Thought I´d post a link to the sharpmaker instructional dvd on youtube, could be interesting for some. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LBDnJv5B58&t=2486s Do you like toothy edges or polished edges? I like toothy edges myself. I have sharpened every steel Spyderco has used by setting the bevel on a diamond stone and then microbeveled/deburred with the brown rods and can get an impressive edge that way. It I want more a strop with 1 micron emulsion will get it sharper than I ever need and it will still have some toothy bite.

But, one thing to be aware of when using "your" deburring method (= a very shallow angle): If one likes to keep the blade pretty and shiny, it is important not to go too shallow, cause then one could scratch up the side of the blade a bit when deburring. I totally don´t mind that, I like knives that look and are used, but if one wants to avoid scratches: Do as Vivi said :Choose a very shallow angle, but not SO shallow that you might hit the spine / side of the blade).

Use

Because the Medium stones on the 204 Sharpmaker are priced low enough that you don't have to lap them. It saves me a lot of time. I've even had to replace one of the medium stones on one set of my Spyderco 302 Benchstones. Even though the medium stones will wear over time it takes a while before they need replacing. Albeit if I could do it really efficiently I would be open to suggestions and time saving methods I may not be aware of. Serrations can be sharpened thanks to the corners of the stones, meaning steps 1 and 3 can be used. Spyderco recommend that only the step three (white stone corners) is used, as step one is a bit too aggressive. Serrations need a slightly different technique, as generally they are formed with a single bevel (chisel) grind. In this case you work only on one side for three or four strokes, then use a single stroke on the other side to remove the burr that forms. The Colorado based knife company we know and love has proven here that they excel not only in knife production but the tools needed to keep us proud owners happy and our knives scary sharp. Once again Spyderco continues to impress me with their offerings.

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. Maybe because Sal wants to leave the decision to the customer, if he or she wants to keep the more acute factory angle, or mirobevel / reprofile the knife to 20 inclusive... I was also told about the Work Sharp precision adjust sharpener, but it looks like you can only use their proprietary stones and it kinda seems like cheap Walmart crap vs something that I could use for years. Here I'd go for serrated edge and full flat grind too - which means LC 20ü N steel and green handle.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. I replaced my medium stones for the first time last year, and man what a difference 10 years makes.

I'd personally start with the SiCs to do any heavy reprofiling or chip repair due to their lower cost. The 50 and 100 gold stones aren't much faster than the 140 honestly and the SiC should be a similar speed. Then I'd move to the 600 and 1500 kme gold stones which I've found to be very nice and high quality. After that I'd microbevel on the sharpmaker rods of your choice, depending on whether you want a toothy or fine edge.

Spyderco Sharpmaker Review – Final Thoughts

While I wouldn’t call myself a knife sharpening professional, I can certainly keep a blade sharp, and I have tried a number of different sharpening kits over the years.

If you try to slice into a stone, it sharpens your knife. If you try to slice into a strop, it slices the strop :) Same thing with sandpaper. vs 40deg depends on more variables ... what steel and what you're cutting being the two primary things to consider. So, as an example if you had a knife in a steel that you knew to be brittle with poor edge stability and you were to put it to heavy use on hard, tough material you'd likely be best off with a 40deg bevel as opposed to a 30deg bevel. On the other hand if you were using the same knife to open letters you could use a 20deg bevel. Just to make it even clearer for those who might be totally new to sharpening and the sharpmaker: What Bloke is saying basically: He does the "deburring stroke" on a rod angled at 40 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... )

What You Get

It’s easy to demonstrate, a little harder to describe but basically when you finish the stroke you’re blade/knife should be about 60degrees off horizontal. I’ve already mentioned a couple of characteristics of the Sharpmaker that become quite relevant to start with. Especially compared to diamond, the ceramic stones are not the fastest cutters, and add to this a design that helps keep the overall removal of metal to a minimum by maintaining the angle, and you get a sharpener that can be hard work if you need to reprofile a steep edge angle.