Another Crazy Joins The Forum

[Martin Singer]

I apologize for any misunderstandings. I too used to custom paint (had my own exotic and collectible car store for a few years). My experience is that over 1500 (not film) on clear coats eliminates the need for polishing compounds other than corn starch eliminating almost all the swirl marks.

But enough of cars (I never really get enough of them) and back to sharpening, the newest obsession. I tried 2 mil lapping film today (500cycles) after the rest of my stropping and it resulted in a better mirror finish but seems to have dulled the blade. I really want to avoid the cost and mess of the Choseras and Shaptons so I may have to find the budget for some ceramics as someone bought my Suehiro Rika today. I am pretty happy with the wet/dry papers though.

Thanks Phil, I appreciate your input.
Thank you,
Marty

[Phil Pasteur]

No misunderstanding… maybe a bit of different methodology on the paint.. I have some 10,000 grit polish 🙂

Just curious, how did you mount the lapping film?
I was thinking that if you used them on one of the stock stones, and did not reset the angle ..
well just the thickness of the film may have changed the angle enough that you never were working the edge of the edge. Not sure why it would have gotten duller, but maybe you were polishing the bevel only.

The 500 strokes per side with the 3 micron (is that what you meant by “mil” ?) lapping film would take a really long time to re-profile the bevel so that you would get to the edge, if the angle was changed (decreased in this case, by adding thickness to the stone).

Do you use an angle cube to set your angles, or some other device that can read angles to 0.1 degrees?
If not, perhaps what I am thinking might make some sense.

If using the stock angle settings, perhaps you might try increasing the angle by a degree and doing maybe 50 to 100 strokes per side. This would add a micro-bevel and make sure you are actually getting to the edge of the edge with your film. You might be happy with the result!

Phil

[Martin Singer]

No misunderstanding… maybe a bit of different methodology on the paint.. I have some 10,000 grit polish 🙂

Just curious, how did you mount the lapping film?
I was thinking that if you used them on one of the stock stones, and did not reset the angle ..
well just the thickness of the film may have changed the angle enough that you never were working the edge of the edge. Not sure why it would have gotten duller, but maybe you were polishing the bevel only.

The 500 strokes per side with the 3 micron (is that what you meant by “mil” ?) lapping film would take a really long time to re-profile the bevel so that you would get to the edge, if the angle was changed (decreased in this case, by adding thickness to the stone).

Do you use an angle cube to set your angles, or some other device that can read angles to 0.1 degrees?
If not, perhaps what I am thinking might make some sense.

If using the stock angle settings, perhaps you might try increasing the angle by a degree and doing maybe 50 to 100 strokes per side. This would add a micro-bevel and make sure you are actually getting to the edge of the edge with your film. You might be happy with the result!

Phil

You may have the answer to my delema..I put the film on the 1000 stones and didn’t recheck the angle cube. I’ll try your suggestion tomorrow, it sounds reasonable.

Marty,

[BassLake Dan]

In defense of the poor lapping films, that seem to be taking a licking here, I would like to point out that these products encompass a wide range of quality and cost. I feel it is unfair to just lump them all together in some sort of generic world.

body shop papers, a few cents a sq foot,
hardware store wet or dry silicon carbides, less than a $1 sq.ft.
mid grade wet or drys, less than $2 sq.ft.
high grade wet or dry polishing films, AlOx or Silicon Carbide $3 sq.ft. link[/url]
mid grade diamond films, $5 link[/url]
very high grade advanced abrasive films $10 sq.ft (diamond high spec) link
copper backed films $25 sq.ft (diamond)link

Most of the above can be had as PSA or not.

[Christopher Staples]

just make us some flat glass paddles to sell and let us crazies hunt down our own polish tape

I defiantly would rather spend $10 for a pile of 6000 grit throw away polish tape then having to by a few full stones to clean after each use

I just pulled of my 50 / 60 grit stones
( when I say pulled I mean used hammer / screw driver to force them off )
and swapped them over for a few glass tops for my edge pro polish tape to go onto
glass shop only charged $1 a stone for custom cut glass

actually went the stingy way and just cut the polish tape down the middle and mounted them on the sides closest to the butt so the bare glass leads halfway before it hits the tape but does not seem to effect it

now about to order some full size 3m sheets 215.9mm x 279mm
( some being 50x minimum order per grit )

Grit Micron Color
400 30µ Green
600 15µ Gray
1200 9µ Blue
4000 3µ Pink
6000 2µ Aqua
8000 1µ Light-Green

[Martin Singer]

Dan and Christopher have made excellent suggestions. I will make the angle adjustment mods/refinements and remove the arm pivot slop today. If I don’t have everything needed in my shop then on to the hardware store.

