Need some advice using the Sharpmaker

[Night Owl]

I received my new Sharpmaker and a set of diamond rods a couple of days ago. I watched the instructional CD 3 times before I started. I’ve used a similar system with ceramic rods years ago, so I was familiar with using the V-rod system.

I recently bought a new knife and it didn’t have much of an edge. I expected it to take a little extra time, but ‘extra time’ has turned into ‘very long’ time.

I started with the diamond rods. I use little pressure and allow the rods to do the work. I’ve made very little progress. I have used the diamond rods to stroke the new blade with at least 500 strokes. I would call the progress of establishing an edge to be insignificant, at best.

After every 20-30 strokes, I wipe off the fine metal dust from the blade, so I know I’m making some progress. I run the blade across a thumb nail and I can feel the edge grabbing the nail. However, the edge is still so dull that I can run the blade across my finger and there is no threat of cutting myself. After several hours of elapsed time, the blade still won’t cut paper.

My question is, is this amount of time and 500+ stokes normal for trying to put an edge on a new blade that had almost no edge when I received it? If this is normal, then I have the patience to keep at it until it works. However, the impression I got from the CD was that the edge should start to make good progress with a lot less time than I have spent so far. I realize Spyderco is using the CD to sell more product, so maybe they didn’t want to acknowledge how slow the progress is in real life.

Can anyone offer some words of encouragement or advice on my slow progress? I’m expecting the diamond rods to show some progress before I switch to the medium grey rods, but maybe I’m expecting too much from the diamond rods.

I'm frustrated!

Thanks in advance,

Owl