Another Crazy Joins The Forum

[Martin Singer]

Got my WE on Monday and sharpened two thrift store knives yesterday with excellent results. This morning I got brave and decided to try my two CCK’s. The little knife took a great edge at 15 degrees with stropping. The 1303 cleaver did even better at 10.90 degrees. Tropped with 1200, 1500, 2000, 2500 and 3,000 grit wet paper, then leather, then phone book paper. This has the sharpest edge that ever drew my blood..painlessly.

Thanks for all your help with my confusion Kyle, Kay, Clay and Mark Richmond.

I’m having lots of fun now that my knives will no longer be “sharp challenged”. I’m happy to be another sharpening crazy!

So many knives, so little time.

_________________
mrsupport

In God We Trust All Others We Monitor
http://www.deterrentspecialty.com

[Leo James Mitchell]

Welcome aboard mate! Good to have you here Martin. The WEPS has become the premier knife sharpener IMHO and with all the new developments Clay is coming up with, it can only get better. You own one of the best sharpening rigs available and soon you will love it…enjoy! If you have any questions, just ask around here…someone will jump in and help.
Don’t forget as you sharpen your knives, to add them to our database so you can share your experiences with all. Help make it a great resource for all sharpeners.
See here http://www.wickededgeusa.com/index.php?option=com_joodb&view=catalog&Itemid=94

Best regards
Leo

[Dennis Hibar]

Welcome Marty. Love the tagline in your sig block. It used to be the unofficial motto used by many of us in the Army Security Agency way back when!

[Mark76]

Welcome, Martin! Good to have you here. I’m particularly happy with your sharpening results with the CCK cleaver. I just got it in and haven’t sharpened it yet. (It came very sharp, by the way.) But 10.90 degrees! That makes my day :cheer: .

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Thomas Meeks]

Good to have another newbie on here. Though it sounds like you are coming into this with some sharpening knowledge. I too just got my WE and have sharpened 4 knives now. While they are much sharper than they were, I’m not where I’d like to be.

If you (or others) don’t mind… Where are you purchasing these high-grit sandpapers?

My highest grit stone right now is the 1000 diamond plate that comes with the WEPS and then I have the strops, but I think the strops aren’t really able to do much with the 1000 grit scratches. So while I’m waiting on my ceramics, I may try some sandpaper if I can find it.

Thanks!

[Martin Singer]

Thanks, Stratcom at Offit Airforce Base also uses a similar motto. I thought this was more tasteful than Big Brother is Watching

[Martin Singer]

I’ve been trying to achieve great edges for several years. Lansky worked pretty good, then Chef’s Choice but it scratched the knives and recently I spent hundreds on Japanese water stones (they are listed for sale on Chef
knives to Go forum). For medical reasons I just can’t freehand sharpen. Finally I bought the wicked edge after a LOT of research. I felt “at home” the first time. This is one precision appliance. Today my Shun Premier chef knife felt dull compared to the cleaver.

Local auto parts stores and Woodcraft.com carry the paper to 2,000 grit. Meguiars (the car polish company) has the most consistant paper up to 3,000grit. I did a Google search for one of the Meguiars part numbers and found stocking dealers on the web.

I am always happy to help fellow crazies.

[Martin Singer]

meguiarsdirect.com but Google the part numbers for better prices

[Martin Singer]

Thank you I will update the database as I progress

[BassLake Dan]

…

Local auto parts stores and Woodcraft.com carry the paper to 2,000 grit. Meguiars (the car polish company) has the most consistant paper up to 3,000grit. I did a Google search for one of the Meguiars part numbers and found stocking dealers on the web…..

you might want to check out 3M films that are manufactured to very high tolerances for the micro chip / wafer industry.. see this thread link

and be sure to read this and follow links to toolsforwoodworking from there… as trying to buy direct from 3M is a known nightmare..

[Martin Singer]

I use the 3m films to polish fiber optic cable ends to appear scratch free at 100x. Kay told me that Clay doesn’t like lapping films. I don’t know why but he must have a reason. I have a good supply of the film but so far I am happy with the results of the less expensive Maguiars paper. Woodcraft stores and their website stocks the film for the general public but it is pretty pricey. The film for fiber ends is availabe from telecom and networking cable distributors.

