Seeking Wusthof boning grit suggestions

[Wicked Edge Sharp Knives]

My friend is giving me two of her Wusthof boning knives for resharpening.  I plan on keeping the existing edge angle using the black sharpie pen method and I am anticipating that will be around 20 degrees.  She uses one of the boning knives for actual boning.  The other boning knife she uses as a vegetable chopper on a soft plastic cutting board.  I am thinking that I will probably need to start with 100 grit on both knives and work up the progression from there.  Here is what I am thinking:  For the knife used for boning, I am thinking of stopping the sharpening process at 600 0r 800 grit if I can achieve hair cutting sharpening.  I will use what I call “heal to tip downward strokes” to get the grit pattern optimized for pull cutting.  For the boning knife used for vegetable chopping, I am thinking about taking it to 1500 and then 6mu lapping film.  Both knives will be stropped with 10mu impregnated leather…. with the angle backed of 1 degree from the sharpening angle.  Does the above sound correct?  Would I benefit from a micro-bevel strategy?  Any suggestions.  Thanks.

[tcmeyer]

If they were my knives, I probably wouldn’t be much different from your proposed progression.  If you are going to maintain the original bevel angles, I would start with 400 grit.  With blades as thin as Wuesthoff boning knives, (I’ve got one) it shouldn’t take lower grits to bring ’em to a good edge, considering the use intended.  If you had some really bad chips, the 400 would certainly take longer, but the lower grits remove a lot of steel and boning knives don’t have all that much to spare.  For that reason, I wouldn’t try to completely remove every nick and ding.  Also, it wouldn’t help that much to have a pristine edge.

I think that the 800 will be a good choice for the boning knife (I resist the urge to call it a boner), but it doesn’t need to shave hair, as long as the edge is apexed well.  Polishing the bevels up with strops is a good idea, but don’t get carried away trying to make the bevels gleam.  Boning knives need the toothy edge.

As for angles, I use a standard go-to angle of 20 dps on my in-house miscellaneous knives.  In other words, if I don’t take the care or forget to record  the angles for any given knife, I can assume that it was sharpened to 20.  With “in-house” knives, I can watch how they stand up to use with whatever angle and make adjustments if necessary.  Nothing wrong with matching the factory angles.  Just pay attention to how they stood up to regular use when they come back for a touch-up.

Microbevels?  They certainly serve a purpose in adding toothiness to any low-angle polished edge.  I’m not sure that they protect the edge all that well from damage by making a more obtuse edge.  If there’s enough force being applied to damage the knife, a nearly-invisable microbevel won’t help.

FWIW; in woodworking, microbevels are used, but only to reduce the amount of steel to be removed in the honing and polishing steps.

Good luck!

Tom

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airscapes, Wicked Edge Sharp Knives

[Wicked Edge Sharp Knives]

Tom, Thanks for the thoughtful reply and sharing your experience and suggestions!

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