Sharpening critique

[Marc H]

I want to apologize to William and the Forum for the tangent and side discussion taken while I attempted to answer what should have been a relatively simple question about basic sharpening technique.  I am probably guilty of sharing too much detail and theory when a more simple and concise answer may have sufficed.  Whenever I have the opportunity as Forum participants and readers may know I like to share the theory and reasons behind the sharpening techniques we employ sharpening our knives with the Wicked Edge Systems.  As a kid when someone said “do it this way” or “you should do it like that”, I always said,”why?”  I have taken to using the forum as an opportunity to share more than just “we do it this way” or “you should do it like that”, while trying to blend the theory and some sharpening science, I’ve learned along my journey, when ever I can.

In attempting to answering Williams question posted above in this thread my sharpening experiences I shared took the thread off in a direction of discussion into areas of quite advanced sharpening technique and theories that made a simple discussion seem very confusing.  For this, I apologize.

The simple answer for William should have been,  we sharpen our knives, in most situations, each bevel side angles to the same angle setting when we determine they are different because with the WEPS, we can.  Our WE systems allows us to do this easily and repeatably with high precision and accuracy.  If you are a purist intending to leave your knife exactly like made, at the initial angles as set by the knife maker, different from side to side, while remove the least amount of steel, you can just as easily sharpening it that way. Either way the knife will cut and perform quite well when the bevels are ground and polished to a precise keen line at the apex, that our WEPS allow us to do.  Most of us do even out the angles for the visual aesthetics of shiny even bevels.  WE users tend to pride ourselves on knowing exactly what angles our knives are profiled to, when showing them off, and to make recording our sharpening settings and touch ups easier.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

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William

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