Sharpmaker - I'm Impressed

[aesmith]

Hi,

I finally gave in to the inevitable and bought a Sharpmaker to supplement my existing bench stones for freehand work, and a rather fiddly Lansky guided system for setting or changing angles. I only received the SM last night and had little time to play around, but I was able to get a completely blunt and low quality kitchen knife up to shaving sharp in just a few minutes. I can see this thing quickly becoming my preferred sharpening system.

One question though. For those who sharpen to 30 degrees inclusive, what do you use to thin out the edge after extensive sharpening or indeed to get it suitable for 30 degrees in the first place? The Sharpmaker world seems to expect you to sharpen at 40 degrees with the 30 degree setting used for thinning. I'm thinking of knocking up a couple of fixed angle bases giving say 20 and 25 degrees inclusive, anyone else done that, or anything similar?

Cheers, Tony S

[Echo63]

Its a brilliant and "stupid simple" system, providing the knives you are trying to sharpen are less than 30/40 degrees.

if they aren't then its reproofing time (which can take ages)
Spyderco do a diamond stone that fits in the sharp maker, which will help with reprofiling quickly, but i have just used either coarse wet/dry paper wrapped around the rods and held tight with bulldog clips, or diamond plates rested against the rods, held in place with a bit of double sided tape or blu-tak.

best thing about the sharp maker is the ease of use, you can leave it setup in the kitchen, and give your knives a few swipes on the ultra fine stones to keep them scary sharp (or touch your EDC up every few days)


my Sharpmaker has kept my spydies sharp for at least 10 years now, and its still going.
I recently got an Edgepro Apex, which does a brilliant job to, mainly for reprofiling, and polishing bevels to a mirror finish - i have been doing my knives around 15 degrees per side (30 total) which works perfectly with the sharp maker's 40degree setting and the fine or ultra fine stones for keeping my knives scary sharp - its a win win, i get easy maintenance, and pretty edges !

[Evil D]

Someone with more experience than me can verify this, but laying things like coins under the end of the base can lower the angles a bit. I can't tell you what coins change the angle by how much, but if you happen to own an angle cube it isn't hard to check. Personally I would avoid using the SM to set the bevel angle altogether and just use it for maintaining sharpness.

[JD Spydo]

Its a brilliant and "stupid simple" system, providing the knives you are trying to sharpen are less than 30/40 degrees.

if they aren't then its reproofing time (which can take ages)
Spyderco do a diamond stone that fits in the sharp maker, which will help with reprofiling quickly, but i have just used either coarse wet/dry paper wrapped around the rods and held tight with bulldog clips, or diamond plates rested against the rods, held in place with a bit of double sided tape or blu-tak.

best thing about the sharp maker is the ease of use, you can leave it setup in the kitchen, and give your knives a few swipes on the ultra fine stones to keep them scary sharp (or touch your EDC up every few days)


my Sharpmaker has kept my spydies sharp for at least 10 years now, and its still going.

Well "Echo63" I couldn't said it all any better>> because as much of a fan of the Spyderco 204 Sharpmaker as I am I've gone on record as of saying that the SHARPMAKER is really a misnomer because it should have been named the "Sharp-Maintainer">> because I do agree with you on the "reprofiling aspects of the Sharpmaker or it's lack thereof>> I have 3 different diamond Benchstones in different grits that I use for my "reprofiling" really beat up edges. I do agree that even with the 204 Diamond rods you would still take hours to do what you can do with coarse and extra-coarse benchstones or your "Edge Pro" system in just a few short minutes.

However I will deviate somewhat and still maintain that for the Spyderco 204 Sharpmaker to be complete and you are serious about correct knife sharpening then everyone who owns one should also get the 204 Diamond rods and the 204 Ultra-Fine stones both that you can buy extra for the unit. Because when I got set up with all four different grits of stones it made my sharpening jobs a lot easier and gave me a lot more selection for sharpening different blade steels and different edge geometries. But aside from that you hit the nail directly on the center.

