Thumb post sharpening issue on sharpmaker

[WolfSpring]

So before I ask and explain, this was a cheap skinny chinamart knife.

My buddy asked me to sharpen his knife, it needed to be reprofiled/bevel set as well. I noticed the thumb post on this thing is giant and while I was sharpening I was having issues with it hitting the sharpmaker, was also having problem with the gatco trying to set the bevel but I was able to work around that and in the end I just started at an angle with the post above the top of the sharpmaker. It sharpened up just find it was just really weird, wondering if any of you have run into this problem before.

Not a huge fan of thumb studs to start with, this kinda added to the small list of why I usually avoid them, my current Civilian EDC has one but it's new to me and everything else about it the knife is why I have it, auto assist, S30V and titanium handle, rather it had a thumb hole, but beggars can't be choosers.

 

[bgentry]

A lot of people remove the thumb stud before sharpening. If you have to change your approach angle due to the stud, then you're not getting to the angle that you intended on the blade. Perhaps even a VERY large angle has been put on the blade because of this, which won't help cutting performance.

If you can't remove it, you can work around it by sharpening only up to the point where it interferes. Or you could use handheld stones, like the Sypderco Profile stones, or similar. Finally, on nice knives, a lot of people wrap the stud and parts of the handle near the base with blue or green painter's tape to protect them from scratches and grinding that accidentally happen during sharpening.

Good luck!

Brian.

 

[WolfSpring]

Makes sense to remove it, this was a cheap knife so that was not an option, kept my angle of the blade but had to come at it from a different angle, he's happy with the job, I'm trying to get him to get a real knife.