Thoughts on sharpening Commander

[scott475]

Yesterday I experimented around a little and here is what I found, based on guidance from the new site.

I used the fine ceramic, tri-angle rods from Spyderco. I did not use the base, but instead held the rod in my right hand.

First, I found trying to hit the whole blade in one pass just did not work well. So, I worked it in three separate sections: 1) the point, 2) the convex (or "belly") section, and 3) the concave (or "recurve") section.

I also found that if I held the knife edge up, instead of away from me as the site shows, I could judge the angle of rod-to-edge much better. Then, using the flats of the rod, I just worked the belly and point until I got the burr going. Then I the edge of the rod to hit the recurve section, again until I got a burr. My blade has the wide grind on the tip, so it was pretty easy to feel that the rod was at the correct angle there, but I had to concentrate a little more on the other two section.

To finish, I just did what the site said. Knocked off the burr and stropped, and WOW!
Great results. Once I get all the grind marks polished off the edge, I think it will be even better.

I just used my thigh as a rest; remember, EDGE UP, or keep the superglue close!. Good luck!




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-Scott
Usual Suspect

 

[steveG]

Anyone else have any commander sharpening tips?

 

[SIFU1A]

the best way is like described on the EKI website, i use a oval shaped diamond rod to get the burr and a gerber steel to do the final sharpening, stropping on a leather strop also helps some, ya can tape the back part of the blade to avoid scuffs, and i dont like to use a sharpmaker on EKIs they work great on everyhting else but not EKIs, not for me anyway. i think commanders and CQC8s are the hardest EKIs to sharpen FWIW, not that they are hard to sharpen though.

if ya got a decent burr with a white rod from a SM on your commander ya must have been working a while,