Wow I spent 3 hours on same knife with my new sharpmaker...

Z

zimmerDN

Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Messages
68
It's still dull. :eek: Before you jump out of your seats, I did read the faq on this webpage. I did watch the video that came with the sharpmaker.

However, it was one messed up kitchen knife. This knife's been around our kitchen for over 10 years and over the years it's abused badly by the manufacturer sharpener that came with the knife.

When I began, I noticed the deep grouge on ONE side of the blade and on the other side it was completely untouched. So that one side lots a lot of metals over the year because the gouge was at least 2mm wide.

After hours of sharpening, i was able to get both sides of the blade to look alike again; V shape instead of this \|

But I still don't get how to make it razor sharp? I can't seem to get the burr no matter how much I sharpen one side. I've been using 30 degrees.
 
Those rods, even the medium ones, don't remove a lot of metal. Basically if your knife was in that bad of a condition then you haven't reached the edge yet. Just keep going and going and eventually things will line up properly and get sharp.

To speed things up you can buy the optional diamond rods or clamp some sandpaper over the rods to make them cut more.

You can also use some black magic marker over the edge to see how you are progressing.
 
3 hours?! Good Lord! Do yourself a favor and get a knife grinder and do it in 3 minutes.

WYK
 
I had a kitchen knife that was dull as a doorknob for years in spite of my best efforts.. I got the diamond rods for the Sharpmaker and in about 20 min at the 30 degree angle, the thing cuts like crazy.. Now it just takes a few passes on the grey rods to maintain the edge. Reprofiling is the answer. :cool:
 
Agreed.

DMT is good too, esp. since sharpmaker diamond rods are $$$$$

Can get a med. sized DMT thing for less

_z
 
sounds like your knife needs a good swift kick in the @r$e

may need a reprofiling first, then keep it touched up with the sharpmaker

aXed
 
Well, I have to work with what I got. Which is the sharpmaker with the original rods. I've already shaved off a lot of metal, trust me because I can see the stone is getting smaller in the middle part already and the blade edge is not nearly as long as it was before.

What I don't get is why in the video they suggest sharpening both sides simultaneously but a lot of ppl suggest to do one side first to get the burr. And I can't seem to ever get that burr with this knife and on two other knives I tired. Can this burr be seen visually on the opposite side of blade being sharpened?
 
you don't see the burr, gotta feel for it. one side at a time is better for touch ups. purposely raising a burr should only be done once a sharpening session. after you get one, get rid of it, don't try to force another one
 
I tried it again and this time I got a wire edge. At least that's what it looks like. Very thin on one side and extremely sharp. I was able to peel skin off my thumb without cutting too deep. :eek:

I am not sure if it's a wire edge or not. I know I can get rid of it but it won't be as sharp. I love it right now because I can just drag it over a rag that's folded and cut right thru it with very very minimal pressure. Cutting heavy towels is just as easy. :p
 
Depending on the steel that the knife is made of, it may be impossible to get a good edge on it. Some steel simply can't be sharpened to razor edge.

A Sharpmaker is great for touching up a blade that's basically already sharp. But they're not good for restoring knives which are very dull. The beauty of a Sharpmaker is that they set up and take down so quickly and need no messy oil so there's really no need to ever let a knife get dull when you've got one around.
 
That wire edge won't stay too long, so you'll need to get a real edge. Basically the wire edge is just the burr standing up on the edge instead of to one side. Since you've gotten it to that point, a good stroping or steeling is what you need.
 
You may just not be at the edge yet. Like ErikD said, use a magic marker on the edge bevel and see if you're reaching the very edge.
 
Congratulations, you are a very patient person and you are almost done. You can remove the burr and end up with a sharp edge without a lot more work. If you don't remove the wire edge your edge will dent or chip easily.

Put the medium grit rods in the 40-degree slots rotated so you are using the flats. You are actually going to hone at twice the normal angle by tilting the blade. To get the correct angle lay the side of your blade flat against the right-hand rod. Holding that angle move the blade over to the left-hand rod and very gently stroke the edge down the left rod. Now do the opposite, lay the side of your blade flat against the left-hand rod. Holding that angle move the blade over to the right-hand rod and very gently stroke the edge down the right rod. Repeat this process stroking left-right-left-right... for something like 5 cycles. Be sure to use very light pressure. Hold the blade under a bright lamp and look at the sides. You should not see any whispy line of reflection along the side of the edge after you get rid of the burr.

Now to restore your edge go back to the basic Spyderco sharpening. If you did your work previous to deburring in the 30-degree slots go back to them. I would not use the edges of the rods at this point since you don't want to overstress the metal at the edge. Using only moderate pressure do about 10 strokes per side (alternating left-right-left-right sides). Reduce pressure for the last few strokes. Do the same with the fine white rods. Switch the white rods into the 40-degree slots and do about 4 sets of strokes using extremely light pressure. This should get you back to a fine edge, but burr-free. If you aren't as sharp as you want go back and repeat the steps in this paragraph. You should not create another burr this way.
 
PS. It does take an extremely long time restore an edge using a Sharpmaker. When you do it you need to use higher than normal pressure and do virtually all of the heavy work using the edges of the medium rods. Don't even look at using anything else until you have an edge that will cut paper. Be sure you have the brass hand guard rods in place. As you near the end use alternating strokes to reduce the size of your burr. You will get a burr when you restore and edge, and you want the burr to help you see when you have removed enough material, but you don't want a long burr. A long burr is harder to get rid of and may tear off part of the edge as you try and deburr the blade.
 
I forgot to suggest wrapping some sandpaper on your rods for doing reprofiling and edge restoration.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=288021

Using the above method it may be helpful to run a narrow strip of double-sided Scotch Tape on the front face of your ceramic rod before applying the sandpaper. If you use this to glue down your sandpaper you will get a flatter bevel.
 
I bought a set of Spyderco's diamond rods that are triangular and designed to be used with the Sharpmaker. They cost as much as the whole sharpener, but for seriously abused or neglected knives they save a lot of time because they are aggressive enough to remove larger amounts of metal to set the profile before switching to the gray stones.

clic pic

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top