[BassLake Dan]

I use the 3m films to polish fiber optic cable ends to appear scratch free at 100x. Kay told me that Clay doesn’t like lapping films. I don’t know why but he must have a reason. I have a good supply of the film but so far I am happy with the results of the less expensive Maguiars paper. Woodcraft stores and their website stocks the film for the general public but it is pretty pricey. The film for fiber ends is availabe from telecom and networking cable distributors.

so you have me a little confused here (not an unusual state for this old man :cheer: ) let’s take this in turn of each of your comments : so you would object to your edges scratch free at 100X? ..: Clays objection may be to the only know hazard of high spec films and that is the flex of the backing, but there is a lot of leather stropping going on here-abouts, so I hardly could take that point of argument seriously. : less expensive vrs more expensive, well the cheap papers you mention are intended for use in body shops to prep bondo slop for paint applications, typically they have huge gaps in the abrasive portion and large ares of blank paper, which is by design to allow for the intended use, if you are looking to precision sub micron polish blade edges then you have quite a different task at hand…

Just curious, have you tried any of your surplus optics paper on the WE? I am a hopeless experimenter and could hardly resist that temptation.. usually optical polishing is done with PDP nano-crystaline DP, a long long way from the silicon carbide in your body shop paper, so here’s your chance to try some really upper end particles on your blades. sounds like a chance too good to pass up

[Martin Singer]

I use the 3m films to polish fiber optic cable ends to appear scratch free at 100x. Kay told me that Clay doesn’t like lapping films. I don’t know why but he must have a reason. I have a good supply of the film but so far I am happy with the results of the less expensive Maguiars paper. Woodcraft stores and their website stocks the film for the general public but it is pretty pricey. The film for fiber ends is availabe from telecom and networking cable distributors.

so you have me a little confused here (not an unusual state for this old man :cheer: ) let’s take this in turn of each of your comments : so you would object to your edges scratch free at 100X? ..: Clays objection may be to the only know hazard of high spec films and that is the flex of the backing, but there is a lot of leather stropping going on here-abouts, so I hardly could take that point of argument seriously. : less expensive vrs more expensive, well the cheap papers you mention are intended for use in body shops to prep bondo slop for paint applications, typically they have huge gaps in the abrasive portion and large ares of blank paper, which is by design to allow for the intended use, if you are looking to precision sub micron polish blade edges then you have quite a different task at hand…

Just curious, have you tried any of your surplus optics paper on the WE? I am a hopeless experimenter and could hardly resist that temptation.. usually optical polishing is done with PDP nano-crystaline DP, a long long way from the silicon carbide in your body shop paper, so here’s your chance to try some really upper end particles on your blades. sounds like a chance too good to pass up[/quote]

Only have the WEPS for three days but will try my film to see the difference.

The higher grit papers are meant to be used on the painted surfaces, not bondo. They smoothe the orange peel and minimize the need for machine buffng.

Rather than stir contreversy I think I’ll go back to just monitoring these forums.

[wickededge]

I don’t have any problem with the films themselves, I’ve gotten great results using them – I’ve shied away from carrying them because (and I know this is silly from a business perspective since consumables are the retailers best friend) they wear out so quickly, so I’ve tried to find alternatives that have a much longer life. All in all, they are a great, low cost solution if you’re looking for high grits with a fairly firm substrate compared to the stropping option.

-Clay

[Phil Pasteur]

I just wanted to throw out my experience. As I have mentioned here before, when I first got my WEPS all of the finer stones were sold out or, as in the case of the Chosera and Shapton stones, not even available yet. I had to explore other avenues to get beyond the 600 diamonds. I bought sand paper up to 3000 grit FEPA (around 1200 grit ANSI) and lapping film from 3M from 12 microns down to 0.3 micron.

(As to the body shop reference, all of the info that I have seen says once you get to 1500 grit, you should move to polishing compounds with mechanical application. I kind of doubt that anyone is using 0.3 micron lapping film on paint. Yes I have done a bit of auto body painting)

Anyway, I could get some very nice edges with the different grades of abrasive paper. Mirror edges that cut like crazy. Unfortunately the papers, especially the lapping films, do not cut very fast and at most I could get two to three blades out of them before they were basically worn out.

Though relatively cheap initially, over time they would become real expensive when compared to … even the expensive ceramic or waterstones.

In short, though I like what they do (though you need far more strokes), I have to agree with Clay, the extra work involved and the short life, just does not make them practical, at least for me.

Phil

[Author]

Posts