stevebalchunas

We're going to be putting out a pretty in-depth blog on deburring in a couple days on the Sparx site, but in the meantime... here are a few things you could try on a polished/coated blade: Ceramic Honing Stone, Arkansas Honing Stone, Scouring Pads, Leather Strop mounted on wood (more sturdy than the strop), Gummy stone... all of these can help, but be careful with the first two, you can gently peel off the burr with them if you're careful. Personally, I'd say you might not have to obsess over the real small burrs. I've been sharpening and skating for a long time and I definitely do not spend 15 minutes deburring my blades. But I do understand that some can be very anal about it and will spend that time on it. To each his own, figure out what works for you! 2 3

I think that may be the case. In general, there's not enough sharpening knowledge out there (on both sides of the fence).

Consumers request it. There would be handful of folks who wouldn't purchase a Sparx if we didn't offer a flat profile. %-wise though, there's a very small number of elite/pro level players using flat profiles and a bigger % with average consumers. I would suspect, if there was an enourmous performance benefit (that could only be acheived through the flat profile and not a larger radius), there would be higher pro adoption. I do totally understand it's a preference thing though. If you like it, I wouldn't judge you, I just may have had you try some crazy larger hollows before switching over to a flat if you came to me for advice.

Just to clear the air a bit here... the FIRE Ring is not FBV as most of you have gathered by now. It's also not a direct copy of the BFD. It's our own version of the flat bottom profile where we keep the 3/8", 1/2", etc. bite angle but truncated the hollow. So, that's like BFD right? Almost, although we cannot speak for the angles/radius of Blademasters profiles. What we did was since those edges (fangs) on any flat bottom profile, for the most part, are thin (paper thin as jimmy and kgdbeast have pointed out), we shortened the flat area and made the fangs more forgiving. Why do they have to be more forgiving? We've done a decent amount of research on blade straightness and one thing is clear, most if not all steel is bent to some degree. So, to make sure all of our flat bottom customers were getting edges, we wanted to account for this and NOT make profiles that we knew internally would end up not producing consistent, great edges. Personally, I've always wondered why those who went to FIRE, BFD, FBV didn't just try a shallower hollow first, but that's a discussion for another thread I'm sure.

Thanks Colin, Then if we're not judging... I had to google RTFM. Going to add that one to the repertoire for sure. I think these are all great questions BTW. While we tried to fit everything into that manual, there's still a lot of things we don't cover such as: "hey, if this is your first time, you'll probably need to run a few extra cycles (new steel or not) either because you a) have waited 6 or 7 hours since your last sharpen or b) the last one wasn't very level. In the field, I'd see we see either a or b 90% of the time.

Hope you don't mind me chiming in on this one. While not groundbreaking by any means, we took a look at all the edge checkers out there and took all the things we liked and improved them. This is the edge checker I would design if you let me go crazy (although Russ (the real engineer) gets most of the credit, I'll take a sliver). The main goal was to create a one-handed version, one that was very accurate AND quick/easy to install measure and move on. Here's what we have... -Wear plate on tippy bar: no more bad readings when the paint gets chipped or the metal wears down. -Tippy bar Storage: We've embedded a magnet in the base, and carved out a spot for the bar to sit in (and stay, thanks to the magnet). -Short Throat: We wanted our main two center lines to always be true center, we didn't like how some edge checkers function differently when used on short/worn down steel. Now, brand new steel and worn down steel will always use the true center line as, well, the true center line. -Spring Loaded Clip: Helps to keep this a one-handed tool -Recessed Edges: We found that when the tippy bar is the exact length of the base, sometimes it can be hard to read, so now the bars ends run off the edge of the tick marks making it easier to read. -Protection Wings: when the bar is being stored, we have two wings on each side that help guide it into place and keep it safe if/when it's dropped. I've attached a few pics of an "almost" final version. The real deal should be available sometime in August on our site.

Hey Colin, first off, no, that's not normal, but we're not judging ;) You are correct with the RFID thinking, each ring has its own microchip to track the cycles used. Each time you load a new grinding ring into the machine, you'll notice a bit of a pause when the ring goes back to its "home" position on the right while it's being read. After a few seconds, the life indicator bar will show that ring's life. As for the new steel, in the manual under Operation > Sharpening New Steel we detail a marker test for determining the amount of passes to run. On average we've found 10 to be the number, hence the 10 cycle button, but it will always vary a bit. The steel is stamped in a way in which there is not much control on how level that bottom surface is. Sometimes we see brand new blades that are dead on, then other times they can be 5 to 6 thou off. So, give that marker test a try and you'll know, when the marker is gone you're ready to go. On another note, same is true for sharpening with Sparx for the first time. We cannot control your last manual sharpening, which means if your edges were uneven, you may need to run more than 4 cycles to get them back to even. You can use the marker test here as well. I'd say on average when we're demoing in the field, 5/6 cycles is the general "get back to even" number. But once you're in the Sparx "ecosystem", 4 is the number that works since we're not repairing uneven edges anymore. We're always peeking around the threads, so feel free to ask away if you have any other questions. Thanks, Steve