Benchmade Edge Issues

[Ryan]

I’m certain this has been covered before but I was unable to find it…but I do recall reading something about it somewhere…anyway I have a BM 551 440C SS that I’ve had for years. I’ve only sharpened it on a Spyderco…other than a buddy put it on his wheel once or twice.

I’m now about 8 knives into my WES and felt confident to sharpen this BM which is used daily. I did the sharpie trick and put it into the WES. I made certain everything is true and what I found was at 20 degrees the right side lined up perfectly and slicked right up starting at 1K grit Diamond.

The left side is a different story – the back isn’t as bad but the tip only sharpened at the very point and there is a lot of sharpie remaining further down where the grind is suppose to be.

I’m surmising this is either BM’s original grind job where they didn’t do it perfectly centered, and/or the guy on the wheel and/or me on the Spyderco…or all of the above.

Regardless…this is what I’m thinking about doing and I’m asking for validation or correction. I’m going to go back to a 600 or maybe 400 diamond and work the left side some more until it is on par with the right side then start incrementally working my way back up assuming everything trues up. Is this correct?

Ryan

[wickededge]

That’s just what I’d do. Sounds like the bevels have changed a bit, especially if it’s been on a wheel once or twice. Best to set them where you want them, flatten them out with the coarser stones and then work your way up to the finish level you want.

-Clay

[Ryan]

Thanks for the validation. Off I go to the WES!

[Geocyclist]

That is what I have done also. Watch every part very carefully. I have gotten the bevels even on the flat part but left the belly on side more and the tip more on the other.

[Leo Barr]

One other thought on the edge if it is really out it may be easier to flatten off the edge perpendicular to the blade and start from scratch it is often the way to go on damaged – chipped, tips missing etc; since it is the quickest way to correct the blade then you can start afresh with any bevel angles perhaps after putting a thinning angle on each side .
Equalising a bevel by working it until it is correct may take some time since you will be working on a wide plane.

[Geocyclist]

For me its hard to see the bevel. I use a flashlight. Even with a flashlight the lighting in the room is different from one side to the next.

My question is assuming I get the bevels even with 100 diamonds during the re-profile will they stay even though out all progressing stones? I would think so. The reason I ask is I “think” they are even, I finish the knife and take it out of the vice and they are not as even as I thought.

[Leo Barr]

I would hazard a guess here and say that you should inspect the sides of the knife it is possible that they are not the same this would affect the finished results these results appear when you use a precision sharpener if you were sharpening on bench stones it is possible that the result would not be noticed especially with a convex bevel.

[tcmeyer]

It sounds like the left-side bevel at the tip is at least a couple of degrees steeper than the rest of the blade. If you continue to stone the tip to reach what you think is a correct bevel width, you’ll skew the tip way off center and risk losing quite a bit of blade length. I’d take it easy there and stone only with the fine grits to polish the little bit of bevel you have.

[Author]

Posts