Spyderco Forums

Hi guys. In the video about how to use the Sharpmaker it is said to use the side slot (12°?) to sharpen shears. That is quite a wide angle. But I see it works wonderfully for home shears aimed to cut paper. I start anyway having the impression that it may not be the right choice to sharpen garden sh...

Well, 192 positions is almost a kamasutra of sharpening. Not sure I need all of them. I would be happy with the typical missionary, rod in the hole, tight fit. Anyway, I do not understand how should I press "straight down". I am supposed to pull the knife toward me, to sharpen the whole bl...

Hi guys, I have received the SharpMaker and started experimenting. I am pleased with the results, I was able to bring knives to cutting paper level, which for being a total beginner is a good result for me. I would not expect being already able to reach the popping hair level. But, I am having probl...

I hope I'm not steering away from the main subject matter too much I hope I did not! :) Sorry but it was impossible to resist hijacking this thread, having the chance to find somebody whom I can talk to, and understand, and who is willing to explain. Btw, thanks a lot Ryno for creating this thread :D

Cliff Stamp wrote:The opposite

Somehow I didn't see it coming. My mind was so stuck on push=high sharpness.
But it makes sense now.
Thanks for all this conversation, much appreciated, exactly what I hope to find in a forum :)

Thanks Cliff, it is clear now. Just a last question though :) When you say "The question was are simple steels better for push cutting and more complex steels for slicing, I noted this is true if you need/want high sharpness edge retention for push cutting and low sharpness edge retention for s...

Sharpness is talking about the properties of the apex itself. When you dull a knife by use you are not changing the angle. I am not sure exactly what you are asking here, what does the term sharpness mean? The question was are simple steels better for push cutting and more complex steels for slicin...

I think he means complex is higher carbides and simple is low carbide. What has been working well for me is my FFG ZDP Endura finished on DMT EEF stones. Yes I had understood that "high carbide" was referred to complex steels. I had to ask though, because I am not familiar with the term &...

as the steel gets higher in carbide volume the performance degrades. Roman Landes measured this specifically and called the measurement the apex stability which is the ability of a steel to hold a very high push cutting sharpness at very low apex angles. I may be misunderstanding something. So, sim...

I kind of understood all. Thanks.

In general, the more complex the steel, the less the utility of very fine high grit finishes Interesting again. From my very limited and fragmented "knowledge" I had the impression that old steels were not as good as modern complex steels at taking a very thin edge, and that a harder stee...

The Diamond and CBN rods I have are near identical in grit. Maybe I did not understand something. You had said something about steeling, and I understood that a less coarse stone could do this steeling more (moving metal instead of biting). So when you said that CBN had a steeling effect and that a...

Cliff Stamp wrote:There is nothing stopping you from polishing one side of your F stones, or just using one side of your F stones until they wear smooth. Or using lubricant, or using low force, etc. to increase the polish.

Nice trick.

1) Lets say you get a new knife, the Spyderco Duper in S666V, you sharpen it at 15 dps with the UF stones and you do a little work with it pruning some vegetation. Now the knife goes dull rapidly, what is the cause? 2) I don't think you are likely to see any benefit from the fine rod, the materials...

A suggestion though is when using the UF stone try your best to maintain the exact (did he say EXACT? :) ) angle at the apex Ok, I agree with you, it is not something I want to try now. I definitely would overload my actual skills and feel frustrated. I will do step by step and eventually get to th...

There is no such thing as a pure slice because in all cutting the material has to move partially as a push or otherwise it would not actually cut into the material. - Yeah, good point. Maybe "slice" could be defined as a cut where you cannot BEGIN to cut if not by moving the edge forward/...

I checked this as I was curious and the CBN has the same steeling effect. If I just do 2 passes on the CBN rods the edge is very sharp, but at that point while it did remove metal it also pushed a lot of it back into place. does this mean that the cbn are less coarse than the diamond? I, like many ...

Hello guys, hello Chris (funny to see how people travels through different forums). This thread is very nice, it touches exactly the themes I am researching. I am new to knives and to sharpening. I have just ordered a Sharpmaker to sharpen my garden tools, the cheap knives I own, and the good ones I...