In The Kitchen

[Mitchell Small]

How wide a blade will the Wicked Edge handle? I’m considering making the plunge and getting one, but I’d like to hear about the versatility of the Wicked Edge with working blades in the kitchen. I have two Gerber cleavers, one with a blade about 2 inches (5 cm) wide and another that is about half again that wide to maybe twice that. One’s an outright chopper and the other is my favorite implement for veggie work, especially Oriental veggies. They both have a good edge now now, but I’d like to be able to use the Wicked edge on everything and I always believe an edge can be improved on.

I also have a group of classic ’80’s vintage Sabattier chefs knives. I’ve heard about how to do long blades,but even the slicer from that set is not unreasonably long, so I’m not anticipating any problems with those.

So . . . anyone do cleavers with their Wicked Edge?

[Leo James Mitchell]

Mitchell, you are looking at the right place. First of all take a look at the videos Clay has on his site and you will see him doing a cleaver. Yikes! What a beast. As for Chef/Kitchen knives stay tuned for a bit until some of the guys get around to your post. Tom from Jende Industries in particular is our resident expert along with Clay. The WEPS is a perfect sharpener for those blades you mention and will be still better when the soon to be released low angle device is available.
Welcome to the Forum mate!

Cheers
Leo

[Mark76]

Tom, of Jende Industries even shaves with his cleaver after sharpening it on the WEPS: http://jendeindustries.wordpress.com/2011/09/17/3-shaving-videos-with-3-different-maestro-wu-cleavers-omg/

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Mark76]

Hey, that were crossing posts 🙂

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Leo James Mitchell]

So! Report me to the Moderator! ROTFLMAO!

Leo

[Mitchell Small]

That sounds REAL encouraging! The veggie cleaver might benefit from a shallow angle, but the chopper would be OK with what the current system can deliver.

Still on the fence, but tipping. I probably won’t decide until after March and I hear the units are on back order ’til then anyway.

[Jende Industries]

Hi Mitchell!

You can easily do a 2″ high blade in the WEPS – If you’ve seen my video, that’s about 7cm, and I’ve done a 10cm high blade. You can also get a 5mm thick spine in the clamp :whistle:

I know a bunch of kitchen guys with high end knives who are holding off on the WEPS because of the “limited” low angle capabilities – these guys want 6 degree relief angles and 10 degree primary edge angles per side, though. I generally sharpen my kitchen knives between 15 and 18 degrees per side, so I’m not worried. My cleaver shave was 18 degrees per side.

On cleavers, the added height of the blade allows you to get down to 12-13 degrees per side, but you really need very high quality steel if you plan to go that low and expect it to last for more than 1 cut.

[Bill]

Hi all, I’ll add my 2 cents here since I do a lot of kitchen knives at farmers markets. I use 19 degrees on all knives including high end German. 15 degrees for Mac and Global. Japanese steel on the high end can take a sharper angle. Cleavers on the other hand I use Clays guide from the manual. I have found that If you are not sure, contact the knife maker or distributor and they will tell you the stock angle. ( Check my post for sharpening a K-Bar ) As for cleaning my gear I use a stick magnet that I picked up at an auto parts store, works great stores easy. Went to the show yesterday, met Clay, had a good time met some fellow WEPS, sharpened some knives. BTW my personal folder is a Spyderco Endura, final strop 1/10 micron diamond spray, scary sharp.

[Author]

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