Struggling with getting sharp edges

Welcome Todd, consistency is number one. Finger hold position and applied pressure on the stones are key. Constant flat continuous pressure between the flat sharpening stones and the bevels is required. I concentrate by using repetitive sharpening strokes to keep the applied edge work done evenly and balanced. I verify my sharpening angles are correctly set and precise each any every grit using with an angle cube. Lastly, I work with a USB microscroscope. With practice and experience this high resolution visual aid allows us to see exactly where and how well the sharpening strokes are applied. Last I’ll add, more sharpening strokes are usually better than just a few.

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Mike

There is a lot in your post. Providing your stones are all broke in, I find the higher(or finer) grits like 1500 take longer to break in than lower grit stones, diamond stones always have a “toothy” edge. The strops are a great way to get rid of the “tooth” on your edge. The edges I’ve made with expensive wet stones are the only ones that don’t need to be stropped, but stropping can help most any edge, if done correctly. There are also advantages in having a little tooth depending on use and knife material.

MarcH is correct, there is no substitute for consistency. Developing good habits in the beginning will save a lot of time trying to unlearn bad or sloppy habits later.

In order to minimize the # of strokes, it’s important to check angle with a cube with every grit change. With that being said the more stokes you use the less you have to check the angle but you wind up reseting the angle slightly with almost every grit demanding a lot of strokes. I check angle with cube on every grit change and I scrub the edge on every grit at the start. After profiling edge at the start, it only take a few passes to create a burr on both sides. then I do alternating strokes until satisfied. When you get to to fine grits you can check for a burr with toilet paper if you need to. Also I try to use diminishing pressure as I go through every grit change. Pressure can have a great effect on your edges. Every grit has limit to its results. While it is true a lot of stroke delivers generally better results, at some point you run into diminishing results. After a certain point, all the strokes in the world are not going to have a huge effect. You can, if you are like me, chase your tail looking for perfect edges. There is nothing wrong with that by the way but we all need to determine how much time you have or want to spend on each edge. Time is a strategy though if you have it. I’ve spent hours, hell 10, 12, 14 or more hours on 1 edge. After a few of those I determined, for myself, that much time on 1 knife wasn’t really making the edge a lot sharper but did make it prettier. My sharpest edges were not always my prettiest edges.

For “shaving” edge you have to use strops, in my humble opinion. Lapping films produce less teeth than diamond stones but still produce little teeth here and there but less than a stone. Stopping gets rid of teeth and can produce “toothless” edges. It has taken me much more time with the strops than with the stones to produce results I was looking for.

Keep in mind there is a lot more to sharpness than just the sharpener, stones, equipment ect. ect. The grind of the knife, thickness of blade, type of material are all factors in “sharpness” just name a few.

Hope some of the rant helps, To the pleasure,  sksharp

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Mike