You must get the complete kit for the Sharpmaker to be the extremely good tool that it is capable of being.

[aesmith]

Cheers. At this stage "Sharpkeeper" will do the trick for me, I can use Lansky or bench stones for reprofiling or setting bevels. I might pick up the diamond (or CBN) rods just for completeness. My main aim is quick resharpening though, as my current methods are too slow.

Tony S

[sbaker345]

I kinda disagree with the sharp maintainer thing, It was only a nightmare if the bevel was over 40 degrees, which admittedly a lot of factory edges were. Or the edge was damaged. If you sharpened it on the 30 degree setting, even if you dulled the knife to the point you could saw at your arm without cutting yourself it still only took a couple minutes to get a shaving sharp blade again.

[JD Spydo]

I kinda disagree with the sharp maintainer thing, It was only a nightmare if the bevel was over 40 degrees, which admittedly a lot of factory edges were. Or the edge was damaged. If you sharpened it on the 30 degree setting, even if you dulled the knife to the point you could saw at your arm without cutting yourself it still only took a couple minutes to get a shaving sharp blade again.

I respectfully understand your position but also try to understand the point I was trying to get across. I don't often have occasion to actually completely reprofile edges >> usually when I do it's because the edge had sustained some really bad damage, chipping, deep dings or dull beyond ordinary remedy. Most of the time I can use the Diamond 204 Rod to eliminate minor dings or just a moderately dulled edge>> which is why I refer to the 204 Sharpmaker as a "Sharp-Maintainer". Because for serious reprofiling I've not yet found my 204 Sharpmaker to be an efficient remedy for seriously banged up blades which do require a serious reprofiling IMO.

Yes I do consider my 204 Sharpmaker to be more of a fine tuner of blades than a super abrasive, quick stock remover that I find my coarse and extra coarse diamond benchstones to be.

Sharpening encompasses a lot of different grits and a wide range of abrasives and different types of sharpening tools>> because it just really depends on how bad or how minor of a sharpening job you have before you.

Now I've yet to get a set of the CBN stones that you can now get for the 204 Sharpmaker and that is my next sharpening tool to obtain and I'll let everyone know what my results are with the CBN stones will be. But I haven't yet found any manual sharpening tool to remove stock as rapidly as my coarse and extra coarse diamond benchstones have been.

[HarleyXJGuy]

Someone with more experience than me can verify this, but laying things like coins under the end of the base can lower the angles a bit. I can't tell you what coins change the angle by how much, but if you happen to own an angle cube it isn't hard to check. Personally I would avoid using the SM to set the bevel angle altogether and just use it for maintaining sharpness.

Somewhere here we were talking about this and if you use a SM rod under the middle of the SMs base like a teeter totter it added a certain by.bet if degrees. I have a EPA so Did not save the thread but I bet Google could find it.

i have been doing my knives around 15 degrees per side (30 total) which works perfectly with the sharp maker's 40degree setting and the fine or ultra fine stones for keeping my knives scary sharp - its a win win, i get easy maintenance, and pretty edges !

So you sharpen on your EPA and maintain/micro bevel on the SM 40 degree setting?

Brilliant! Will give this a go myself.

[farnorthdan]

Someone with more experience than me can verify this, but laying things like coins under the end of the base can lower the angles a bit. I can't tell you what coins change the angle by how much, but if you happen to own an angle cube it isn't hard to check. Personally I would avoid using the SM to set the bevel angle altogether and just use it for maintaining sharpness.

Somewhere here we were talking about this and if you use a SM rod under the middle of the SMs base like a teeter totter it added a certain by.bet if degrees. I have a EPA so Did not save the thread but I bet Google could find it.

i have been doing my knives around 15 degrees per side (30 total) which works perfectly with the sharp maker's 40degree setting and the fine or ultra fine stones for keeping my knives scary sharp - its a win win, i get easy maintenance, and pretty edges !

