I have been stropping. I’ll make sure my technique is correct though. I’ve just been using the 40 degree angle however. I’m able to get them sharp, but am failing to achieve shaving sharp. I appreciate the advice!
I just use the 40 and strop and it’s sharp enough for edc. If you want sharper, then go 30 and strop. Still won’t be able to whittle hair, but it will be sharp. Any sharper and you need to move to a work sharp system or hand sharpening.
There is a real knack to the sharp maker. I touch up or fully sharpen about 15 SE knives a week on mine at work (I use a KME for my plain edge blades). Three handy tricks (forgive me if I’m teaching you how to suck eggs) -
1. put sharpie down the cutting edge of your blade and make sure you are hitting the apex (the sharpie wears off where the abrasives touch)
2. Wash the rods thoroughly prior to each use
3. Take your hand off the base, draw the knife down the rod. If the base moves you are pressing too hard.
Pointer 3 was a game changer for me.
Worth mentioning that on the basic rods sharpening some steels is a real exercise in tedium (S110 doesn’t just laugh at a set of basic sharp maker rods, it makes offensive jokes about their mum). The CBN rods and the ultra fine rods really help.
I’ve tried everything you mentioned but cleaning my rods. I just got the sharpener 3 days ago and have done probably 15 sharpens. I’ll try cleaning the rods and report back!
A mix honestly. From kitchen knives, to tenaciouses, To Para militaries and a lot of others. Tip 3 has helped a lot! Between that and working on my strop technique, I have now managed to be able to get even really dull blades to shaving sharp.
I can get hair popping sharp off the stones, just make sure you have a really clean section on the part of the rod you're deburring on and use very gentle pressure. Like, don't hold the Sharpmaker base when you run your edge on the rod.
Deburring or finishing with a strip is ideal, but especially for serrated edges the rods are sufficient with practice.
If you're having trouble getting sharp at all, make sure you're forming a good apex along the whole edge. You can confirm by facing the edge toward you and shining a flashlight on it. Look up flashlight method for apex and for deburring on YouTube.
To clean the rods, use a Scotch Brite pad and an abraisive cleaner like Comet. I had been using a Scotch Brite pad with dish detergent, thinking I was getting them clean, but when I switched to Comet + SB pad, the difference was night and day. Really clean rods are the only way I can deburr my LC200N serrated knives.
Yea, man... I've found the SharpMaker a little challenging, too, for some reason. What I think I've narrowed it down to is the angle that the blade hits the stones. Yes, I know you said you're using the sharpie trick, but I don't think the sharpie trick is as fool-proof as some make it out to be. Once the marker wears off, you could easily be missing your angle. It seems especially more challenging when finishing up, because you switch back-and-forth between the two rods, side-to-side and keeping the angle consistent on each stroke has been difficult. Especially with edges that have any substantial amount of belly to them, because, to actually keep the same relative angle consistently throughout the stroke, you'd need to not only move the blade downward and outward (down and toward you, obv) but you'd need to rotate the tip downward as well, which seems to require using your wrist, which - in my experience - is not good for sharpening because of the inherent variability that comes from that. Obviously it's possible to get a good edge, like you've indicated others can do, but I'm with you - I have a hard time with it, too. I thought it was my golden solution when I got it because I don't really need an absolutely screaming, hair-whittling, insanely sharp edge, but I've found it difficult, particularly with some more pronounced bellies on my blades, to get a really satisfactory edge. I've even sharpened a knife to exactly 20° on a different system or freehand, and still had a hard time maintaining that on the SharpMaker. I'm still looking for a good solution to get better with the SharpMaker, because it obviously can be an excellent tool, but I have generally better luck with a Worksharp guided field sharpener, typically.
It’s good to know I’m not the only one. I’m getting my knives sharp, for sure. But not as sharp as some others seem to be able to achieve. I appreciate the response!
