Loosing sharpness as I progress
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Yes I did form a burr on the 800 and 1000 but couldn’t tell on the 1500. I start off with scrubbing one side at a time 1 to help remove the prior scratchs and 2 to help raise the burr then after that do 50-100 swipes of alternating strokes. As for the micro bevel I did use the weight of the paddles only. Only thing I was thinking it that micro bevel did take some of the sharpness away but wasn’t sure if that was possible. Thank u for the responses. I’m still not sure what happened. I used the loupe three the entire prosses and used the sharpie on the apex near the end of every grit
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I haven’t figured out what was wrong yet. I sharpened a different knife last night and went down to the 1500 again. This knife came out pretty sharp. I will get that knife back out to day and inspect it and try it again. I have an esse 4 that I am ready to do. It’s going to be the first knife of decent quality beside my spydico delica which is a beat to crap. After about 15 knifes now nothing has came out super sharp yet even going down to 1 micron film. I have been trying to reprofile a lot of the knife to also help break in the stones. I would think those knifes will get better on follow visits.
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Mike: You might want to closely keep track of the scratch patterns with each step to make sure you are actually working the apex. Another good reason to alternate directions. I recently posted over my bench a sheet of paper showing a direction for each grit. For instance, I always stroke down and away with 1000 grit. 800 would always be down and towards me and so on and so on for both higher and lower grits.
Working the apex? The objective is to establish an apex edge with your beginning grit. You can confirm this with a loupe or a microscope or by using the burr as an indicator. Once you’ve established the apex, all subsequent grits are refining the edge (we’re talking sharpness here, not polish). I’ve found that it’s possible to not reach the apex with those subsequent grits – caused by misadjustments or stone thickness or whatever. Watch closely to confirm to yourself that the scratch pattern for each grit is actually reaching the apex – if it doesn’t, it’s not contributing to edge refinement.
If you intend to put in a micro-bevel, It’s not important to work the edge beyond the point where you’ve established an apex edge with the first stone (example: I use 400 to establish an apexed edge. Higher grit if it’s a re-sharpening).
That said, a micro-bevel made by a relatively coarse grit or by heavy-handed stoning will probably be perceived to be not as sharp as a more refined edge.
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I was inspecting with a loupe often. With that being said it’s a cheap one and after useing it more and more I am learning what to look for. On that particular knife I wasn’t checking the angle with the angle cube during paddle change so it’s very very possible I wasnt hitting the entire apex even tho it looked like it threw my untrained eyes. As for the burr do y’all get a good burr formed that with stop your nail if u run it up it or just enough to feel a slight burr? A knife I did last night I just did matched the prior angle and noticed I could raise a really good burr as where the other knife I could just barely feel the burr. I did notice there is slight variance from paddle to paddle Whitichen a higher grit would mean one might have to work longer to reach the apex.
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