Hair whittling… Technique or Tools?

[Richard Jackson]

So as some of you know from my last thread, I am very new to the Wicked Edge compared to most of you. I have seen and heard of the illusive hair whittling edge and wondered what it takes to get there. I don’t mean the type of hair whittling on a super toothy edge. I mean whittling hairs with a super refined edge. I was wondering if this is accomplished more with tools (broken in stones, chosera x stone, shapton x stone, WE microfine ceramics, etc) or is it able to be accomplished with the 800/1000 with some other technique. As of now I use the PP1 with upgraded arms 100-1000 diamonds, 1200/1600 ceramics, WE leather strops with 5/3.5/1/0.5 WE pastes. I have gotten great whisper quiet push cuts in various papers(catalog, printer paper, phone book, etc). I just haven’t been able to get to hair whittling yet. Thank you very much!

Take care and God Bless!
Richard

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[Leo James Mitchell]

I think it is a combination of all those things you mention i.e.good tools with well broken-in diamonds, ceramics and good techniques. Choseras would no doubt increase your chances of a hair whittle. I am not certain because I have never felt the need to whittle hair…just wood, paper, fuzz sticks and the like. I must give it a crack some day, but usually I am satisfied that my knives are super sharp and zip through their tasks like lasers. 😉

All the best mate
Leo

[wickededge]

Richard,

I think you can achieve it with the tools you have. The stones need to be broken in for it to reach that level of sharpness. Angle is also a factor. It’s hard to whittle hair above 17 degrees per side. The lower the angle, the easier to get the knife to whittle hair. Light pressure with the finer stones is very important. You might try sharpening at 1 or 2 degrees lower than your final angle with all your stones and then adding a micro bevel with your ceramic stones, again with very light pressure. The goal is to thin back the shoulders of the bevel and to also be sure that you have completely removed the burr. Then drop down 2 degrees per side for stropping. Make sure your strops are well charged with paste and moistened with rubbing alcohol. I use a spray bottle to mist the alcohol on and that works very well. Use light pressure with the strops. So, an example would be:

1. Sharpen at 15 degrees with all the stones, being sure to draw a burr from both sides of the blade with the coarse stones.
2. Put in enough time with each stone to remove the scratches from the previous stone.
3. Progress through the ceramics using very light pressure with the 800/1000 and the ceramic stones.
4. Widen the angle to 17 degrees per side and lightly add a micro-bevel with the ceramics.
5. Lower the angle back to 15 degrees and strop with light pressure.
6. Check your progress as you go to see when you’re able to start whittling hair.

I hope that helps.

-Clay

[Richard Jackson]

That’s awesome! I’ll try that. The whittling hair is more of just a challenge than any kind of need haha.

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[Eamon Mc Gowan]

Richard, One more option? Of coarse this one requires a purchase. I highly recommend the 14/10 balsa strops! With broken in stones and following 1K diamonds > 14/10um > 5um and stop there. When I do that I have hair whittling sharp. Going on to 3.5um will cause the hair to “pop”.
Clay and I built a edge testing gizmo sometime ago and we both reported some of our sharpest edges using the 14/10 strops. Of coarse they were “thick edges” (see Tom’s post in the thread What is sharp?) but boy can you ever cut some stuff using the 14/10’s! :ohmy:
Of coarse this is all contingent on if your pocket book has recovered from the original WE purchase? :blink: 😉

[Richard Jackson]

Well I got one part of the edge to whittle. The rest wanted to split the hair slightly more than half way through and therefore cut the hair enough so that no curls would whittle off. I can still see many surface scratches on the edge. But my ceramics are absolutely brand new.

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[Richard Jackson]

Big thanks you guys!!! I can only imagine it will get much better. I used Clay’s directions to a tee and they worked great even with my non broken in ceramics.

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