Which Sharpeners are best for me?

K

KPT

Joined
Nov 23, 2014
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Hey all! Been getting into more serious camping and survival gear lately since I've been going every week or so, recently picked up a SOG Seal Team Pup, Mora Companion and a Ka-Bar Becker BK2 (this knife is a beast!). The steels are AUS-8, Sandvik stainless and 1095 carbon, respectively.

None of them are particularly sharp out of the box, all fail the paper test (jagged rips instead of clean slice) and none can take any hair off my arm.

I ordered a Spyderco Sharpmaker, along with the extra ultra fine stones. Will this be sufficient in getting all 3 knives to razor sharp levels? Should I consider a ceramic or diamond honing steel, such as the DMT extra fine honing steel? Or DMT diafold?

I've gotten a lot of great info from searching these boards already, any help for a newbie to sharpening would be much appreciated! Thanks!
 
Short answer is yes, you can get all of your knives razor sharp using just the sharpmaker. I would suggest using a cheap knife for the first attempt at sharping though. I would use the DMP diafold in the field.
 
Probably going to be moved to the maintenance folder. You're going to get a lot of responses.
 
I like my sharpmaker a lot but I think they need to start selling them with the diamond stones and/or the borone ones so you can take off more material easily. All my newish knives that were still kinda sharp the sharpmaker got back to a razor edge easily with the medium and fine stones that come with the kit. However my other knives that are dull I just cant seem to get them sharp even with spending a decent amount of time on the mediums. Some of them also look to have different edge angles and that may be part of the issue too. My big kabar I cant get sharp for crap on my sharpmaker. However Im not the best at sharpening Im probably barely one step above being a noob. Thats just my experience though. So i would suggest the sharpmaker but ALSO make sure you get the coarse stones with it which are sold separate. Im hoping that helps me sharpen up my knives that I havn't been able to get a decent edge on.
 
I used to use a sharp maker a lot until I got into free hand sharpening. In my opinion, the sharp maker works great for touching up an edge that doesn't need any alterations. However, it is insanely painstaking to re-profile an edge if you happen to run into a chip or two. However, I never tried the diamond stones, so these may fix that issue. Also, if your bevels are not at 40 or 30 degree angles, you may have trouble trying to sharpen them with the vertical stick setup. Other than that, it should work well for you.
 
The sharpmaker works much better as a tool to keep a sharp knife sharp and not so much to make one as the name may suggest.

My personal recommendation would be to a benchstone such as Shapton waterstones. You will need benchstones anyways for the mora, also with the size of the BK2 the SM is going to be a slow go, same for the SOG.
 
My favourite set up currently is a Norton Crystolon combo stone in combination with the medium and fine Spyderco Sharpmaker stones. I trained my muscle memory and eyes with a 15 degrees wedge that I put on the end of the stone close to me and over time you get a good feeling for the right angle. Even these days I sometime check myself with that wedge. It is a great little tool to have.

So my current routine if I don't have the patience to do a complete freehand job, I sharpen/reprofile the knife to 15 dos until burr, then reduce the burr as much as I can without getting to anal (I really only use edge leading strokes alternating until burr reduced). I then use the Spyderco Sharpmaker 20 dps setting and gently apply a fine microbevel with alternating light strokes on the medium, then fine stones. The edge is then very refined, very even and very sharp. No stropping necessary if you do it right - depending on the steel too though.

If further burr removal is needed, I either use a thin leather strop or 2 sheets of printer paper on HeavyHanded's washboard or on the coarse side of the Norton stone and load them with compound. The leather strop may refine it better for a shaving action, the printer paper on hard backing though can refine the edge/apex to a much higher degree without rounding. It is impressive how much a difference the backing makes in terms of how aggressive you can utilize the compound in use. If you observe the apex - and I only have a 10 x lupe - you can see the polish effect so much more compared to a leather surface. You just have to be aware that more aggressiveness usually also means easier "new" burr formation.
 
@Woodysone - Thanks for the tips. I have an old Mellinger Co Huntsman I got as a gift that I may practice on to get the technique down.

Some of you touched on this, the sharpmaker's preset angles may be a bit of an issue. The Becker and SOG have 20 degree per side angles so I should be ok there I think.

I am on a bit of a tight budget until tax season, are there any good low-budget options for the Mora? Thanks again!
 
KPT - I guess my post got in in a weird timing. Anyway, for a Mora (scandi type knife), it is much easier and esthetical more appearing to use a waterstone or an oil stone that produces some degree of "mud".
 
Thanks Andy, I will look into stones. I will try on one of knives I don't care about first since I am completely new to sharpening.

Any opinion on the Smith's Tri-hone? http://www.amazon.com/Smiths-TRI-6-...8&qid=1416766512&sr=8-5&keywords=water+stones

If it is garbage and/or not something I would find useful I will look elsewhere, the price just seemed appealing since I am on a bit of a budget. After tax season I may look into more high-end sharpening systems such as an Edgepro Apex or good waterstones such as the shaptons
 
Being cheap now will only cost you later.
 
You can get a real good, hair shaving edge by free hand using a Norton fine India. On a buget no, problem. The stone runs about 20$ delivered to your door. DM
 
I'll agree with that ^. It may also be delivered to your door for 20$. This is the higher quality Norton stone. DM
 
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