Today I got my First SE Spydie or well first SE knife ever. spydutch was kind enough to send me one of his old Militarys and I am so greatfull. Thank you Arend. I was looking for the perfect SE blade for Pack carry to cover all my bases and this one seems to fit perfect. The Knife is really great and I love the SE. I have held a lot of Militarys, about 6 and this one is the tightest and really has no play. I am really surprised, it really has no play. All of my Spydies have at least some play, this one doesn't. Arend told me I would need to sharpen it and I felt it was decently sharp so I ran up to the woods to try it and cut a nice branch off a dead tree. I was quite impressed at how well and how deep and fast the knife ate away at the tree. I didn't know how well the SE blades cut.
I just don't have a clue on how to sharpen it. The Blade looks as if it is sharpened on the side with the serrations, but not on the opposite side. So How should I go about Sharpening it? So I just do the One side, or Both?
I would also again like to Thank Arend, He is a really Amazing friend and a great person to know. Now I know why Sal thinks so Highly of him. He is a Great person.
The SE Military is kick butt Vincent. I love mine. As of late I'm really into SE Spydies. In fact I just ordered a Caly III in SE too. :)
About the sharpening, yes you just sharpen the one side. Sal shows how on the Sharpmaker DVD. I just go real slow and steady. I also don't let my serrations get too far gone so it doesn't take much to keep 'em sharp.
Weeeee........
Congratulations on the nice SE Mili from Arend.
Nice gesture Arend!!
"I'm calling YOU ugly, I could push your face in some dough and make gorilla cookies." -Fred Sanford
Sharpen it on only one side (the side with the serrations cut into it) and use the 701 ProFile stones that Spyderco sells. You should able to pick up a set of medium and fine ProFile stones for about $35. Once you have those, sharpening the scalloped serrations is reasonably easy.
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Looking for: C04 Executive plain edge, C09 CoPilot plain edge with brass liners and a G-2 marked blade
if you sharpen both sides evenly (2 strokes per side, alternating), you get a stronger edge.
if you do 3 on the scalloped side for every 1 on the back side, you get a thinner sharper edge.
I personally just do the 2:2 on the 15deg setting for my toys.
Coffee before Conciousness Why do people worry more if you argue with your voices than if you just talk with them? What about if you lose those arguements? Slowly going crazy at work... they found a way to make the voices work too.
I'm under the impression that you use the corners on the regular stones to sharpen the serrations.
Personally I would not do what vampyrewolf said. I don't want to put a double bevel on something the factory put only on one side.
The only time I ever run anything on the back of a serrated knife is when I am removing a burr and that only takes two or three strokes during the entire sharpening process.
"I'm calling YOU ugly, I could push your face in some dough and make gorilla cookies." -Fred Sanford
Using the 701 profile stones reduces rounding of the teeth on the serrations. Using the SM method you round the teeth which reduces the aggressiveness of the serrations. Sharpening with the 701's is extremely easy and puts a superior edge on serrations from my experience. I'd also use the 3 to 1 method for sharpening the teeth vs the back of the blade. It stregthens the edge and eliminates burrs created by honing the valleys of the serrations. If you haven't tried the 701's you're missing out on the fun to be had using a serrated edge (they're also great, when used like a chefs sharpening steel, on plain edge knives to put a screamiin sharp edge on your blade).
NJ
Be safe.
NJ
“The strength of an individual is not measured by how much one can control others, but by how much one can control oneself.” Hidy Ochiai
Native Justice wrote:Using the 701 profile stones reduces rounding of the teeth on the serrations. Using the SM method you round the teeth which reduces the aggressiveness of the serrations. Sharpening with the 701's is extremely easy and puts a superior edge on serrations from my experience. I'd also use the 3 to 1 method for sharpening the teeth vs the back of the blade. It stregthens the edge and eliminates burrs created by honing the valleys of the serrations. If you haven't tried the 701's you're missing out on the fun to be had using a serrated edge (they're also great, when used like a chefs sharpening steel, on plain edge knives to put a screamiin sharp edge on your blade).
NJ
Hi, everyone,
Good to know about the 701 stones. I wasn't aware of these. Will they fit in the Sharpmaker? I have an old Sharpmaker, probably from the early 90s. I ordered it from a Cold Steel catalog. It has only one set of holes to hold the stones. What angle is this single set of holes? Thanks,
Vincent, congratulations on your first SE. I got mine SE SS Delica4 little more than a year ago under Arend's influence. It is very interesting experience. And it took me a while to learn how to sharpen it with sharpmaker. I was ready to give up, but finally I did it, it is fan now.
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf"
Vincent wrote:
I just don't have a clue on how to sharpen it. The Blade looks as if it is sharpened on the side with the serrations, but not on the opposite side. So How should I go about Sharpening it? So I just do the One side, or Both?
I would highly recommend the method they show on the Sharpmaker DVD - Use the corners of the rods only - sharpen the entire blade in one stroke like you would a PE; the corner of the rod is small enough to move in and out of the serrations. Unless the knife is really dull, use only the fine rods. Use a ratio of 3 strokes on the grind side to 1 stroke on the back. This has worked great for me in the past. A light touch is key with SE.
I would also highly recommend buying the 701 Profile Set and learning to use them freehand. With these you can match the original angle of the serrations, and sharpen each serration individually. The large radius fits the larger serrations and the corner fits the small serration. I am still getting better with these, but I think eventually they will yield a superior result for me.
Use the corners of the white stones and sharpen the face side of the blade until a wire has formed on the back side of the blade. Then make a couple of passes with the white corner against the back of the blade until the wire has gone. Once this has happened, four passes on the front one last pass on the back. Then strop the back of the edge on a little card with flitz polish and you are good to go.
The important things to remember are, be VERY slow and GENTLE. If the serrations are in need of a lot of work its OK to use the grey corners to start with.
Once this has been done, it is easy to take the sharpmaker stone out of the base and give the individual peaks a quick "pointing" so they are razor sharp.
That takes about ten Min's to do.
You can also put flitz on shoe laces and use that to strop between the serrations.
Sharpening serrations is easy. Mine are RAZOR sharp and downright scary.
Look at how the angle at 40 degree's and then 30 degree's matches the actual angle used from the factory. Go with the one that matches it most closely. Don't just take anyones word for it, use your common sense and see what looks best.
The Military is a very nice serrated Spyder. If I were to pick just one serrated Spyder for my roughhouse work that I use a serrated blade on; the Military would be one of my top 4 picks for sure.
The other 3 would be the stainless handled Rescue ( thanks to my buddy Spydutch), The SE Massad Ayoob and the 3rd would be a tie between the SE C-54 Big Calypso and SE JD Smith.
The best of all of the SE Military models is the one with the 440V blade steel. That thing chews like a hungry Alligator :cool:
I advice you to sharpen the Milie at 40 degrees Vince
I once sharpened my Dodo/SE at 30 degrees and the scallops chipped like crazy after only cutting some medium sized card board and a plastic strap band.
40 degrees may not be as sharp but a lot stronger. Especially with serrations.
Arend(old school Spydie lover)
MEMBER OF THE INTERNATIONAL ORDER OF THE SPYDEREDGE!!!
VERY PROUD OWNER OF A CALY III/SE #043 :D
....AND A FG(PARA) MILITARY/SE IN CPMD2(thanx Sal)
Really nice
SE: People are catching on
