order between stones, strops and 3M micro lap film

[Kraig Davis]

Hello everyone, I just ordered the WE pro system + extras. I haven’t got my kit yet, but there’s something I hope you could answer for me, has on to what sequence of stones, strops and 3M micro lapping film you would use? Has on the order you would progress through every thing. Here’s what I got. 100/200 grit stones, 122/69.5 microns. 400/600 grit stones, 22/16 microns. 800/1000 grit stones, 12/7 microns. 1200/1600 grit stones, 5/2.85 microns. 5/3.5 micron diamond paste, 1,.50,.25,.050 diamond spray and also 9,5,3,1,.3 3M micro lapping film which is 1800,4000,8000,14000,50000 grit respectively.
So do I do all the stones first, or go by grits or microns in their perspective order? Any info on the order you would do it is appreciated. Thank You!

[Leo James Mitchell]

Hello everyone, I just ordered the WE pro system + extras. I haven’t got my kit yet, but there’s something I hope you could answer for me, has on to what sequence of stones, strops and 3M micro lapping film you would use? Has on the order you would progress through every thing. Here’s what I got. 100/200 grit stones, 122/69.5 microns. 400/600 grit stones, 22/16 microns. 800/1000 grit stones, 12/7 microns. 1200/1600 grit stones, 5/2.85 microns. 5/3.5 micron diamond paste, 1,.50,.25,.050 diamond spray and also 9,5,3,1,.3 3M micro lapping film which is 1800,4000,8000,14000,50000 grit respectively.
So do I do all the stones first, or go by grits or microns in their perspective order? Any info on the order you would do it is appreciated. Thank You!

Hi Kraig
I don’t use the 3M lapping film anymore now that I have the complete set of Chosera stones, but when I did use the stuff, I took things in order. I used all the paddles from the coarse to the finest including the ceramic paddles…from there I jumped right to the lapping film and used it from the most coarse to the finest grits. Since there was an odd number of film grits, I stuck the finest grit on the back of a wooden paddle and stropped the blade edge-first and then a few light strokes trailing the edge to finish up. The results were very good but the film does wear out quickly and it becomes expensive as well as cumbersome to change and rechange over and over again. I get an even better result with the Chosera stones and they show little wear since I only use them on my collectors items.
I hope this helps.

Leo

[Kraig Davis]

Thanks for the advise Leo!

I guess what I really was trying to comprehend was if you followed order by grit or micron. I just didn’t want to get all the way down to the 1600 grit stone (2.85mic) then go back up to 9 mic film and backtrack if you know what I mean.

[Leo James Mitchell]

Sorry Kraig for not being clear. I haven’t used the 3M film for some time now but I had it all figured out back then such that I didn’t repeat grits/microns….there is a table somewhere that translates grits to microns and visa-versa of the various diamond paddles and stones…the compounds, diamond sprays etc. are known quantities so that one could follow numerically down on through…and the 3M stuff is known too so it was easy to avoid repeating an abrasive feature already used.I don’t have that table anymore but Tom from Jende Industries does and I am pretty sure Clay does too. Perhaps one or the other can put that chart up for us.
Hmmm! Is what I said clear this time I wonder. I hope so. LOL!

Leo

[Scott Babineaux]

From the 2.85 micron 1600 ceramic stone I go to the 1 micron polishing tape. If you have 0.3 micron tape do it next the move on to the diamond sprays starting at 0.25 micron; skip the 0.5 micron.

Here is the link to the grit comparison chart:

Grit Comparison

[Leo James Mitchell]

OK, here is the chart with some interesting comparative grit and micron equivalents. Maybe this will be helpful!

The 3M Lap Films are marked with the micron readings.

Cheers
Leo

[Kraig Davis]

Thanks for all the info everyone. You were a great help!

[Mark76]

I am about to buy the Wicked Edge system, probably from the German reseller. Living in Europe, that avoids me having to pay high import taxes and transport costs.

I’ll buy at least the base package, with the 100/200 stones and the 400/600 stones, as well as a pre-drilled base, which the German guy seems to make himself. I’ll likely also order the 800/1000 stones.

From there on, I’m so not sure. If I base myself on this grit table, I could either get the strops with 5/3.5 micron stropping paste for polishing after sharpening at 1000 grid. And then even finer stropping stuff, if I wanted to.

Or instead I could get the 1200/1600 stones. If I wanted to do stropping afterwards, I’d have to start with 1 micron stropping spray (since 1600 grit translates to 2.85 microns). And again, I could go even lower if I wanted to.

My goal would be really to obtain a mirror edge. Which of the two approaches would you recommend? Start stropping after the 1000 grid stones or also use the 1200/1600 stones? Is stropping even necessary after using the 1600 stones?

In this respect I am a bit confused by the video in which Clay sharpens a knife with a somewhat convex edge (the CRK Sebenza – which I own and want to sharpen to perfection) and starts stropping already at 10 microns (presumably after finally sharpening at 800 or 1000 grid) and then moves down to “only” 5 microns. Using this he is able to get a mirror finish. But according to some other messages you need stropping at smaller micron sizes for a mirror edge.

So basically my questions boil down to: if I want to obtain a mirror edge, what would I do after having sharpened my knife on a 1000 grid diamond stone:
* Start stropping at 5 microns, then 3.5 microns and possibly even less microns, e.g. 1 micron?
* Continue sharpening at 1200 and 1600 grid, and then stop?
* Continue sharpening at 1200 and 1600 grid, and then strop at 1 micron or even lower?
* Or an entirely different strategy, for example what Craig showed in his Sebenza video?

And a related question: how far do you need to go with sharpening/polishing in terms of micron size in order to get a mirror edge?

I know there are also Shosera stones out, by let’s leave them out of this equation, for the time being, not to make this already complex discusssion overcomplicated.

Thanxalot for your answers!

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

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