Stone Question for Sharpmaker

S

Skeptic

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Aug 25, 2012
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I'm getting better with my Sharpmaker using the stones which it comes standard with. Per the recommendation of the forum, it sounds like moving up to the ultrafine or diamond stones would be a good idea. A couple of questions:

1. Which should I go with, diamond or ultrafine?

2. If I get the triangular 1/2" x 6 Congress stones shown, can anyone advise me on which grit to try? Looks like they go from 80-600

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
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The diamond stones are coarser than the stock brown, and the ultrafine are finer than the stock white - so which to get would depend on which direction you want to extend your range of grits (which comes down to need - what do you want to do that you can't with the stock stones?)
 
The ultra fine stones will bring you to a new level of sharpness.

A strop is also a good idea for both refining and maintaining an edge.

Also you should take those links out of your post before a Mod notices (links are not allowed to dealers that don't sponsor bladeforums)
 
Jdunn- thanks for the info. Do you like leather or cardboard for stropping?

Zombywoof- thanks for the tip; links removed.
 
I'll offer my advice after using a Sharpmaker for over 10 years. Be aware that I use it for adding microbevels, which is not for everyone. I don't see a need for the entire bevel to be mirror polished, especially on the rather wide bevels that are prominant now. IMO, a Sharpmaker is a finishing and maintenance tool. You definately need something coarser, but I'd opt for a coarse Norton India or Crystalon stone rather than the diamond rods. You can make a block that will hold your stone just a couple (I use 3) degrees lower than the Sharpmaker, then add the final edge with the medium and fine stones. You can also just free hand sharpen and lower the bevel below the desired Sharpmaker angle. I also don't see a need for the UF stones. I can get hair whittling edges off the stock stones, both brown and white. The Sharpmaker stones remove steel rather slowly, so I get the best results by minimizing the amount of steel they need to remove. After the initial edge is put on, it can be maintained for a while with just the brown and white stones. See the video below. The edge before would not shave at all, and had been used for a long time to break down cardboard for kindling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz98gIgbxIo

I see I forgot the deburring step in that video. When switching from the corners to the flats, hold the knife parallel to the opposite stone and do one LIGHT pass on each side. This will give an angle of about 60 degrees total. The goal is to just cut off the burr, but not even to remove enough metal to form a microbevel. Then go the the next step and alternate sides.
 
I have the full (Spyderco) set. I'd go for the ultra fine, but you might not need them if you're going to be stropping too. While the diamond rods cut faster than the medium ceramic ones, by the time you need them the sharpmaker isn't the right tool for the job imo. I tried fixing a bad grind on a mini griptilian using only the sharpmaker (w/ diamond rods) and it was a huge pain. Took forever and it still didn't get all the way there. On water stones it was a simple task.
 
me2 said:
I see I forgot the deburring step in that video. When switching from the corners to the flats, hold the knife parallel to the opposite stone and do one LIGHT pass on each side. This will give an angle of about 60 degrees total. The goal is to just cut off the burr, but not even to remove enough metal to form a microbevel. Then go the the next step and alternate sides.
Click to expand...


I'm curious about using such a large angle to cut off the burr. For me, the burr is almost completely gone by the time I get to Spyderco's white stones. Progressively lighter strokes, followed by a quick strop removes whatever vestige of a burr remains. My sense is that it would be tricky to cut off a burr at 60 degrees without leaving a microbevel, but I've never tried it.
 
How do you check for a burr? The most sensitive way I've found is stropping the edge on the back of my head. Even a burr that is difficult to see at 40x magnification will show up for me with the hair stropping.

I must say that I have found on good steels what you say works for me, though I have never found a strop to be good for removing a burr. On steels with tenacious burr holding ability, moving through the grits at the same angle just switches the burr from one side to the other for me. To get rid of it, I have to elevate angles considerably and cut it off. Again, keep in mind I am not polishing the entire bevel with a 204, just a microbevel. This means that the same sharpening effort with my hand leads to higher pressure on the edge because of the smaller cross section in contact with the stone.

Next time you use your Sharpmaker, try the deburring step. I learned it here from Jeff Clark. On the better steels, VG-10 from Spyderco comes to mind, you can feel the burr being cut off on the first pass, and on the second pass, you can feel that it has not been just pushed to the other side. One stroke on each side with a Sharpmaker at double the sharpening angle will form a true microbevel, in that you need magnification to see it. It is so small it is removed with 10 or so passes per side on the brown flats, before moving to the white stones.
 
Thanks for that explanation. I usually worry the burr until it's gone. The method you're describing would be faster.
 
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