My new WE and questions

[SHVentus]

Hey people, new guy here,

I ordered my WE PPII on 11-18 and I picked it up yesterday, 11-22. Wow, fast shipping and great packaging. Thanks Clay!

Although I’ve watched most of the You Tube videos and read a lot of the forums FAQ, WE Wiki, posts, etc., I’ve still got a gazillion Q’s. To start:

1. What’s the best way to break in the stones? Should I grab some sheet steel and start scrubbing it with the stones, progressing through the grits? I figured that by doing that it might be faster and more uniform (rather than just concentrating on the center of the stones by sharpening a dozen knives). Any harm? Good/bad idea?
2. What’s the best way to reduce the learning curve?
3. Is there a definitive progression through the stones, ceramics, strops, etc. posted somewhere? I saw in WE Wiki where Tom Blodget showed what seemed to be a regression in grits where after using the WE 400/600 &/or 800/1000 stones he would jump back to the 400 Chosera or Shapton stones to remove the deeper scratches left hidden. What a surprise those photos showed.
4. I’ve seen many techniques. Some start by scrubbing the blade up and down, some in a circular fashion, some only up and away from the edge, some only down and into the edge to start forming the angle. Most all of people then proceed through the stones with alternating sweeping strokes up and away. Does it matter which technique is first used? Is one better than another?
5. Do you destress all edges before starting the sharpening?
6. Do you “re-sharpen” a brand new knife when you first get it, or wait until it dulls?

Thanks for all your comments, suggestions, and pointers. I’m sure I’ll find new questions as I progress. Thank you. 🙂

[Zamfir]

Hey people, new guy here,

I ordered my WE PPII on 11-18 and I picked it up yesterday, 11-22. Wow, fast shipping and great packaging. Thanks Clay!

Although I’ve watched most of the You Tube videos and read a lot of the forums FAQ, WE Wiki, posts, etc., I’ve still got a gazillion Q’s. To start:

1. What’s the best way to break in the stones? Should I grab some sheet steel and start scrubbing it with the stones, progressing through the grits? I figured that by doing that it might be faster and more uniform (rather than just concentrating on the center of the stones by sharpening a dozen knives). Any harm? Good/bad idea?
2. What’s the best way to reduce the learning curve?
3. Is there a definitive progression through the stones, ceramics, strops, etc. posted somewhere? I saw in WE Wiki where Tom Blodget showed what seemed to be a regression in grits where after using the WE 400/600 &/or 800/1000 stones he would jump back to the 400 Chosera or Shapton stones to remove the deeper scratches left hidden. What a surprise those photos showed.
4. I’ve seen many techniques. Some start by scrubbing the blade up and down, some in a circular fashion, some only up and away from the edge, some only down and into the edge to start forming the angle. Most all of people then proceed through the stones with alternating sweeping strokes up and away. Does it matter which technique is first used? Is one better than another?
5. Do you destress all edges before starting the sharpening?
6. Do you “re-sharpen” a brand new knife when you first get it, or wait until it dulls?

Thanks for all your comments, suggestions, and pointers. I’m sure I’ll find new questions as I progress. Thank you. 🙂

Welcome! I had a lot of the same questions!

1) not sure on that one. I did it by sharpening a bunch of knives. Agreed though it would focus more on just breaking in the middle..but that is where you are mostly using the stones anyway. I have a new set of 1000 I need to break in again..I would like to hear other thoughts on this for speeding up the process and uniformly breaking in a stone if it is possible.
2)you did it. watch utube, ask questions but you just really need to dig in and DO IT. you will answer some of your own questions..break in stones, and learn a ton. nothing at all replaces experience and practice.
3)different ways to do this, after the 1000 plates you can move on to ceramics, or Choseras, or Shaptons, or lapping film then a strop or maybe not depending on what you end up liking. Or a combination of them.
4)They all work. When you start to get into making sure you are removing the previous grit scratches fully I like to only go in one direction until all the scratches are uniform. Then on the next grit do the opposite direction. Then you can look at the edge under magnification and see if there are any scratches left that are going differently then the direction your current stone is going. If there are, you still need to keep going. I usually use a scrubbing motion in the beginning and then when I think I am done I use the forward or reverse edge leading stroke so I can have those alternating scratch patterns. Start stone above the knfe stating at the tip for one angle. Starting above the knife at the handle end for the opposite angle.
5)I do distress every edge. Sometimes, If I have a really bad knife that needs a totally different “thinner” bevel, I will use the 100 and 200 sharpen to almost a burr. Then distress and move on to the thinner grits to re-establish a bur.
6)I do, because the factory never gets it as sharp as I can on the Wicked Edge! 😆

I will add. The biggest biggest lesson I learned is to make sure you get a burr on each side before moving onto the paddles with the 800 and 1000 grit stones. It is harder to feel the burr. And make sure the burr is along the entire blade length! I always have to work the tip more than the rest of the blade since that gets used more.

[Jende Industries]

Welcome to the Wicked Edge, Ventus!

