Sharpening Specialized Spyderco Blades

[JD Spydo]

Spyderco has blessed us with some super unique blade designs like the Dodo, The C-111 Captain, The Ulize and several Hawkbill blades that you just can't get anywhere else. One of my biggest concerns is keeping all my knives very sharp and some of the unique Spyderco blades of past and present are truly a challenge to keep sharp. However I'm finding many of the unique and "one of a kind" Spyderco knives are not only a special challenge to sharpen but I'm also curious as to which sharpening tools you use as well. Take the C-111 Captain for instance>> it's been one of the hardest knives I've owned and used to keep sharpened>> If you also own and use one please share with us how you keep it sharp. I want to explore other methods that some of you all might have stumbled onto for sharpening these unique, one of a kind blade designs.

Take the Dodo model for instance>> I found that the "Cat's Eye" stones out of the older Spyderco Galley V sharpening kit to do an excellent job keeping the reverse S blade on the Dodo razor sharp. There are a lot of different models and blade styles that Spyderco has offered throughout the years which are capable of doing difficult cutting jobs that are also a challenge to sharpen and maintain and I wish some of you would share what you've learned about sharpening them. Plain Edged Hawkbills also tend to be a special challenge for me to put an edge on that will last for a long period of time.

Spyderco has some recurves like the Spyker, Adventura, Zulu and the new Ulize and I've always found recurves to be a bit tricky to sharpen properly. Please share with us your methods for sharpening these unique and unusual Spyderco blades. Also tell us which sharpening tools you use for the job. So if you all own some of the Spyderco models I've mentioned tell us how you keep them sharp. Also tell us what uses you've found for some of Spyderco's unique sharpening tools as well. I want this thread to focus on Sharpening Spyderco's unique models.

[OldHoosier62]

Tapered stones, tapered diamond rods and a saddler friend made up a couple of custom leather strops on oak dowels. Handles the hawkbills,reverse S and the recurves quite well. The custom strops are in 1/2in., and 1in. diameters, very handy. I have 3 of each with different compounds for progressive levels of polish.

[JD Spydo]

Tapered stones, tapered diamond rods and a saddler friend made up a couple of custom leather strops on oak dowels. Handles the hawkbills,reverse S and the recurves quite well. The custom strops are in 1/2in., and 1in. diameters, very handy. I have 3 of each with different compounds for progressive levels of polish.

That's interesting "OldHoosier" because I just happen to have a few of those aforementioned tools myself. I'm also taking a second look at "stropping" when dealing with recurves, reverse S, hawkbills and other non-conventional blade styles

I've taken conical diamond rods just to get the excess should off of plain edged Hawkbills before to speed up sharpening and it worked well for the most part.

I've even wanted to take a look at "power strops" offered by that one woodworking tool supply company.

[Cliff Stamp]

This is one of the common complaints people make about such knives in a preventive measure as in they would not buy it because of trying to sharpen it. The main issue I have isn't sharpening specifically but repairing damage in really hard use because of damage to tips and secondary points. This is one of the reasons why when I recommend Spyderco's serrated blades they are always H1 which is very difficult to damage in general.

If you don't want to invest in dedicated tools, a very practical way to approach sharpening is to buy decent sandpaper and just glue it to small pieces of wood/dowel.

[swigert]

Its also always an option to send the knife into golden for free sharpening. Thats what i would I do I think...

[OldHoosier62]

This is one of the common complaints people make about such knives in a preventive measure as in they would not buy it because of trying to sharpen it. The main issue I have isn't sharpening specifically but repairing damage in really hard use because of damage to tips and secondary points. This is one of the reasons why when I recommend Spyderco's serrated blades they are always H1 which is very difficult to damage in general.

If you don't want to invest in dedicated tools, a very practical way to approach sharpening is to buy decent sandpaper and just glue it to small pieces of wood/dowel.

I was lucky Cliff, as a gunsmith I had literally hundreds of stones of every shape and grit already on hand so the transition to sharpening vice polishing was very inexpensive.

[OldHoosier62]

Tapered stones, tapered diamond rods and a saddler friend made up a couple of custom leather strops on oak dowels. Handles the hawkbills,reverse S and the recurves quite well. The custom strops are in 1/2in., and 1in. diameters, very handy. I have 3 of each with different compounds for progressive levels of polish.

That's interesting "OldHoosier" because I just happen to have a few of those aforementioned tools myself. I'm also taking a second look at "stropping" when dealing with recurves, reverse S, hawkbills and other non-conventional blade styles

I've taken conical diamond rods just to get the excess should off of plain edged Hawkbills before to speed up sharpening and it worked well for the most part.

I've even wanted to take a look at "power strops" offered by that one woodworking tool supply company.

I've never tried a "power strop" or one of the wheel systems either. Just 2x72 and 1x30 grinders,diamond stones and rods,stones of all imaginable shapes and grits and then strops. Myself and the customers I take care of aren't the "ultimate polished edge" types, they are hunters,meat cutters,military folks and working people who need a sharp and durable edge to perform their jobs. Fortunately, I have converted most to Spyderco over the years...once I get a Spyder in their pocket it is pretty simple to get a Sharpmaker on their workbench.

