I am very interested in purchasing the benchmade vector 496, but the blade shape seems like it could cause trouble sharpening with the flat stones/strops. The recurve is very slight, but still there. Has anyone sharpened this knife on their system(I have a WE120 if that changes anything)?
Thanks Marc. The shape is pretty similar. After reading all the “recurve” related questions on the forum, it sounds like there shouldn’t be a problem. It does sounds like the flat ceramic stones should not be used on a recurve like this. Can anyone else confirm or deny this?
I wouldn’t know why a flat diamond stone and a flat ceramic stone would be any different. They’re shaped the same, just different sharpening mediums. Unless someone who tried it didn’t experience the quality results they expected.
It sure looks to me that Clay was using a ceramic stone in the 1st video I shared.
I can share that it is important to keep the sharpening stone in constant contact with the curved blade as you continuously work the stone up and down with the sharpening strokes as you simultaneously move the stones back and forth along the curved length of the knife, from heel to tip. Especially when the flat stone is only contacting the curved blade on the outer edges of the stones. You can disrupt the smooth curved shape of the blade by working any one place on the blade with concentrated sharpening strokes for too long.
Here’s another video where Clay is sharpening a more pronounced recurve blade. He is clearly using flat ceramic stones.
Thanks for digging this video up Marc! Makes me feel much better. I wasn’t entirely sold on not using the flat stones either, but was reading this thread where Josh says “You will be able to at least use the diamonds up to the 1k without issue, and the strops without issue, the only thing I can see giving you trouble is if you were to try and use the regular flat ceramics on it… the corners on the regular ceramics would shave off on the knife edge in that case. I would go from the 1k to the ceramics that are designed for the re-curves, and then on to the strops if you want a mirror edge. hope this helps…”. He then shows a picture of a nicely mirrored ZT knife with less of a recurve than the benchmade I am looking at. Later on in this same string, clay does make it seem like the flat stones work fine, as he demonstrated in the video above.
Understand that Josh is a very skilled professional sharpener. What’s acceptable for Clay or me may not be acceptable for him. Josh’s at a whole ‘nother level then many of us home W.E. users.
Good to know! I was having trouble finding a good deal on this benchmade anyways, so I pulled the trigger on a house of blades exclusive SG spider monkey, which is on sale. For future knife purchases I now know this level of recurve should not be a problem for my flat stones, as I am far from a professional sharpener.
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