Newbie with Wicked Edge questions.

Ohhh boy. Yup. All kinda of questions pop up..the more you use the WE you will start to have other questions.
I highly suggest checking all of this out:
http://www.wickededgeusa.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
And take the time and watch some utube vids. it is worth the time for sure. I really like this one from Josh..

There are more here:
https://knife.wickededgeusa.com/forum/getting-started/13191-the-video-thread?limitstart=0&start=10

Welcome to the forum! Glad to hear you enjoy your WEPS.

The others have already pointed you to some reading stuff for beginners. Here’s some more, also on stropping: Wiki , FAQ[/url].

A couple of points that might help you further:

• – You don’t have to raise a burr with every stone, but you do have to make sure you wipe out the scratches of the previous stone with every stone. I’m not sure 40 passes is enough, it depends on your technique and the steel. A cheap loupe can help you here.
• – I’m not sure which scale your sandpaper uses, but there are many different scales for grit sizes. Recently a forum member posted a comparison chart . Where I live the FEPA-P scale is used for sandpaper. P2000 and P2500 are in coarseness in between the WEPS 800 and 1000 grit diamond stones. So you might not improve your edges using them after the ceramic stones.
• – Strops abrade differently than stones do. In general you could say that leather strops with compound of a particular grit size are less agressive than diamond stones with the same grit size. This is because, among others, the diamonds get hidden in the leather in part

Good luck with your next steps down the rabbit hole! Please let us know how you fare and please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any more questions.

… For some reason, it would appear that the higher grit stones i use, the less sharp my edge is. I know that a toothy edge feels sticky and i can achieve that up to about 600-800 grit. But when i use the ceramics and strops i seem to lose my edge instead of obtaining the really fine sharp edge.. hvychev77

I suspect, as does Cliff, that you’re smooshing your edge by raising the strop angle, instead of lowering it. That said, consider the following:

If you have a micrometer or caliper, you might check your stone thicknesses. As you go up in grit, the should be a slight reduction in the stone thickness. By this I mean the distance between the faces of each block. Each progression up in grit should theoretically reduce your grind angle by maybe a tenth of a degree. This should ensure that the next stone will in fact touch the apex. A thicker stone would rest on the bevel at a higher angle an therefor contribute little to the sharpness of the edge. I think I once calculated that a change in thickness of 0.010″ would change the angle by 0.1 degree.

Of course, thicker stones would not make an edge less sharp, so maybe you have another problem. I don’t see it in your descriptions, but I’m inferring that you’re using the 800/1000 stones in your progression. It may be possible that this set of stones are not completely broken in yet. I recently experienced a set of new 800/1000s which were difficult to break-in and I’m wondering if you have the same problem.

Not knowing what is happening at a microscopic level is the greatest deterrent of sharpening success. ” I can’t see why I’m not getting this bugger sharp!” There are some very good loupes out there for very little money. You just have to find one that works for you. I recently bought one of the 60X LED-lit currency loupes for about $3, with free shipping from China thru Amazon. Not bad, and probably more like 30X than 60, but it requires you to get your eyeball really close to the edge,. I use a hand-held USB microscope with a 21″ widescreen display. It’s wonderful. If you have an old laptop laying around, you can get a USB camera for less than $100 US. My Celestron focuses at 58X and 160X while resting the camera face on the edge I am inspecting. And I can inspect the whole length in seconds, after every few strokes, if that’s what the job calls for.

And for Cliff, I add a little note for our personal bonding moment. The “c” in tcmeyer stands for Clifford. Named after my mother’s baby brother, who was off to Europe fighting the Germans at the time. He survived the war, but was lost to cigarettes way too young at age 61. A gentle man among gentlemen. They really were the greatest generation.