Beautiful Minor bevel.
- This topic has 15 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 11/17/2016 at 1:33 am by
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Gave my hard working Spyderco Endura 4 a make over tonight on the WEP.
Polished up the main 15 dps bevel to a mirror polish and then dressed up micro bevel at 20 dps with a 800 grit stones.
Wow what and edge. Shaving sharp and will last for ages.
Hope you enjoy the photos.
Steve
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A mirror main bevel serves to reduce friction when cutting through many different materials, but it’s also aided by the more acute main bevel angle associated with microbevel edges. In real life it probably wouldn’t make much of a difference to a person who is not knowledgeable in these matters, but for us zealots it’s a real thing. Lower friction doesn’t just ease the way; it extends the life of the edge by reducing the amount of force we need to apply.
An even more important factor in reducing friction lies in the thickness of the blade at the shoulders of the main bevel. So for us “zealots” who seek to produce the sharpest possible edge, we look for the best possible angle, the degree of polish and blade thickness at the shoulders of the main bevel. Of course, blade thickness is something we normally cannot change, but when we can, the result is a “whoo-hoo!” experience.
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Is there really a noticeable friction on 800 grit main edge that humans can feel the difference?
When we sharpened the competition choppers and applied some metrics to the different edges we tested, we found a significant improvement in cutting performance once we polished the bevels, specifically when we were chopping through the dowel. Initially the chopper wouldn’t go all the way through the dowel. The shoulders were still rough ground from the original grinding and we observed material from the dowel collecting in the grooves, which led us to polish the shoulders. Once we did, we were able to successfully chop the 1″ dowel cleanly.
-Clay
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The shoulders were still rough ground from the original grinding and we observed material from the dowel collecting in the grooves
Do you remember the original grinding grit number?
I don’t know what it was because we just received it from the customer as-is. I’d guess that it was around 400#. IIRC, we tried a medium polish and a high polish and settled on the high polish because it performed better.
-Clay
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I guess I didn’t remember correctly 🙂 Here’s a link to the write-up we did for the chopper tests: https://knife.wickededgeusa.com/forums/topic/competition-chopper/
-Clay
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I am thinking how to justify lapping films for my 15 years old Henckels kitchen knives set. Is 800-1000 grit good enough for main bevel? Am I just going closer to OCD territory?
If your Henckels are like mine, they’re quite thin at the shoulders and wouldn’t gain much from polishing. I do mine with 800 or 1000, depending on the mood I’m in. But sometimes polishing is just to make you feel good.
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If your Henckels are like mine, they’re quite thin at the shoulders and wouldn’t gain much from polishing. I do mine with 800 or 1000, depending on the mood I’m in. But sometimes polishing is just to make you feel good.
Thank you very much! Tom, you are my OCD doctor. I am so relieved.
It is very good to know where I can safely draw a line and don’t go mirror crazy with no practical benefit.
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