[JD Spydo]

This is one of the common complaints people make about such knives in a preventive measure as in they would not buy it because of trying to sharpen it. The main issue I have isn't sharpening specifically but repairing damage in really hard use because of damage to tips and secondary points. This is one of the reasons why when I recommend Spyderco's serrated blades they are always H1 which is very difficult to damage in general.

If you don't want to invest in dedicated tools, a very practical way to approach sharpening is to buy decent sandpaper and just glue it to small pieces of wood/dowel.

That's interesting Cliff because I've recently been viewing 2 old VHS videos I got on Ebay and both are about "sandpaper sharpening" It only makes sense that it would be great in a pinch as well as being able to engineer specially sized and shaped tools that you can just wrap with sandpaper.

With the C-111 Captain which is the one I'm most interested in as far as learning new ways of sharpening it I've just about come to the conclusion that it's a freehanded operation for the most part. From the pendulum end to the inner arch there are just not a lot of ways to do it otherwise that I can tell. I've recently been using the 204 Sharpmaker corners for the inner arch and the Spyderco 302 Benchstones for the pendulum end. But I'm open to more suggestions.

I agree with you about the durability of H-1 serrations but I've also had great luck with VG-10 SE blades as well. For those I'll stick to my 701 Profiles.

[JD Spydo]

I've never tried a "power strop" or one of the wheel systems either. Just 2x72 and 1x30 grinders,diamond stones and rods,stones of all imaginable shapes and grits and then strops. Myself and the customers I take care of aren't the "ultimate polished edge" types, they are hunters,meat cutters,military folks and working people who need a sharp and durable edge to perform their jobs. Fortunately, I have converted most to Spyderco over the years...once I get a Spyder in their pocket it is pretty simple to get a Sharpmaker on their workbench.

Well "OldHoosier" I've seen the power strops listed in "Lee Valley" and "JapanWoodWorker" catalogs. And I do think I remember that "Garrett Wade" also had them at one point as well. I'm sure a tool like that could be your best friend or worst enemy. I would imagine it would be a very delicate operation to get it just right. Because you can go out of control even with manual stropping.

I agree with you about the Spyderco 204 Sharpmaker>> everyone who owns a knife should have one IMO. I've found the Sharpmaker a great tool for doing some sharpening on these specialized blade designs as well.

[JD Spydo]

This just baffles me to no end :confused: because with all the fanfare I constantly hear about Spyderco's extremely unique, one of kind blade designs I just can't understand why someone hasn't explored methods of sharpening those blades :confused:

Especially with the popularity of the Dodo and Captain models I'm just certain that someone has got a handle on sharpening those blades in particular. Because I do know that many of you all actually use these "one of a kind" blade designs. I can't even get any feedback on sharpening Hawkbills for crying out loud :rolleyes:

Come on I know that there are more sharpening fanatics than that. Maybe I should just start another thread on the 701 Profiles? Or see if anyone knows anything about the new GAUNTLET sharpening system that Spyderco is working on?

I would surely think that someone has done some work on recurves? Or maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree?

[Gerard Breuker]

It is always hard to admit a bit of cheating.

For knives like the Kris I use the WE with just the corners of the stones accepting slightly different angles along the edge. Afterwards I just use the Sharpmaker to keep it sharp for a while.
Same procedure for recurves.
Never did the Captain or the Dodo though. Love the designs but don't carry them much.

[JD Spydo]

It is always hard to admit a bit of cheating.

For knives like the Kris I use the WE with just the corners of the stones accepting slightly different angles along the edge. Afterwards I just use the Sharpmaker to keep it sharp for a while.
Same procedure for recurves.
Never did the Captain or the Dodo though. Love the designs but don't carry them much.

Holy Cow!!! You got a KRIS model :eek: That's one of the very few Spyders of it's era that I never got to own. It seems like it's tenure was a short one from what I can remember. I didn't really embrace the design at that time but since I've owned a couple of recurves I now would like to have one. That's another model I would love to test out in Spyderedge.

Whenever I get an EP or WE I'm sort of starting to lean in the direction of the WE. It seems like it can take on unique designs a bit better from what I'm gathering.

Again for the Dodo model I've yet to find a sharpening tool that works as good as one of those "Cat's Eye" stones from the old/discontinued Spyderco Galley V sharpening kit. It's contour seems to fit the curves of the Dodo quite well IMO. But I have used the 701 Profiles on occasion as well with really decent results.

[JD Spydo]

This is one of the common complaints people make about such knives in a preventive measure as in they would not buy it because of trying to sharpen it. The main issue I have isn't sharpening specifically but repairing damage in really hard use because of damage to tips and secondary points. This is one of the reasons why when I recommend Spyderco's serrated blades they are always H1 which is very difficult to damage in general.

If you don't want to invest in dedicated tools, a very practical way to approach sharpening is to buy decent sandpaper and just glue it to small pieces of wood/dowel.

Cliff I just re-read your post here and I sure overlooked the main thrust of it>> You're Spot ON about serrated/Spyderedged blades in the H-1 Salt Series>> because they are truly geared for hard use in harsh environments. Not to mention I find them not too taxing to sharpen either. I just gave my H-1 Spyderhawk a major honing and touch up and it only took me about 30 minutes to get it all razor sharp.

Now that you've mentioned it I've never chipped one of the Spikes on any of my H-1 Spyderedges but I sure have with S30V and once on a VG-10 SE blade.