Sharpmaker stone nicks, at what point should I care?

[zdr]

Hey all,

I'm pretty new to the knives and sharpening knives scene. I have a sharpmaker + diamond and UF rods.

It's great, though last night I noticed I can feel nicks in the surface of the standard rods as I draw the blade down the corners of the rods.

They've probably endured somewhere between 1-2k strokes, and last time I got my ZDP-189 DF2 pretty sharp :)

So they're still working....But is there ever a point where I should start caring about the nicks?

And how does one tell when the stones are 'worn out'? It was mentioned in the video the coarse stones would wear out after a few years.

(I haven't thought I'd abused the stones too much, but learning is often abusive, never used enough force to flex the base much at all though)

[EricTheRed]

Welcome to the community ZDR,

FWIW...a while ago I found nicks on all of my rods as well. It never seemed to give a problem when I used the corners before I noticed the issue, but none-the-less I decided to forgo using the corners in an over-abundance of paranoid caution. And to be honest my blades don't even seem to take any longer to get a shaving edge back to them using only the flat parts of the triangle rods (though I dont let them get too blunted to begin with).

According to others here this is a fairly common issue. If you try to exchange them you may be likely to get new ones with nicks as well unless you want to ask your seller to go through a dozen sets to find flawless ones. Since you have the diamond rods for the aggressive honing I'd say just skip the use of the corners and make it work. But that's just my humble opinion.

As Sal mentions in the vid, only the medium stones will wear over time. I would guess that it would take quite a while for this to happen noticeably. But when it does you would probably notice the rod becoming slightly concave. But perhaps somebody else hear has more of an actual expect use life for the med stones.

[sal]

Hi Zdr,

Welcome to the Spyderco forum.

If the nicks are in the gray stone, keep using them and they will eventully "wear" away. If they're in the white stones, they won't go anywhere and might even be cracks. If they're in the white stones, I would send them into customer service for a "look-see".

sal

[EricTheRed]

Well there you have it ZDR...you cant get any more of a proper answer than from Mr Spyderco himself. Where else are you going to get the head honcho answering questions and offering help? (hint: NO WHERE)

--Sal
though I have not been bothered by the "nicks" even the least bit, these are present on at least one of the corners of all my triangles (med, fine, ultra).

To further clarify, these anomalies on my triangle rods aren't even readily visible, and I like to to think of myself as having fairly sharp eyesight. I only ever noticed them when I happened to run a fingernail along the length.

Still my go-to sharpening system. Easy, precise, and oh so quick.

[sal]

HI Eric,

Try rubbing one white stone against the other to eliminate the anomoly.

sal

[zdr]

Cheers for the replies.

I'll take a second look at the white stones, and perhaps order two knew ones. It's easier and cheaper time+money wise to do that then send em all the way from Oz.

Thanks again,

Will no doubt have questions again in future :)

[EricTheRed]

So simple it's brilliant.

Now get back to making us more brilliantly designed knives

[dskobli]

I just got a new sharpmaker as well a few days ago and I noticed 1 of the 3 corners on each of the stones has small Knicks in it. I was wondering the same thing and by doing a quick Google search is how I came accross this thread. They don't look like cracks to the bare eye to me and I didn't even notice it till I felt them while sharpening a knife. I hate to be without a sharpener but would you reccomend sending them in? I'm not worried about the grey stones since they will eventually wear anyways. I thought about sending them back to Amazon right after I noticed it but like someone else mentioned I was worried about getting a set that was worse. I wasn't sure how common this was or if they were all like that from manufacturing or something? By the way I would like to say how much I love this system with the acception of this one flaw. After trying a couple diff systems and stones with not so good results I have been able to not only get the phonebook paper push-cutting edge my brand new manix 2 didn't come with but also get my used semi-dull Ka-bar wart hog to do the same!

