Convex edge with a Wicked Edge Gen 3 Pro
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I’ve posted a video on YouTube, describing my method for producing a convex edge on the Gen 3 Pro:
I don’t usually do convex edges, but I’ve had this idea of using the angle adjustment capabilities of Wicked Edge’s Gen 3 Pro rig. After a first quick experiment, I was not real excited about it, but I’ve done a few more now and it’s working out really good.
What’s different? I create multiple facets by moving the adjustment handle, by half degree (indicated) increments. I do this by stepping each stone through the detents (facets) before resetting to the highest (apex) angle for the next higher grit.
In this video, you see a D2 blade on a skinner I made in about 1983. It had the widest bevel faces of the knives in my collection and I wanted to see the effect clearly. My Gen 3 Pro angle settings are altered by the fact that I have raised the clamp system by ¾”. In this case, I started at a setting of 23 degrees. Using my modified micro-adjusts, I set the angle to a true 18 degrees per side with my DXL360 angle-cube. After finishing the bevel with that stone, I’d step down one detent (about 0.4 dps real on my rig), then work that next bevel for the number of strokes it took to produce the prior facet, making sure not to reach the apex,.
In the case of this knife, I used my 400 and 600 grit stones to establish the normal apexing bevels. When the apex was clearly defined, I switched to 800 grit and took the number of strokes I normally would have taken (20 in the case of this 4” blade) to remove 600-grit scratches (or most of them, as I wasn’t trying to achieve a mirror polish). I then moved the one detent notch down and took the same number of strokes at that angle, then moved another detent notch, took the same number of strokes, and so on, until I had moved from the 23-dps notch down to the 20-dps notch – producing seven facets.
I then went back to the 23-degree detent, and followed that sequence with each of the 1000-grit, 1500-grit, 6 micron DLF and 3 micron DLF steps.
Clearly, a leather strop would have blended the facet together, to a point where you wouldn’t see the individual facets, but this is what I wanted you to see – multiple facets. You’ll also see that I reversed direction with each bevel step so the bevels could be seen more clearly.
While this seems kind of convoluted at first, it works out to be very sequential and easy to follow. It took me a little longer that twice my normal sharpening time for a blade of this size and type. Judge for your selves.
I have another video of a convex edge I put on a Victorinox 8” chef’s knife. I’ll post it in the next day or so. For those who are interested in the actual scale of the images in this video, the image is very close to 8mm wide.
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I just finished re-sharpening the Victorinox, using the Gen 3 Pro to achieve a convex edge. This time I tried to speed things up by doing one side at a time for each grit. Is that clear? I thought it worked out really well and will stick with that sequence in the future.
Where I had to do about twenty normal strokes with each step on the wide bevel blade above, the Victorinox has a very thin blade, so I used four very light strokes with each step.
Here’s the YouTube video:
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