Spyderco Forums

1) I just did some reading on the two slots for the 30 degree and 40 degree inclusive angles and if I understand correctly the 40 degree is for something where each side is a 20 degree edge and the 30 degree is for knifes with 15 degree edges which adds to 30 ??? is that how it works.

if so ... I have a few more questions

2) I have a kabar full length with smooth edge but it has the curve up at the end.

if the kabar says its a 20 degree edge and I haven't read anything about any back bevel should I start out on the 40 degree setting and forget creating a back bevel or should I sharpen the kabar using the 30 degree first to create a back bevel like on spyderco knives then the 40 degree to create a more sharp edge OR should I just use the 40 degree setting and try to maintain the 20 degree edge.

3) I also have a couple spyderco delica 4s (not sure if they are counterfeit) and I was wondering if I should use the 30 degree setting before the 40 degree setting when sharpening SpyderCo knives

4) finally does anyone know what I would do for my Emerson combat karambit? I havent sharpened it in a long time but if I remember I think I used to do the 4 step process where u do the corner then the flat edge or something like that and u do that process on each set of stones so its 2 steps on each set of stones or something but I'm wondering if thats incorrect.

Hi BladesRUs,

There are different opinions on some of your questions. I'm sure you can get some good info here.

sal

Karambit: i would use a sharpie and color the edge.
Then wold the stone in hand and use the corners.
See where the sharpie comes off and adjust the angle.

The way i see it is that you can either choose to use a 30 degree backbevel and go with a microbevel of 40 degrees. (Indeed 20 degrees per side.) Or you can sharpen only at 15 dps. The last option is my personal favorite. Wether it is for your Kabar or delica’s. In both cases your knives will get sharp. Make sure that you reach the apex when sharpening. If you do a 40 degree microbevel use very VERY light pressure.

Good luck with sharpening!

Let me quote myself from a recent thread....

ZrowsN1s wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 01, 2019 1:05 pm

Since no one has mentioned yet, a tip for the sharpmaker. Before you start to sharpen your knife, mark the entire edge with a black Sharpie (I use a red one too sometimes, any color will work I guess).

This is so when you use the sharpmaker you can see exactly where you are removing metal. I would start on the 30° slots and see where it removes ink. If it's removing ink/metal from the apex of the edge (or very close to the apex) this is the angle you want to use. If it's just hitting the upper portion of the edge bevel, move on to the 40° slots.

Ideally you want the sharpmaker to remove metal from the entire edge bevel, from the apex to the shoulder of the edge. This means that the edge bevel is profiled exactly to either 30° or 40 ° depending on which slots you are using. (This is rarely the case with a factory edge which can be anywhere in between 25-45 degrees, and usually requires a long reprofiling process to get them exactly 30 or 40°). But in general, if you are not removing metal from the apex, your knife will not get sharp. The ink helps to visually confirm you're sharpening the apex.

There are many many threads on tips and tricks for using the sharpmaker on this forum. Seek them out, and read a few. Also a little bar keepers friend and a nylon scouring pad are great for cleaning the sharpmaker rods, you will want to clean them often as they load up with metal pretty fast. They cut better when they are clean. :D

BladesRUs wrote: ......
4) finally does anyone know what I would do for my Emerson combat karambit? I havent sharpened it in a long time but if I remember I think I used to do the 4 step process where u do the corner then the flat edge or something like that and u do that process on each set of stones so its 2 steps on each set of stones or something but I'm wondering if thats incorrect.

Emerson combat karambit owner here. Emersons are chisel edge, you should never sharpen the flat side (just enough to remove the burr from sharpeneing the other side). The proper way using a sharpmaker would be to use only the left side 30 or 40 degree slot (which ever is closer to your bevel angle, the sharpie method should show you wich is closer) to sharpen the 'emerson logo side' of the blade. And use ONLY the corners of the brown or white stones (I'd start with the browns, probably all you need, if you want a more refined edge use the whites after the browns).

After you have sharpened it enough so you are hitting the apex along the entire edge (left side), then you need to gently knock the burr off of the right hand flat side. There are a couple ways to do this. But they all involve trying to keep the flat side as flat to the stone as you can 0-2 degree angle. Using the corner of a stone, you can either put it in a right hand slot, put it in the 'scissor' slot on the sharpmaker( I use that one a lot for this) or hold the stone in your hand and do it free hand. Then as lightly as you can, while holding the blade as flat to the corner of the stone as you can, take the burr off the edge with a few light edge leading strokes.

Danvp wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 06, 2019 2:58 pm

The way i see it is that you can either choose to use a 30 degree backbevel and go with a microbevel of 40 degrees. (Indeed 20 degrees per side.) Or you can sharpen only at 15 dps. The last option is my personal favorite. Wether it is for your Kabar or delica’s. In both cases your knives will get sharp. Make sure that you reach the apex when sharpening. If you do a 40 degree microbevel use very VERY light pressure.

Good luck with sharpening!

What does it mean to create a back bevel ? Is that when I do 30 degrees first then do 40 degree after ?

And what does 15 dps mean. Is that saying 15 degrees per side so basically just only the 30 degree angle


Also why would I have to use less pressure if using thec40 degree setting nit the 30 degree

ZrowsN1s wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 06, 2019 5:10 pm

Let me quote myself from a recent thread....

ZrowsN1s wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 01, 2019 1:05 pm

Since no one has mentioned yet, a tip for the sharpmaker. Before you start to sharpen your knife, mark the entire edge with a black Sharpie (I use a red one too sometimes, any color will work I guess).

This is so when you use the sharpmaker you can see exactly where you are removing metal. I would start on the 30° slots and see where it removes ink. If it's removing ink/metal from the apex of the edge (or very close to the apex) this is the angle you want to use. If it's just hitting the upper portion of the edge bevel, move on to the 40° slots.

