blade touch ups?

[Steve]

Ok guys,

Ive had my WEP fo a couple of weeks now, im getting awesome results.

I sharpened my spyderco endura 4 at 20 angle (40 inclusive) sharpened to 1000 grit and then stropped with the 3.5 microns at 18 degrees each side to maintain a very good toothy edge.

Question is, as ibhave used the knife loads, its still shap btw, how would tou recommend a toutch up, should i just strop it to bring it back, if so what angle should i strop at, 18 or 20 degrees?

Or should I start on the courser stones?

Look forward to tour reply.

Cheers guys

Steve

[Geocyclist]

It depends on how dull it gets. I would start with your highest grit stone used to sharpen it or even strops. If that is not enough then start backing down to a lower grit.

The question about strop angle. I would use the same angle you used before (assuming it worked). I record this in my database. If you use heavy pressure stropping you will want 1-2 degrees less, if light pressure you can use the same angle.

I usually tough up with 1000 diamonds or ceramics. Just depends how dull it is. I have had some with a minor damage to the edge I had to go back to 400 or 600 to work the damage out.

Also see THIS post.

[Steve]

Ok thanks for that.

Ok, so its still slaching phone book paper and shaving arm hair etc. Ive noticed the phone book paper id just started to be a little snaggy, as you would expect as the blade is used. Is it worth doing a minor touch up with the strops just to make it awesomely sharp again with very little maintance or should i just leave it and use it more and let it get more duller.

Im just experimenting really guys, trying to find out if little and offten little touch ups with strops is bettrr then letting the blade get completly dull and then requiring a total going over?

What you thought guys?

Steve.

[Geocyclist]

That is up to you. Depends on your tolerance for dullness and how much time you have.

I can say from experience that it only takes a tiny defect to snag phone book paper and they are easy to get with EDC use. The rest of the blade is still super sharp, just the one little place will snag.

What I do: I rarely put the knife back in the WEPS to just strop. I will drop back to 1000 diamonds or ceramics for touch ups, then strop. Or I will just hand strop if I think the damage is minimal and stropping can bring it back. I don’t get WE strop quality with hand stropping, but I can pull back a slightly rolled/deformed edge.

I also have a lot of knives, so if an edge on one goes out unexpectedly I just grab another one.

[tcmeyer]

I will strongly second Geo’s recommendations. I too, have many small folders and when one loses its sparkle, I pick up another, knowing that one day soon I’ll have a batch to run through.

However, Geo’s also dead-on in saying that a single microscopic nick or ding will snag on newsprint, while the rest of the blade may be not just usable, but actually very sharp. If you take a knife out of service to stone out the first nick or two, you’ll be removing a lot of steel unnecessarily – shortening the life of the blade. If the blade is usable, use it.

This all points to a need for a handheld microscope. It lets you examine your edge so you can make an intelligent decision; whether sharpening is necessary and if so, what grit to start with, based on what sort of damage has been done. Best tool on my bench, bar none. If you have an old laptop laying about, less than $100.

[Geocyclist]

It depends some on the steel you have too. You can definitely try stropping for small nicks and see how it does. Good point to avoid over sharpening.

I think 20 dps on an Endura is plenty conservative. Not to get off topic, but also consider if you dull or nick too frequently for your taste your angle may be too acute for your steel and/or usage. I started off some S30V at 15 dps and the steel couldn’t handle it for my use. I dropped down to 17.5 and that helped noticeably. I have a few knives that get most of the carry time and have been back in the WEPS more than others so I am starting to learn what angle works best for different steel and different cutting tasks.

[Author]

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