The Spyderco Sharpmaker is great. Heck, for a little money you could get 2 different grits of Arkansas stones and be set for life. I’d get a hard and a translucent. They can be had for little to nothing in pocket size (great for knives) at ragweedforge.com.
Much in design like the Spyderco system is the Smith’s 3 in 1. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?\_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&\_nkw=smith's+3+in+1&\_sacat=0 I have it and love it. What’s even better is you can fit standard size ceramic rods (regular round ones) into those slots. So, you don’t have to worry so much with propietary products. Ragweed sells the ceramic rods for a song. Though, they’re probably a little coarser than what comes with the Smith’s system.
I like this style a little better than the Tanidea type or any type that clamp the blade. Only reason being is those clamps don’t do the greatest on small blades. It’s not a fits all system. Spyderco and Smith’s are. Needless to say, I have both.
If you have water or oil stones already, make a triangular wood stand with an angle of 15° for a 30° edge (and another one with 20° for a 40° edge) and you have the equivalent of the Spyderco Sharpmaker. Cheap.
Monanoke, is it a hassle to keep changing belts, or is that easy/fast? I suppose you could line up all the knives & tools and do the coarsest first with all of them, then change belt to finer grit and do all the sharpening, etc.
I don't want to be an sharpener artist, just get knives sharp. Thanks!
It works really well. The stones it comes with are pretty crap but you can get very good replacements in a variety of grits from Congress Tools quite cheaply.
Here’s a huge thread with more info than you could possibly need on it:
Have a friend who demonstrated over 20 different methods last week and this was highly recommended. He said it is similar to large models used by professional knife shops.
A belt change takes less than 5 seconds flat! Lift off the guide, twist a push the spring loaded tensioner and off the belt comes reverse and you are done!
That is the way I work, line up the knives with the first belt, sharpen, change belt, sharpen etc. etc. Very fast and easy. I can normally do 10 knives in 5 minutes. Hair popp’in results everytime!
One of the video reviews I watched stated two cons: (1) they would have preferred if the machine had variable speed, since at the coarser grids it can take off some metal pretty fast; and (2) it is excellent at giving a convex edge, but is not able to do a straight V-edge.
Do you find either of these limitations a problem?
[Chicago-X, good call! I hope it is all you need it to be. I like that it sharpens scissors, even lawn mower blades. Let us know what you think when you get it!]
I really bought it coz of the diamond. Even the cheap $7 shipped pen diamond sharpener that i’ve got from aliexpress sharpens like crazy, but it’s a bit rough. It’d be for my serrated edges.
I think the version with 2 pad sizes is enough (4 pads are too closely spaced together), 15.75 with coupon + 7.20 shipping….i was buying the Navy 631S from them so saved a bit more on the shipping.
Yes the coarse 80 grit does take off quite a bit of metal quickly, that is the reason it clearly states in the manual it is for outdoor equipment blades only. I have only ever had 2 blades that I felt the need to use the coarse on, and was easily able to control the amount of metal being taken off with just the pull speed through the guides. As far as the v grind goes you can always free hand with a back stop (small piece of delrin plastic or wood). I especially like this technique for serrations.
Edit: This thing puts a wicked edge on lawn mower blades!
The thing about the Sharpmaker that I discovered is, it isn’t all that good at re-profiling an edge. The original edge on my SRM 962 and Ganzo G704 were starting to get dull, so I followed the directions of the Spyderco DVD and got poor results. I ended up re-profiling them to 20 degrees each side with the Smith’s diamond stones sytem and then used the Sharpmaker to finish the sharpening process and got outstanding results. I am sure If I were to have stuck with the Sharpmaker I would of eventually ground off enough of the blade to get to the edge, but it was alot easier to re-profile with the Smith’s system.
Both systems have the ability to do serrations. Spyderco is all about serrated edges and the included DVD has instructions on how to do serrations.
I am happy with this setup, but after reading about the Work Sharp WSKTS, I might incorporate it into the lineup.
The Spyderco sharpmaker comes with 900 grit ceramic rods (medium) and approx 2k-3k ceramic (fine). If you get an additional pair of UF/ultra fine then that would be around 6k grit ceramics.
For serious re-profiling of some of the bigger/thicker blades, really need a 300-400 grit diamond I guess. But for maintaining the usual hobby knives which the system is intended and optimised for, the Sharpmaker is great.
Unfortuntately for our usage, we are using ceramic knives in the kitchen and i think i might just get the Boker ceramic (the Tekut ceramic is ok). So I need diamond esp up to the 1200 grit range and yet remaining affordable, even if the Taidea sharpening system might not be up to snuff.
PS. I guess ceramic knives are like XR-E aspherics like the DBS EZ900 aspheric, most flashaholics hate it but it has its use.
I agree. I am really liking the Sharpmaker and will hopefully get many years of use out of it. It is a very versatile tool and I highly recomend it. I also think it needs something to compliment it like the diamond sharpening device I have for re-profiling a blade down to the Sharpmakers comfort zone.
Bummer, I was just thinking that this is what you were needing to match up with your Sharpmaker.
Chanced upon an aliexpress site, 5 gram x 5 tubes 0.5 micron diamond lapping paste - usd9.99 shipped. The yellow colour one. Anybody used this before? I reckon it’s the same as those selling on ebay coming from HK/USA.
That usd7 12k slurry stone (origin = Guangxi, China) is coming to me from Poland as per Tallyho’s recommendation. I guess the difference would be the longer sweep length on a strop + diamond….the stone is i guess 3 inches long only. 10 bucks for 25 grams worth, worth a try!
PS. I don’t have a leather strop, but can i use those PVC/polyurethane faux leather belts instead? Have a literally endless supply of them. More or less the same results, it’s really the compound that is doing the work?
From spyderco forum
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It really is very simple if you already know how to use a strop. I have been always stropping my knives after sharpening, but just on dry leather to remove any possible burrs left by the sharpener. So the diamond polish was suggested to me. I figured, it probably would not make much of a difference cause I keep my knives pretty darn sharp, but what the heck, at my age I’m more willing try new things. So I went to ebay, found a tube of 0.5 Micron Diamond paste for $4.95 Buy it now from China. Three weeks later in the mail came a syringe filled with diamond paste. Then I took my strop and and squeezed out thin lines of paste onto the suede (rough) side the strop (not the smooth leather shiny part), wearing a plastic glove I rubbed in the paste in a circular manner till the entire suede surface and the edges of the strop (used for stropping serrated knives) were coated in this yellowish very fine grit paste. Then I put the strop aside and let it dry for two days before use…If you are impatient you can quicken the process with the use of a hairdryer. I can’t begin to tell you about the levels of sharpness I am beginning to experience with my knives. It is simply amazing. I have sharpened and diamond paste stropped other peoples knives in the past two weeks, many of them Law Enforcement Agents. Some of the Agents use their knives pretty hard. To a man they all said the difference in the cutting ability of their knives was unbelievable. Several of them have ordered strops and diamond paste for their own use. The thing that I like most about the stropping with paste, besides the incredibility sharp edges I’m getting is that I can touch up an edge without having to take it back to the 204 and resharpen after I use the knife for something, a few passes on the diamond paste brings it right back up and I’m no longer removing lots of steel from my edges…and you know what that all equates to….Doc _
