Spyderco triangle sharpmaker help

T

tommytman

Joined
Aug 12, 2019
Messages
303
Hello,
I have the triangle sharpmaker and I am getting better with it but have questions. I have all the available 'stones' (diamond, medium, fine, and extrafine).

1) When you guys get a knife from the factory that is not exactly 30 or 40 degrees what do you do? do you try to use a sharpie and adjust to the factory angle while sharpening? or do you reprofile the blade with the diamond and go from there?

2) Can a mirror finish be achieved with the extrafine? I'm trying to figure out how many passes I need to do with each stone, starting with diamond and going to extrafine, such that each stone completes it's job before moving to the next one. I'm mostly sharpening stainless on buck blades, or S30V, or sandvik stainless.
 
Hi,
1) personally i try to replicate the factory bevel angle. Even as experienced ;) freehander i use the sharpie method regularly. IMHO the Spyderco instructions are only good to get a sharpening beginner started, to give him a starting point. There's no way that 1 strict set of instructions applies equally well to all and any conditions a knife bevel could be in. if you check my threads, i wrote a lot (thoughts, findings, opinions, methods, etc) about Sharpmaker.
2) 204UF can leave a satisfactory mirror finish indeed. I can't say anything about the diamond, never tried it. If you're a beginner, then you shouldn't worry about mirror finishes. The toughest challenge is to deburr the bevel cleanly with the Sharpmaker.

Hey, once you've sharpened your knife, try the following: crumple a sheet of kitchen paper (paper towel) to a small ball (table tennis ball size) and then try to slice thru the ball with little pressure in 1 single stroke. then shine with a flashlight perpendicular onto the apex to see if light is reflecting from the apex towards your eyes (which are at the same level as your flashlight). if you see something on the apex, it'll be paper fibers which got caught by the burr at the apex. A keen edge will not catch paper fibers. Then continue with your sharpening efforts on the 204UF.

The mirror finish will come automatically.
 
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Yes you can definately achieve a mirror with extra fine. Some steels will be better at it than others, but pretty much all get to a mirror.
Reprofile with your sharpie with diamonds on 30 degrees. Gather alot of patience before you do. Then when you did your job with diamonds and everything is fully formed you can put a micro bevel with a 40 degree. Great beginner thing to do. A shortcut to getting things sharp. Don't jump through stones here fast. Try to test what kind of edge you have with each stone on different kinds of media. That was for sharpness to satisfy the impatience now onto mirror polish look.
Gather more patience and try brown rods with 30 setting to remove scratches made by diamonds. Do a good job, don't jump to higher grits too quickly. Make sure everything looks even. You will already start getting pretty dull mirror with brown. Go to fine next and spend diligent time with them also. Will be getting really close to mirror polish. Then extra fine will finally bring it out.
Gl
 
  • Just double checked factory manual, and it reports using 30 degrees for micro-bevel, back-bevel. Definitely do this.
  • You could match sharpie by putting stuff under base on on end, eliminating re-profile work.
  • Use diamond on s30v, sandvik n 420 will do great with brown rod.
  • Suggestion- start by getting satisfactory sharp off browns multiple times b4 moving to fine and ultra.
 
I think I need to spend more time with brown/medium to smooth out more before moving to fine. Problem is I'm not sure how to tell when brown has done it's job.
 
Did you report having a loop in the other thread? If not, "checking if the job is done" means not having any burr. And techniques are plentiful from free stropping aided by free visual and/or tactile checks thru usb scope on a rope. search this forum with something like "checking for burr", or Read stickies. I just use digital camera zoomed if question of burr raises its head.
 
Yes I have a 10x loupe. So do I need to raise a burr even with the fine and ultra fine stones?
I can easily get a burr with brown but when I look at the bevel at 10x it looks to me like it is still pretty rough.
 
tommytman said:
I think I need to spend more time with brown/medium to smooth out more before moving to fine. Problem is I'm not sure how to tell when brown has done it's job.
Click to expand...
The diamonds put a certain scratch patter on and with brown you start to polish these scratches out. Experiment a bit. Turn the knife around in different light conditions and you can see imperfections highlighted and you can spot burr like this also. You see different stones leaving their own finish this way. Don't need a loupe. If you jump around too much from one stone to another it will be harder to notice the switch in this finish. Brown rods already make a dull kind of a mirror. You will notice the bevel start reflecting back abit. Put it up against some magazine to check.
Do your best to make everything somewhat even before moving onto white stones, is my recommendation.
 
Centuriator said:
Why do people obsess over the sharpness of their blades?

Does anyone have any experience using them in a real world situation? Hunting (animal or human)?
Click to expand...
Sure,
Cutting through dear when dressing it out. I use Kevlar gloves and a super sharp blade to cut the rib cage open.
Other than that it is the challenge of a perfect hand sharpen.....OCD!
 
Centuriator said:
Why do people obsess over the sharpness of their blades?

Does anyone have any experience using them in a real world situation? Hunting (animal or human)?
Click to expand...
It's a hobby thing and OP is just trying to achieve a certain look I believe. Some of these pro hunters just use a pull through sharpener and get by. This is a knife enthusiast forum friend, do you really have to ask?
 
View attachment 1380302
tommytman said:
Hello,
I have the triangle sharpmaker and I am getting better with it but have questions. I have all the available 'stones' (diamond, medium, fine, and extrafine).

1) When you guys get a knife from the factory that is not exactly 30 or 40 degrees what do you do? do you try to use a sharpie and adjust to the factory angle while sharpening? or do you reprofile the blade with the diamond and go from there?

