Newbie Sharpmaker Problems

CrazyJoeDavola · #1

Hi all,

First post here. I'm sure this question has been asked a hundred times before, but I just received my sharpmaker yesterday and have been having some serious problems getting my knives sharp. The first knife I used was my native4 PE and got an edge that was satisfactory for my first use.

Next I tried my BM940 s30v(sorry I know this is a spyderco forum :o ) and have been getting absolutely no result. This knife came factory dull and I have tried to get it sharp over and over again both at 30degree and 40degree angles with no result.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The majority of my knives are spyderco, but I do own a few BM's. Suggested blade angles on the sharpmaker would be great as I find myself very confused whether or not to 30 or 40.

Thanks again.

jabba359 · #2

Welcome to the forums! it's always good to see someone that not only appreciates fine cutlery, but also buys the proper equipment to maintain it.

The sharpie marker trick is useful. Take a dry erase, sharpie, or other marker and color just the bevel of the knife. Run it on the sharpmaker and see where the marker is being removed. If it's just the top of the bevel, then you are too narrow and the sharpmaker isn't hitting the edge. If it hits just the bottom, then you are adding a microbevel, but it should still be sharp. If it removes all the marker, then you are sharpening at the factory angle.

Another issue may be that you aren't removing all the burr that is created. It may seem sharp initially, but will quickly dull (as the burr breaks off). I haven't personally run into this issue, so I don't remember what the fix is, but I'm sure someone will chime in soon to let you know.

ac700wildcat · #3

My BM 940 wasn't even close to 40 degrees inclusive. It was more like 50-60 inclusive and like yours dull as heck. I had to buy the diamond rods to reprofile it down to 30 and it still took at least four hours to get it there. You might want to consider getting the diamond rods or getting someone to reprofile it for you. I bet it would take 10+ hours to reprofile it on the brown rods.

CrazyJoeDavola · #4

Thanks for the quick response guys. I'm probably just going to send in the 940 to get sharpened and focus on sharpening my spydercos myself on the sharpmaker. All of my spyderco's have come factory sharp and are most likely only in need of a touch up.

If the knife is still relatively sharp would you recommend using both the rods or only the white ones?

Sorry for all the noob questions. I started buying spyderco's a year ago and have accumulated close to 20, but have never had a sharpener!

bh49 · #5

Welcome to the Forum

jabba359 wrote: The sharpie marker trick is useful. Take a dry erase, sharpie, or other marker and color just the bevel of the knife. Run it on the sharpmaker and see where the marker is being removed. If it's just the top of the bevel, then you are too narrow and the sharpmaker isn't hitting the edge. If it hits just the bottom, then you are adding a microbevel, but it should still be sharp. If it removes all the marker, then you are sharpening at the factory angle.

ac700wildcat wrote:My BM 940 wasn't even close to 40 degrees inclusive. It was more like 50-60 inclusive and like yours dull as heck. I had to buy the diamond rods to reprofile it down to 30 and it still took at least four hours to get it there. You might want to consider getting the diamond rods or getting someone to reprofile it for you. I bet it would take 10+ hours to reprofile it on the brown rods.

I had few BMs in the past and all of them came with very obtuse angles. You will need coarse stones(diamond rod is one of the options) to reprofile the knife or send it back to BM for reprofiling.

cckw · #6

think of it like this, sharpmaker comes with fine and extra fine rods. The diamond rods (sold separately) will make fast progress on a dull edge.

mongatu · #7

Even with Spyderco knives factory grind, you may not hit the very edge with the 30 degree slots. I personally don't like to use the 40 degree slots very often as I feel that's just too obtuse and I don't generally like big micro bevels on my knives. So I usually have to use the diamond rods to re-profile my Spydies to 30 degrees inclusive on the Sharpmaker. It usually doesn't take more than an hour or so, depending on the steel and how far off the factory grind is.

Once I'm hitting the edge with the rods in the 30 degree slots and have smoothed out the rough scratch pattern from the diamond rods with the medium (brown) ceramics, I usually am fine with just using the fine and/or ultra fine rods to touch up (at least for the Sharpmaker part). If the edge gets a little messed up, I may have to go back to the medium (brown) rods for a bit, however, before returning to the fine and UF rods to further refine the edge.

Dr. Snubnose · #8

+1 what jabba said....The sharpmaker is a wonderful tool for getting that knife sharp like a light sabre...That being said I too have had to take Benchmade knives down with some diamond stones as well...once done the sharpmaker will continue to keep it sharp once re-profiled....Happy Sharpening!....Oh and welcome to this wonderful forum...Enjoy your stay!....Doc :D

Gerard Breuker · #9

Use magnification. Jewelers loupe or something else to see what you are actually doing. Helps a lot in general and did increase my learning curve quite a bit.