Has anyone tried Lexan Plexiglass for the film? I have a pretty good supply here.

Thanks for all the help. I hope to be able to recripricate soon.

[BassLake Dan]

..
glass shop only charged $1 a stone for custom cut glass

..

well, of course! that’s the way to go,, Clay sells the Blank Paddles, I use my edge hot glue technique to fasten the glass shop plates. Besides mounting PSA or Spray 77 films, here is another tick you can try with them: 1.) apply (or not apply, your choice here) a small amount of sub micron pastes to the glass and use just a very few back strop finishing strops to straighten your edge. Works great!

[Phil Pasteur]

Just a thought. If you can get the glass blanks then I believe you can get the stone holders from WEPS with the same 3M double stick tape mounted to them that is used for the WEPS stock stones. I believe this is what is done for mounting the Shapton stones. This would keep the thickness closer to the other stock stones and eliminate the hot glue. The blank handles are relatively cheap.

Phil

[Martin Singer]

Dan and Christopher have made excellent suggestions. I will make the angle adjustment mods/refinements and remove the arm pivot slop today. If I don’t have everything needed in my shop then on to the hardware store.

Has anyone tried Lexan Plexiglass for the film? I have a pretty good supply here.

Thanks for all the help. I hope to be able to recripricate soon.

I’ve had the unit for aweek now but spent the weekend trying to locate the shim stock. Apparently when Kay said she would have the arms updated when my device arrived, she didn’t pass that info to Kyle who told me the arms were perfect. I know they are very busy but this is still disappointing.

The brass shims are in place now..still have to fix the arm play. I am soo ready to by the ball joint arms! I hope to get Subway straws today or tomorrow. I also replaced the angle thumbscrews with flattened screws for infinite adjudtment.

Despite my startup issues I am pleased with the WE.

Next, I’ll cut some glass for paper and lapping film as using the lapping film polishes the edge but still dulls.

This forum is a wealth of useful information. Thank you all for for sharing your experience.

[Christopher Staples]

..
glass shop only charged $1 a stone for custom cut glass

..

well, of course! that’s the way to go,, Clay sells the Blank Paddles, I use my edge hot glue technique to fasten the glass shop plates. Besides mounting PSA or Spray 77 films, here is another tick you can try with them: 1.) apply (or not apply, your choice here) a small amount of sub micron pastes to the glass and use just a very few back strop finishing strops to straighten your edge. Works great!

[/quote]

well after waiting a few months for my WEPS I wasn’t going to take my chance with a knife sharpening comp @ work with $1k up for grabs

winner announced next month

ps , pretty sure my email to wicked edge asking how fast they could ship me a blank paddle has yet to still even be answered .. so glad I opted for demolishing my rough paddles

*edit*

well the winners were announced today out of 160 entries

after spending around 6 hrs per knife

I took home the 1st prize for boning knife but did not even make the top 5 list for skinning knife
which has got me annoyed that the WEPS could not go as low as I wanted as the knife came of my edge pro as the sharpest skinning knife I had ever done
but I wanted perfect mirror finish that only the WEPS was able to do

just thought I would follow up on this

I won 1x knife sharpness test for boning knife

I made my first angle @ 6 deg using edge pro
( knife was pretty rubbish I could see it falling apart at this angle assuming the others lost by having angle to low )

then applied my primary edge using WEPS which was anywhere between 15 ~ 18 deg as different stones / material seemed to touch either the back or front of the edge so I had to keep changing the Angles so the edge was polished
went to 3.5 microns paste on glass with bare leather lightly touching it up before removing from vice

I lost the skinning knife assuming because everyone used extremely low angles as they were all hollow ground apart from mine

I used the same double edge method

@ 6 deg in the edge pro it even held the edge nicely and was extremely hair withering but decided to apply the final edge in the WEPS ( bad decision as the WEPS can only go to 15 deg ) and the comp was for least resistance and not durability

I am still wanting data and pretty annoyed that the skinning knife did not even place in the top 5 with mirror finishes

[Author]

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