[sal]

Hi Dskobli,

If it's the white stone and it has a crack, we need it back at Spyderco. If the "nick" is proud (sticking up from the surface) then use the other white stone and rub (abrade) it away.

sal

[dskobli]

Thanks for the quick response Sal. It is the white stones but they don't apprear to be "proud". You have to really look to see them and there on 1 side near the hook sharpening groove. It seems as if it was on the same edge if these were cut from the same stock origionally. The best way I can describe it is very small chips, or holes. A couple are longer like scratches. One has 4 I believe and the other has 3 I think. Like I said they are very small but u can definately feel them if u run a knife or a fingernail down the edge. It doesn't look like they are cracks going through the stones. Unfortunately I don't have any kind of magnification tool to get a better look. I have a jewelers loupe on order but it's coming from China and probably won't be here for 3 or 4 weeks. They still have 2 good edges and I hate to be without a sharpening tool to maintain my brand new cpm s30v manix because I hear if you don't maintain this particular Steele it's hard to get back to sharp. I am brand new to quality knives and this is my first quality blade. Unless you know a trick to tell if these are actually cracks I need to worry about I'm not sure I want to spend more money to send them back and be without it for who knows how long.

[docwatson]

I have noticed the same thing on the corners of an older set of white stones that I have., I am expecting a jewelers loupe in the mail and plan to give them a careful look over. Mine feel almost like a gouge/nick that are very small.

[dskobli]

Sounds like mine accept I just got mine on Wed from Amazon. I will probably just wait till I get my loupe as well. I ordered that through amazon as well but it's coming from China so who knows when that will be here. It was like $3 with free shipping with an amazon prime trial so I figured even if I had to wait a month and it was crap for that price who cares.lol it did get good reviews. And as far as the sharpmaker go's I'm not trying to put down the system because I really do love it and think it's the best system out for the money. If the stones look cracked with magnification I will probably send them in otherwise I may just live with it. I plan on ordering a set of diamond stones and probably eventually some ultra fine too when I have some extra scratch. Not only does this system make maintaining a blade a cinch I feel like I'm learning a lot with it about sharpening a knife. It seems like a great beginners tool and may help me learn how to freehand sharpen with flat stones eventually which I have never been able to do very well. Then again I was using a $6 dark/light grey hardware store stone that was all banged up and uneven.

[sal]

Mark the corners with the "nicks" and don't use them until your loupe comes in. Then we'll look-see.

sal

[Nick D.]

I've also experienced nicks but only on the medium stones. They usually disappear by the end of the session.

[dskobli]

Will do. Thanks for the help. It's really cool to be able to just hop on a forum and communicate directly with the owner of the company. I'm sure your a busy man and I appreciate you taking the time to give me your advice. It makes me feel good about spending $150 on a new spyderco and sharpener.:-)

[DJ]

I just got one of these sharpmakers also .............I love mine.
Dont know why I waited so long to get one ...............really .........love it , works fantastic.
I thought I had a nick too ......but I believe mine was caused from a nick in the blade or burr you can say.
When I sharpened a different blade the nicks werent there any more ............so it was the blade , not the stone for me.
I have had alot of sharpening devices , some I gave away ......... Iam keeping the EdgePro , Sharpmaker and belt sander , with these you have just about everything covered.
My 2 cents

[christopher]

Just a comment since I haven't seen it. Have washed your triangles? I use a sponge and Comet (or similar) and the result is a like new finish. FWIW

[Evil D]

I'm not sure how much this applies to the Sharpmaker rods, but as far as my othe stones I lap them after every sharpening and bevel the corners.

[Cliff Stamp]

I'm not sure how much this applies to the Sharpmaker rods, but as far as my othe stones I lap them after every sharpening and bevel the corners.

The Spyderco stones are solid ceramic and the finish of them will effect how they cut. They can be lapped, in fact many people do who are very particular about the flatness of stones. However if you for example lap the stones with an x-coarse DMT you will have a much more coarse finish as the scratch pattern left by the diamond stones will actually cut that specific pattern. However if you do the same with a waterstone the scratches from the x-coarse DMT wear very quickly and just give rise to the natural finish of the stone. If you are going to lap them then it would be best to use something which is as fine or finer than the stones themselves.