Hello folks. I have a vast knowledge deficit when it comes to sharpening. In particular, from various readings, I'm getting the (perhaps wrong-headed) idea that there are steels that are ceramic "friendly" and steels that are not, that should rather be sharpened with diamond or CBN instead. Then Todd elaborated: "Understand that a keen edge requires a dimension of around 100nm (1/10 of a micron) and the vanadium-rich carbides in Maxamet, or S110V, or even the chromium carbides in ZDP189 are 1-2 microns in size. So sharpening these knives to a keen edge with ceramic involves crushing those carbides (near the apex) into “nano-dust” and burnishing the matrix around them..." and then later, "...ceramics, like the Sharpmaker, crush the carbides into dust." Get those diamond and/or CBN rods for the Sharpmaker. This may not be essential right off the bat but I highly recommend them for the long run especially for repairing serration edge damage. Again...you may not need anything more than the Sharpmaker and these stones depending on what steels you have. You could get by with only the Sharpmaker/CBN/diamond rods if you mostly use and carry Salts for example. Could you maybe as an example tell me: When sharpening on a sharpmaker rod, how exactly do edge leading strokes look like, and how edge trailing?

The Sharpmaker is extremely good at what it does, which is to allow people with no great skill set in freehand sharpen to create and maintain a consistent edge across a surprisingly wide gamut of bladed tools in the home. It's also flexible enough to be useful for more skilled users, in touching up those edges. It's not without its limitations, all of which are extremely well documented here. However, if you are sufficiently adept in sharpening to reach for bench stones at all times, the Sharpmaker's utility for you is pretty limited. He does the "deburring stroke" on a rod angled at 20 degrees (the point here is not what degree, but ANGLED quite a bit at all). As far as I understand, that way one just CAN NOT maintain the factory edge, and your way of utilizing the shallowest angle possible seems to be much more appropriate (and works better, tbh) (EDIT: Technically you could keep the factory edge using Sals method, but only of you manage really JUST to deburr and NOT to grind at all. Hard to do consistently imho... ) UNLIKE sharpening plain edged knives, you DO NOT follow the curve of the blade. Doing so will prevent you from hitting the length of the edge, because the angle of the stone will not match the angle of the serrations, and it won't get in between the ridges. Compare a serrated hawkbill, wharncliffe and drop point. Hold them side by side and look at the direction the serrations are ground. You'll see every serration is ground parallel to the last, meaning they all face exactly the same direction. The stroke you'll use to sharpen a hawkbill, therefore, is the same as the stroke you'll use to sharpen a drop point or a wharncliffe. Other than sharpening I am not of great help. Sometimes a drop of oil in the pivot area (in my case Victorinox multitool oil), that´s about it. Many believe that the need for diamond/CBN stones really presents itself when trying to achieve very fine finishes. A vanadium carbide is 1-2 microns and the brown/medium rods are 15 micron, the white/fine rods are 6 micron and the white/ultra fine are 3 micron. Carbide content will matter as well but in general you are not really trying to sharpen the carbides themselves until you get to a very fine abrasive. The 15 micron abrasive is just abrading the entire carbide out of the matrix. As you get to finer abrasives like the UF you are burnishing the carbides and plowing them through the matrix. Again, the volume of them will effect this and S30V will tolerate ceramic abrasives better than S110V.

He uses the 40 degree setting: As you wrote, and as I experienced with my Delica CE and now Endela SE, the 30 degree setting is the way to go if you want to maintain the factory edge (and not create some 40 degree microbevel) at least on a Spyderco SE knife

JaseRicco wrote:After reading everything here, and watching many videos, I still a question about what seems to be a very debated topic...30 degree vs. 40 degree for my knives?? The instructional video says to use the 40 degree, and every 10th time or so, use the 30 degree. A lot of YouTube videos say to use the 40 degree and mention nothing about ever using the 30 degree for most knives, but there are plenty of videos out there that state to use the 30 instead...so I am confused. My instinct is to just do what the instructional video says to do. All rights reserved. All product names, art and text herein are the property of Spyderco, Inc. and may not be reproduced in part or whole without the sole written permission of Spyderco, Inc. In one end of the Sharpmaker is another hole for a stone, this time using only one stone at a much lower angle. With a single stone mounted in this position you can sharpen scissors in the same way as you sharpen a knife. Keeping the scissors vertical and stroking the blade across the stone. To take off the burr on scissors you need to use the other stone like a file and lay it onto the blade flat. Doing this will give you a better burr removal than just closing the scissors. There is a lot of mystery surrounding how to sharpen serrated knives. I know that serrated knives would enjoy more popularity if people understood how to sharpen them as universally as plain edges.

Spyderco Sharpmaker Review – Final Thoughts

Try using alternating passes when you sharpen, with some strokes going heel to tip, and others going tip to heal. The theory is when you do this it makes it easier to hit the entire serration on both sides. (I do not use this method, but others have success with it.)

I’m going to see if I can simplify this for you a little bit. Every 10th time he suggests you use the 30° angle I wanted to learn how to sharpen my own knives and was wondering what the community thought was the best setup. I've heard a bit about DMT benchstones and the KME sharpening system. I'm biased towards the KME system since I'm a total n00b who knows nothing about getting the right angle. He references a keen edge being 0.1 microns. If you are achieving that or even a 1 micron edge then your knowledge of sharpening would be far from deficient. That is high level sharpening. You see this in many hobbies. A guy who needs a sub moa rifle who cannot shoot sub moa or a guy that needs an R1 with race tires to commute to work because he thinks he is Rossi. We need to be honest with our own abilities first before we can get too deep into the gear. Just to make it even clearer for those who might be totally new to sharpening and the sharpmaker: What Bloke is saying basically: Not stupid questions at all -- however if it's coming from me, you might get a stupid answer on occasion :pThe Tri-Angle Sharpmaker is NOT just a knife sharpener and I recommend you watch the Spyderco videos that show just how versatile this sharpener is. Generally I have been pretty happy with these ceramic stones. The only thing I noticed is that over time they seem to have developed little bumps or chips. Apparently they don’t do anything to mess up your edge, but I find it a little unnerving when I use the system and the blade catches one of the bumps. Flipping the base over and it has two grooves that are close together for sharpening smaller tools like chisels.