My second knife
- This topic has 5 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 10/24/2017 at 4:16 am by
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Ok, since getting my WEPS on Friday, I’ve done my second knife. I bought 12 Winco dinner knives for practice. I used the LAA because I nailed the top of the jaws with my first attempt. This knife was much better than the first, but I have a question. I reprofiled the edge to 20 degrees on each side. And I did alternating strokes until I got close to the apex, then I switched to one side at a time until I detected a burr. But on You-Tube I saw some use a scrubbing style of stroke when reprofiling. So I am wondering: which is better—a fire and aft stroke or the scrubbing stroke when reprofiling?
To be truthful, for me it’s the level of frustration I feel about the progress I’m making. The amount of metal removed is a function of the inches of abrasive passing over a given point along the edge, the coarseness of the grit and the pressure applied. Scrubbing strokes nearly double the inches of abrasive and so can increase the effective rate of metal removal. I try to avoid edge-trailing (upward) strokes when near the apex with a coarse grit, as it can tear off chunks of steel, leaving divots which are difficult to remove with finer grits. When you are well short of the apex, it’s a good way to make more progress. The difference between coarse and fine? I generally feel that 400 and up are less likely to tear chunks out of the edge, but new stones which are not well “broken-in” are more likely to do so.
TC is right on as far as I’m concerned. Remember that your stones are not yet broken in. When your stones are new there are diamonds that will be higher than some and create damage. When I started I lost a lot of diamonds off the courser grits very quickly and after 7 to 10 knives the stones really settled down and became more even. I use scrubbing strokes while profiling for the reason TC stated, it’s a lot quicker. Remember when using scrubbing strokes though you don’t need a lot of pressure. Don’t get in a hurry, I could take my own advise on that one. You can start practicing now on using a very light stoke on the way up(edge trailing) then slightly more pressure on the way down(edge leading) to minimize the damage in the profiling process when using the scrubbing strokes. If I start with the 100 grit, I don’t go all the way to the edge, I switch to the 200 grit, get close and then go to the 400 and raise a burr. After your stones break in better and better you can raise the burr at 200 if you wish without to much damage but with the 400’s even after they break in there is less damage and it goes quicker from that point on generally.
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Your stones are not broken in yet, so in that respect I agree with Tom. However, once they are broken in I personally also use the scrubbing motion a lot, also with the 100 grit stones and I have no problems with it. At least don’t use too much pressure until the stones are broken. There was a discussion on a similar subject on here recently and I think an edge-leading motion was a bit more popular.
Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge
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Welcome GeorgeH, I agree to an extent with all my WEPS Compadres. These are inexpensive knives you bought to learn on. So learn George. Take every bodies suggestions and warnings in and file them in the recesses of your brain and remember them. But there’s nothing like personal experience so go do it. Try different strokes and try different pressure. Try these things and learn. Use these same knives done with with different methods as a basis for comparison and learn your technique from them. As you’re doing it you’ll be breaking in your stones. Draw a burr with the different grit stones so you learn how to do it and learn how it feels. Employ different strokes like scrubbing, edge leading, (down and onto the edge), edge trailing (up, off and away from the edge), or heel to tip and tip to heel. Learn by your progress, both successes and errors and mistakes. You have enough inexpensive knives to learn with. We all use and have our own different techniques that share a similar basis and have some differences too. We’re all using a fixed clamped knife vice to apply a smooth bevel to both sides of the knife, at the same time, at a preset angle, using abrasive mediums mounted on handles. How we get to the end point is our technique we learned through experience. Please enjoy learning yours and feel free to ask your questions and experiment till you learn and develop your own technique.
I still try different things and learn new things that I incorporate into my sharpening technique all the time. Also I believe different shape and style knives and different steels may require different sharpening strategies and nuances to accomplish your sharpening goal. I still ask of my fellow forum participants their opinions form time to time. We’re here for you GeorgeH, enjoy your sharpening journey.
Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)
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