Tonight I Wore Through a Sharpmaker

[Wartstein]

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.
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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.
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Come on, start a picture thread where you share your UN-pretty edges... :D :p
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The "performance enhancing drink" - thing is interesting! ... and probably also a double edged sword, if it became a widely used practice..

I am sure that strong personalities and/or people who generally have rather low levels of addiction potential can make good and harmless use of smaller amounts of alcohol for relaxation and better results in shooting events or the like.
It is a bit like you, me, most here, probably can "make use" without really NEEDING it of one or two or three beer from time to time to relax, enjoy sharpening or meeting buddies just even more. Nothing better than having a large, cold brew when arriving at a mountain hut after an exhausting ascent .

But: I´ve seen and also worked with a lot of real, severely addicted alcoholics who messed up their whole lives by drinking way too much - and in the end totally uncontrolled.
Not too few told me that something like you describe actually was their gateway to disaster. They started to realize, that some things get easier with one or two drinks... soon after that that for them all things got easier with nine or ten drinks and: Here we go. Road to disaster..
Of course these were mostly not strong, self confident personalities in the first place and certainly most times had a high natural addiction potential.

To be clear: I am not a "moralizer" by any means , totally fine when people enjoy drinks or even get totally drunk from time to time as long as they don´t hurt others or mess up their or other lives - it´s just that I also witnessed (and still do) the "dark side" of alcohol - when people are not on top of it anymore..

[Woodpuppy]

I tag my base once in a while too; but I’ve developed an aversion to dragging the tip on the blade off the triangle tip of the stones, with the added effect that on the flats I end my stroke with the tip still on the stone. I believe this helps keep me from getting sloppy and rounding the tip. I also quit when my form begins to suffer. No way I could keep up steady strokes for a half hour.

[Pokey]

When I saw the picture of the base of Vivi's Sharpmaker my first thought was I wonder what the tabletop would look like if you were sharpening a Whale Rescue Knife? :D

[Bill1170]

When I saw the picture of the base of Vivi's Sharpmaker my first thought was I wonder what the tabletop would look like if you were sharpening a Whale Rescue Knife? :D

Sharpening a Whale Rescue blade would be a reason to mount the Sharpmaker on a high block to give lots of clearance.

[vivi]

Serrated edges have to be sharpened parallel to the surface the sharpmaker rests on. I'd imagine the only way to hit the surface under the sharpmaker is with incorrect technique.

[jpm2]

I've not worn my Sharpmaker anywhere near that much (yet) but it does raise questions of how to fix and prevent.

First, I've worked a lot with broken, cut plastic in a past life and wonder if you could "fill" in the exposed area with a superglue, glue, reinforced fill or epoxy to build it back up, maybe in layers. It does not appear that the exposed area is "load bearing" or supporting the rods.
Second, I wonder if one could/should tape a nice thick cardboard slab at the areas that are being gouged. Would the tape or cardboard dull the new edge more so than the material of the Sharpmaker.
Third, I've been experimenting with mounting my Sharpmaker on a vertical surface. Hard to get used to but the blade falls free without hitting the table or Sharpmaker. Does anyone have any experience and recommendations for trying this?
Fourth, is the one side noticeably more damaged because you were doing a serrated knife? in other words, would a plain edge eventually dig into both sides? And, actually, would a plain edge dig in as much as the serrated edge?

Dan

I don't know what type of plastic the sharpmaker base is, but absolutely sure it could be easily repaired for another 20 years of use.

I try to stop short of hitting the base with my edge, to keep from undoing what I just did. :)