Spyderco Forums

What do you use to sharpen your spyderco's? I use a lansky kit for now until I can get a nice new sharpening system I found and a leather strop for polishing. But I want to hear what you all prefer, especially after the post with all the beautiful edges you guys put on your blades. :D

I use the wicked edge sharpening system when i want to reprofile and polish, and i use my Sharpmaker for maintenance and touch ups. The sharpmaker imo is the best bang for your buck in regards to sharpening for beginners.
Also the polished edges are cool looking and all, but from my experience they don't slice nearly as well at 400-600 grit edges

Hi Mr Sebastian!


The Spyderco SharpMaker is the best all-around sharpening system you're gonna get for the price.

And if you like to strop your edges I'd recommend the Flexxx Strops, but I made my own one my self out of some 6" long 8 Oz piece of leather. :)

I used a lansky for years. It is how I learned to sharpen back when I was a boy scout in the 80's. I use a sharpmaker now and love it. The sharpmaker with the diamond rods and UF rods is a complete system. The diamond rods are essential in my opinion and the UF are just for fun. It is a great system that is easy to use and can get knives very sharp.

I use the Sharpmaker for maintenance.

For reprofiling I am still experimenting. I was using 8 inch xxc and coarse DMT diamond stones tied to my 30 degree Sharpmaker stones and it makes quick work of even ZDP-189. I recently purchased an edge pro with an A

Sharpmaker for me. Got the it and the Diamond and UF rods with some amazon gift cards a year and a half back or so and it's been great. I've thought about springing for a Wicked Edge system but the SM works so well for my needs that I can't justify it

Holland wrote:I use the wicked edge sharpening system when i want to reprofile and polish, and i use my Sharpmaker for maintenance and touch ups. The sharpmaker imo is the best bang for your buck in regards to sharpening for beginners.
Also the polished edges are cool looking and all, but from my experience they don't slice nearly as well at 400-600 grit edges

+1 on all points.

Hello Sebastian, welcome. Some 20+ years ago I started sharpening with sharpmaker rods. Freehand and still use them. Last year I bought a wicked edge and I really like it. For quick touchups however the F and UF ceramic sharpmakerrods or my doublestuff stone in combi with strop is perfect. But believe me there is no more sophisticated system than the wicked edge. Your knives will become dangerously sharp.

I started with the sharpmaker, then got the UF rods and a strop, and recently began freehanding with a dual-grit hardware store stone and DMT X-Coarse, Coarse, and Fine 6x2 plates. I feel completely prepared to sharpen any knife I have or end up getting. I would very strongly recommend a Sharpmaker, and there's no real need for the UF stones or a strop.

Weps to set the bevel, sharpmaker to touch up.

Very happy with this setup!

I use sharpmaker, DMT diafold fine/x-fine for plain edge, and 701 profile set for serrated blades

Paper Wheels with diamond compound.

I have a Spyderco Sharpmaker, which I use almost exclusively for serrated blades, but I do most of my sharpening with DMT diamond whetstones in X-fine, fine, and coarse grits. Of those three, the fine sees the most use. I was sharpening freehand for 50 years before I discovered Spyderco products, don't see any good reason to change that.

The reason I chose to start learning freehand is so that I have full control through the whole sharpening process, and can sharpen any knife at any angle, to any level of finish I want. YMMV, this is just my reasoning.

Sharpmaker for my Spydies and for serrated kitchen knifes, but I'm not averse to free-handing other knives. For my scandi-grinds, I'm using a series of waterstones. BTW, I don't think you give up much control with the Sharpmaker, but it does help you get two distinct bevels.

Gatco system and Sharpmaker.

RealKnifeUser wrote:The reason I chose to start learning freehand is so that I have full control through the whole sharpening process, and can sharpen any knife at any angle, to any level of finish I want. YMMV, this is just my reasoning.

I concur. I freehand as well. I own an EP professional model, but rarely use it, as I find the bench stones faster and enable me to make fine adjustments.

I free hand all my knives

Officer Gigglez wrote:Gatco system and Sharpmaker.

In addition I have some water stones. Just got the Sharpmaker and I'm thinking that for ease of use and good results it will be my preferred system.

My sharpening system includes a sharpmaker with the addition of the diamond and UF rods, a protractor so I can wedge under the ends of the sharpmaker for reprofiling primary bevels to below 15 dps, and a balsa wood strop with chromium oxide compound for polishing my primary bevels and carefully finish polishing my edges.

With a little research and and a little patience a sharpening novice like me can get knives to true pushcut newsprint at 1" away from my hand using the above.