Spyderco Sharpmaker

I collect knives, mainly Spyderco's, but others as well. I use a Spyderco Sharpmaker to sharpen and hone all my knives, and they always come up real nice.

Question is, can I use it to hone a straight?

(Please excuse my ignorance if this is a dumb-a$$ question! :shrug: )

I do not know but would suggest you try it out on an old practice razor or ebay cheapo if no one else can tell you from personal experience.

In short . . . no.

I've been using a Sharpmaker to keep my knives sharp for years, but I am afraid it will not work with a straight. The edge of a straight is so delicate that you need the accuracy of a hone to achive and maintain a true, shave ready edge.

However, some people "in the know" have been using the Spyderco Ultrafine bench hone for finishing.

So how does their bench hone compare to a "whet" stone? Say a Norton or a coticule?

Mixed reviews.. Some swear by it to high heaven and say that no other hone gives a finer edge and other say that it's too aggressive on the thin edges, chips'em easily and is a b**** to clean. I'll eventually try it or the Lee Valley equivalent (ceramic bench-stone deemed to be 8000 grit) that I can get at less than half the price of a Spyderco.

On the ceramic rods of the Sharpmaker, I use Bar Keeper's Friend to clean off the metal which gets embedded into the ceramic. It makes a difficult job easy. So the cleaning I don't mind, breaking blades is another issue though.

Those would be microchips. They wouldn't actually ruin the blade. Worst case scenario, you'd need to do a touchup on a slower-cutting hone.

The Spyderco med-fine-ultrfine, when brand new, have "high points" that must be knocked down first. If you dont then they will put very small nicks in the edge of the blade. A couple of us have experienced that!:rant: Also pay attention to the edge of the hone. It also has high points. Perhaps sharpening a knife on it first would take care of the problem.?:shrug:

In my opinion, the Spyderco sharpmaker will not work adequately. The surface area is too small and the triangle shaped hone could be hazardous to the fine edge of the blade. I think Randy's advice is right on target on this. The Spyderco ceramic hones are very good and I've never had a problem with them BUT I used mine to sharpen a whole lot of knives before I ever put them to use on razors. My conclusion on this is that they need lapped before initial use, but then again, I've come to conclude all stones need lapped before being used on a straight razor. It's probably not a good idea to assume that any razor you buy used or from a factory is truely shave ready and, likewise, I think it's probably not a good idea to assume any hone you buy is razor-ready. My $.02

You can use the Sharpmaker by lying the stones into the underside of the base (refer to the video & instruction booklet). This makes a flat (somewhat narrow) surface. It's not ideal, but can be done (use a light touch). YMMV.

Forgot to add, that I have used the bench hones (med, fine, ultra) with good results -- wider surface, and no groove with the rods.