Hi,
This is my first post. I have a question about Benchmade knives amd how to properly sharpen them. Are they convex ground or can you sharpen them with a system such as Gatco? I have a few Benchmade knives (such an Osborne) but am looking to get a 710.
Thanks, Chaco

they have a normal V grind, i am not familiar with the sharpener you mentioned but i use a spyderco sharpmaker on mine

Never heard of a Gatco. I personally use an EdgePro Apex to sharpen mine.

I figure any method of sharpening is good so long as you maintain the current angle and you can raise and remove burrs.

If you've got an expensive or good looking Benchmade knife, I strongly suggest practicing with cheap kitchen knives or paring knives until you're confident you've got all of it down.

Trust me, I've made the mistake of reprofiling my BM 943SBK when I've only sharpened 1 or 2 cheap knives and I ended up scuffing the black coating off around the edge, and my edge looks pretty uneven and bumpy...even though it can make clean cuts through paper, splits hair, whittles hair, and can shave paper into two layers without cutting through to the other side. It's sharp, but it's not very pretty anymore.

If your knife hand is itchy and you want the blade sharp, just settle for touch ups on a ceramic hone until you're sure you got it down.

I think going through no less than 10 cheap knives would be a good idea before trying it on your benchmade. You should also practice a few other things like changing the angle on your blade and putting microbevels as well.

Conceivably depending upon the model they 'could' be convex ground, but no, I think they're usually saber, flat or hollow ground. I'll leave it to others more knowledgeable to correct me. You could use any sharpening system you like, Gatco or any other sharpening method. They're your knives. If you not happy with the job you've done to them, you could always send them back to Lifesharp/Benchmade, and have the blades made like new. Welcome to the forum.

Gatco will work fine.
To help you out you may want to take a magic marker and mark the edge so when you start the sharpening process you can tell if you are at the right angle. If you are the magic marker will start to disaper as you sharpen. THe angle does not necessarily have to be dead on but close. Just try to be consistant on each side of the blade.

I agree..the Gatco will work just fine. The magic marker trick is something I use often. Be sure to check if you are sharpening the "edge" and not simply the shoulder. You may need to do a bit more work the first time, because you will likely be doing a modest bit of reprofiling, since BM hand sharpens and each will vary slightly in their bevel.

Have fun....and take your time. The beauty of sharpening is, if you screw it up the first time, you can always do it again. Or, if you have the disease, you can keep changing the bevel/shape to see what works best.

Welcome!

Agreed the Gatco works. One tip: the clamp can scratch the blade. Get some blue 3M painter's tape and put some on the spine before you get started to protect the finish.

I'm not sure, since I didn't have a 710 when I owned my Gatco, but you might want to get a diamond rod to address the recurve as a separate sharpening job. Not sure the stones will work on it very well.

I use the Sharpie trick a lot and now use a SharpMaker - which also is a joy to use with the 710 recurve.

Thank you everyone for the responses. I used the magic marker tip and tried the 22 1/2 degree angle and it looks pretty close. I've used the heck out of my knife and it sure does hold an edge good. My 940 has been my edc for over 5 years now and still performs as if it was new.

those gatco stones are pretty wide but i do like how they are attached to the rod much better than the lansky.

quote:

Originally posted by joe_karp:
Agreed the Gatco works. One tip: the clamp can scratch the blade. Get some blue 3M painter's tape and put some on the spine before you get started to protect the finish.

Joe, is 3M Blue tape better than quality masking tape? The reason I ask is because on my Lansky I scratched the heck out of my practice knives and masking tape only made the blade slide out of the clamp. That's when I sharpened the web of my hand with the sliding blade.