Steel Specs and Use Spreadsheet?

Drew let me help complicate this idea and introduce a reality check.  The settings I determined and recorded to achieve a sharp edge at a particular setting may not be the same settings another Wicked Edge user with the same model knife determines and uses to accomplish the same measured bevel angle.  The positions and angle I determine or create are relative positions and relative angles to my particular Wicked Edge, setup.  Nuances and subtle orientation and positional clamping differences may result in the same bevel angle with a slightly different profile.  It’s not black and white.  Particularly with hand crafted knives.  No two are exactly alike.   Each of us may employ different determining positional factors resulting in a slightly different knife edge.   The repeatability aspect of the wicked edge is relative and really only holds for the one system with the same users.  When you start introducing variables, different same model knives, different WE users and different same model Systems, then the mounting and positional specs are only approximations and suggestions.  These are still hand operated knife sharpeners with the human factor.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by Marc H.

I checked the list for a number of knives when I began my foray into WEPS sharpening.  It really didn’t offer the technical answers for the questions I had.  It listed the knife, the type of steel and the angles and abrasives used.  It didn’t tell you if that sharpening provided the performance level needed.  Did it dull easily?  Did it tend to chip?  What was it used for?  It really just listed an angle and polish level which pleased the fellow doing the sharpening.

Generally, hard edges will hold an edge longer, but tend to chip more easily, so they prefer a more obtuse angle.  However, if they will see only light use, they can benefit from a more acute angle.  Knives which are less hard will tend to dull and dent easily, but are more easily sharpened.  Here too, acute angles will be deformed more easily.

Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.  Unless I recognize a need to do otherwise, I use 20 dps as a default.

I’ve used micro-bevels to install a toothier edge and to reduce the likelihood of chipping/denting in knives used for general work, but the more I see knives returned for subsequent sharpening, the less I am convinced of the efficacy of the micro-bevel in resisting edge damage.  Maybe a double-bevel would be more appropriate.