So you sharpen on your EPA and maintain/micro bevel on the SM 40 degree setting?

Brilliant! Will give this a go myself.

This is how I've been maintaining my edges also, set a nice bevel with the edge pro then just a few swipes per side on the SM to keep them razor sharp, works great.

[JD Spydo]

I guess now after listening to you guys and my pal EVIL D that I will indeed be getting the EDGE PRO rather than the Wicked Edge sharpening system. I truly believe my jury has returned a verdict in that case for sure.

But again I can't stress enough not to judge the 204 Sharpmaker without getting the extra stones that Spyderco sells for the 204 Sharpmaker and I'll go as far as to also recommend the newer CBN stones along with the 204 Diamond rods and the 204 Ultra-Fine. Because there are just so many sharpening advantages you have with those extra stones. The CBN rods are truly next on my list because even without using them I'm sure they are top quality or Spyderco wouldn't be adding them to the line up.

I have one other recommendation to make to the good Brother who started this thread. I use VISE GRIP's model 118P welder's clamps to hold my 204 Sharpmaker securely to any table I want to use>> they have a huge size range you can use to clamp it to just about any table or bench made. Also by using that VISE GRIP welder's clamp along with some thin, non skid rubber it secures the 204 unit very solid so that way it frees up both of your hands so you can guide your blade more accurately on your downward strokes. It's improved my results greatly since getting those about 6 years ago. Keep us posted and let us know how you are doing with the 204 Sharpmaker.

[aesmith]

Somewhere here we were talking about this and if you use a SM rod under the middle of the SMs base like a teeter totter it added a certain by.bet if degrees. I have a EPA so Did not save the thread but I bet Google could find it.

I saw something like that, but using a round rod rather than an SM rod. The SM rod would be better I think. The trick would be to put the rod in exactly the middle, so that the angle changes by the same amount in each direction. I might have a go, possibly could put a notch in the base so the rod positively locates. That would give around 5 degrees I think, but that's a really rough guess.

The clamp suggestion is good. I have some spring clamps which would do the trick, although at the moment I've just been holding it with a finger on top of one of the rods.

[Echo63]

i have been doing my knives around 15 degrees per side (30 total) which works perfectly with the sharp maker's 40degree setting and the fine or ultra fine stones for keeping my knives scary sharp - its a win win, i get easy maintenance, and pretty edges !

So you sharpen on your EPA and maintain/micro bevel on the SM 40 degree setting?

Brilliant! Will give this a go myself.

Correct - sharpen with the EPA and maintain/microbevel with the sharpmaker/UF rods at 40deg

[Evil D]

I kinda disagree with the sharp maintainer thing, It was only a nightmare if the bevel was over 40 degrees, which admittedly a lot of factory edges were. Or the edge was damaged. If you sharpened it on the 30 degree setting, even if you dulled the knife to the point you could saw at your arm without cutting yourself it still only took a couple minutes to get a shaving sharp blade again.

This may be true for some softer less wear resistant steels but my experience so far has shown that anything from about S30V and up is going to be time consuming if you're bringing it down from 40 to 30.

[aesmith]

Somewhere here we were talking about this and if you use a SM rod under the middle of the SMs base like a teeter totter it added a certain by.bet if degrees. I have a EPA so Did not save the thread but I bet Google could find it.

Just did a quick measure, and the rod add/subracts just over 4 degrees if I'm using the base with the lid attached as a handle. Just the base itself rocking on the rod is about +/- 6.5 degrees.

[HarleyXJGuy]

Somewhere here we were talking about this and if you use a SM rod under the middle of the SMs base like a teeter totter it added a certain by.bet if degrees. I have a EPA so Did not save the thread but I bet Google could find it.

Just did a quick measure, and the rod add/subracts just over 4 degrees if I'm using the base with the lid attached as a handle. Just the base itself rocking on the rod is about +/- 6.5 degrees.

There you go.

