Spyderco Forums

So I’ve read thru some of these forums and watched several videos, but I can’t seem to find a collective agreement on sharpening. I ordered a sharpmaker kit. But there just seems to be something wrong with idea of running the blade down the triangle making that plinking sound as the serrations rub over the triangle edge. Am I wrong here or is that an effective way to sharpen the serrations ?

Thanks

Noah

Gruwolf wrote:So I’ve read thru some of these forums and watched several videos, but I can’t seem to find a collective agreement on sharpening. I ordered a sharpmaker kit. But there just seems to be something wrong with idea of running the blade down the triangle making that plinking sound as the serrations rub over the triangle edge. Am I wrong here or is that an effective way to sharpen the serrations ?

Thanks

Noah

It is effective. Using nothing but a single white sharpmaker stone I get my serrated knives shaving sharp.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ptmx1iJELhU

If you want you can sharpen serrations one by one, it's a very effective way to waste your time :)

Hey Gruwolf, welcome to the forum. The corners of the white stones work great. I was skeptical using the sharpmaker for serrations at first as well. Just mark the edge of the knife with a sharpie so you can see where you're hitting on the bevel. Works great. If you want to kick it up a notch, I like to polish mine with a dremel and some diamond paste after I use the sharpmaker.

ZrowsN1s wrote:Hey Gruwolf, welcome to the forum. The corners of the white stones work great. I was skeptical using the sharpmaker for serrations at first as well. Just mark the edge of the knife with a sharpie so you can see where you're hitting on the bevel. Works great. If you want to kick it up a notch, I like to polish mine with a dremel and some diamond paste after I use the sharpmaker.
20171029_232427.jpg

I'm gonna give the dremel stropping a shot this week. I have a few knives I was going to mod a bit on my day off so I'll have all my dremel stuff out anyways. I'll let you know if I can tell a difference VS hand stropping. SE H1 seems to respond well to stropping in general so I could see it being the case.

Get over the sound. It really works. Add some stropping at the end. It used to baffle me too. Mine now shave.

H1 + Sharpmaker = win win

Sometimes I freehand the rods and do the same thing. I don't always have time to set up the Sharpmaker when my OCD about edges creeps up.

I use medium, fine, ultrafine sharpmaker stones. And most of the time I polish with a Dremel and polishing compound. That last step definitely takes the edge to another level. There is diamond paste? I should probably try that.

The Dremel method isn’t my favorite thing to do. I’d rather use another finer stone.

Worth noting is that Sal has on several occasions mentioned that the Spyder Edge serration pattern is explicitly designed to be resharpened and actually performs better after the serrations get rounded out a little from sharpening and use.

ZrowsN1s wrote:Hey Gruwolf, welcome to the forum. The corners of the white stones work great. I was skeptical using the sharpmaker for serrations at first as well. Just mark the edge of the knife with a sharpie so you can see where you're hitting on the bevel. Works great. If you want to kick it up a notch, I like to polish mine with a dremel and some diamond paste after I use the sharpmaker.
20171029_232427.jpg

How's the diamond paste working out for ya? I have a bunch of that stuff that I rarely use for anything. I may pick up some extra Dremel pads and give it a go. Red rouge is just so easy and cheap.

Is the Tasman as easy to sharpen as the Pac salt (due to the curved blade?). Do you still run it up and down in the same fashion, or do you need to shift the blade due to the curvature?

ZMW wrote:Is the Tasman as easy to sharpen as the Pac salt (due to the curved blade?). Do you still run it up and down in the same fashion, or do you need to shift the blade due to the curvature?

I always try to direct the stone as straight into the edge as possible regardless of how the blade is curved so that does mean it gets tilted a bit as it passes down the Sharpmaker rods.

ZMW wrote:Is the Tasman as easy to sharpen as the Pac salt (due to the curved blade?). Do you still run it up and down in the same fashion, or do you need to shift the blade due to the curvature?

This is actually one reason why SE is easier to sharpen than PE. You don't have to follow the curve of the blade.