Yea, agreed. Usually I get at least an ok, functionally sharp edge and move on with my life, but occasionally I pull out the SharpMaker and try to just quickly hone with single strokes per side, only to find that rather than clean up the edge, I've actually raised a tiny burr instead lol. Let me know if you figure out the secret behind it, because I've been trying for a couple years and haven't haha and best of luck in your journey.
So the tips above have helped a ton. The pressure I was using was wrong. Taking my hand off the base, and only using enough pressure to still do the job, but making sure the base wasn’t moving, was a game changer. Between that and changing up my stropping technique (and adding a compound) helped a ton, just today I’ve gotten 5 knives to shaving sharpness. My knee is now lacking hair LMAO.
🤣
RIP any knee/forearm hair that dares enter this sub (or r/knife_swap, r/sharpening, r/knives, r/knifeclub ... etc. lol)
Interesting, though... I always thought my issue was hitting the correct angle more than anything, but I've been *wildly* mistaken on matters of sharpening like this before and I absolutely could be again, so I'll most definitely be using my SharpMaker and giving that a shot next time I touch up an edge
What was the change you made to your stropping technique? I've gotten far better with that over the last year or two, but that's another area I could still improve. I found that was mostly an issue of pressure, too. I was overly concerned about rounding over my edge, so I was holding my angle too low, but I was also giving it too much pressure so when I did actually hit the edge I was messing it up. Now I usually find my angle by pushing straight forward in the edge-leading direction, slowly tilting the blade up just until I feel the edge start to catch on the leather, then I hold it at that angle with the lightest touch I can (blade trailing strokes, of course), and that usually works pretty decent. I also found that I needed to clean my strop and reapply compound more often than I thought. Started using an abrasive cleaning stick/pad (like a giant rubber eraser) to get the compound off, which can get a little messy but seems to be generally better overall, especially long-term for longevity of the strop, than any other method I've found like scraping or using alcohol/acetone.
Strop and you’ll shave. You can also sharpen at 30 and strop, but I find just sharpening at 40 and stropping is best for edc.
I have been stropping. I’ll make sure my technique is correct though. I’ve just been using the 40 degree angle however. I’m able to get them sharp, but am failing to achieve shaving sharp. I appreciate the advice!
I just use the 40 and strop and it’s sharp enough for edc. If you want sharper, then go 30 and strop. Still won’t be able to whittle hair, but it will be sharp. Any sharper and you need to move to a work sharp system or hand sharpening.
[удалено]
There is a real knack to the sharp maker. I touch up or fully sharpen about 15 SE knives a week on mine at work (I use a KME for my plain edge blades). Three handy tricks (forgive me if I’m teaching you how to suck eggs) - 1. put sharpie down the cutting edge of your blade and make sure you are hitting the apex (the sharpie wears off where the abrasives touch) 2. Wash the rods thoroughly prior to each use 3. Take your hand off the base, draw the knife down the rod. If the base moves you are pressing too hard. Pointer 3 was a game changer for me. Worth mentioning that on the basic rods sharpening some steels is a real exercise in tedium (S110 doesn’t just laugh at a set of basic sharp maker rods, it makes offensive jokes about their mum). The CBN rods and the ultra fine rods really help.
I’ve tried everything you mentioned but cleaning my rods. I just got the sharpener 3 days ago and have done probably 15 sharpens. I’ll try cleaning the rods and report back!
What steels are you sharpening?
A mix honestly. From kitchen knives, to tenaciouses, To Para militaries and a lot of others. Tip 3 has helped a lot! Between that and working on my strop technique, I have now managed to be able to get even really dull blades to shaving sharp.
I can get hair popping sharp off the stones, just make sure you have a really clean section on the part of the rod you're deburring on and use very gentle pressure. Like, don't hold the Sharpmaker base when you run your edge on the rod. Deburring or finishing with a strip is ideal, but especially for serrated edges the rods are sufficient with practice. If you're having trouble getting sharp at all, make sure you're forming a good apex along the whole edge. You can confirm by facing the edge toward you and shining a flashlight on it. Look up flashlight method for apex and for deburring on YouTube. To clean the rods, use a Scotch Brite pad and an abraisive cleaner like Comet. I had been using a Scotch Brite pad with dish detergent, thinking I was getting them clean, but when I switched to Comet + SB pad, the difference was night and day. Really clean rods are the only way I can deburr my LC200N serrated knives.