Ideally you want the sharpmaker to remove metal from the entire edge bevel, from the apex to the shoulder of the edge. This means that the edge bevel is profiled exactly to either 30° or 40 ° depending on which slots you are using. (This is rarely the case with a factory edge which can be anywhere in between 25-45 degrees, and usually requires a long reprofiling process to get them exactly 30 or 40°). But in general, if you are not removing metal from the apex, your knife will not get sharp. The ink helps to visually confirm you're sharpening the apex.

There are many many threads on tips and tricks for using the sharpmaker on this forum. Seek them out, and read a few. Also a little bar keepers friend and a nylon scouring pad are great for cleaning the sharpmaker rods, you will want to clean them often as they load up with metal pretty fast. They cut better when they are clean. :D

BladesRUs wrote: ......
4) finally does anyone know what I would do for my Emerson combat karambit? I havent sharpened it in a long time but if I remember I think I used to do the 4 step process where u do the corner then the flat edge or something like that and u do that process on each set of stones so its 2 steps on each set of stones or something but I'm wondering if thats incorrect.

Emerson combat karambit owner here. Emersons are chisel edge, you should never sharpen the flat side (just enough to remove the burr from sharpeneing the other side). The proper way using a sharpmaker would be to use only the left side 30 or 40 degree slot (which ever is closer to your bevel angle, the sharpie method should show you wich is closer) to sharpen the 'emerson logo side' of the blade. And use ONLY the corners of the brown or white stones (I'd start with the browns, probably all you need, if you want a more refined edge use the whites after the browns).

After you have sharpened it enough so you are hitting the apex along the entire edge (left side), then you need to gently knock the burr off of the right hand flat side. There are a couple ways to do this. But they all involve trying to keep the flat side as flat to the stone as you can 0-2 degree angle. Using the corner of a stone, you can either put it in a right hand slot, put it in the 'scissor' slot on the sharpmaker( I use that one a lot for this) or hold the stone in your hand and do it free hand. Then as lightly as you can, while holding the blade as flat to the corner of the stone as you can, take the burr off the edge with a few light edge leading strokes.

I don’t ever sharpen the flat side I only ever do s stropping motion on the stone to oppose any burrs

But one question what is the apex of the blade. Is that the tip of the edge.

So is wat ur saying that essentially I may have to use one angle in order to get the entire edge from where it begins to the very tip of it, and that I may have to change angles to get closer to the very edge of the cutting edge

A few response questions.

1) when u guys talk about creating a micro bevel vs not doing one. I see that the suggestion was to do 30 degree backbevel and 40 degree inclusive angle for micro bevel if u don’t do micro bevel and to just do 30 degree for the bevel.

But if my blade says the edge is 20 degrees isn’t that closer to a 40 degree inclusive angle

2)about the combat karambit I never sharpest the flat side and usually I just do a stropping motion on the flat side against the stone.


3) should I use diamond stones when sharpening to start with in order to really re establish the angle then move to the finer stones and finally ultra fine ones

BladesRUs wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 09, 2019 4:51 am

Danvp wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 06, 2019 2:58 pm

The way i see it is that you can either choose to use a 30 degree backbevel and go with a microbevel of 40 degrees. (Indeed 20 degrees per side.) Or you can sharpen only at 15 dps. The last option is my personal favorite. Wether it is for your Kabar or delica’s. In both cases your knives will get sharp. Make sure that you reach the apex when sharpening. If you do a 40 degree microbevel use very VERY light pressure.

Good luck with sharpening!

What does it mean to create a back bevel ? Is that when I do 30 degrees first then do 40 degree after ?

And what does 15 dps mean. Is that saying 15 degrees per side so basically just only the 30 degree angle


Also why would I have to use less pressure if using thec40 degree setting nit the 30 degree

Correct, a back bevel in this case is the 30 degree bevel. When you then do a 40 degree afterwards you call that a micro or primary bevel.
Dps means degree per side. So 15 dps is 30 total or inclusive.
After you have set a 30 degree bevel and want to set a microbevel at 40 you have to use light pressure to not crush the edge. Depending on the steel just a few passes on the sharpmaker are needed to create a microbevel.

Angles are never exact, that's why we use the sharpie method. To help us see where the stone is really hitting the blade, if it is really hitting the edge or not. They might say 20 dps, but it could be 17 or 22.

A lot of Emerson knives are chisel ground, which might be 15 or 20 or something in between on one side and 0 degrees on the other side. I like to do up and down passes on the beveled side and one or two passes on the flat side... almost flat. I have to tilt the knife towards the stone on that side.

Lol Sal with the most ambiguous response ever

BladesRUs wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 09, 2019 5:00 am

...........
But one question what is the apex of the blade. Is that the tip of the edge.

So is wat ur saying that essentially I may have to use one angle in order to get the entire edge from where it begins to the very tip of it, and that I may have to change angles to get closer to the very edge of the cutting edge

The apex is the part of the edge that does the cutting. Here, I will draw you a picture showing the edge bevel, the apex of the edge, the shoulder of the edge, and the heel and tip of the blade.


What I was saying is, that if you can, you want to sharpen the entire edge bevel from shoulder to apex, heel to tip. But with the sharpmaker being a fixed angle, you will likely not be able to sharpen from shoulder to apex at first without reprofiling the edge to match the 30 or 40 degree angle of the sharpmaker. You will either be removing metal closer to the shoulder or closer to the apex at first, because the bevel angle on a new knife is not likely to be a perfect 30 or 40 degree angle. Does that make sense? As others have said marking the edge with ink can help you see where the 30 and 40 degree slots are removing metal.

Always some good info in these SM threads.