Push Sharpening a Serrated Edge

[Mad Mac]

The Tri-Angle Sharpmaker does a good job on my SpyderEdge blades but I got to thinking. (Always a risky endeavor, often resulting in shame and humiliation.)

Whereas most of our cutting chores require a draw stroke, draw sharpening makes sense; and for a plain edge should be more than adequate. But sometimes a plunging or sawing cut is useful, such as cutting carpet or cardboard. In my case, the netting on the round bales of hay that we feed out surrenders to a plunging cut more easily than a draw cut because the hay opposes the netting.

With all those edges and teeth in the serrated blades, I felt like the trailing edges of the teeth were not getting their fair share of the fine stone of my Sharpmaker. So, lately I've begun to add some gentle push sharpening strokes when I touch up my serrated blades. Of course I can't be sure, but it seems to produce better results.

[Evil D]

I either go really REALLY slow to make sure the entire serration hits the stone, or I make back to back draw/push strokes.

[vivi]

On a theoretical level I can't imagine using a push or draw stroke on the sharpmaker makes a difference. Whatever you're most comfortable would likely produce the best real world results. If you want to split hairs the scratch pattern could affect things a little either way but in every day use you'd be hard pressed to tell a difference on a serrated edge especially.

[Jazz]

Only makes perfect sense to go forward AND backward to get both sides of the scallops. I discovered that early in my serrations sharpening.

[Scottie3000]

I never thought of it before. Too bad the 701 profile stones are out of production.

[Bill1170]

Only makes perfect sense to go forward AND backward to get both sides of the scallops. I discovered that early in my serrations sharpening.

Same here. I can't go slowly enough to evenly get both front and rear of scallops equally sharp by only pulling.

[zhyla]

I do both directions. I never feel like I get 100% engagement every pass but it does seem to work. I finish off buffing with a dremel. The whole process is kind of a pain but SE blades are effective for so long on a given sharpening that it's definitely worth it.