What is the best way to sharpen a Spyderco blade ?

[foittaffafrouko-9112]

Hello everyone,

New to this forum and a proud owner of a beautiful Spyderco Matriarch 2, I wanted to know the best way to maintain and sharpen the blade of such a knife.

Is purchasing a Ken Onion diamond and ceramic sharpener a good solution and a good value for money? Or would it be better to have it done by a professional sharpening service?

Thanks for your responses.

Mathieu

a - b - c

[TazKristi]

Hi, Mathieu:
Welcome to our forum. We'd recommend our Tri-Angle Sharpmaker.

We hope you enjoy your time with us.

Kristi

[WilliamMunny]

Sharpening can get very complex, deep and there are a ton of opinions. A lot of people will help you here. Below are the three main ways I maintain my knives, depending on how dull they are, and the order IMO you should start.

As Tazkristi said the Spyderco Sharpmaker is an extremely good starting point. It is very easy to use, and the included stones (course and fine) will sharpen most steels. Very hard steels like Maxamet, 15v, S90V, REX-121, etc you will need to add diamond or CBN rods. The Sharpmaker will maintain a knife for a long time, but it will have trouble reprofiling a knife or fixing a chip in the blade.

Once you get a Sharpmaker start learning about stropping. It is basically using leather and compound to bring back a razor edge to a knife that is just starting to dull a bit. It saves time and steel, so you don't need to resharpen your as much to maintain a very sharp edge..

Finally, once you can maintain the edge of a knife with the strop and Sharpmaker then you can move onto either a fixed system like a KME or free hand sharpening. This is the best way to fix damaged knives, chips, and to reprofile (put a different angle on the edge).


This is all my opinion, but it is how I sharpen my knives know and it has been pretty effective. Good luck you will get a ton of great advice here. Also, YouTube is your friend.

[Mk-211]

This is hitting the market today but won't be available until Feb.

[jwbnyc]

For that knife with that steel, a Spyderco Sharpmaker, with the standard rods is the best you will come across.

You can get by with just the Tri-Angle rods if the whole rig is too expensive.

[S-3 ranch]

This is hitting the market today but won't be available until Feb.

With out a doubt this system is the best for sharpening a spyderco IMO
I have a Ken onion and it definitely needs to be on a low RPM or you will burn the blade so the angle pro is superior imo
All my spyderco’s have magnificent steel and once sharpened only need to be sharpened once in a blue moon, maintenance on a crock or strop is basically all I ever need.
And I as a rancher and hunting guide use my knives hard so maintenance is fairly often and quick
To keep them scary sharp @ 600 & 800 grit, then ceramic and leather for polishing

[Mk-211]

I also watch Outdoors55 channel, he puts out good info.

[vivi]

sharpmaker is ideal for odd blade shapes like your matriarch

I also watch Outdoors55 channel, he puts out good info.

lol what's with the two handed grip and the clamp.

[Mk-211]

You have to watch the video, he explains everything.

[jwbnyc]

https://www.nationalknives.com/spyderco ... rit-204mf/

Log in for best price.

[jwbnyc]

You have to watch the video, he explains everything.

Round rods are not what you want for serrations.

[cabfrank]

Get the Sharpmaker, you will be glad you did.

[Mk-211]

You have to watch the video, he explains everything.

Round rods are not what you want for serrations.

Why's that? They fit perfectly.

I watched a guy sharpen a serrated knife, with 800 grit sand paper and a chop stick.

In the video above, he sharpened a plain edge knife, with the Lansky $20 kit.

[Mk-211]

I also carry a Lansky Blade Medic all the time for sharpening knives. Works on serrated edges also.

[jwbnyc]

[jwbnyc]

Those tapered sharpening rods will wreck your serrations if you don’t know what you are doing.

[jwbnyc]

Round rods are not going to fit SpyderEdge knives perfectly. The Tri-Angle rods are designed specifically to be able to follow the edge of a serrated knife regardless of the contours. For something like a Matriarch there really is nothing better.

[Fastidiotus]

Get the Sharpmaker, you will be glad you did.

^This x2

In different hobbies I'm all for not buying into product systems when you can piece together your own setup, product symbiosis marketing be damned. In this case though a Sharpmaker really is the right tool for the job. The coarse and fine stones that come with a basic Sharpmaker are all you'll ever need for the serrated VG10 steel on the Matriarch.

Fixed angle guided systems like work sharp, kme, lansky, tsprof, etc are great on plain edges if you don't want to learn on traditional freehand stones. On a serrated blade though, even with the serrated sharpening rods, they're the wrong tool for the job. The sweeping arc left to right at the fixed angle doesn't evenly or fully contact all the serrations. With a fixed angle system you'll be forced to do one or 2 serrations at a time and then reposition the knife to do the next one or two. Inching your way along for a task that takes less than 2 minutes on a Sharpmaker.

[cabfrank]

Exactly. You'll be finished sharpening in less time than it takes to set up some other systems. The price linked above is a great deal also.

[Scandi Grind]

I'm one who likes freehanding, so I am not typically into the guided sharpener thing, but in the case of that particular knife, I would deffinitely recommend getting a Sharpmaker. It will probably be the easiest thing to learn on and maintain your edge with.