- Joined
- Aug 13, 2016
- Messages
- 408
This may seem obvious, but to some, perhaps it isn't. This thread is mainly targeted at people who are new to sharpening. I should mention that this isn't all my idea, my ideas are the methods used, and I laid out the instructions for you here. Here are the simple instructions to make your sharpmaker sharpen a lot faster:
1. Buy at least 13 inches of 1/2" wood dowling.
2. Cut dowling to 6 1/2"
3. Tape 60 grit sand paper around the dowling at the ends and in the middle. This is so the sand paper molds around the dowling better.
4. Leave for a few hours and take middle tape off. 5. Put sharpmaker rods into their slots and then tape the sand paper covered dowlings to the ends of the rods.
6. Sharpen as you normally would.
You'll want to sharpen on higher grits before going to the medium rods because it transitions better if you do. It will be hard to remove 60 grit scratches with just the medium rods. If you want to spend the cash, buy either a set of Cubic Boron Nitride or Diamond rods to help you transition better. The diamond rods are more aggressive, but the CBN rods transition better to the medium rods. (that information came directly from spyderco) One could even use both if money isn't a big issue. I've never tried this without the CBN rods, but you could probably make it work if you go up to around 320 or 400 grit before transitioning to the medium rods.
Sharpening on 60 grit will (in my opinion) help you get a feel for the pressure needed on the CBN and diamond rods, because they need very light pressure and you HAVE to use light pressure on the 60 grit otherwise the edge will catch on the particles (at least it did for me).
I am not a knife sharpening expert (yet), these are just ideas that work for me. I wanted to give back to the site and the people who have helped me so much. If anyone has any ideas to add, please feel free to do so.
Thanks guys,
Bo
1. Buy at least 13 inches of 1/2" wood dowling.
2. Cut dowling to 6 1/2"
3. Tape 60 grit sand paper around the dowling at the ends and in the middle. This is so the sand paper molds around the dowling better.
4. Leave for a few hours and take middle tape off. 5. Put sharpmaker rods into their slots and then tape the sand paper covered dowlings to the ends of the rods.
6. Sharpen as you normally would.
You'll want to sharpen on higher grits before going to the medium rods because it transitions better if you do. It will be hard to remove 60 grit scratches with just the medium rods. If you want to spend the cash, buy either a set of Cubic Boron Nitride or Diamond rods to help you transition better. The diamond rods are more aggressive, but the CBN rods transition better to the medium rods. (that information came directly from spyderco) One could even use both if money isn't a big issue. I've never tried this without the CBN rods, but you could probably make it work if you go up to around 320 or 400 grit before transitioning to the medium rods.
Sharpening on 60 grit will (in my opinion) help you get a feel for the pressure needed on the CBN and diamond rods, because they need very light pressure and you HAVE to use light pressure on the 60 grit otherwise the edge will catch on the particles (at least it did for me).
I am not a knife sharpening expert (yet), these are just ideas that work for me. I wanted to give back to the site and the people who have helped me so much. If anyone has any ideas to add, please feel free to do so.
Thanks guys,
Bo