Spyderco vs. Strop

L

LawyerSam

Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
270
Ok, I have a couple of very nice chef's knives and two new Spydercos, a Persistence and a Delica. I want to make sure that I take care of these and keep them sharp. Now, I have various other knives in the kitchen and would like to sharpen them. I want something easy, and repeatable. I am not a heavy knife user.

So, the best system I think for me is a Spyderco Sharpmaker. I guess once I get better I can decide to get UF rods or go to a strop system with compound.

OR

I can use sandpaper and an old mouse pad to bring the duller kitchen knives up to some sort of sharpness and then, for those knives and my Spydercos, a strop system sorta like this: http://www.knivesshipfree.com/Complete-Sharpening-Kit-for-Field-or-Home-w-Blue-OtterBox. Now, I guess there could be some other sort of set up

But, do I want to go to convex blades? Or better just learn the Spyderco. I was about to order a Sharpmaker off Amazon when it came back down to $45 and free shipping, but since I have not ordered it, you can give me pros and cons.
 
I've used both kinds of edges and I don't see any real difference in their performance for my needs. I just try to stay with whatever kind of edge comes on a blade so I don't have to do any modifications.

If it has bevels, I use a Sharpmaker to maintain them. If it's convexed, I use a strop block. My run-of-the-mill kitchen knives visit the Sharpmaker when they need "tuning up".
 
Personally, I would not convex them. The sharpmaker with its stock rods ought to be more than adequate for kitchen knives.

I suppose that some people like a higher level of sharpness, but I have more people using these kitchen knives than just me and their ability to care for the edges vastly undercuts the logic in placing a high polish on my kitchen edges.
 
unit said:
... I suppose that some people like a higher level of sharpness, but I have more people using these kitchen knives than just me and their ability to care for the edges vastly undercuts the logic in placing a high polish on my kitchen edges.
Click to expand...

Yeah, same here. Sometimes my kitchen sounds more like a carpenter's shop :D.
 
From my perspective, it doesn't have to come down to choosing between EITHER the Sharpmaker OR stropping. Regardless of whether I were using bevelled or convexed edges, I'd still always strop them for most of the day-to-day maintenance. Once you're familiar with good stropping technique, it's a very easy way to keep your knives sharp, with a minimum of metal removal. All of my knives have bevelled edges, and once that edge is in place, I use my strops to do probably 99% of the maintenance afterwards.

If I were in your shoes right now, I'd use the Sharpmaker to handle the light-to-medium sharpening tasks for your kitchen knives, and THEN I'd strop them afterwards. Almost any stone-based sharpening system will leave at least a little bit of a burr on the edge. With practice, and proper progression thru the grits, most of the burr can be eliminated early on. But for the little bit that's left, a strop is ideal to finish it off.
 
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