My first real sucess!

[Timm]

This is about the fifth knife I’ve sharpened since getting my Pro 3:

It’s my Grandfather’s old Marbles of Gladstone–unknown model as I haven’t been able to find anything to match. Blade is 4″, OAL is 7 1/2″.

This is the best, most uniform bevel I’ve made so far. Most of my knives have seen some abuse and a decade of increasingly poor sharpening by me, so they take a long time to re-profile. This took 270 strokes with 100 grit to get a wire edge established, then 150 on the other side to balance the bevel as measured with loupe and calipers. I took it to 1,000 grit, with a final deburring/polish on my ultra-fine ceramic razor hone. It’ll mainly be used to harvest mushrooms and dress game.

I can’t wait to get to where I just need to touch up my favorite knives!

• This topic was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by Timm.

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000Robert

[Marc H]

Timm, welcome to the WE Forum.  Congratulations on your first success.

Just so you know it generally takes about 10 knives worth of sharpening for the stones to first get broken-in and yield better and more consistent sharpening results.  The finer grits require less wear to break them in.

I suggest you may want to try to balance out your sharpening strokes and work some on one side first then switch to do some on the other knife side. Balancing out your effort by switching back and forth keeps the apex more centered on the knife and bevel heights more even.  Also, you may find your overall needed stroke count should diminish as you work the knife edge more efficiently.  The last strokes with each of the grits done alternatingly, left-side, right-side, left-side, right-side, really can bring up the best of the apex before you move on to the next finer grit.

Enjoy your journey.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

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000Robert

[Timm]

Thanks, Marc.

I read everything I could find before starting with the WEPS. I’d like to have broken in the stones better, but all my knives are users, so which to sacrifice?

I thought, as I understood it, that SOP for re-beveling a bade was to work with the 100 grit on one side until a burr can be detected, then do the same on the other. I counted the strokes this time in hopes of keeping the apex centered, but found that the honing on the first side had moved the apex down and to the other, meaning it took fewer strokes on that side to both get a burr and uniform bevel–within my ability to measure.

As for the progression through the rest of the stones, I do use alternating strokes and light pressure. I check with my B&L 10X loupe to be sure I’ve honed out all the marks from the previous stone before moving on to the next. I’ve been sharpening on hand-held stones for decades and this had been my SOP. I just couldn’t get a consistent bevel angle anymore with aging hands and eyes.

I finished the blade on the WE by taking a few tip-to-heel downward strokes, which removed the tiny remaining burr.

I look forward to getting a set of finer stones when my pocketbook recovers from the purchase of the Pro G3!

[Iceshiver]

Hey Timm! I’m new to the wicked edge sharpening system too. I chose to, for fun, sharpen a butter knife into a steak knife to break in my stones. Turns out? My butter knife’s metal is super soft and it was not long before I had a functional steak knife.

I went straight from that to sharpening an HRC 64, 9.5 inch Japanese chefs knife.

While i’m sure better results will come when my stones are broken in. The results I achieved with minimal break-in were fantastic! Don’t sweat the small stuff. 🙂

[Author]

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