Hi guys,

I have had great success sharpening my CRK large sebenza with the WE and am now wanting to sharpen my Umnumzaan. The question I have is at what position on the allignment guide should I position the blade. In his video Clay Allison reccomended A & 1/2 for the large sebenza. Should I use this same position for the Umnum? Also, due to the curved nature of the spine of the Umnum is there any special techniques I should consider using? I would greaty appreciate any feedback from someone with prior experience with this knife.

thanks a bunch,

Kyle

KyleNalbach wrote:


Hi Kyle,

I had that knife for a long time, was my favorite. I also sharpened it at A & 1/2, just letting the spine rest on the prongs which worked really well. You can use a marker to color the bevel and then observe the track the stone makes through the marker. If it's parallel to the edge all the way along, the knife is in the correct position. If the track dips toward the shoulder at the belly and tip, you need to move the knife back in the clamp. If the track rises toward the tip then you need to move the knife forward. I hope that helps. In case you haven't seen it yet, the procedure is documented here: Finding the Sweet Spot

--Clay

Thanks for the Feedback. It's always nice to hear directly from the man himself. Now I just have to decide at which angle I should reprofile to As always, thoroughly impressed with the level of customer service I have received. Take care

KyleNalbach wrote:


I took mine down to 17° per side. It wasn't holding that edge quite as well as I wanted for the way I was using it (pretty much cutting anything in its path; hard, soft, gritty, whatever...) so I kept adding micro-bevels 1° higher until I finally settled at 20° per side. If I hand't been using it so hard, it probably would have been fine at the 17° angle.