bad experience with spyderco triangle sharpmaker?

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exponent

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does anybody have any bad experiences with the spyderco triangle sharpmaker?

cause it seems like there is little support when the stones are placed on the 40 or 30 degree stands. all that is supporting the stone is a little area about 1/12 the ratio of the stone itself. i envision that as i am pressing downwards on the sloped stone, the pressure from the torqued motion might give in and crack the stone in half. or if not crack the stone but crack the plastic groove on the spyderco platform.
 
Welcome to Bladeforums! :)

I'm going to move this to our Maintenance forum, where we deal with sharpening.

But don't worry about the base for the rods. You aren't supposed to press down hard on them, since this will eventually - quickly -- wear them out irregularly, and you'll end up damaging the knife edge more than sharpening it. Just stroke down each rod gently, just making contact, and you'll see best results.
 
Let’s see if we can find the right forum …
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A light but firm stroke across the triangles is all that's required. I suppose someone may have had an unsatisfactory experience with the Sharpmaker, but if so I've not heard about it. The base seems pretty durable. The stones will break if dropped onto a hard surface, but that can happen to any stone. The only criticisms I have of the system is that the fine rod loads up pretty fast. You really should clean them after two or three knives. But I use a big art eraser which works well.

Again, Welcome to BF!:)
 
Rob Babcock said:
A light but firm stroke across the triangles is all that's required. I suppose someone may have had an unsatisfactory experience with the Sharpmaker, but if so I've not heard about it. The base seems pretty durable. The stones will break if dropped onto a hard surface, but that can happen to any stone. The only criticisms I have of the system is that the fine rod loads up pretty fast. You really should clean them after two or three knives. But I use a big art eraser which works well.

Again, Welcome to BF!:)
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:)

the thing about the sharpmaker is that sometimes as i am pressing the knife down against the stones, i do not feel any tension whatsoever. this in turn forces me to press down harder until i feel that resistance. cause from what i understand, nothing is being sharpened if there isn't that friction between the knife and the stones. this is especially true of the fine white stones. but the brown stones it is somewhat easier to achieve that friction therefore i do not need to press down as hard. but yeah i guess i only press down hard when i don't hear and feel that grind and this happens mostly with the fine stones.
 
If you stroke a blade against a clean set of white stones and it leave a mark behind your cuttin' Even if you don't feel the the friction if metal is left behind its working.

Many light strokes and keep the stones clean.
 
F3X said:
If you stroke a blade against a clean set of white stones and it leave a mark behind your cuttin' Even if you don't feel the the friction if metal is left behind its working.

Many light strokes and keep the stones clean.
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+1. He's exactly right. Early on that would trip me up too- I'd think nothing was happening and press harder. But before long I realized that with firm pressure you don't need a lot of force. When there's gray from the steel deposited you know you're removing metal.

Btw, if you don't feel much of any friction, check to see if the rods are "loaded." This simply means they're really dirty. A few nites ago I was trying to touch up a gyuto and was having no luck- 30 or 40 strokes on the Sharpmaker was getting me nowhere. Then I noticed how dark the fine stones had gotten. I cleaned them up with a big eraser; ten more strokes and the gyuto shaved like a razor blade.
 
+2, if you are using the white fine stones and you are scraping hard enough to feel major friction and a heavy scratching sound, then you're just doing damage. Marking up the white stones means you are SHARPENING, simple as that. Just trust the directions that come with it, they are very accurate. The sharpmaker is the best I've ever used for this type of sharpening, as opposed to freehand stone sharpening. I've used Smith's, CRKT, Lansky, Chef's choice, etc. and the sharpmaker is the one!! stick with it, stay smooth, steady, and light, and you'll be poppin' hairs in no time.

Cheers,
Jon
 
exponent said:
:)

the thing about the sharpmaker is that sometimes as i am pressing the knife down against the stones, i do not feel any tension whatsoever. this in turn forces me to press down harder until i feel that resistance. cause from what i understand, nothing is being sharpened if there isn't that friction between the knife and the stones. this is especially true of the fine white stones. but the brown stones it is somewhat easier to achieve that friction therefore i do not need to press down as hard. but yeah i guess i only press down hard when i don't hear and feel that grind and this happens mostly with the fine stones.
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Very bad technique. Even if you don't press you will see gray streaks appear on the rods, which means that the steel is abraded. Pressing too hard will only roll the edge, especially when on the corners. You will get a much better edge when using light strokes. One the grays in the initial step it is ok, but it is still much better to go to a coarser, faster cutting stone though (like leaning a coarse DMT stone against the rods or wrap some sandpaper around them).
 
Like everyone has already pointed out, it'll handle whatever you throw at it. You should be more concerned about doing the correct technique rather than if the Sharpmaker will break.

Just maker sure that you stop when you get the tip of the knife, otherwise you'll lose the sharp point on the tip of your knives.

And welcome to the forums:).
 
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