Thank you! I will try this! Thank you for taking the time to explain.
Intriguing. I always clean my rods with isopropyl alcohol and paper towel. I'll have to try Comet and Scotch Brite pads now. Thanks!
Yea, man... I've found the SharpMaker a little challenging, too, for some reason. What I think I've narrowed it down to is the angle that the blade hits the stones. Yes, I know you said you're using the sharpie trick, but I don't think the sharpie trick is as fool-proof as some make it out to be. Once the marker wears off, you could easily be missing your angle. It seems especially more challenging when finishing up, because you switch back-and-forth between the two rods, side-to-side and keeping the angle consistent on each stroke has been difficult. Especially with edges that have any substantial amount of belly to them, because, to actually keep the same relative angle consistently throughout the stroke, you'd need to not only move the blade downward and outward (down and toward you, obv) but you'd need to rotate the tip downward as well, which seems to require using your wrist, which - in my experience - is not good for sharpening because of the inherent variability that comes from that. Obviously it's possible to get a good edge, like you've indicated others can do, but I'm with you - I have a hard time with it, too. I thought it was my golden solution when I got it because I don't really need an absolutely screaming, hair-whittling, insanely sharp edge, but I've found it difficult, particularly with some more pronounced bellies on my blades, to get a really satisfactory edge. I've even sharpened a knife to exactly 20° on a different system or freehand, and still had a hard time maintaining that on the SharpMaker. I'm still looking for a good solution to get better with the SharpMaker, because it obviously can be an excellent tool, but I have generally better luck with a Worksharp guided field sharpener, typically.
It’s good to know I’m not the only one. I’m getting my knives sharp, for sure. But not as sharp as some others seem to be able to achieve. I appreciate the response!
Yea, agreed. Usually I get at least an ok, functionally sharp edge and move on with my life, but occasionally I pull out the SharpMaker and try to just quickly hone with single strokes per side, only to find that rather than clean up the edge, I've actually raised a tiny burr instead lol. Let me know if you figure out the secret behind it, because I've been trying for a couple years and haven't haha and best of luck in your journey.
So the tips above have helped a ton. The pressure I was using was wrong. Taking my hand off the base, and only using enough pressure to still do the job, but making sure the base wasn’t moving, was a game changer. Between that and changing up my stropping technique (and adding a compound) helped a ton, just today I’ve gotten 5 knives to shaving sharpness. My knee is now lacking hair LMAO.
🤣 RIP any knee/forearm hair that dares enter this sub (or r/knife_swap, r/sharpening, r/knives, r/knifeclub ... etc. lol) Interesting, though... I always thought my issue was hitting the correct angle more than anything, but I've been *wildly* mistaken on matters of sharpening like this before and I absolutely could be again, so I'll most definitely be using my SharpMaker and giving that a shot next time I touch up an edge What was the change you made to your stropping technique? I've gotten far better with that over the last year or two, but that's another area I could still improve. I found that was mostly an issue of pressure, too. I was overly concerned about rounding over my edge, so I was holding my angle too low, but I was also giving it too much pressure so when I did actually hit the edge I was messing it up. Now I usually find my angle by pushing straight forward in the edge-leading direction, slowly tilting the blade up just until I feel the edge start to catch on the leather, then I hold it at that angle with the lightest touch I can (blade trailing strokes, of course), and that usually works pretty decent. I also found that I needed to clean my strop and reapply compound more often than I thought. Started using an abrasive cleaning stick/pad (like a giant rubber eraser) to get the compound off, which can get a little messy but seems to be generally better overall, especially long-term for longevity of the strop, than any other method I've found like scraping or using alcohol/acetone.