hey everyone David C Andersen here coming at you from the knifeCenter and
today we're going to be showing you how to best use your Spyderco sharpmaker a
great and easy way to put a fantastic edge on all your blades let's check it
out so the Spyderco sharpmaker is one of our favorite recommendations for
folks are looking for an easy way to maintain their blades I've given a lot
of them away as gifts over the years one of them lives in my kitchen as well and
we've even got one that lives here at our office that makes sure our edges are
in tip-top shape all the time one of the nice things about the sharp maker is it
comes in a really sleek package all of the elements pack into this nice plastic
case that then doubles as the base when you actually use it after we take the
lid off we see all the different elements are right here inside we've got
these two triangular white stones which are the fine stones as well as two brown
medium stones we've also got these two brass rods which function is a safety
measure when you're using the device the sharp maker comes set up for two
different main angles both a 40 degree and 30 degree inclusive angle and you
can see those marked here on the base to let you know which side is which one
thing to note that these are inclusive measurements that Spyderco puts on the
base so that's a 40 degree inclusive edge which is the same thing as a 20
degrees per side edge same thing on the other side is at 30 degree inclusive or
15 degree per side angle these days a lot of factory edges do come with a 40
degree inclusive angle but we are starting to see some thinner edges
especially on Japanese kitchen knives to come with something closer to a 30
degree inclusive angle that 30 degree angle on the sharp maker can also be
useful if you want to thin down the shoulders behind your edge on your 40
degree inclusive blade if you're not quite sure of your exact edge angle on
your knife there's a trick that works not only for the sharp maker but also
for any other kind of sharpening system if you take a sharpie or other type of
black marker and color in your edge then you can take it to your sharpening
stones take a few strokes along the side and if the marker has been removed
completely along the edge you know you're right on if it isn't you know
you're gonna need to adjust your angle just a little bit today to show you how
this sharpmaker works we're going to be sharpening a spyderco tenacious which is
another great budget option for a blade that really punches above this price
point is another one of our favorite recommendations from Spyderco first
thing you're gonna want to do to set up your sharp maker is start with the
medium rods and we're gonna use the 40 degree inclusive edge for this knife
start with the edges of the triangle pointing in this is going to be your
most aggressive metal removal that this systems capable of right out of the box
once those are in place make sure you put these brass guide rods into the
holes behind the stones these are very important because if you get to moving a
little bit too quickly and your knife blade does slip it's gonna keep it from
catching your hand and because it's brass it's a nice soft material so it's
not gonna mess up your edge even if you do hit it finally take the lid and place
it there and that forms a nice handhold to keep this stable while you're using
it so with this setup is the reason that the Spyderco sharp maker is such an easy
device to use whereas with freehand sharpening you have to be very careful
about maintaining the angle of your blade with the sharp maker there's no
guesswork you simply have to hold the blade straight up and down what you'll
want to do is start at the heel of the blade place it at the top of the stone
and in a slow smooth stroke with not too much pressure go all the way to the
bottom moving out towards the tip of the knife as you do you're gonna repeat this
on both sides so Spyderco will tell you that you want to do about 20 strokes per
side and that's a good number to start with but eventually you'll actually get
a really good feel for it and you'll know when that edge is ready to move on
so after about those 20 strokes on each side here you're gonna rotate these
stones so that the flat sides are facing it what this does is it provides a
greater amount of surface area of contact with the blade so if you're
maintaining the same pressure as you were on the other side it's gonna be a
little bit of a gentler metal removal repeat the same process as before again
20 strokes ish per side
after this point we have a little bit more refining to do on the edge but at
this point it should be able to cut paper fairly easily if not you know you
have to go back and do a little more work here once we've got the edge this
far we're gonna switch to the white fine stones and do the same steps again
starting with the apex of the triangle we're gonna do about 20 strokes per side
again after that switch to the flat sides 20 strokes again at this point if
you've gotten your edge where it needs to be with the brownstones before moving
to the white this edge should be hair shaving sharp you can certainly take
this edge even further if you want to use a strop after this point but you
don't really need to all that much in truth the edge that's achieved by this
sharpmaker is going to be sharper than most people ever get to experience in
their entire lives apart from stropping there actually are a couple of upgrade
options available for the sharp maker if the fine isn't quite fine enough for you
Spyderco also offers an extra fine rod on the other end of the spectrum if
you're unable to get your edge where it needs to be with those brown medium rods
there are a couple of heavier grit options available you can either get a
diamond coated rod or a cubic boron nitride coated rod from Spyderco and
each of these is going to remove a lot more metal than those medium stones will
some people have found that those more aggressive rods work a little bit better
on some of the modern high wear resistant particle steels at least to
set the bevel before you move on to the higher grits in truth though most of
the time the medium is gonna be just fine and it doesn't remove a whole lot
of metal when you are using the system and that's one of its strengths whereas
it's easy to sharpen too much on a freehand stone and remove too much metal
you're gonna get a lot more life out of your blades using a system like this the
sharp maker also comes with a few extra tricks up its sleeve that's gonna make
it easier for blades that may not fit too easily in this v-shaped arrangement
the first is right here on the end and this is actually a scissors sharpening
slot you place any of the compatible rods in this end here and it's gonna
hold it at just the right angle to sharpen your scissors very easily
when you are sharpening the scissors you're gonna get a little bit of a burr
come up here over the side when you're doing this process sometimes that'll
snip off just fine when you close the scissors but it can be helpful to come
in with the rod lay it flat on the underside of the blade and remove the
burr manually so if I remove all of these things I'll show you the last
trick on the underside of the base you can see there's two slots cut out of the
base on the bottom right here and those are designed so you can nest the two
rods next to each other and form a nice bench stone with them this is gonna be
helpful if for instance the angles you need don't quite match up to the preset
angles or if you have something like a larger work knife that might be a little
bit too long to comfortably pull through that v-shaped arrangement allows you to
get in right there and use it just like any other traditional bench stone the
last thing you'll notice is that all of these rods come with a milled slot on
one side and that allows you to work on things with points such as fish hooks
darts ice picks or that sort of thing why did you get in there twist it around
as you're sharpening to maintain a very acute point so hopefully we've showed
you everything you need here to use your Sharpmaker effectively or if you're on
the fence show you that this is a very easy system to use that just about
anyone can master it's very easy to maintain the angle you need it's just
straight up and down and you don't need to worry about any cumbersome clamps or
guides if you like what you see here and want to get your hands on one make sure
to click the link in the description below to head over to knife center.com