Sharpie – what type of tip?

I use the chisel-shape.  You want the tip wide-enough to easily center on the cutting-edge. Let the knife cut into the tip of the marker as you run it along the whole blade . It will develop a slot that makes it even easier to index in the future, and guarantee both sides of the edge get painted in 1-pass.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Jonesthegas, dulledge

Jonesthegas wrote:

Got my Gen 3 Pro now and had a go last night. Great fun! I have a USB microscope. I used the Sharpie as above. I set an angle I thought appropriate to the knife and got the sharpie off right to the edge. Then I wondered if I had to big an angle and was creating a microbevel? So I went the other way until I didn’t quite take the sharpie to the edge. Then worked the other way until I just got it off to the edge. Is that what I should be doing? I then recorded the angle with the cube. I have only the supplied stones at present. Diamond 1500 arriving in a couple of weeks and I have the 6 micron diamond tape lined up. Question is, with good technique, how sharp can you get a decent kitchen knife with the 1000 grit diamond plate? Another question, does the advanced alignment guide fit the Gen 3 pro vice? It didn’t seem to on mine unless I’m doing something wrong? Martin

I’m assuming that you are intending to match the bevel angle already on the knife rather than re-profiling the bevel. It sounds like you are doing it correctly. If the angle is matched, you should be able to color in the bevel with the sharpie and then cleanly remove all of the sharpie with a few passes using the 1000 grit plates. If the angle is too acute, you will see sharpie remaining at the edge of the bevel nearest the cutting edge. If the angle is too obtuse, you will have remaining sharpie at the edge nearest the primary grind of the knife.

The advanced alignment guide doesn’t neatly lay flush on my clamp either. I hold it in place with the depth key while I’m reading it so that it doesn’t move. I do wish that the team at WE had made it fit more elegantly, but it certainly accomplishes the job and it doesn’t cost much. I use mine once a week for mounting my main chef knife and it does an excellent job. I always use the sharpie method to check if it is positioned correctly and I have never had to make an adjustment. I love it.

How sharp is a difficult question to answer because most people don’t have an empirical method to test sharpness. That said, the edge that can be produced by the WE 1000 grit plates should easily slice paper, shave hair well (but not with as much ease as a more refined edge), and will provide a very enjoyable cutting experience for the majority of kitchen tasks. If you’ve been using a mass produced knife, I would expect this to be a significant improvement over the factory edge. I wouldn’t expect a knife with a 1000 grit edge to be very good at the gimmick of cutting tomato slices with one hand, but it will undoubtedly cut a tomato cleanly and smoothly under actual usage. I usually finish my kitchen knives on the 6 micron film after the 1500 grit diamond plate (simply because I can) and the edge is really nice.

Make sure to practice sharpening on knives you don’t care about before going for your good knives. The diamond plates will need time to break in (about 7-10 sharpenings based on my experience) and it helps a lot to get a feel for the ergonomics of the WE sharpening process.

3 users thanked author for this post.

sksharp, Jonesthegas, Marc H

Martin, keep at it, work on refining a technique that gives you the results your looking for. The stones are still new, they’ll improve more with continued use.  Concentrate on keeping the stone flat against the entire bevel, top to bottom, the entire range of motion of the stone as you move through your strokes, (no matter whether your stroke is scrubbing, edge leading edge trailing or horizontal).  The edge I referred to as “scary sharp” was a resharpen job so in essence I was just refining an established bevel.

When I first started sharpening with the WE I thought there were absolute rules; right and wrong.  Now I know it’s a process.  It’s not all black and white.  It’s also subjective and requires your judgement call.  Sharp is sharp but how sharp sharp is a matter of opinion and subjectiveness.  Yes there are scientific and mechanical tests for sharpness but I assume your not doing that.

Flexible fileting knives are tricky.  Yes clamping it closer to the tip is a good option.  It certainly will lessen the flex holding it closer to the end.  I really believe you can’t do anything wrong as long as what you do allows you to center your metal removal continually at the same place as you work up and down the blade, from heel to tip.  That is very important.

Once I raise a burr I know I have removed enough metal that my sharpening efforts have reached the apex or the cutting edge of the blade.  As long as future efforts continue to work on that same place on the knife, over and over, then raising a burr in my opinion is removing unnecessary metal.  Once I have a burr and remove it by using alternating bilateral strokes to even out the bevel on both sides I feel the edge for sharpness.  If I have a sharp feel, with each stone in my progression I double check my work by feeling for the sharpness which should improve as the grits get finer.  You also can double check your efforts visually if you have a tool like a loop or microscope.

Hope some of this is helpful.

Marc

2 users thanked author for this post.

Jonesthegas, sksharp

Chisel every time!