+1 on everything Zamfir said. B)

In regards to question #3, the answer depends on your particular level of OCD 🙂

I’m very much a perfectionist when it comes to using my Wicked Edge. I want, and get, North-Korean style uniformity to my scratches and 5 decimal places worth of precision to my angles (I simply penned in 3 zeros to my angle cube – I’m the coolest guy in the room now!). As you saw from the microscope progressions, the depth of scratches plays an important role in my dropping back a grit or 2 in order to obtain the results I want, and this is in accordance with my personal sharpening philosophy.

However, when first getting acquainted with the WEPS, I suggest running linearly through grits, 100, 200, 400, 600, 800, 1K, 2K, etc. regardless of whether it is stock diamond, Choseras or ceramics. You want positive results first and foremost. Then when you’ve gotten a few knives under your belt (and at least one cut that actually bled!) you can begin to explore the more infinite capabilities and stone progression results of your Wicked Edge system.

As you’ve no doubt been reading this forum, you can see that the rabbit hole gets pretty deep, and fast! B) There have been several occasions when trying to put together progressions that have found me waking up curled in a ball, naked on the floor in a corner sucking my thumb and calling for my mommy. But that just shows how versatile the Wicked Edge is as sharpening platform. 😛

In the end, once you get a sharp knife, you can then begin to experiment.

[Daniel maloon]

“and at least one cut that actually bled!”
😆
So true. There should be a gallery folks can post their cuts to as a safety reminder. I impaled my thumb at the beginning of the year.

[Mark76]

Hey Ventus, welcome to the forum! I think you already got some pretty good answers to your questions. The only thing I can add is: practice. You’ll get the hang of the WEPS pretty soon, but I think it is a good idea not to start with your $200 outdoor or kitchen knives.

And as you’ve undoubtedly noticed, the WEPS attracts people with OCD. :cheer: . So depending on your own level of OCD, you may have to add some salt to some answers 😉 . (No, I don’t destress every edge.)

Please keep asking if you want to know more! There’s a whole bunch of good guys out here willing to help.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Mark76]

Oh and as you’ve undoubtedly noticed, the WEPS attracts people with OCD. :cheer: . So depending on your own level of OCD, you may have to add some salt to some answers 😉 . (No, I don’t destress every edge.)

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Mark76]

There have been several occasions when trying to put together progressions that have found me waking up curled in a ball, naked on the floor in a corner sucking my thumb and calling for my mommy. .

:cheer: :cheer:

Many thanks for having introduced me to the rabbit hole, Tom!

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Mark76]

“and at least one cut that actually bled!”
😆
So true. There should be a gallery folks can post their cuts to as a safety reminder. I impaled my thumb at the beginning of the year.

Actually we’ve had multiple threads on this with pictures of pretty severe cuts. After it’s happened you can usually laugh about it. I’ve cut myself so often that my girlfriend has put the plasters in the kitchen instead of in the bathroom. :cheer: But still, I try to be careful.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[SHVentus]

Thank you gentlemen for all your responses. I too am a perfectionist, an OCD, AR perfectionist. So much so that years ago a friend said that I was so OCD/AR that I probably folded my dirty laundry before washing it, and probably separated my trash into neat color coordinated piles before throwing it away. 🙂

I must confess that just last week after receiving my new PM 2, I was checking out the finger choil and it’s security, when I put too much forward pressure and received a nice bleeding slice. :ohmy: And that was before receiving my WE.

No one has yet responded to my first Q though. Pro or con, yes or no to breaking in my diamond stones by gentle scrubbing on some flat steel plate? Just figured that it may be both faster and more uniform along the stones, rather than concentrating on the center.

I only have a few knives (so far), but my oldest and worst are 2 Henkels kitchen knives and 2 SAK. Then I have a new D2 KABAR and KABAR Kukri, new KABAR Becker BK7, new PM 2, and 3 new BM’s. No Sebenza yet. 🙂

Thank you!

[Jende Industries]

The rabbit hole is always one step away, Mark. I just shove you in and jump up and down on top of you 👿

As to question #1 Ventus, I personally don’t worry about the breaking in period. Yes, there will be a breaking in period, but the diamonds will simply be more aggressive in the beginning, and then calm down into their stride. On the coarser grits, the aggression is good especially for your first few knives. On the higher end, it can leave a slightly less desirable edge due to their aggression.

But the way I see it, your diamond stones will breaking in as you are getting over the learning curve, and by the time you are “ready” after 5-10 knives, your diamonds will be, too. 🙂

[SHVentus]

Thanks Tom

[Mark76]

I agree with Tom. Probably you could break in your stones the way you describe it, but why would you do that? Breaking in is not something that suddenly happens, it’s a continuous process of your diamonds getting slightly less agressive. By the time you’ve practiced a bit with your WEPS on your beater knives, your stones will also be a bit less agressive. And if you haven’t got any beater knives, just spend a little longer on removing the scratches from the previous stones.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Zamfir]

Hey mark. Good point. So what lapping film would be the next progression after the 1000 diamond stone not yet broken in? I have a new set on the way. Like what grit of 3m wetordry?

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