Benchmade Axis Lock - First Impressions

Evin:

I'm just approximating with my angles.

If you hold the spine exactly straight up down, I believe the Sharpmaker gives you about 22 degrees. Frankly, holding the spine straight up and down isn't that hard -- it's my belief there is not too much slop in that 22 degrees. Most people can hold this angle very accurately.

Now for my initial bevel, which I proclaimed to be a few degrees less than the Sharpmaker, what I did was tilt the spine toward's the stone slightly. I believe there's a lot more slop in this particular bevel. However, since this is a THINNING bevel, not the final edge bevel itself, a little slop during this step doesn't matter much. I try to keep it reasonably accurate, but I don't really sweat it. Remember, all you're doing is thinning out the edge, so that 1) the final bevel raises a burr more easily, and 2) the blade is thin at least 1/10" up from the edge. When you do the final straight-up-and-down 22-degree bevel, that's the time to really make sure you're accurate.

Recurved blades are hard to sharpen and get an edge on. Why complicate this even more by trying to put a bevel on a thick edge? Thin it out first, then the burr will come more easily, so you can concentrate on just following the recurve instead of sitting around wondering where your steekin' burr is.

Joe
jat@cup.hp.com
 
I experienced now problem resarpening my Axislock. I used something like Joe's methode.

I took the Sharpmaker and a course flat stone (I don't have the diamond sleeves. I first ground the non-recurve part at slightly less than the sharpmaker angle. Then I dit the recurve part on the brown Sharpmaker stones, also slightly less than Sharpmaker angle. I dit this first the one side then the other.

Afther I finished that I went on to uses the normal Sharpmaker methode of sharpening one pass on the left stone one on the right ect. just as long as it took on the brown stones to get is shaving. Ones I reached that point I finished with the whit stones. My knife is now very sharp. I must ad that it took me well over half an hour, but expect the next times to be much faster.

I am verry much peased with this knife and think it is defenetly worth the 429.00 Dutch Guilders I payed for is (one Guilder is about $0.55).

By the by mine came well sharpend.

------------------
Jan Dirk Wijbenga

Knife philosopher
 
I just finished sharpening the recurve blade on my Pinnacle. I found it much harder to sharpen than my other knives. I was using a Sharpmaker and part of the problem was that the blade had a slightly uneven grind. So to reprofile the edge it took a *long* time to remove the metal. Another problem I had was that I raised a burr at the belly of the blade way before I raised a burr at the inside arc of the recurve or at the tip. I wasn't careful and the edge at the belly of the blade chipped off before I finished raising a burr along the whole length of the blade. So I had to go back and remove more metal at the belly to smooth out the edge.

I didn't try Joe's method of keeping the edge perpendicular to the stone to reprofile, I just kept the the knife parallel to the ground as I sharpened. Could that have made a difference? Maybe I'll try that later to thin out the tip.

Alan
 
Well the saga of the Axis sharpening is continuing. What I have done is use my Lansky as I don't have any stones that are narrower than the blade itself. Actually have one big stone that is white in color and weighs about 6 lbs. Use this for all of my free hand work. Anyways what I did is go with the Lansky at 20 deg and then moved up to 25 deg with my pink stone. Very fine grit, actually polishes more than anything else. Well raised the burr as Joe suggested and everything seemed hunky dory. Well even with raising the burr the knife wouldn't get sharp. Almost pulling hair sharp but definetly not shaving sharp. INteresting thing to note is that I looked at the cantle with a magnifying loop that we use to view color seps etc. It has a built in light with it so it works the nuts. Anyways the blade bevel on one side is dead nuts perfect for 20 and 25 deg. I ended up with a nice long bevel on one edge and then the 25 deg highly polished edge. Can't see the differentiation with the eye but with the loop it looks great. The other side of the edge is hair line for the secondary edge. Seems to be hardly there at all. Will work on it some more and see what happens. I gotta tell ya though for the bucks it ain't worth it to me to spend litterally a couple of hours sharpening a blade that should have been hair poppin in the first place. Least that is what there adds say. OVerall fit and finish is perfect though. Just frustrated I guess. I personally don't think it should be that hard to sharpen, it should be more user freindly I guess. That includes sharpening. Then to have to send it back to BM and wait a couple of weeks just frustrates me. This is what I am leaning towards. Keep'em sharp
 
Longbow, I understand your frustration. It's one of the reasons that even though a recurved blade is a sure-fire way to incredible performance, it's so difficult for most people to sharpen that I'd rather get the performance through other ways.

Anyway, before you continue sharpening, perhaps you can try something. One nice thing abuot a recurved blade -- it doesn't have to be as sharp in order to outperform a non-recurved knife. Even now, with your frustration, your Axis might be outperforming your "hairpopping sharp" knives. Why not try it on some rope or other slicing tests versus a sharp non-recurved blade, just to gauge how it's performing?

Joe
jat@cup.hp.com
 
After handling the Axis for a couple of weeks I'm beginning to think this knife could be considered a gravity knife. Is it just a matter of time before they stop selling this knife in California?
 
Well got so fed up this p.m. when I got home from work I called BM. Talked to Travis. He expressed some concern as this isn't the first time the problem has been addressed, at least not with this particular model. So off it goes tomorrow back to BM for repair. As said the rest of the knife as for fit and finish is really excellant. A slight problem with the lock releasing when you really snap it open. So it is back to the C16 which in hindsight isn't all bad. Keep'em sharp.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top