Organic

Hey Josh, what tools are did you use for the re-profiling of the serrations on that Benchmade 550?

I wish you a full and speedy recovery. Stay safe!

Did it take him over 8 hours of sharpening to get that result? That’s quite the investment considering that the blade steel on a knife that cheap probably will probably roll when it is used on anything harder than the tomato in the video. Also, it’s kind of sad that the blade didn’t even get sharp enough to cut the tomato in one pass. Perhaps the…[Read more]

Knives with full bolsters are difficult to sharpen as you get closer to the bolster. I don’t really understand the attractive features of the full bolster design. In my assessment, it makes the knife a lot heavier than necessary, upsets the balance point of the blade, and prevents proper sharpening without extra work to expose the edge by grinding…[Read more]

Not really. If you’ve already scratched it up on whetstones, you are unlikely to cause any damage to the knife that would be worse. The main reason you often see it recommended to start with a cheap knife is to prevent making small mistakes ( failure to clamp in the sweet spot being the big one)  on a knife with significant monetary or se…[Read more]

Okay, since we can rule out the blade tilting in the clamp, I am going to suggest that the knife was just ground asymmetrically. This is entirely common with a factory edge. I don’t know about Spyderco, but may companies sharpen their knives free handed using a belt grinder. A few degrees difference between the angles on either side of the blade…[Read more]

Which model of WE are you using? If you have the older clamp style (non-gen. 3) the knife might be leaning to one side in the clamp.

Be sure to write up a full review for us once you have had some time with it. It will be interesting to hear your thoughts considering you have a full fledged WE setup already.

It sounds like you’re making some good progress. A good way to check if you’ve actually apexed the knife (which is what happens right as you start forming a burr) is to mark the edge with sharpie, do just a few passes, and then inspect the edge under magnification. If ALL of the sharpie mark has been removed from both bevels along the whole length…[Read more]

Perhaps I’m missing something, but with it clamped as you’ve shown in the bottom example I don’t see a problem. As long as the blade is held firmly enough so that it doesn’t move during the sharpening process I think you are good to go.

The FFG nature of the blade will cause it to lean to one side in the clamp, but this is okay and can be…[Read more]

PM received and reply sent.

I always mount the knife with the handle facing me because I feel that it is the most natural way and, like you, it makes me a bit nervous having the blade pointed right at me. If you’re looking for the most versatile mounting option, Josh of Razor Edge Knives has his older style WE mounted on a panavise. This allows him to rotate the whole setup…[Read more]

Man, that is super cool. I’m really excited to hear your thoughts once you’ve given it a go and sharpened a knife with this method. It could be a game changer.