Tonight I Wore Through a Sharpmaker

[The Meat man]

Whoa! :eek:

I always consciously try to avoid nicking the base while sharpening.

[Cambertree]

Hmmmm... Cambertree and Rick, two of the guys here I respect and learned from the most when it comes to sharpening:
Both obviously use beer as a performance enhancing drug to achieve there successes... this makes me seriously reconsider my own pretty sober approach... :rolleyes:

Thanks bro, but you haven’t seen the sharpening jobs I’ve done which didn’t turn out so well. Aesthetically, I mean - they all turn out pretty sharp.

And by a couple of beers, I literally mean two. I’ve learned that cut-off point from experience. :o

I’d surely be embarrassed to say how long it takes me to do an initial edge thinning, but it’s a lot longer than half an hour for most good knives.

But as it’s a pleasure to me and a relaxation, I’m not trying to compress the exercise into the shortest timespan possible.

I don’t try for ‘presentation worthy’ bevels on all my knives, but I feel that a high quality knife like a Spyderco is worth the initial effort. The rest of the time it’s just quick microbevel type touchups on the Sharpmaker or a few licks on a benchstone.

The Australian Olympic gold medalist trap shooter, Russell Mark, wrote an interesting column once in the Australian Shooter’s Journal about some experiments he participated in at the Australian Institute of Sport, using small amounts of alcohol in various sporting disciplines.

I seem to remember that the equivalent of about 1-2 standard drinks actually improved performance in some shooting sports, presumably from the relaxation. More than two generally resulted in a sharp decline. He concluded that it was better to use mental visualisation and breathing exercises to achieve a similar end.

As for sharpening, I’ve got some nice 140 grit scratches up one side of my Bradley Bowie to serve as a reminder to either be very moderate in consumption, or like yourself, be sober when hitting the stones.

Here’s a more utilitarian edge on my Vic Soldier I did after reading previous posts by you guys on rounding over serrations and putting more acute grinds on SE knives:



It was done on the Sharpmaker 15 degree setting and is an amazing cutter now. This reminds me I need to put a pointy tip on it too, though. :)

[vivi]

Wow Vivi, you weren’t enjoying some refreshing beverages at the time, by any chance, were you? :D :p :)

I like doing the first thinning out of a new knife edge, and I sometimes like to relax with a couple of beers while I’m doing it. But there’s definitely a point where I need to put away the sharpening gear.

Ask me how I know. :D :)

Now I am even more amazed how perfect your edges do look... the "beer technique" would speak for more wonky bevels...

guilty as charged :p sam adams

this sharpmaker is over 20 years old so I was planning to get a new one soon anyways. the rods have been replaced two times over the years.

reprofiling serrated hawkbills is where most the cuts came from.

[Mushroom]

Wow! That thing has almost been sawed in half! :eek:

[bearfacedkiller]

You must sharpen with reckless abandon. My base is ten years old and has reprofiled 100 knives and doesn’t look anything like that.

We all sharpen differently.

[Ric]

:D
Which knife Vivi?
How old is the sharpmaker?

Well done!!!
Life is too short to go easy on the sharpmaker.

[kerrcobra]

Side note - changing a bevel grind angle is not reprofiling But I once tried something very similar like you did (with those diamond rods for sharpmaker) to do something similar on a Small Sebenza - never again, it took AGES :D Sharpmaker was simply not made for that. It was a huge waste of time. I do that now either free hand on stones, or with a system like KME.

I'm curious how you define reprofiling?

[TenGrainBread]

In a couple months Vivi will post a thread titled "Tonight I reprofiled my Sharpmaker rods to 15dps using my knife" :D

[Wartstein]

In a couple months Vivi will post a thread titled "Tonight I reprofiled my Sharpmaker rods to 15dps using my knife" :D

Yeah, Vivi is the Chuck Norris of sharpening... :p

[Matus]

I'm curious how you define reprofiling?

