Knifeclerk said:
Spyderco did a run of Spyderflys with a matte rainbow coating (more like SOG rather than Kershaw).
I doubt the rainbow coating is what's making it hard to sharpen your knife. The coating is tough, but it's not so tough that it'd resist an alumina-ceramic sharpening stone for more than a couple passes.
The problem is the Sharpmaker. As good a tool as it is, it's one weakness is reprofiling. Even using the medium rods, it's like trying to drain a swimming pool with a spoon. Combine this with the fact that the Spyderfly is rather oddly ground (necessary with the shape of its blade), and you're in for a loooong spell putting a new edge on it.
The diamond rods will make things
much quicker. Or, for about $20 you can get one of those oval shaped sharpeners (that look like steels, but are diamond coated). I have a medium grit one that I used for recurves before I got the Sharpmaker w/diamond rods.
Actually, considering the grind of the Spyderfly, it might work better to freehand rather than using the Sharpmaker. At least on my examples, the edge on the Spyderfly isn't the same bevel angle at all parts of the blade. At its broadest, I'd say its a normal angle, or maybe a bit less acute, but at its narrowest, near the base, it's much more obtuse. It'd take a
long time to reprofile one of my Spyderflys with the same angle all-around with my Sharpmaker, even with the diamod rods. Getting a sharp edge by freehanding with my diamond steel however would take only a few seconds.
