First knife in the books with 130!

[William]

Learned quite a bit from the Forum even before starting in on the Wustof 8” Chef.   First what I learned; I had some rubber bumper feet that I drilled out and now serves as stone stops.   Not one extraneous scratch on the knife or 130 clamp.  If anyone is looking for easily gotten stops.  Go to Home Depot and pick up a pair of Everbilt 7/8” rubber screw on bumpers.   Model# 49131.  Less than $3 for a 4 pack and usually in stock.  Use a 1/4” drill bit to ream out the hole and it goes on nicely.  Doesn’t budge unless you want it to.   I was lucky and had some on hand.

Thanks to Marc, I found I had a lot of 1/4” dowels, so I bought a cheap bamboo cutting board and made a 18 pair stone rack.  Only have 5 pair now, got a little ways to go :).    I doubt I will even fill it up.  Nice to have the room though.  Now easily carry all the stones around and keep them organized.

Anyway, my 8” Wustof chef’s knife came out reasonably well!  The Wifey was even a little hesitant to use it.   I certainly made mistakes along the way.  She said the last inch and half on the tip was not as sharp.   Angle wise, it was a bit rough trying to find, so I said F* it and used the angle cube and just settled on 14 dps and went to town.  Sharpie helped me get close. Interestingly I found that the angle setting on the 130 and what the cube says is very different.   I will now use the angle setting on the base as a general guide to get me close.   Cube for fine tuning.

My grit progression 200>400>600>800>1000>1500>6u DLP>4u/2u leather strops (forgot to drop the angle).  It was slicing paper like butter.  Even though the emulsion spray didn’t exactly spread out too well on my strops and left a mess of clumps when I tried stropping .  I will have to go back and try for more even distribution.

Big thanks to tcmeyer for his tip on gently flattening the edge to get chips out.  Dude, right on.  Huge time saver.  I was brainlessly worming trying to work out the chips until I searched  on the forums

Feeling for the burr was the hardest for me.  Don’t trust my fingernails.   Used cotton ball and I think I had a burr on both sides.  Except maybe that last 1,5”.

The other hard part was deciphering scratch patterns and when to move to the next grit.  I’m sure learned by experience.  I was using a 10x loupe.   I may be eying a USB microscope in the very near future.

Overall, a great learning experience!   The knife probably could even be better.  That, I’m sure of.   However, it is leaps and bounds better than what it was.   Dull and all kinds of chips

Onto the next victim.

William

[Marc H]

William, your stones will improve with use resulting in better outcomes.  You can not over-do an edge.  If in doubt whether you have done enough to achieve good results, always err on the side of more.

Your burr should not be hard to discern…it should be very evident.  If your having doubts whether you have indeed created a burr indicating your grinds have apexed the edge, then I suggest you continue with your strokes.  Like I said you can’t over-do it or cause negative results.   The burr on the opposie side, for me is a little more difficult to discern.  I believe it’s easier to draw the burr prematurely to the second side than drawing the first side burr.  Especially an even height and positioned burr.

Once I have created burrs, on both sides indicating to me my bevel grinds have reached the apex, my next step is to do alternating left-right-left-right strokes to make the apex even and more keen.  I verify by finger feel across the entire length that the edge is sharp.  Again, more strokes are always better then less. Only when I’m sure my edge is sharp do I move on to the next grit.

Each grit done again the same way will result in an increasingly sharper edge.  It is not necessary to create a burr after the first time.  Just to feel or visually see the grinding has apexed the edge.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

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wickededge, William

[Organic]

If you recorded your clamping position for that Wustof you can re-clamp it and fix the edge so that it is sharp all the way from heel to tip. I would drop back down to 400 grit and get a good burr on both sides of the blade before progressing through your other grits. It also helps to re-check the angle with each grit change. You will find that the angle can vary by as much as half a degree or so from one stone to the next.

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wickededge, Marc H, William

[William]

Organic wrote:

If you recorded your clamping position for that Wustof you can re-clamp it and fix the edge so that it is sharp all the way from heel to tip. I would drop back down to 400 grit and get a good burr on both sides of the blade before progressing through your other grits. It also helps to re-check the angle with each grit change. You will find that the angle can vary by as much as half a degree or so from one stone to the next.

Thank you for the tips!!  I certainly did record my position using the AAG.  🙂 I will be putting the knife back under and trying again.   Learn by doing I guess.  This time, as Marc stated above, ensuring that burr is evident from heel to tip.  Also attending to other mistakes/omissions as well.

[Marc H]

When re-clamping for your touch-up, apply marker to the bevel so you can see that you’re removing steel from right at the bevel.  The marker should help you make any fine clamp placement adjustments.

You can rework the tip then blend the tip with the rest of knife edge as you progress up the grits.  When done you should not have any evidence that you did it in two stages.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

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wickededge

[William]

Thank you!!  Just to be clear on what I should be doing.   Work one side, no matter how long it takes to establish the burr.  It should be clearly evident all along the edge.   Work the other side, trying to keep things equal until the burr forms again.   Then work both in an equal manner, alternating strokes.

 

William

[Marc H]

Yes, essentially.    I alternate the scrubbing, up-down-up-down, stroke on one knife side, with the same scrubbing, up-down-up-down, stroke to the other knife side, in order to keep the grind work more balanced, from knife side to side.  I do not work exclusively, one side, till I have a burr across the entire knife’s edge length, then work the other.  Alternating your grind work keeps the bevel more even and it allows me to keep the burr to a minimum.  A burr really wastes steel.  As you gain experience you’ll feel the knife edge coming around and getting sharper as you’re grinding action apexes the bevels.  It’s also helpful to visually inspect your work with a loup or my preference an USB Microscope.   I do this as long as it takes to get my results, results driven, not time driven.  It usually takes the longest the first time sharpening the knife on the WE.

In most sharpening scenarios, we’re trying to establish a balanced, centered “V” grind.  To work exclusively one side till finished then repeat on the other side is IMO chasing the grind back and forth across the steel’s thickness.  If you work towards centering the bevel from the start it just make the effort more practical, quicker and easier.

After I have drawn both sides together up to a centered apex, I begin an alternating left side – right side – left side – right side, stroke to even the cutting edge and make it more keen.  I start by working a small portion of the edge and keep expanding the portion until I am working the entire knife’s edge, if possible.  It is more difficult with a long kitchen knife.  I always try to keep my stroke with some angle to it and not horizontal or parallel to the knife’s edge.

You’ll determine what strokes work best for you with experience and what is important to you in the appearance of the scratch pattern.  As you put this experience together this will become your technique.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

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wickededge, William

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