Need some advice from the pros
- This topic has 20 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 03/29/2021 at 12:28 pm by
.
-
Thanks for all the info everyone! I just ordered the WE130 and 800/1000 diamond stones. I want to get familiar with this basic setup and figure out what my next purchases will be(I already know there will be many more lol).
Congratulations, Bill! Welcome to the WE family. If you need to do a lot of reprofiling you will love adding the 50/80 grit stones. I just received mine several days ago and they will hog off some steel. I wish I would’ve bought them a year ago. They would’ve saved me a bunch of time and wear and tear on my 100 grit stones, not to mention my arms.
Congratulations, Bill! Welcome to the WE family. If you need to do a lot of reprofiling you will love adding the 50/80 grit stones. I just received mine several days ago and they will hog off some steel. I wish I would’ve bought them a year ago. They would’ve saved me a bunch of time and wear and tear on my 100 grit stones, not to mention my arms.
For every sharpening job, reprofiling or even just touch-ups for that matter, there’s the right grit for the job. It’s always prudent to start with a higher, finer grit and step back down to lower coarser grits only after you tried the finer less aggressive grits and learned that those grits required too much time and too much effort to remove that amount of steel you’re looking to remove. It’s always best to choose the right grit for the job. This takes user experiences.
Just because your doing an edge reprofiling does not mean you automatically reach for the big guns, your coarsest grits. The 50/80 grit is very useful in the right situation. As Robert said, “they will hog off some steel”. That can just as easily be a bad thing. More steel removed than is really necessary for the job at hand and for the type of steel your up against.
The 50/80 makes a big deep wide aggressive scratch pattern as it removes a lot of edge steel. That you’ll have to work back out with the successive finer grits in your progression. You never want to lay down scratches you don’t absolutely need to. You can always step down to a coarser grit when you determine it’s really necessary. Do that stepwise in the beginning. Till you gain some experience. You can never replace edge steel that’s removed with over zealous, over aggressive sharpening technique.
Go slow to start. Work on beater knives. Try each of the grits “on for size”. That is use them to observe what they do. Familiarize yourself with the various grit sharpening stones and their actions on different steels so when you sharpen your first good knives you’ll have an idea of which stone is the tool for the job.
I want to be very clear…I am not saying Robert is wrong. I’m just saying to the newcomers be careful. Always find and use the right grit for the job. Worn sharpening stones are often cheaper to replace then our cherished knives.
Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)4 users thanked author for this post.
Yeah, Marc is right! I sometimes forget that new people may not be very experienced with reprofiling and sharpening knives. So you do need to be careful and only use the courser grit stones when you need them, especially with knives. And I’m really OCD when it comes to removing steel – I like to remove only as much as necessary. But my previous absentminded post could lead someone to think otherwise.
My main enthusiasm for the 50/80 stones was with reprofiling chisels since I recently bought them along with my Chisel Attachment. They saved me so much time because naturally there’s more steel to remove on a chisel than on a knife edge. Plus the chisels will help me break-in the stones quicker. The gashes in the steel weren’t as bad as I expected, though. It really didn’t take much time to clean them up. Not nearly as much time as I wouldn’t spent trying to reprofile my chisels with just my 100 grit stones. But you do need to be much careful with knives.
I never went below 120 on my Lansky set, so I wasn’t even looking at the 50/80 for now. I can see where it would be a must have for chisels. I am debating on ordering the 1500/2200 with a set of strops. Being new to the Wicked Edge I am not expecting, or chasing a mirror edge until I get some time behind it. I just want to get the process down and have sharp knives at first. Is the 1500/2200 “necessary” after 800/100 and before a 5/3.5 micron strop?
1 user thanked author for this post.
The 800/1000 used last, when the progression up through there is done well, will leave you with a very sharp “working” edge. I finish every sharpened knife with at least the 4µ/2µ strop combination (on plain cow leather). That gives a good balance between smoothness, sharpness and polished appearance.
Overall results are more about the quality of the sharpening process used with each and every grit in your progression, the time spent, the effort applied and your attention to detail. The most important aspect overall, is the consistency of your stone work. This should be one stone done after the next the same way.
Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.