Question about getting shaving sharp edge

[Kevin Coughlin]

Hi, i just bought the Wicked Edge and i love it! I have the diamond strops up to 800/1000 and ceramic 1200/1600 and leather 3.5 and 5 and was just wondering what the best way to get my knife to a shaving sharp edge, i have done about 5 knives so far and am getting them very sharp but just not as sharp as id like them. For instance, my benchmade 5000 i did with a 20 degree angle on the left and 21 on right (21 on right because i heard angle is off on right side because of clamping, i may be wrong..) and i used all the grits and leather, i heard somewhere that i should microbevel the edge with the strops but i dont know what the hell it means, does that mean i should sharpen it regularly at 20 degrees and then set it to like 22 for when i use the leather?? Any thoughts and tips would be much appreciated, thanks, -Semper Fi

[Gary Crumb]

It will likely take a few more knives before your stones start to get broken in well. On the way there, you will notice your edges getting better and better. Just keep at it and remember to keep pressure very light, especially in the higher grits.
As far as microbevel, you have the right idea, but with the cow leather strops you probably don’t need to change the angle as there is some “give” to the leather and it will work fine as is. Usually, a micro bevel is added with stones, but like anything else, your mileage may vary.

[wickededge]

Hey Kevin,

Welcome to the forum. Please give this quick little tutorial a look: I just got my Wicked Edge and sharpened my first knife. It’s not as sharp as I thought it would be. What’s going wrong?. It addresses questions about getting your knife to that scary sharp level.

xuzme720 is right about letting the stones break in. Another good pointer is to use ever lighter pressure the finer you go in grits.

You probably don’t need an angle offset for that knife, it’s nowhere near thick enough to warrant it. The 5000 is only 0.130″ thick and the sharpener was calibrated to an average thickness of 0.125″. The extra 0.005″ thickness will barely even register as an angle change.

*I just did a test to see what kind of angle change I’d get with a 0.020″ shim added to the 0.125″ blade stock and found a variation of only .30 degrees. With a 0.005″ shim the change was only .05 degrees.

-Clay

[Chet Parks]

Kevin, Semper Fi back at you 😉
Chet

[cbwx34]

It will likely take a few more knives before your stones start to get broken in well. On the way there, you will notice your edges getting better and better. Just keep at it and remember to keep pressure very light, especially in the higher grits.
As far as microbevel, you have the right idea, but with the cow leather strops you probably don’t need to change the angle as there is some “give” to the leather and it will work fine as is. Usually, a micro bevel is added with stones, but like anything else, your mileage may vary.

This is correct… Micro bevels are set with stones, not a strop. Stropping should be done at the same or even at a lower angle than you sharpened at.

[Kevin Coughlin]

thanks everyone for getting back to me, i really appreciate it, i’ll keep the angle the same on either side from now on, and do you guys think 20 degrees is a good angle for the Benchmade 5000? And do you guys have any tricks or recomendations for degree and where to set my USMC Ka-Bar on WE, i did it at 20 but it takes way to much of the metal off the top inch and a half or more of the blade near tip, any feedback is much appreciated, i tried checking blade database but didnt see these two there, thanks again everyone and merry christmas

[cbwx34]

The easiest way for determining the angle, especially when starting out, is to match (or as close as you can), the bevel that is already on the knife. From there, you can decide how to adjust it, depending on how you use the knife. This page shows one method of doing this… How to Find your Angle.

As for taking off too much metal near the tip, adjusting the knife horizontally, will help control this. See this page… Finding the Sweet Spot.

[Josh]

The easiest way for determining the angle, especially when starting out, is to match (or as close as you can), the bevel that is already on the knife. From there, you can decide how to adjust it, depending on how you use the knife. This page shows one method of doing this… How to Find your Angle.

As for taking off too much metal near the tip, adjusting the knife horizontally, will help control this. See this page… Finding the Sweet Spot.

Even if you mount the USMC kabar almost at the very tip (i.e. the last part of the “flat” part of the blade just before the false edge and primary grind begin) you still will remove a good bit of metal near the tip… I have found it to be unavoidable, however, finding the sweetspot definitely helped minimize it. It is because the thickness of the steel near the tip is much greater than the rest of the edge in my opinion.

[cbwx34]

Even if you mount the USMC kabar almost at the very tip (i.e. the last part of the “flat” part of the blade just before the false edge and primary grind begin) you still will remove a good bit of metal near the tip… I have found it to be unavoidable, however, finding the sweetspot definitely helped minimize it. It is because the thickness of the steel near the tip is much greater than the rest of the edge in my opinion.

Good point… thanks for adding that in.

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