Butchered It – Your Advice? (with pix)

[45ACP]

I’m a newb at knife sharpening and it shows.  I butchered my Benchmade Griptilian.  I cut into the shoulder (right side shows more) and I have an inconsistent edge thickness from front to back.

So what did I do wrong?  I assume the knife was too far forward in the vice?  How do I correctly adjust for this?

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[cbwx34]

I wouldn’t call it “butchered”, and I think you answered your own question that it might have been set too far forward… but here’s a page that might help…

Finding the Sweet Spot – Positioning Your Knife from Front to Back

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45ACP, wickededge

[45ACP]

Thanks.  I’m printing that diagram out and taping it to my workstation.

[developer (ChrisB)]

45ACP wrote:

Thanks. I’m printing that diagram out and taping it to my workstation.

Really Great

Working to make knife.wickededgeusa.com a great forum!

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45ACP

[Josh]

Yep after you get it positioned correctly you will be all set!

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45ACP

[45ACP]

I’m trying to correct my mistakes and perfect my positioning.  Bear with me if this gets long.  I shot a bunch of pix and tried to document my progress.  Let me know if I’m going about this the right way.

I felt I was getting close with the blade positioned at “A & 3/4” and the angle set to 16.05 degrees.
Marker at the edge tells me the angle is too shallow and marker at the tip says the blade is too far back in the vise.  ….so it’s got to move forward and out.

Next I moved the tip forward to the “B” position and set my angle to 16.4 degrees.  Despite the lousy photography, there’s still marker at the tip and the angle is still too shallow.

Now I’m still positioned at the “B” market but I’ve moved my angle outward to 16.95 degrees.
I’m getting the marker removed all the way to the tip.  I don’t feel really confident with this as the heel looks off now and I’m not getting a lot of marker off at the tip.

Do I stick with this or tweak it some more?  

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[cbwx34]

This is my opinion… feel free to ignore…

I think you’re trying too hard to “dial in” a perfect fit.  I’d work in no less than 1 deg. increments.  I also suggest only changing one setting at a time if you’re having a particular issue.  So, first, go back to your first post.  What were the settings there?  If, for example it was 16 deg. and the tip was at ‘C’, and you found the bevel too wide at the tip, then bring the tip closer.  If the angle doesn’t match, or isn’t what you want, then make an angle change.  Trying to make two changes at once makes it harder to figure out what’s wrong.

From your pictures, it looks like 17 deg. with the tip at ‘B’, would give you the edge you’re looking for… it appears to match the bevel, (maybe favoring the edge), and isn’t as wide at the tip.  I would start there and sharpen the knife… in other words, don’t try and “grind out” the wider bevel.  Mark the edge with a Sharpie, and if you don’t see any major areas that look wrong, start around 200g, and go through a sharpening session.  You should end up with a great edge.  (Obviously, I’m not holding the knife, so if something doesn’t look right at these settings, adjust accordingly).

Hope that helps!

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45ACP

[45ACP]

Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it.

Yeah, I am trying to dial in the perfect fit.  The WE system lets you get all OCD like that.

I remember asking the guys at BladeOps for their recommendation on sharpening systems.  They said I should only buy the WE if I was willing to put in the time to REALLY LEARN the system.  Once I got over the learning curve, I could create awesome edges.  …but I was going to have to work at it.  If I just wanted a sharp, usable edge there were easy, less expensive ways to get one.  I resigned myself to putting in the time to do it right.
….which is really long winded way of saying that I agree with you cbwx34.  I am trying really hard to achieve perfection.

I’ve watched a BUNCH of YouTube videos of guys showing mirror finished, hair splitting edges on their blades.  I want to be able to do that!

I left my Griptilian in the clamp overnight waiting to get some feedback on this post.  I’ll take a crack at it again this afternoon.

[cbwx34]

In my view, the first sharpening should be to ‘dial in the knife’ to the W.E., not the other way around.  You’ll find that most knives come with a number of issues… uneven grinds, sharpened at high angles, etc.  The ‘perfection’ comes in being able to set an angle, and then sharpening it, to a mirrored finish if desired, at the same exact angle, then coming back and touching it up at the same exact angle at a later date.

Here’s also a database with some examples of settings used on various knives, that may provide some guidance…

Knife database

[Mark76]

How did you make those links, Curtis?

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[cbwx34]

Mark76 wrote:

How did you make those links, Curtis?

Must be something in the software… I just pasted the link.  (I think the link has to be by itself, with a return line before and after it).

[Author]

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