I simply define it as changing the profile of the blade - as the word would suggest. One usually only reprofiles a blade after a damage to the edge that does not come out during a sharpening (like a bog chip or broken tip or such), or if the user wishes to considerably alter the blade (I did that to one of my pocket knives - with a belt grinder)

Just changing the sharpening handle (or the angle of the secondary bevel - I recall that is how in the world of pocket/outdoor knife the edge bevel is often called) is just that - changing the angle of sharpening.

I approach this from the view of a high end kitchen knife user where the thickness behind the edge is very low, steels are not super high wear resistant, so changing the sharpening angle is simply called sharpening as it does not take more then a few minutes on water stones to accomplish.

[juggler]

Yeah, Vivi is the Chuck Norris of sharpening... :p

Chuck Norris doesn't sharpen his knives. He frowns at them and they get sharp.

[bobnikon]

I'm the same way, I always have a couple of my favorite IPA's while doing some serious sharpening. ...

I like doing the first thinning out of a new knife edge, and I sometimes like to relax with a couple of beers while I’m doing it....

Hmmmm... Cambertree and Rick, two of the guys here I respect and learned from the most when it comes to sharpening:
Both obviously use beer as a performance enhancing drug to achieve there successes... this makes me seriously reconsider my own pretty sober approach... :rolleyes:

The instructions say "neither grit (medium or fine) requires lubricants such as oil or water for use". There is no mention of beer, and therefore while not required it seems to be permisable.

[vivi]

You must sharpen with reckless abandon. My base is ten years old and has reprofiled 100 knives and doesn’t look anything like that.

We all sharpen differently.

I just sharpened up a fixed blade by free handing a bevel on diamond stones then using the sharpmaker to put on a 15 degree microbevel. I noticed at the end of each stroke the knife hits the base. Not something I've ever thought much about. I think I started that habit to avoid slipping the tips off the stones.

[Wartstein]

Yeah, Vivi is the Chuck Norris of sharpening... :p

Chuck Norris doesn't sharpen his knives. He frowns at them and they get sharp.

That´s true of course for the real, one and only Chuck!

But keep in mind Vivi is just a little Chuck Norris trainee (which is still more than most other humans could ever achieve!!) and so he is only at the "I sharpen CBN stones with knives" level yet...

[bobnikon]

Yeah, Vivi is the Chuck Norris of sharpening... :p

Chuck Norris doesn't sharpen his knives. He frowns at them and they get sharp.

That´s true of course for the real, one and only Chuck!

But keep in mind Vivi is just a little Chuck Norris trainee (which is still more than most other humans could ever achieve!!) and so he is only at the "I sharpen CBN stones with knives" level yet...

And laps them with his finger tips!

[Bill1170]

Wow. I cringe when I nick my base. I almost never go that far down with my stroke.

Same here. I’m guessing Vivi moves a lot faster than I do.

[Oloung1]

I noticed at the end of each stroke the knife hits the base. Not something I've ever thought much about. I think I started that habit to avoid slipping the tips off the stones.

If this is the price of entry to achieve consistent superacute tips, I'm subscribing to it :D

[RustyIron]

Reprofiled a PE and SE knife to 15dps tonight and cut through my sharpmaker base in the process. Time to order another

Why didn't you stop banging the the blade into the sharpener after the first time you made the mistake? One mistake is an accident. Two hundred mistakes is something else entirely.

[vivi]

Reprofiled a PE and SE knife to 15dps tonight and cut through my sharpmaker base in the process. Time to order another

Why didn't you stop banging the the blade into the sharpener after the first time you made the mistake? One mistake is an accident. Two hundred mistakes is something else entirely.

Because I'm not concerned about it at all, lol. If the worst that happens is I have to buy a new sharpmaker base every 20 years that's not even worth worrying about.

It isn't a mistake either way. I stop on the base intentionally.

[Bill1170]

One 204 Sharpmaker every 20 years seems a small price to pay for constant sharp edges on PE and SE alike. And good pointy tips.