Steels Friendly & Unfriendly with Sharpmaker Ceramic

[Steeltoez83]

When I evaluate steel and Stones I allow my knives to dull. I don't perform touchups and I cut the apex off everytime. For me it's important to see how that stone or progression of Stones maintain their integrity at the edge over time versus initial sharpness. I personally don't use the sharpmaker but I do freehand on their ceramic benchstone counterparts from time to time. When evaluating the brown benchstone /medium rods, I commonly use a progression of a Norton fine India then the spyderco brown ceramic stone. And I use my King neo silicon carbide stone in conjunction to see anectdotally if I'm getting more mileage on this tank of gas or not. In my own use and evaluations I get better mileage with: hap40,m390/20cv, k390,s90v, s110v, and 4V when I used the harder King neo stone. I wasn't counting cuts, but the difference was noticeable. Spyderco does have the 800 side on their cbn benchstone which I believe will trickle into the sharpmaker at some point.

[Bolster]

I'm moving away from AlOx (in ceramic or whatever binder) for fine grits on hi-carbide blade steels.

[kodai78]

I’ve seen a comment from Sal recently on the forum advising someone to be “patient” when sharpening S110 V on the Sharpmaker. Sorry, I don’t remember what thread it was in. I sharpen S110 on the Sharpmaker with what I think are good results. It does take longer than everything else I sharpen.

[Wartstein]

I’ve seen a comment from Sal recently on the forum advising someone to be “patient” when sharpening S110 V on the Sharpmaker. Sorry, I don’t remember what thread it was in. I sharpen S110 on the Sharpmaker with what I think are good results. It does take longer than everything else I sharpen.

This actually leads to kind of a "specification" of the op's question:

- Which "harder" to sharpen steels are actually not really "harder" to sharpen on the sharpmaker, but just take more time, but still an "easy" procedure
- and which steels can perhaps be sharpened quicker if one knows what they are doing, but are "trickier" (concerning for example burr forming / removal and so on) for not so experienced folks..

[Wartstein]

... added to my above post:

ZDP189 is a good example:
I sold my ZDP Endura years ago ( ) since I found it soooo hard to sharpen on my sharpmaker.
Actually I really had no real idea of sharpening back then (even less than today... ) and no CBN or diamond rods.
These days I think it was just lack of patience and taking the time, and probably ZDP is not "hard" to sharpen, but just takes longer...

[kodai78]

I’ve seen a comment from Sal recently on the forum advising someone to be “patient” when sharpening S110 V on the Sharpmaker. Sorry, I don’t remember what thread it was in. I sharpen S110 on the Sharpmaker with what I think are good results. It does take longer than everything else I sharpen.

This actually leads to kind of a "specification" of the op's question:

- Which "harder" to sharpen steels are actually not really "harder" to sharpen on the sharpmaker, but just take more time, but still an "easy" procedure
- and which steels can perhaps be sharpened quicker if one knows what they are doing, but are "trickier" (concerning for example burr forming / removal and so on) for not so experienced folks..

I don’t own every possible steel, but in my experience (I don’t consider myself an expert) S110, S90 and ZDP 189 are the steels taking the longest to sharpen. I am only a competent knife sharpener though. I am sure that some of the forum experts have a more comprehensive list and understanding of why some steels do require longer to sharpen.

[Bolster]

I'm a Spyderco fanboi too, but I think the newer high carbide steels are calling for fine-grit diamond/CBN rods for the sharpmaker...and possibly Silicone Carbide for the coarse stones.