...because my knives won't sharpen on the trisharpener. Yes, I watched the video, twice even, but when I follow the instructions exactly my knives don't get sharp.
How do I test? Mostly on paper (the cuts through copy paper are very ragged and I feel like the knife is ripping more than cutting) and I feel the edge with my thumb. I'm sharpening a 10" kitchen knife and a 2"(?) meerkat. My new gray calypso can cleanly cut a sheet in 2 starting from the top. I want to get that on my old knives.
Does anyone else have problems sharpening with the sharpmaker?
I must be doing something wrong
I must be doing something wrong
To the pessimist the glass is half empty, to the optimist the glass is half full, to the engineer its twice as big as it needs to be.
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budman1950
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Jimmy_Dean
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embarassing to screw up a "fool proof" sharpening, isn't it? I went through the same thing when I bought my 204. The edge was just gone. Spyderco knives went back to the factory for sharpening and the others were first roughly sharpened with a DMT hone laying on the stone at 30deg. The just sharpen the edge a 40deg and watch the hair fly off. Takes some time and if you can avoid it by having the good people at Spyderco do the dirty job for you, by all means do so! If not, be prepared to roll you sleeves!
-Dean
-Dean
I had problems sharpening a large Wegner a few years back. Posed the problem on Bladeforums and Sal responded back with great advice. This is not his exact words but...
...It helps to see what's happening on the edge as you're sharpening. Use a permanent marker and mark the edge of the knife, run a few passes over the Sharpmaker and then look with a magnifying glass or jewelers loupe at the edge and see where metal is being removed.
It may be that your edge is really dull and will take some elbow grease. In my case for the Wegner, I wasn't holding the knife perpendicular. Would have never gotten the knife sharp if I hadn't seen what was happening at the edge.
...It helps to see what's happening on the edge as you're sharpening. Use a permanent marker and mark the edge of the knife, run a few passes over the Sharpmaker and then look with a magnifying glass or jewelers loupe at the edge and see where metal is being removed.
It may be that your edge is really dull and will take some elbow grease. In my case for the Wegner, I wasn't holding the knife perpendicular. Would have never gotten the knife sharp if I hadn't seen what was happening at the edge.
Yeah, it is pretty embarassing not to be able to sharpen the blade after watching the video. I don't want to send my spydies away, I got the sharpmaker so I could do this myself. I think I'll try what ceg said and use a sharpie.Jimmy_Dean wrote:embarassing to screw up a "fool proof" sharpening, isn't it? I went through the same thing when I bought my 204. The edge was just gone. Spyderco knives went back to the factory for sharpening and the others were first roughly sharpened with a DMT hone laying on the stone at 30deg. The just sharpen the edge a 40deg and watch the hair fly off. Takes some time and if you can avoid it by having the good people at Spyderco do the dirty job for you, by all means do so! If not, be prepared to roll you sleeves!
-Dean
I also tried 50 strokes at 30 and then the 20/20/20/20 at 40 and still not sharp =( I'm gonna keep on going til I either get it right, or my kitchen knife blade disappears :eek:
To the pessimist the glass is half empty, to the optimist the glass is half full, to the engineer its twice as big as it needs to be.
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vampyrewolf
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hate to say it... grab a bench grinder...
take you a 1/2 dozen passes to get a sharp edge around 40deg on it.
take you a 1/2 dozen passes to get a sharp edge around 40deg on it.
Coffee before Conciousness
Why do people worry more if you argue with your voices than if you just talk with them? What about if you lose those arguements?
Slowly going crazy at work... they found a way to make the voices work too.
Why do people worry more if you argue with your voices than if you just talk with them? What about if you lose those arguements?
Slowly going crazy at work... they found a way to make the voices work too.
I have a similar problem with sharpening my small Sebenza on the 204. I sharpened really dull kitchen knives on the sharpmaker and they got razor sharp. I sharpened several Victorinox SAK's with excellent hair popping results. Same goes for some other knives I sharpened like for instance my Calypso Jr. But I just can't get that Sebenza really sharp. I put in a lot of effort and certainly didn't give up easily. It could be me doing it wrong, but why do I get excellent results with other knives? I'm fed up with it right now, but after some time I take that Sebenza again and give it another try (again). Maybe next time I will try the trick with the permanent marker.OutofGum wrote:I also tried 50 strokes at 30 and then the 20/20/20/20 at 40 and still not sharp =( I'm gonna keep on going til I either get it right, or my kitchen knife blade disappears :eek:
:rolleyes:
Aloha Outofgum!
Ahhhh, like everyone else here said, it takes time...considerable time at that, depending on how dull you run your knives before a touch up. I tried sharpening some of my old knives once my Sharpmaker came in and it took forever...even though the angle is constant on the Sharpmaker, doesn't mean your hand is.
I mostly just use my Pro-File set and freehand...
God bless, it'll happen!
Ahhhh, like everyone else here said, it takes time...considerable time at that, depending on how dull you run your knives before a touch up. I tried sharpening some of my old knives once my Sharpmaker came in and it took forever...even though the angle is constant on the Sharpmaker, doesn't mean your hand is.
I mostly just use my Pro-File set and freehand...
God bless, it'll happen!
Proverbs 16:3...Commit YOUR works to the LORD, and YOUR plans WILL succeed!
"Where's the best little big knife not designed by Sal or Eric?" ~ thombrogan, WSM
Avatar by my KnifeBrother, DiAlex...C102 Adventura designer, 2005 Spyderco Forum Knife!
"Where's the best little big knife not designed by Sal or Eric?" ~ thombrogan, WSM
Avatar by my KnifeBrother, DiAlex...C102 Adventura designer, 2005 Spyderco Forum Knife!
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Joe Talmadge
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The first thing you'll want to do is put some magic marker on the edge, then put the knife back on the stone. Take some swipes at 30 degrees. Where the magic marker is gone is where the metal is abrading away. You can repeat with 40 degrees. Where the magic marker is gone is where the edge is abrading away. I'm guessing that your knives have thick edges and need to be reprofiled first.
That's the only downside to the Sharpmaker -- the first time your sharpen a knife, you have to make the knife's edge bevels match the Sharpmaker's preset angles. That can take some time on very thick edges. Future sharpenings will go quickly, though.
The other thing you might do is try the burr method of sharpening, instead of the 50-20/20/20 method you're doing. The burr method gives you a physical indication of when the sharpening has become effective. Described here: http://www.edcknives.com/faqs.html FAQ #9
Joe
That's the only downside to the Sharpmaker -- the first time your sharpen a knife, you have to make the knife's edge bevels match the Sharpmaker's preset angles. That can take some time on very thick edges. Future sharpenings will go quickly, though.
The other thing you might do is try the burr method of sharpening, instead of the 50-20/20/20 method you're doing. The burr method gives you a physical indication of when the sharpening has become effective. Described here: http://www.edcknives.com/faqs.html FAQ #9
Joe
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Joe Talmadge
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Thanks fret. That's not actually my site, but several of the articles are mine. If you just do a web search on my name and "Sharpening FAQ", you'll find loads of web sites with the FAQ on it, and many are just plain html. However, edc-knives is one site that I know has the very latest FAQ, which is a big improvement over some of the earlier ones floating around.