2) Can a mirror finish be achieved with the extrafine? I'm trying to figure out how many passes I need to do with each stone, starting with diamond and going to extrafine, such that each stone completes it's job before moving to the next one. I'm mostly sharpening stainless on buck blades, or S30V, or sandvik stainless.
Click to expand...

I built a jig that holds larger, coarser stones at the same angles as the Sharpmaker.
 
My opinion only.... but two points need to be made.

1. Sharp, and mirror polish are not necessarily the same thing. And mirror polished sharpness may be the wrong kind of sharp for a particular kind of cutting.

2. Number of passes on a side is misleading, and can lead to frustration, especially if true sharpness is the goal. It is more important to know how to raise a burr and clean it off to get genuinely (satisfyingly) sharp.
 
That was my solution as well. I used left over cedar from furniture projects and cut the ramps at 12 and 17 degrees. I use a 1000 grit waterstone then a few passes at either 15 or 20 degrees. The Sharpmaker is an excellent finishing tool. Even with the diamond sleeves, I'd hate to rebevel a knife edge again on a Sharpmaker. Once is enough.
tiguy7 said:
View attachment 1380302

I built a jig that holds larger, coarser stones at the same angles as the Sharpmaker.
Click to expand...
 
tommytman said:
Hello,
I have the triangle sharpmaker and I am getting better with it but have questions. I have all the available 'stones' (diamond, medium, fine, and extrafine).

1) When you guys get a knife from the factory that is not exactly 30 or 40 degrees what do you do? do you try to use a sharpie and adjust to the factory angle while sharpening? or do you reprofile the blade with the diamond and go from there?

2) Can a mirror finish be achieved with the extrafine? I'm trying to figure out how many passes I need to do with each stone, starting with diamond and going to extrafine, such that each stone completes it's job before moving to the next one. I'm mostly sharpening stainless on buck blades, or S30V, or sandvik stainless.
Click to expand...

If it were me I would be using the CBN rods for the and not the ceramic stones if your wanting an edge that has a good cutting quality,the with any ceramic stone I have ever used I have found they work better as a finishing stone.

You'll find with ceramic stone for steels like S110V and other super steels not just S110V that if you have to do a lot of pass's that the edge won't be as sharp,and honestly before I would spend the money on the CBN rods for the sharpmaker I would buy a Vector sharpener sold at gritomatic and then and get the Venev diamond stones and you will see a major difference in the sharpness of your knives and just all round better result's,but if your not wanting to spend to much money I would honestly get the CBN rods and the use the ceramic stones after CBN rods.
 
I find that most factory edges need work. Maybe they feel sharp but you can pretty much bet that the grind is uneven and the bevels not consistent side to side.

Long time ago I bought a set of the SharpMaker diamond rods, a loupe and a blue marker. New knives most always get the blue line along the edge and then I pass them over the diamond rods until the blue is truly gone along the entire edge both sides.

Good lighting and the loupe is an essential aid. I have a lighted loupe :thumbsup:

I used to count the passes :( but realized that that just made me nuts. ;) Now my goal is the disappearance of the blue along the edge. You can strop at this point and find that you have a sharp but toothy edge. The apex, in my experience, is properly formed when the blue is removed completely along the entire blade.

I re-blue the knife edge for the brown rods. By the time I have completed the process with the brown stones, strop again and if I so desire (usually I do) I do the same again with the white stones.

Never care about polished edges so that is not an objective. I am usually very satisfied to be able to drop slice through phone book paper with a shoosh and no grab. That is a level of sharpness that accomplishes most all my needs.

Most of my knives are sharpened on the 30° and some get a 40° micro-bevel.

Different knives and different intended use can lead to varying the procedure but what I have described is generally a darn good place to start and end. My 2¢.
 
Centuriator said:
Why do people obsess over the sharpness of their blades?

Does anyone have any experience using them in a real world situation? Hunting (animal or human)?
Click to expand...

I want my knives as sharp as I can personally get them because I want them to be ready for anything. The other day I was trimming branches off of trees that we tore down in the back yard. Sure, we had a small chain saw to cut up the trees (after they were taken down by the backhoe), but I was quicker for me to pull out my knife and do a few cuts rather than getting the saw and cranking it up. 3 or 4 cuts into the base of the limb and it was off (1 inch or less diameter). It was easy with a knife that was ridiculously sharp.

Maybe I could have done the same with a not so sharp blade, but why make my job harder than it has to be? Plus, getting a knife sharp enough to obliterate arm hair and cleanly cut paper towel is fun.
 
me2 said:
That was my solution as well. I used left over cedar from furniture projects and cut the ramps at 12 and 17 degrees. I use a 1000 grit waterstone then a few passes at either 15 or 20 degrees. The Sharpmaker is an excellent finishing tool. Even with the diamond sleeves, I'd hate to rebevel a knife edge again on a Sharpmaker. Once is enough.
Click to expand...
I set my jig at 15* and 20* off vertical to match the Sharpmaker.
 
tommytman said:
I think I need to spend more time with brown/medium to smooth out more before moving to fine. Problem is I'm not sure how to tell when brown has done it's job.
Click to expand...

This has been my experience too. I've sharpened all of my knives at some point on the Sharpmaker and have found that, across a diverse range of steel types (in my personal sample) the brown stones are capable of providing a very nice working edge. As noted, it will be a little coarse, but some steels are better suited to that level of edge finishing in actual usage. I rarely use my UF stones anymore on my "users" and only use the fine ones to knock off the burr. YMMV, IMO, blah blah blah
 
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