Knife “sticks” after sharpening

[mduplay]

Greetings-

I sharpened a Victorinox 5.2063.20 knife at 18 degrees each side using the Wicked Edge Go and the 600 paddle. Wife says the knife sticks (aka cuts into the cutting board) compared to before I touched it. Did I do something wrong or do I need to do something else? Im new, so details are helpful please. Thank you.

• This topic was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by mduplay.

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[Readheads]

Sounds like your wife has a heavy hand (no offense). My wife likes duller blades also. Extra sharp is not for everyone.

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Brewbear

[mduplay]

Think I may have sharpened at 15 degrees and not 18. Assume that caused more of a point? Am I correct I can fix this with the correct angle? Do I have to worry about ruining blades by trying to sharpen? Also, was 600 the correct one to use or do I need to purchase more?

[tcmeyer]

My best guess is that the blade is sharp, but at 600 grit, there’s going to be a lot of “tooth.”  When I started out on my WE I treated every blade as “finished” at 600.  When I moved up to 1000-grit it was a woo-hooo! moment.  Sharpened all my knives to 1000-grit and stropped them to 3.5 micron diamond paste on leather.  Then, one day I tried to cut a piece of 1″ hemp rope that was under tension.  Might as well have had a plastic knife, as the knife edge just slid across the rope fibers with zero fibers cut.

The answer is to polish the bevel faces to reduce friction, but leave some “tooth” on the edge, to bite into the individual fibers.

My guess is that the tooth of your edge is biting into the cutting board, and the rough surface of the bevels are resisting.  If you have some way to strop the edge, do so.  Polishing the bevels will improve things greatly.  The Japanese I’ve seen on the internet suggest stapling a section of denim onto a board and load it with whatever compound you can find.

 

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Brewbear, Dwight Glass, wickededge

[Jeff]

Sounds to me like it is just sharper than she is typically used to.  I do agree with tcmeyer and 600 is maybe a little coarser than most would prefer for a kitchen knife but it will cut just fine.  Way better than any dull knife 🙂 .

Typically I would think 15 dps is fine for a chef style knife.  I sharpen a lot of my kitchen knives at 13 dps but the blade steel, heat treat, geometry, use, personal preference all play a part in what one considers correct.  I’m not familiar with that knife but I’m thinking being a Victorinox the steel may be on the comparatively softer end of things so my own personal thinking would be not to go lower than 15 dps on that particular knife. My inlaws have knives that I am only assuming are of similar steel and I have found I like them at 17dps.  Again, as stated above a lot of factors in why I personally arrived at that.

By changing the edge bevel from one angle to another you aren’t going to ruin anything.  Ensure your sharpening scratch patterns go all the way to the apex and it is good to go with a new angle.

[Readheads]

Buy her a knife of AEB-L picked out just for her. Victorinox is mid grade at best, meaning it will get sharp but not last long. Look up District Cutlery in DC. They make heirloom quality stuff for $300 each. It makes me tear holding their stuff (almost – LOL).

[Author]

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