Getting Close

[Ravenbrook]

I’ve had my Wicked Edge for a few months and I’ve sharpened knives about 9 or 10 times. My best work has been on a 20+ year old Gerber Gator. It has a nicely polished edge and will cut through phone book paper pretty decently. I’ve done a nice job on my Spyderco Dragonfly, but not as nice as on the Gerber. Last night I tried to sharpen my Manix 2 with S110V and it does a nice job with printer paper, but struggles with phone book paper. I tried to get the angles on the WE as close to 15 degrees a side as possible. I think they were 14.9 on one side and 14.75 on the other to start with. I’m not totally thrilled with my inability to get the edge angles exact. I have the standard Pro Pack 1 set up and maybe this is an issue on my part setting the blade in the holder or am I doing something else wrong? I started off with the 100 grit stones and I worked them until I was able to get a burr on one side then I did 50 passes on both sides. I then went to 200 grit and got a burr again and this time I did 100 passes on both sides. Then repeated with the burr and strokes with the 400 stones. The 600 stones just got 100 alternating passes down both sides as did the 800 and 1000 diamond stones and the 1200 and 1600 ceramics. I have the 3.5 and 5 micron strops that came with the set as well as my newly acquired 1 and 0.5 micron strops. The blade looks nice, not as shiny as some of the work I’ve seen on this site, but I don’t have that much experience with it yet. I know S110V is tough to work with and maybe that is my problem but I’m looking for any additional tips you may have. Any suggestions? I’m considering getting the new Gen 3 holder and the upgraded arms, but the cost is holding me back. You pay $425 for the Pro Pack 1 and then another $325 for the upgrades, are they worth it?

Thanks,

Rick

[David Hill]

Once u get the initial burr on both sides with the 100s u should not need to raise a burr again with the other stones. I would recommend that u reduce the number of passes you make once you raise a burr on both sides to about 50-75 using very light pressure, just the weight of the stone. On the strops 15-25 strokes on each grit should be plenty. Also remember, it takes about 25-50 knives sharpened to break in the diamonds. Once u do you will have some razor sharp edges. On the angle issue, try turning your arms backwards on the rods so you do not have to commit to one of the predetermined holes. That along with an angle cube you should be able to get your angles spot on. Happy sharpening!!!

Davidghemail

[Ravenbrook]

Thanks for the tips. I’ll try turning the arms backwards the next time I sharpen a knife. I do use an angle cube now, that’s how I knew what the angles were set to. It just seems that the holes have little to do with the actual angle of the rod at times.

Thanks again!

[tcmeyer]

You’re going to reach “broken-in” fast with the number of strokes you’re doing. Until your stones are well broken-in, they’ll produce very deep scratches which are difficult to remove.

I’ve been watching mine recently and find that 5-10 strokes for each inch of blade length is enough to remove the scratches from the previous (lower) grit. To be clear, for a four-inch blade, I’ll do 20 full-length strokes on each side. For a 2-inch blade, I’ll do half of that.

The angles you use need not be precise from side to side; it’s the repeatability of subsequent stones that’s important, to ensure that you’re actually working the entire bevel, from shoulder to apex. If you’re using the AngleCube, take at least three sequential readings each time, letting it settle out each time for about 5 seconds. Mine has something under 0.1 degree of error, so if I get readings that vary equally between 19.0 and 19.1, I can assume that the angle is very close to 19.05.

I haven’t received my Gen 3 vise upgrade yet, but when I ordered it in June, the price was $169 and I got the Father’s Day discount. I just checked and it is listed as the second item on the first page of “Accessories” at $169. The description doesn’t clearly say “Upgrade”, but that’s it.

For those that are interested, I’m using diamond stones to 1000-grit, and diamond film in eight descending grit sizes: 15, 9, 6, 3, 1.5, 1.0, 0.5 and 0.1. With new film, scratches are removed with only 4-5 strokes per inch. After about 10-12 knives, I see now that it takes 7-8 strokes to do the same. I will try to clean them with my Superaser to see if it restores their cutting ability.

[Mr.Wizard]

For those that are interested, I’m using diamond stones to 1000-grit, and diamond film in eight descending grit sizes: 15, 9, 6, 3, 1.5, 1.0, 0.5 and 0.1. With new film, scratches are removed with only 4-5 strokes per inch. After about 10-12 knives, I see now that it takes 7-8 strokes to do the same. I will try to clean them with my Superaser to see if it restores their cutting ability.

I sometimes use a small piece of a broken 10K waterstone to clean films and I find it works quite well. I suspect that it not only removes dirt but exposes some additional grit as well by cutting down the size coating or matrix. (I have not used this on films finer than 1 micron.) You might try this if you can.

[tcmeyer]

As it happens, I did use the Superaser this past weekend to clean my diamond films and it did clean them up nicely without removing any grit that I could see. I have not yet checked to see if I have restored their cutting ability. Thanks for the reminder – I’ll do that soon.

I don’t think that any abrasive applied to the surface of film abrasive will remove old grit to expose new grit. There is only one layer of abrasive particles. If you remove it, you’ll see the shiny surface of the mylar film substrate. This, incidentally, is your cue that it’s time for new film.

[Mr.Wizard]

1. The 10K stone fragment isn’t aggressive enough to strip the grit entirely it seems; at least that hasn’t happened yet. :whistle:
2. I believe the lapping film may actually have some depth to the abrasive though it is very thin. psidragon.com gives the attached drawing for 3M diamond lapping film. As you can see not all the grains are on the surface.
3. Even if there is no depth removing some of the size coat should still increase the aggression of the grit that remains, though it may cause the grit to fall out sooner.

Attachments:

• lappingfilmlayer.png

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