Edge-On-Up Professional Edge Tester

[Marc H]

If you exercise proper technique with the Wicked Edge, with successively finer grits in your progression the burr will work itself out and go away.  A few edge leading strokes towards the end of your step wise progress with each grit will remove the burr.

The only time I can imagine needing a belt sander/grinder is when your actually grinding and shaping a blade or repairing a badly damaged steel blade, to get it into good enough shape to sharpen with your WEPS.

With the Wicked Edge I’m sharpening and refining edge profiles not shaping steel into knives.  My burrs work them selves out during the process while exercising good sharpening technique.  If you get a wire edge, different from a burr, this can easily be removed with a felt block or a piece of wood dowel dragged down the knife apex, followed by a quick touch up with the stones.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

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Expidia, Organic

[Expidia]

Marc, when you say “quick touch up” with the stones . . . Stones to me go through 1500.  Then for me, its on to the DLP’s 6, 3, 1 as those are the ones I have on hand.  Then I strop with the 0.5 and 0.25 diamond spray on my new Nano strops (luv these over leather, so far).

Freshening with the “stone’s “to me, would be dropping back to the 1500 to start freshening an edge.

As example, this AM I was checking my earlier work on my first kitchen knvives I did 4 month ago.  A few had an edge, burr or wire on one side,  I can’t differentiate between what’s a wire edge and a burr edge as I knew I had to freshen them up when I had time.  So to get rid of the what seemed to me a burr on one side I steeled it and it flipped over to the other side so I take it that is a burr.  Then I steeled both sides alternating which got rid of it.

I always wondered how good a steel can freshen an edge?  Never seems like it does anything.   It did not touch the mirrored bevel (which was good) and it brought my Edgeonup sharpness numbers down from 650 to 165.  So it looks like daily use of the parer probably bent the edge!  I’m still going to WE these blades again, but my question is . . . when you freshen and edge how far back through the stones’ do you start?

I didn’t go back to the 1500 stone this AM with a Benchmade Emissary blade and it tested after using it occassionally, from my original WE profiling at a sharpens number of 295.  Then I steeled it a little to remove the slight burr and a re-tested and the number rose to 315 (duller).  Then I tried to freshen the edge by starting with the DLP’s and it tested 220.  Not bad, but I feel if I started with the 1500 stone it would have come out even sharper.

Your opinion, where you start with grit progression to start freshening an edge?

Paul

 

[Marc H]

Paul If I was taking a 4 months used edge I would first look at it under the USB microscope and determine it’s condition.  With the scope you should clearly see the difference between edge roll, damage and edge wear VS a burr you never removed.  That is, if you’ve used the scope enough during your sharpening practice to gain the experience to know what these these different edges look like, so you are able to recognize the difference.  I choose the starting stone grit commensurate to the work I need to perform.  If the edge is as bad as it seems you are describing I may start at 800 grit.  If you are exaggerating or embellishing the extent of the poor condition, 1500 grit may be fine.  Either way you’ll find out as soon as you get started.

If the edge comes right around then you’ve chosen the right starting point.  If the edge takes more time and effort then you expected, then you just may have to back down a grit or two.  You’ll learn with experience how to choose the grit to fit the job.

How far you choose to polish the edge that’s up to you.  For a working edge I wouldn’t put that kind of aesthetic effort.  They are about sharpness, and durability.  I’d save the super duper spa treatment for the show off blades that you don’t use.

I believe the context I used “quick touch up” was when you’re removing a left over burr.  For that a 1000 grit alternating edge leading, Left-right-left-right should take it right off.  Then if you did everything right except left the burr, you should be able to continue right from there with a shortened version of the final grits.

The progression of DLP followed by a multi step progression of  strops is up to you.  Pick what you want for the given knife; practicality or “for show”. That should determine the progression.  For me, my working edges I would finish with the 1500 grit diamond stone and follow that with 4µ then 2µ strops and consider it done.  I haven’t sharpen “for show” except just to see if I can do it.  I tried it a while back just to experience the effort and to learn if the abrasive mediums were able to give the results I expected to see.  I haven’t achieved the level of mirror perfection I’d hope to see so I haven’t done that in a while.

 

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

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Organic, Expidia

[Expidia]

Thanks for that quick response Marc.  Great info.  I definitely need to get more proficient with the digital microscope.  For speed, I usually use the 10x loop between grits and save the digital scope for the more time consuming showy pieces.

[Marc H]

Paul, I think when your going for shine and polish you’d do better to follow your DLFs progression with more strops: 4µ/2µ/1µ/0.5µ, then 0.25µ.  You only listed you use the last two.  Strops do a lot more to enhance the polish then you think.  It looks like your trying to stay sequential in following the grit size down in you progression.  That’s not necessarily what’s best when you switch mediums.  It helps to back up a couple grits as you switch one medium to another, (i.e., from DLFs to Strops).  The overlap in grit particle size is a good thing.  The same grit particle size in two different mediums can behave very differently.  It’s really not redundant and a waste of time, it does help to improve the over all results.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

2 users thanked author for this post.

Expidia, Organic

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