What angle do benchmade come with from the factory?

afultz075

afultz075

Joined
Sep 2, 2006
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I just got my sharpmaker yesterday and am having a bit of trouble sharpening my BM Mini-Grip (it came out of the box with a rather unimpressive edge). I did the whole marking off the edge with a sharpie deal and after noticing the 40* edge wasn't taking it off I went to the 30* back bevel and did the recommended 20 strokes per side of the corners and 20 strokes per side on the flats and then did the same with 40*. I made very little progress. It is only marginally sharper than before.
I was able to put a wicked edge on a couple SAKs and Case knives I have but this 154CM is proving to be a real bear. Am I just not sharpening enough or is it something with the angle? I am a total sharpening newbie by the way and have watched the video and read the manual twice.
 
If the edge is more obtuse than 40 degrees then it will take a long time to sharpen on the Sharpmaker, especially with something with a low grindability like 154CM. Even more so if you try to reduce the angle down to 30 degrees. Take an x-coarse hone and regrind the edge to under 30 degrees and then sharpen on the Sharpmaker.

-Cliff
 
Use a magic marker to see if you're even hitting the edge on the 20 degree stones. Benchmade has improved over the years, but it used to be common to see their folders come with edges around the 23+ degrees per side mark. Ridiculous for a folder, and made rougher by the fact that they all have a thick sabre grind.
 
I had a member send me a knife to sharpen not too long ago by BM and he wanted an 18 degree bevel on it. I had to reprofile it to get it there so its not at that from the factory. I'd have to guess that the one I had, which was a fairly new M2 steel BM knife was around 21 degrees or more per side out of the factory. It had a rather unimpressive edge on it to be honest and was what I'd call obtuse and thick. It may very well have been 23 per side for all I know. I had trouble even sharpening a pencil with it from the factory but it sure sliced better at 18 when I was done with it though.

For what its worth the 154CM and ATS34 steels give a lot of people trouble even when everything is just where it is supposed to be. Many times these steels take what I call the "decieving edge". Meaning they are sharp but they don't give all the indications of it, like bite, or instant grab of a finger or paper like you see in other steels. Once sharp though they hang on to that edge with the best of them.

STR
 
Well, I went at in again on the Sharpmaker and had pretty decent success. It's not what i'd call scary sharp, but it will still cut hair off my arm and cut through paper realtaively cleanly. My BM 960 had a razor sharp edge out of the box so i'm not sure why this one didn't, but then again the 960 is over two times the price of a MiniGrip.

On the second go of the sharpmaker I just focused on the 40 degree angle and it seemed to take off my sharpie mark better than last time, so i'm not sure if the little bit of 30* angle I put on the first time did anything to help or not. It seems like one side of the edge runs a little further up the blade for some reason.
 
The primary grind is probably taken down more on one side of the blade than the other which can make the angle of the edge bevel look different (wider or thinner) from side to side. Its actually pretty common.

Many times you can see this on knives that are made with thicker tips for prying or other such things such as those thinner in the middle but flared out in the back and tip of the blade. On ones of this nature you will notice the edge is wider in places on the same side than in others and yet the whole edge was honed using the same angle. All the geometry of the blade as a whole, including the length of it plays into the final edge and the way the final edge looks.

STR
 
The 551 grip I have in 154cm came with a 15 degree per side bevel, or at least I think so because when I hit the medium stones on my sharpmaker, then examined the edge under a lighted 15x loupe, I got perfect contact all the way across the bevel on one side, and, after about 40 strokes to remove the factory grinder marks, got perfect contact all the way across on both sides. I don't know if this is true with all bm, or even all 551's, but I thought I would share my experience with this particular one.
 
Alright, I just went at it again to see if I could get it any sharper. Here's a diagram of what's happening:
edgediagram.jpg

Where the arrows are pointing is where it's wearing down my sharpie marks. Does this basically mean it's beginning the reprofiling process? It does this at both 30 and 40.
 
Yep, that is where the stones hit when you are sharpening at an angle more acute than already exists.
 
Ahh, I give up, I absolutely cannot get this thing as sharp as my Native. Is there anyone here on the boards that does reasonably priced reprofiling work? I really don't want to go at it anymore for fear of destroying the blade. If someone else sets the angle to go with the sharpmaker I should be good to go with the blade from now on. I can sharpen an already sharp blade back to razor sharp, but doing any major work on these super-steel blades is beyond my skills.
 
Well, I could try that, but i've never sharpened freehand before, so I fear my results would be even worse.
 
I practice using cheap (a buck or two) Wallyworld specials.

Even though I've been at it for a while, I still find it beneficial to reprofile and sharpen the cheaper blades as practice.

Give it a shot.
 
I had the same problem with a 154cm Benchmade HK, I reprofiled it to 30º and then 40º using the sharpmaker.

Yes, it was a pain and took me a couple of hours, but if you make 15minutes a day you won't get tired and will get great results.

Of course, I know I'll have to learn how to use a coarse stone and sharpen freehand but I'm afraid I wont be able to know what angle I'm sharpening at, how do you know that? Technique? Experience? Some kind of angle marker?
 
Angle need not be exact.

Straight up is 90, 1/2 of that is 45, 1/2 of that is 22.5, and finally 1/2 of that 11.25 (good enough). I go through this routine to approximate angles. There are other methods, be creative.

Consistency comes with practice (and a black majic marker to see contact area helps).
 
SanShou said:
I had the same problem with a 154cm Benchmade HK, I reprofiled it to 30º and then 40º using the sharpmaker.

Yes, it was a pain and took me a couple of hours, but if you make 15minutes a day you won't get tired and will get great results.

Of course, I know I'll have to learn how to use a coarse stone and sharpen freehand but I'm afraid I wont be able to know what angle I'm sharpening at, how do you know that? Technique? Experience? Some kind of angle marker?
Click to expand...


I've just been going at it at 40*. Should I worry about doing the 30* backbevel first. Is it too late for me to sharpen it in the way you did?
 
I can only find the DMT Diasharp in Coarse, not XXCoarse. Will that do? I'd ideally like to get the Diasharp because it's pretty inexpensive.

Will I be alright with starting over at 30* even though i've already been at it with 40* for awhile?

How long does it take to reprofile something like 154CM with a diamond stone. Is freehand sharpening really as tough for a newbie as it sounds?
 
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