Specialty Blades & Edges

[Cody302]

O.K., I'm new to the knife portion of the forum, sooooo....howdy! Don't ask me what it is, but I have this thing for Hawksbill knives. I have two, one is fixed and one folder. My question is how in the heck am I supposed to sharpen these little buggers?? There are also a few from the Kershaw/Ken Onion line that I like very much,now they don't sport hawksbill blades,but some of them have multiple compound curve edges that have got to real hard to keep up with. Is there a special routine for those as well or is it more of a 'you bought it schmuck,you figure it out'? And one last thing, in what light is the Kershaw/Ken Onion line held in(in regards to build quality,design quality and function)?

thanx for your time guy's.
cody

[Huevos]

Check out the Spyderco Sharp Maker. I got one because I was having problems sharpening my recurve. Problem solved....
It'll sharpen serrated knive too.

[Cody302]

I'm goin' lookin' for it right now.

[metalpistolsonly]

cody,
i have succesfully used my spyderco sharpmaker to sharpen both my spyderco civilian and my spyderco matriarch. Its the same procedure as sharpening a regular serrated blade, however you'll have to move the blade in relation to the contact point on the sharpener so you maintain contact with the edge. i wish i had a camera to show you pics, but the idea is to keep the edge on the sharpener, without changing the angle of contact.

I'm not sure how well the sharpmaker would work on the multiple curved edges as i've never tried, but its a fairly adaptable system and I'm sre you could figure out something.

I've only had experience with the kershaw/ken onion shun kitchen knives and the kershaw spec bump folder. the kitchen knives are top notch. I use my ken onion shun knives (8" chefs and 6" utility/sandwhich) all the time. They are quite nice. The spec bump is a beast, and opens smooth and fast, but honestly its been sitting in the knife drawer most of the time I've had it.hope that was usefull.
-c

[Cody302]

Yes it was, I think I know what you mean about having to maintain an even angle of attack with the blade to stone relation. Would it make any sense to flip the roles? Meaning, if I was using....say...a round rod style stone, held the blade static(like in a mini-vise) and worked the stone over the blade?? What I meant by multi-curved blades, there's someone that has a model called the Pharaoh, where the bolster to the first half of the blade looks like a hawksbill but then it switches to a skinner type blade the rest of the way to the tip kinda-sorta-thing. I'm glad to here the Kershaw kitchen set works for you,because I can not see why they would build their other knives by a lesser standard. Besides, don't they sell about 20 times more sporting knives than they do kitchen sets? thanx metalpistolsonly!

[metalpistolsonly]

cody,
it may well work "flipping" the movements as you suggest, but my sharpener (the spyderco sharpmaker) has fixed sharpener holders and handguard rods that protect the hand holding the base down in case you slip, and these would fall out if i tried to move it upside down. I think you could probably do it fine with a hand help rod like you said, but you'd have to watch the sharperning angle carefully. just make sure to try any new sharpening technique on a small easy to fix spot before doing up the whole blade length.
-c

[Cody302]

Gotcha'. Thanx