If you close closely at a serrated Spyderco you'll notice the serrations are all parallel to another another. Look at this Civilian:



Notice how all the serrations are oriented the same way regardless of how the blade itself curves?

If you tilt the knife to follow the curve of the blade similar to how you might sharpen a PE version of the same knife, you won't sharpen the smaller serrations effectively.

Vivi wrote:
This is actually one reason why SE is easier to sharpen than PE. You don't have to follow the curve of the blade...

Hmm.. that's a good point, not sure why that never occurred to me. I'll have to look into that.

VIvi - I trust your advice since you likely know way more then I do about sharpening and SE blades. But, on that picture the serrations do not look orientated the same way. The first few (towards the tip) are at a different angle then the rest. Right? Maybe I am just missing it, but I will take your advice.

My next buy is either a dragonfly H1 SE, Tasman SE, or aqua salt PE/SE. I was worried about sharpening the tasman, but good to hear its no problem.

ZMW wrote:on that picture the serrations do not look orientated the same way. The first few (towards the tip) are at a different angle then the rest. Right?

Nope, they're all pointing the same direction. That's the only way Spyderco does serrations.

Evil D wrote:

ZrowsN1s wrote:Hey Gruwolf, welcome to the forum. The corners of the white stones work great. I was skeptical using the sharpmaker for serrations at first as well. Just mark the edge of the knife with a sharpie so you can see where you're hitting on the bevel. Works great. If you want to kick it up a notch, I like to polish mine with a dremel and some diamond paste after I use the sharpmaker.
...

How's the diamond paste working out for ya? I have a bunch of that stuff that I rarely use for anything. I may pick up some extra Dremel pads and give it a go. Red rouge is just so easy and cheap.

It cost $22 on Amazon for the 7 syringes of diamond paste I got there. 5micron -.25m . It seems to be a lifetime supply, it doesn't take much paste to coat a strop or a dremel wheel. At first I was only using the 5M, but the last time I stropped I started using a progression starting with 5m, then 3.5, then 2.5. The results I got with 2.5 micron paste were impressive, every bit as hair splitting sharp as I can get my PE knives. I never tried to polish with flitz or my green compound so I can't really compare them to the diamond paste, but I will say I have gotten very good results with the diamond paste (works great on leather strops too). It also may be that practice makes perfect, and I'm just getting a little more steady with the dremel, and have the polishing angle dialed in so I'm really getting the corner of the wheel flush in the scallops.

Vivi wrote: I'm gonna give the dremel stropping a shot this week. I have a few knives I was going to mod a bit on my day off so I'll have all my dremel stuff out anyways. I'll let you know if I can tell a difference VS hand stropping. SE H1 seems to respond well to stropping in general so I could see it being the case.

H1 really does respond well to stropping and sharpening. It's the saving grace of the PE H1's. They dull fast, but it's ridiculously easy to get them back to razor sharp.

Which bevel setting is ideal for the rods ? And is it worth getting the ultra fine set ?

Vivi wrote:

ZMW wrote:Is the Tasman as easy to sharpen as the Pac salt (due to the curved blade?). Do you still run it up and down in the same fashion, or do you need to shift the blade due to the curvature?

This is actually one reason why SE is easier to sharpen than PE. You don't have to follow the curve of the blade.

If you close closely at a serrated Spyderco you'll notice the serrations are all parallel to another another. Look at this Civilian:



Notice how all the serrations are oriented the same way regardless of how the blade itself curves?

If you tilt the knife to follow the curve of the blade similar to how you might sharpen a PE version of the same knife, you won't sharpen the smaller serrations effectively.

That is fascinating! Thanks for pointing this out. I hadn’t noticed that before.

Gruwolf wrote:Which bevel setting is ideal for the rods ? And is it worth getting the ultra fine set ?

Spyderco recomends the 40 degree slots for serrations. I'd mark your knife with a sharpie and see where the 30 degree slots were hitting first before trying the 40. I've been curious myself about the ultrafine stones, never used them before.