First good knife on the WEG3Pro
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I got my Wicked Edge Gen 3 pro a few days ago. For some reason, they don’t sell a pro pack 3 with the gen 3 pro, so I had to buy the additional stuff separate. I broke in the stones with some cheap kitchen knives. I then put a nice mirror edge on my Benchmade 940. Those lapping strips work excellent! I may buy some more of those in different grades. The 940 came out scary sharp, and the mirror edge looks fantastic! I took off the little thumb thing on the 940 to sharpen it, then put it back when I was done.
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Good job on your Benchmade, Ralph.
I have discussed with Kyle at Wicked Edge, them adding a “Gen 3 Pro Pack” to the current model line. It may be in the future. It would only need a few more accessory items to be outfitted as comprehensively as the Pro Pack 3. Since it comes with the hard case it would be easy enough to ship everything.
Marc
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That edge turned out nicely.
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Excellent job on the Benchmade!
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Looks great…what lapping strips did you use?
I used the 6 micron Diamond Lapping strip, and then the two strops that come in the Pro Pack III.
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I am pleased to see there’s no scratches on the Benchmade’s scales. That’s usually where we screw up as newbies. When you’re doing a high-end knife, cover everything with painter’s tape. Especially the sides of the blade.
If you’re thinking about buying other lapping films, consider buying additional handles so you don’t have to strip off films which are still good. They last a pretty long time. I wash mine with a battery-powered scrubber and alcohol about every other knife and I’m getting about thirty sharpenings out of them.
BTW, great looking edge.
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I am pleased to see there’s no scratches on the Benchmade’s scales. That’s usually where we screw up as newbies. When you’re doing a high-end knife, cover everything with painter’s tape. Especially the sides of the blade. If you’re thinking about buying other lapping films, consider buying additional handles so you don’t have to strip off films which are still good. They last a pretty long time. I wash mine with a battery-powered scrubber and alcohol about every other knife and I’m getting about thirty sharpenings out of them. BTW, great looking edge.
Thirty knives per strip of film is the best lifespan of use I’ve seen anyone report.
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Your blade looks great. The many different films, strops, compounds, makes creating mirrored bevels fairly easy. I have found in my experience for a pocket knife that I prefer a little toothier edge for actual usage. If I do end up polishing the bevel, I typically add a lower grit micro bevel a few degrees steeper. It will no longer whittle hair then, but I find it will keep a usable working edge longer.
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Marc I can see where what I stated could be confusing. Steeper is maybe a bad word choice. As an example. My “garage” knife is a Spyderco Manix. It is just their standard is CPM SV30 version.
I set the bevel at 15 dps and progress through the stones down to 1.5 micron lapping film. I sometimes even strop if I want to bring the shine up on the bevel. Then I put on a micro bevel at 18dps with the 1000 grit diamond stones. Just a very few light passes on each side. This is my preference in a “work knife” for lack of a better description. As it dulls over time it is a quick touch up just on the micro bevel again with the 1000 grit at 18dps. After a couple of usage and touch up cycles, then I will go through the full progression on the main bevel again.
I think this explains myself better.
I only go this route on harder usage work knives. Kitchen knives I just stick with a primary bevel only. The angle is dependent on the quality of steel and style of blade.
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Thanks Jim for your clarification.
You might sometimes want to try stropping your 18º 1000 grit micro bevel at 16º or 16.5º, as a final step. You may find you’ll get the toothyness and durability you desire and the smoothness to still slice paper cleanly, with addition of stropping.
Marc
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I sharpened up a couple of more pocket knives. My old Kershaw, and my work knife, the Buck. I got the mirror polish on both of them with the same lapping film I used for the first knife. I don’t know if I will get 30 knives with that one lapping strip, I figured maybe 5, if I’m lucky. I’m not into the toothy edge, but thanks for the suggestions. I’m running out of my personal knives to sharpen, so pretty soon, I will have to start sharpening my friends knives, and that is when the fun starts. Most people have no idea how sharp you can get a knife, and when you sharpen one of their old knives, they can’t believe how sharp it is.
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Thirty knives per strip of film is the best lifespan of use I’ve seen anyone report.
Organic:
When I get pretty far along in the life of the films, they look pretty ratty from all the nicks and slices, but they’re still working. Usually, that’s where I strip ’em off and start over, but lately I’ve been deliberately trying to push them to their limits, and I’m not seeing an appreciable loss of performance. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I replaced a film strip for any reason other than surface damage.
I have seen films which were clearly showing loss of abrasives. It looks like a shiny patch, when compared to the satin look of the remainder of the patch. Maybe it was caused by a cleaning chemical, especially lacquer thinner, which I use a lot. It will wipe the mylar film free of any attached abrasive with a single swipe. Oopsie! In any case, the life span has improved when I switched to a regular cleaning routine.
Like they say on the stock market ads – past performance is no assurance of future results. But I’m suggesting that the life span can be extended with special care taken. Black discoloring should not be considered a sign indicating end of useful life. Aggressive scrubbing with a non-metallic brush can remove a majority of the crud clogging up the typical film abrasive and give it more life.
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