New to WE and need a little guidance on Chicago Cutlery Steak Knives and set up

I kinda doubt that Chicago Cutlery would sharpen any of their knives at less than about 17 degrees.  At least not on purpose.  They use stainless which is probably 440C or 420C or something similar.  When sharpening these stainless steels, you get the impression that they’re really tough, as the stones feel like they’re bouncing right off.  At very light pressure, you’ll wonder if you’re cutting any steel at all – I’ve never had the patience to work at very light pressures.  Once they’re cleanly profiled, with nice bevels, they seem to sharpen very nicely.

Of course, if you had a six-knife set of steak knives and they all had the same bevel angle, I’d have to accept that it was likely intentional.  That said, I’d still sharpen them to about 20 dps (degrees per side).  (I have a set of Wuestoffs and I sharpen them to 20 dps.)  They’ll hold an edge longer and be easier to re-sharpen as there will be less steel to remove when you find chips and dings along the edge.  That’s one of the drawbacks of very low angles.  They’re really sharp, but they will suufer more serious edge damage in normal use and you have to remove a lot more steel to reestablish a new apex below a dent or chip which is only 0.01 inches deep – about 0.0023 inches deep, times all the area of the bevels.  Or you can pretend it’s a partially serrated knife. LOL

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Brewbear

My preference is to use whetstones (mounted on W.E. paddles) for any knives made from steels that are HRc 60 or harder.  That’s not to say you can’t use the diamond stones on some harder steels.  On some hard steels the diamonds may work. The issue is I found steels that I had edge failures using the diamond stones.  I don’t want to take that chance again trying to use diamond stones.  I have a complete set of whetstones.  I know I have been able to sharpen well any of these hard, brittle and chip prone steels, that I attempted.  I haven’t found any steels I couldn’t sharpen with the whetsones, yet.

The problem I found with some of these Japanese super hard steels was that I’d needed to work very hard, that is, use a lot of effort with the diamond stones.  Then after a long time and a lot of effort working up through the grits to the finer stones, the apex simply fell off.  It just was there one second and gone the next.  After reliving this experience a few more times, I tried it again with whetstones.  I was able to sharpen the same steel, quicker, with less effort and without edge failure.   I was able to sharpen that same knife to progressively finer grits then I had used when the edge failed and I never had the edge failure I experienced with the diamond stones, again, once I used the whetstones.  Also I was succesful at a more acute edge profile with whetstones then I had attempted with the diamond stones and failed.

It is quicker, easier and simpler to sharpen knives with the W.E. diamond stones.  I do use diamond stones whenever I know I can.  When I have no previous experience with a new steel that I’ve never sharpened before, I try my diamond stones first.  Now I can judge whether I should be using the whetstones by how coarse a diamond stone I need to use and how hard I’m needing to work to make use of that coarsest grit stone.

The W.E. ceramics are a finishing stone or an edge refining stone in the sharpening progression.  They are not used as edge profiling stones where we’re needing to remove steel.  Some users enjoy using the ceramics and achieve enhanced sharpeness and polished edges.  I prefer to just use the finer W.E diamond stones.  The 1500, 2200 and the 3000 grit followed with strops.

Bill, you’ll be able to sharpen your Miyabi Black on your W.E. with the proper medium, IMO, whetstones, when the time is right and you have the experience to do it.

Give time time.

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Brewbear

I wanted to agree with you about the 20 dps bevel. Unless otherwise specified by a customer, I do mine all at 20 with the exception on my Sandoku which is 10. I bought a Spyderco Gauntlet which includes a ceramic stick system fixed at 20 dps and my idea really words great. I sharpened all my kitchen knives at 20 and stopped at 1000 grit during Spring 2021. I keep the Gauntlet in the kitchen and have been honing the knives usually every weekend with really great results. So recently, I began noticing a slight degradation when cutting a tomato regardless of how many times I ran them across the sticks. Bare in mind, it’s been 18 months since I sharpened them on the WE. Took them to the bench and wow! They were in fantastic shape, clean, even diagonal scratches from one end to the other. When I rigged everything back up and made a couple of 20 degree scrubs, I created a little micro bevel on the blade apex the entire length of the knife making me think that I wasn’t holding it exactly perpendicular to the countertop when honing it on the sticks. Dropped down to 100 grit stones and progressed back through all the way to 1000 and I’m good for another 18 months. Y’all give it a try, keeps them nice and sharp without the WE, inclinometer, microscope, etc.