Just starting out: Should I...
Sharpmaker was the first Spyderco product, which I bought and this is the best $50 I ever spent. Will save you money on the long run and give you satisfaction when you bring your knife back to shaving sharp or better.
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf"
My top choices Natives5, Calys, C83 Persian
My top choices Natives5, Calys, C83 Persian
I have been bitten by the knife collecting bug just this year as well. I bought my Sharpmaker soon after receiving an old Manix as a gift from a friend and I haven't looked back. It's definitely a solid investment, and it's actually pretty satisfying to learn how to bring any knife to a razor edge. Make sure you watch the dvd a couple times, Sal Glesser himself teaches you how to sharpen everything on it.
One small detail I have been learning lately is that the Sharpmaker will only easily and quickly sharpen a blade if the micro bevel on that blade is matched to or less than the default angles on the sharpener. If you have a knife that happens to have a greater than 20 degree angle it will require back beveling before you can hit the edge properly on your sharpmaker. The sharpmaker is designed to back bevel but the medium brown rods that come with it as standard don't remove metal very fast so it is time consuming. You might want to look into the diamond rods eventually if you run into a knife that just won't seem to get sharp for you.
I recently just bought an Endura 4 with the Emerson wave and I really love the design. However, one of the sides had what seemed like a 25-30 degree angle on it and I couldn't sharpen the thing, because only one edge was hitting the stone properly. I finally took out a sharpie felt marker and marked the edges to see what was going on. Sure enough, I was only sharpening the shoulder on the right side and making a big burr as I sharpened the left edge. I have been trying to reprofile it for the last day but it's very time consuming without the diamond rods.
Trust me though, once you have the proper edges set on any knife, you can easily maintain a scary sharp edge in just minutes with a Spyderco Sharpmaker. From my experience, Spyderco knives usually have the proper angles right from the factory. I don't know why my Endura was off.
I now own 3 Spydercos, 2 Kershaws, 1 Kabar machete, and I just ordered an Emerson. Sharpening them is almost as fun as buying them.
One small detail I have been learning lately is that the Sharpmaker will only easily and quickly sharpen a blade if the micro bevel on that blade is matched to or less than the default angles on the sharpener. If you have a knife that happens to have a greater than 20 degree angle it will require back beveling before you can hit the edge properly on your sharpmaker. The sharpmaker is designed to back bevel but the medium brown rods that come with it as standard don't remove metal very fast so it is time consuming. You might want to look into the diamond rods eventually if you run into a knife that just won't seem to get sharp for you.
I recently just bought an Endura 4 with the Emerson wave and I really love the design. However, one of the sides had what seemed like a 25-30 degree angle on it and I couldn't sharpen the thing, because only one edge was hitting the stone properly. I finally took out a sharpie felt marker and marked the edges to see what was going on. Sure enough, I was only sharpening the shoulder on the right side and making a big burr as I sharpened the left edge. I have been trying to reprofile it for the last day but it's very time consuming without the diamond rods.
Trust me though, once you have the proper edges set on any knife, you can easily maintain a scary sharp edge in just minutes with a Spyderco Sharpmaker. From my experience, Spyderco knives usually have the proper angles right from the factory. I don't know why my Endura was off.
I now own 3 Spydercos, 2 Kershaws, 1 Kabar machete, and I just ordered an Emerson. Sharpening them is almost as fun as buying them.