Thanks for doing this aesmith. I need to buy me an angle cube.

[sbaker345]

I kinda disagree with the sharp maintainer thing, It was only a nightmare if the bevel was over 40 degrees, which admittedly a lot of factory edges were. Or the edge was damaged. If you sharpened it on the 30 degree setting, even if you dulled the knife to the point you could saw at your arm without cutting yourself it still only took a couple minutes to get a shaving sharp blade again.

This may be true for some softer less wear resistant steels but my experience so far has shown that anything from about S30V and up is going to be time consuming if you're bringing it down from 40 to 30.

No I mean reprofiling does take ages, I mean if you already have it at 30, and just use 40 then even totally dull it doesn't take long to bring it back.

[Evil D]

I kinda disagree with the sharp maintainer thing, It was only a nightmare if the bevel was over 40 degrees, which admittedly a lot of factory edges were. Or the edge was damaged. If you sharpened it on the 30 degree setting, even if you dulled the knife to the point you could saw at your arm without cutting yourself it still only took a couple minutes to get a shaving sharp blade again.

This may be true for some softer less wear resistant steels but my experience so far has shown that anything from about S30V and up is going to be time consuming if you're bringing it down from 40 to 30.

No I mean reprofiling does take ages, I mean if you already have it at 30, and just use 40 then even totally dull it doesn't take long to bring it back.

Gotcha. We're on the same page :D

[aesmith]

Thanks for doing this aesmith. I need to buy me an angle cube.

I used a free App on my phone ("Angle Meter" on the iPhone in my case, but I'm sure there's similar for Android).

Anyway I've now run out of knives to sharpen, without feeling the need for anything other than 30 or 40 degrees. Kitchen knives all done at 40 deg, my folders all at 30. One of the kitchen knives needed some prior work on bench stones. On that basis I think I'll do without the diamond or CBN rods for the moment.

[JD Spydo]

When it comes to sharpening kits in general and there are getting to be quite a few of them out there on the market in the past 10 years or so>> I don't find even one of them comparable to Spyderco's 204 Sharpmaker. However there are two things I wish they would do to enhance the performance of that kit. First and foremost one of the issues we've talked about on this thread is that the Sharpmaker is not ideal for rapid stock removal and for reprofiling really beat up blades. I've said for years that they need at least one super aggressive stones to somewhat remedy that problem.

Second I would like to see them come out with a stone that would be triangular at the base but at the top part of the stone be oval shaped for accomodating plain edged Hawkbills and Reverse S blades better than what the kit can currently do. I don't know yet what they propose for the new/upcoming GAUNTLET sharpening system that is coming down the product pipeline but I suspect that maybe the GAUNTLET is truly going to remedy some of the hurdles we have encountered on the 204 Sharpmaker that are somewhat troublesome.

But again I don't know of any sharpening kit out there on the open market that is as good as the 204 Sharpmaker is. But now I'm more than anxious for the GAUNTLET system to hit the market.

[MichaelScott]

I've read through this thread. Understanding that I'm a novice at this kind of sharpening (my previous efforts were aimed at getting a sharp edge on non-Spyderco knives for butchering animals primarily), I need to ask a few questions.

First, I'm due to receive my Sharpmaker tomorrow. I have the following knives that will need to be maintained: PM 2, Dragonfly 2 and the Delica 4. The Delica is in need more than the other two. I currently have an old Lanksy system which has given good service to date. However, with the imminent arrival of my Sharpmaker, I believe, from what I've read here, I need to get the edge on the Delica in shape with the Lansky system to work with the Sharpmaker. From what you all have indicated so far, my understanding is that I should use the Lansky to get the edge evenly profiled to 30 degrees (15 degrees each side) so that when I use the Sharpmaker which will put a smaller bevel at 40 degrees (20 degrees on each side). However, the Lansky offers only angles of 17, 20, 25, and 30 degrees.

Or so I think. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Remember, keep it simple, please.