but reprofiling is a little tougher. IF you like the sharpmaker and want to do heavier duty work, the diamond stones work wonders. They will, however, cut through your blade pretty quick. Don't over do it with diamond stones.

Also, if you' re just trying to touch your blade up, I wouldnt bother with the gray at all. Straight to the white stones and you can get that blade back to shaving. For best results I'd use some kind of strop as well.

Good Luck!

 

[rwasham]

Does alternating them (like instructed) make a difference than if I were to do 20 on one side, then 20 on the other?

Alternating will help you keep track, and make sure you take off the same ammount of material each side. If you're not careful about pressure and the number of passes, over time your blade edge might come off of center.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Does alternating them (like instructed) make a difference than if I were to do 20 on one side, then 20 on the other?

My preference is to use only one or two passes per side at a time, checking actual sharpness in between. I don't like counting passes without checking the real progress of the edge, because it's way too easy to kill a good edge by overdoing it. Multiple passes (10+) on one side at a time is also an easy way to roll the edge, when it starts getting very fine. Checking the edge after every 1 or 2 passes can help you catch when the edge just begins to burr/roll, and you can quickly adjust by switching to the other side to even/straighten it out again.


David

 

[Nafunu]

i literally take a pink pencil eraser and go over my stones. it cleans them right up. give it a shot, its pretty effective.

Wow really? I would not have guessed that would work. I'm going to have to try it.

 

[High King]

Dont move between stones until you get the desired effect. If you test the edge after the gray and it doesnt seem sharper than when you started, you probably weren't holding it quite right...It took me a while to learn this with my sharpmaker. As some of these other guys said, its a good system for doing minor touch up and working with a dull blade maybe, but reprofiling is a little tougher. IF you like the sharpmaker and want to do heavier duty work, the diamond stones work wonders. They will, however, cut through your blade pretty quick. Don't over do it with diamond stones.

Also, if you' re just trying to touch your blade up, I wouldnt bother with the gray at all. Straight to the white stones and you can get that blade back to shaving. For best results I'd use some kind of strop as well.

Good Luck!

Thanks. I'm actually just trying to get a factory edge sharper; this is the first time I'm sharpening this particular knife.

 

[Reignman]

My preference is to use only one or two passes per side at a time, checking actual sharpness in between. I don't like counting passes without checking the real progress of the edge, because it's way too easy to kill a good edge by overdoing it. Multiple passes (10+) on one side at a time is also an easy way to roll the edge, when it starts getting very fine. Checking the edge after every 1 or 2 passes can help you catch when the edge just begins to burr/roll, and you can quickly adjust by switching to the other side to even/straighten it out again.


David

Hey bud, Just tried to sharpen a Para 2 and did exactly what you said to do. Well, yet again it's the "Dullmaker"....

As soon as I had a burr, I went to the other side and it seemed to keep going back and forth and NEVER at any point would cut paper, let alone cleanly. I'm so disgusted with the Sharpmaker.

I'd go so far as to have a skype conversation showing what I'm doing as this setup seriously flat out won't make my knife sharp and I know it has to be my fault but I just don't get how.

 

[OHALLUM]

Just a guess, but it sounds like to me that you may be putting some force on the blade as you make your passes on the rods. There should be almost NO added force on the blade. Just enough to feel the rod against the blade. The idea after the burr is to gently scrape it off, not grind it off with force. Again, just what popped into my head from your description above. Hang in there, you will get it.

Blessings,

Omar

 

[Reignman]

Just a guess, but it sounds like to me that you may be putting some force on the blade as you make your passes on the rods. There should be almost NO added force on the blade. Just enough to feel the rod against the blade. The idea after the burr is to gently scrape it off, not grind it off with force. Again, just what popped into my head from your description above. Hang in there, you will get it.

Blessings,

Omar

When I first got it, I definitely was adding some pressure but now, it's just enough to hear the stones working, nothing more... :/ I need to figure this thing out.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Hey bud, Just tried to sharpen a Para 2 and did exactly what you said to do. Well, yet again it's the "Dullmaker"....

As soon as I had a burr, I went to the other side and it seemed to keep going back and forth and NEVER at any point would cut paper, let alone cleanly. I'm so disgusted with the Sharpmaker.

I'd go so far as to have a skype conversation showing what I'm doing as this setup seriously flat out won't make my knife sharp and I know it has to be my fault but I just don't get how.

Just a guess, but it sounds like to me that you may be putting some force on the blade as you make your passes on the rods. There should be almost NO added force on the blade. Just enough to feel the rod against the blade. The idea after the burr is to gently scrape it off, not grind it off with force. Again, just what popped into my head from your description above. Hang in there, you will get it.

Blessings,

Omar

I suspect pressure may still be a little heavy, as Omar has suggested (I think this is the #1 problem encountered by most people, including me, when getting acquainted with the system). Might also be varying the angle a bit, which is easy to do when the sharpening session gets long and fatigue and frustration start to creep in.

If the angle is steady & consistent, and the edge is fully apexed and symmetrical, a burr would ordinarily still allow some cutting in paper, though it would likely snag/catch a bit in the paper as it cuts. If the edge isn't cutting paper at all, it may be that whatever burr might be there, might be on one side of an incomplete apex. In other words, one bevel may be flat & relatively clean, but the other side might not be. It's still possible to produce a burr this way, especially if the edge is asymmetrical (too much grinding on one side, vs. the other). Inspecting the edge close-up, with a good magnifier (10X or more) under bright light, would be a good idea. With an edge that doesn't cut at all, looking at it close-up will usually make it obvious what's going on, in revealing problems with the edge. In fact, at this point, I'd take a break for a bit from the sharpening. Maybe just take some time to really look the edge over, and then put it all down for a while and think about what you see in the edge. Come back to it a little later, after some relaxation time (a good meal helps, too).


David

 

[SusAntigoon]

Drag the edge without pressure through a cork or the edge of a piece of cardboard/wood, whenever you switch stones or take a closer look at the edge while on one stone. Sometimes you can even see the very small specks of metal on a white piece of cardboard after you did that. Those are tiny burrs removed. If that doesn't help, together with the other advice here, I'm at a loss.
The sharpmaker has truly been a foolproof way to get real sharp edges for me. I rebevel on the apex maybe once or twice a year and everything else is done on the sharpmaker.

 

[Branspop]

Spyderco put the videos on youtube. Just search sharpmaker. There are four parts.

It works well for me, but if I haven't used it in a while, I refresh my memory with the vids.