Critique please on how to remove these fine scratches?

[Expidia]

True, the pics are from my wifi microscope and just about visble to the naked eye but as I progress on my journey towards being a “craftsman” . . .

These first few knifes have been taken up through the 5/3.5 emulsion on strops

.1  Could be all for naught as since I’m only starting my 5th knife, I’m sure the stones are simply not broken in yet and can maybe leave those verticle scratch marks (I dunno).

.2  If I were to back up to certain grits (and these marks were not coming from stones too new) how far back would I need to go to remove scratches of this depth.

. 3  These are the 14 degree wusthof kitchen knife set as I’ve mentioned in another thread I and I had to start with the 50 grit with maybe 50-100 strokes on the first side just using the right sided stone to raise a decent burr.  So I’m wondering if the 50/80 grit stones left so deep scratches that I did not use the next stones in progression long enough to remove the orginal deep scratches a 50 grit would put into the blade?

.4 The scratch patterns appear (to my untrained eye) to be very consistent.  So I doubt that its contamination.  They seem to all appear to be the exact pattern as my stone motion strokes.  I know I could reverse my strokes but I’m thinking they are either from too new stones, not staying long enough with each stone set to remove the last stone’s scratch pattern or I have to drop back to say the 1,000 grit and start my progression again.

Or should I be spending more time with each stone set and those scratches are me not removing enough of the deeper scratches from the previous stones.

If it was contamination, the scratches I would think would be more random, these appear to be from stone strokes as the are orderly.

I know it takes a lot of knives 15 plus just to start getting decent edges and many of you have been using the system 2 plus years but the mid priced folding knives that someday I plan on removing their factory edges and each are premium steels S90V, S30V and CPM 110, so I want to solve these fine scratch issues as Im progressing, before I get near these harder steels.

• the $99 wifi microscope is still working well for me.  The attached pics are using it.  (ignore the water spots on the edge of the first pic).

 

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• This topic was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by Expidia.

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wickededge

[Expidia]

Similar scratches from a small buck folder I just did today.   Found on the ground 30 years ago!  But scratches seem to be getting better, so my answer just may be the stones breaking in showing improvement with each knife sharpening session.

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wickededge

[Expidia]

I’ve PM’d Josh form “Razor Edge Knives” to look at this thread.  He seems the most qualified to answer this type of question (check his vids on youtube he is a true craftsman with the WE).

Too bad this is such a quiet forum with only a few participating from time to time.  I was suprised to see this solution in the mod thread when I posted a thread regarding protecting the 2016 gen III vice with blue painters tape.  I never saw this mod section before.  This guy did a great job making aluminum shields for the vice.  Too bad WE doesn’t offer say optional plastic ones for the 2016 vice rather than having to upgrade as I just did.  I could have knocked those out of aluminum myself if someone had pointed me to the thread.  One would think with the enthusiasm that the WE generates for us hobbists there would be more of us participating in this forum.  To help others (thats what we do here) I’ll post back here after Josh responds. I know it might take him awhile to respond.  I know over at bladesforum.com he’s frequently commenting in various threads over there and he did say he’s been extremely busy of late.  That’s great, I’m glad he’s busy with sharpening work.

Check out this guys solution I came across here to protecting the cam from debris: 

New Guy from NY with a Gen 3 Cover Mod

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by Expidia.

[Mikedoh]

Some guesses as I don’t go for mirror. Stones aren’t broken in and some proud diamonds did it. Contamination from previous stone debris. Not enough strokes with next finer stone when starting the progression. That’s where  magnifified viewing comes into play when going to finer grits.

A lot of the guys change direction of strokes (heal to tip, tip to heal idea) so they can tell the difference in scratch direction with stone changes. Again, using magnification, one can see which stone left the marks.

 

Hope that helps

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wickededge, SalisburySam, Expidia, Marc H

[Expidia]

Thanks for that reply.  I’ve seen the reversing direction between stones technique on youtube WE vids.  I forgot about reversing to make sure I stroke long enough with each grit to remove the last stones scratches.   The reversing will tell me that.  Good tip!  I think since I started with the 50 grit and the stones were newer it put deeper scratches in.  But those 50’s raise a burr real fast!   I have other knives to do, but I was waiting to make sure I was progressing in the right direction before I start with my Japanese Global knife set.  I was not happy with seeing so many scratch marks under the microscope after my 5th knife that I just did even though they were still hard to see with just the naked eye.

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wickededge

[Expidia]

Now on my 7th knife.  My first of my Japanese Global set.  A special thanks to Mikedon as he was correct in I was not staying with a stone set long enough to erase the scratch marks of the previous coarser stone set.

What I’ve learned after only 7 knives now from tips here (plus the WE vids made by WE and some other users) made a huge difference with tonights Global 8 inch large carving knife. . .

They were:  I found this Molybendum/Vanadium stainless steel to be extremely hard as compared to my Wusthof set that I started with.  After 45 minutes I could not raise a burr, not even close.  First off the Global site says their angles can be 10-15 degrees.  I used the marker and angle cube and figured this one to be 14 degrees.  So I went down to 12 degrees to re-profile it.  I found it was taking me 45 minutes with the 100 grit stone, because I had to remove a good amount of material from the previously rolled edge left from my chefs choice electric knife sharpener.  Also, I used the 50/80 grit stones on a few of my first knives which time wise takes the material off very quick, but at the expense of added time on the other end as it takes more time to remove the deep scratches the 50/80 grits puts into the blade as I progressed through the other stones..

I searched through some older technique posts here and found one that suggested if you use the normal motion of the system and only use the left side stone it will be very hard to raise a burr if at all because that sweeping action keeps take the burr off even though you are only on one side.  It suggested to use the scrubbing action that I’ve also watched in the vids, but forgot about.  So another 30 min of scrubbing (and medium to light pressure so as not put deep scratches in) . . . as soon as the excess metal wore down it started to flatten the entire bevel, then the stone started reaching the top (apex) edge and the wire started to hang over to the left side. Then I switched to the stone on the left side and the edge flopped over to the other side with only 15 minutes of scrubbing.  Still took me another 30 minutes to get that left edge excess metal off to a flatten the edge.

Then on the 200 grit I remembered what Mikedon suggested reversing the direction.  Doing a reverse direction was great because now I could easily see even with the naked eye the scratch marks from the 100 grit as they were mostly vertical. I used the 200’s until all the vertical scratches were gone.  Then when I switched to the 400’s I used the motion from front to heel until the 200 scratch marks were gone and so on down the line.  After I finshed with the 1500 grit the edge was already smok’in”sharp and very mirrory.  Used the 6, 3, 1 DLP and the 5/3.5 emulsions on the leather strops.  Can’t wait to see what I can turn out after I get another 7 knives done and stones get even smoother.  Not only could I shave with this blade now, I could use a safety razor and use this edge as my mirror 😜.

Check out how scratch free this last edge is.  I didn’t take it as a mirror shot as it’s too reflective to get the whole edge in.  But this is one smooth scratch free “Wicked Edge”.  I’d like to see it under a 10x loupe.

Thanks for all the help.

 

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