Help with toothy hybrid edge

[Wicked Edge Sharp Knives]

I watched Clay’s recent video where he made a hybrid edge.  I was inspired to attempt this technique on two of my knives.  My attempts were failures.  I am wondering if others have tried to duplicate this technique (regular resharpen stone/strop progression at shallow angle and then topped off with a few strokes with 200 grit at about 4 degrees steeper angle).  The specifics of my attempt follow.  First try was on a Gunter Wilhelm that is my daily use Japanese  cutter.  It is 440C carbon stainless steel.  I have re sharpened this blade about 10 times before and I can consistently put a razor edge on it where it cuts a newspaper lengthwise in one stroke and shaves hair well.  I retouched the edge like usual and, no doubt, it would cut hair and do very well on the paper test.  Then, I set the angle at 21 degrees with the angle cube and made four passes per side with the 200 grit diamond paddle.  I then, like usual, backed off 2 degrees and lightly stropped with both the 14 and ten micron leather paddles.  When I used 200 grit paddles set to 21 degrees, it felt like I was plowing new ground compared to the 1000 grit diamond that I finished with on the 17 degree angle.  This process indeed put a very aggressive toothy edge on the Santuko while still retaining the beautiful shiny edge.  However, it will no longer shave hair at all and is grabby and does poor on the newspaper test.  I had a similar experience following this same beveled edge final 200 grit process on a Spyderco Parlimalitary.  Spyderco also came out with a very agressive edge that failed the sharpness tests I usually use.  In Clays video, following this process, his knife still cut hair and yet had an edge that cut up a mound of cardboard.  Any ideas on where I might have gone wrong?  I am am using the 3rd Gen vise and I have about 1,000 sharpen/resharpens under my belt with the awesome Wicked Edge system.  I owned the 1st and 2nd Gen before moving to the 3rd Gen vise.  I am not a newbie but I certainly bow to the much more experienced subject matter experts on this forum.  Any advice for me?  Thanks in advance for any replies.

[Wicked Edge Sharp Knives]

Update. After I used the Santuko with a hybrid edge that I first thought was a fail, now I am a cautious fan. After steeling the hybrid edge Santuko, it somehow magically turned into a good paper cutter, marginal hair shaver and was solid on all the tasks I used it on. This makes me think that I was too heavy handed and should have used a lighter touch on the much toothier secondary bevel. Does this sound like a reasonable conclusion?

[dulledge]

I guess you have ceramic honing rod and great steeling skills. Knife supposed to slice paper nicely after properly done honing.

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Wicked Edge Sharp Knives

[wickededge]

A really good approach is to create the thinner bevels first and polish them to the level you want. Then add the micro-bevel with the level of tooth you want. Then lower the angle a few degrees and lightly strop a few times. Then you’ll get a honed, toothy edge that performs really well and also shaves, slashes through paper etc….

-Clay

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dulledge, Wicked Edge Sharp Knives

[Mark76]

Like everybody says: use a light touch 

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

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Wicked Edge Sharp Knives, wickededge

[Wicked Edge Sharp Knives]

Yup, I think I need a much lighter touch on the toothy secondary bevel and then also on the strop.

[phillyjudge]

So, Clay, you’re saying, for instance, sharpen at 18*, bevel at 20*, then strop back at 18*?

[wickededge]

phillyjudge wrote:

So, Clay, you’re saying, for instance, sharpen at 18*, bevel at 20*, then strop back at 18*?

Exactly, though I might go even lower than 18° for the primary bevel, maybe as low as 15° depending on your tolerance for a wide bevel. Then I’d add the micro-bevel at 20° and then strop very lightly at 18°.

-Clay

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