# Sharpening any angle on the Spyderco Sharpmaker



## bennyprofane (May 22, 2016)

Two stones are attached with rubber bands. The back stone faces the gouge to the front to give the front stone stability. 
At the top you put something (like a coin here) in between the stone and measure the angle with an angle locator like this:






Has anybody tried this?

Another method is to put the safety rod under the sharp maker and to tilt it in either direction,
like in this picture:






The Spyderco safety rod changes the angle by 2,5 degrees per side.

On this page (in German, translate with Chrome) is also a calculator to calculate how thick the rod has to be for any given angle:

http://www.messer-machen.de/messerb...-verschiedene-schleifwinkel-bei-v-schaerfern/


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## bennyprofane (May 22, 2016)

The first method only works for small angle changes because the second stone will otherwise skew. For bigger angles one could use a flat second stone
like the Spyderco double stuff and face the back stone triangle with the flat side to the front, this would be much more stable.

Instead of an angle locator one can also use an app like iLevels.


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## daveb (May 22, 2016)

Prob not going to find a lot of Sharpmaker love here - this is a rock kind of crowd.

But thanks for posting and welcome.


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## bennyprofane (May 22, 2016)

Thank you for your kind answer. I have started trying to transition to free hand sharpening on stones, as I find it much more appealing. Although, at the moment I still do get better results on the sharpmaker (arm shaving but rarely hair splitting) but hope this will change over the course of time, when I have more practise and experience.


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## Bolek (May 24, 2016)

A simpler way : take the replacement (cylindrical) roads of a Lansky Master's Edge 5 Rod Sharpener; drill in a piece of wood the holes at the angles you want (10°/10° (never used yet), 12.5°/12.5°, 15°/15°, 17°/17°, 12°/15° (the most used as I am not able to freehand sharpen asymmetric edge)); mark the angle you drilled on the piece of wood; put the rods in the desired angled holes; sharpen. There is no Lansky ultrafine ceramic rods but it is not a problem as once the bevel set at the desired angle I finish on Jnats. It works for me for first sharpening and for set a new different bevel.
http://www.knivesandtools.fr/fr/pt/-lansky-masters-edge-sharpener.htm.htm


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## Matus (May 24, 2016)

I have sharpmaker myself and it is a great little gadget to touch up a cutting edge on a small knife, but I would not use it on kitchen knives. Try to go for a shallow angle and you will need VERY long time to get anything done. I once tried to put a 30deg. inclusive angle on Spyderco Caly 3.5 (it had about 40 deg and very noticeable edge bevel) and I would NOT try that again. I even have the CBN rods.

Sharpening stones are much faster - as one would expect - the contatct area when using the sharpmaker is very small and so the material removal is slow.


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## Bolek (May 25, 2016)

Matus you can speed up the sharpening with a sharpmaker by sekuring wet and dry peper (e.g. #320) to your rods. Are the solid CNB rods or are they steel CNB coated ?


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## Matus (May 25, 2016)

Bolek said:


> Matus you can speed up the sharpening with a sharpmaker by sekuring wet and dry peper (e.g. #320) to your rods. Are the solid CNB rods or are they steel CNB coated ?



Sa wet sanding paper is a good trick, but for 'proper' shaprening I just take out the sharpening stones or the KME sharpening system (which while not particuarly great with narrow blades does work pretty fast).

The CNB rods are aluminum coatad with CNB. They do work, but I do not find them worth the money ( I payed around 80 and was one of the 'first adopters')


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## Bolek (May 25, 2016)

Matus said:


> Sa wet sanding paper is a good trick, but for 'proper' shaprening I just take out the sharpening stones or the KME sharpening system (which while not particuarly great with narrow blades does work pretty fast).
> 
> The CNB rods are aluminum coatad with CNB. They do work, but I do not find them worth the money ( I payed around 80 and was one of the 'first adopters')



What KME sharpening system stand for ?


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## Matus (May 25, 2016)

Bolek said:


> What KME sharpening system stand for ?



*THIS*  I have one since a few years - it has some interesting features, but would also need some design improvements.


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