Super polished edges

[Anonymous]

Getting a bit better… Zero Tolerance ZT 350 Tiger

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Mark76, Josh

[Mark76]

For me the easiest way to an almost mirror edge is the full diamond progression followed by the ceramics and then WE 5/3.5 mu stropping compound on leather. This paste has a burnishing quality that other stropping compounds don’t have and works great if you want a mirror edge.

For a full mirror edge I always used to use waterstones. 10K Chosera or 15K (or even 30K) Shapton as the finisher.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Josh]

^ Looking great Bill!!

________________________

 

15 dps, hair whittling

 

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wickededge, Mark76

[CliffCurry]

Spyderco Delica 4 Titanium/Damascus   Its not a safe queen…its a Shelf King!  Ive had the knife for a while and finally decided it was its time to shine.

10dps, 1.8mm bevel width, .0075in thickness at the shoulder.  Sharpening was done using diamond paddles 100-1000 grit followed by 1500 & 2000 grit 3m wet/dry, and finally lapping film 12u-.3u.  Didnt strop, used .3u film to set the final edge.

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wickededge, Alan

[Mark76]

Wow, that’s incredible, Cliff! I also love the video. What did you use to make it? My phone cannot make such videos. And what knife is it? I didn’t know Spyderco made damascus blades.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[CliffCurry]

Thanks Mark!  Its a Spyderco Delica 4 Titanium/Damascus and for me personally a highlight of my limited collection along with a Dragonfly I still havent touched yet.  Another rainy day project.  Its good to have backup things to sharpen.

Been a while since I sat down and really knocked one out.  But with a system this precise I really wanted to show what it can do, and challenge myself at the same time. 

I took photos and videos of it under magnification and documented that at each step all previous scratches had been removed and it was remaining a flat surface.  As we know its easy to rock a paddle and multi-facet the face but the nylon bushings I had previously  installed in the paddles remove 99.999% of play and allow for the much higher degree of accuracy and repeatability.

Thats the other reason I use the same 1000 grit diamond paddle to attach all my strips to, so there is no adjustment needed with a VSTA to complicated things.  Its simple really if you have the patience, just take it to 1000 and finish with strips.  Simple!  haha

The video was uploaded to YouTube and it has a built in feature to allow you to add music.  My 8yr old kid just taught me that. LOL

Aloha, Cliff

[Alan]

Wow.  Beautiful job, Cliff!  Amazing photos and video. And without any stropping to boot! Very, very nice.

 

Alan

[Josh]

Very nice Cliff! It is hard, when reprofiling, to get all of the scratches out and especially w/ such a wide bevel! 

[Readheads]

Cliff, real nice.  Could you post a couple of your magnified pics to get a view of the edge ?  Now I’m getting excited.

[tcmeyer]

I hadn’t heard of the Delica in Damascus either, so I checked the Spyderco site.  I found that the model number is C11TIPD, listed at $260 and that Spyderco was “out of stock.”  I then checked Amazon and see that it is available at $164.  Pretty knife, even with the ugly-assed Spyderco format.

 

Cliff:  What was the factory angle?  Why did you choose 10 dps?  Was it just to show off??  (Nothing wrong with that!  If you got it, flaunt it! Or as Walter Brennan said as Will Sonnet; “No brag, just fact”).

[Mark76]

CliffCurry wrote:

I took photos and videos of it under magnification and documented that at each step all previous scratches had been removed and it was remaining a flat surface. […] My 8yr old kid just taught me that. LOL Aloha, Cliff

Cliff, would you care to tell us what magnification thing and camera you used? I’m really curious how you did that.

And since a short while I’ve got the WE diamond films. I’m impressed by them and I intend to do some sharpening soon in which I try to remove nearly every scratch from the previous stone/film to get the perfect mirror edge. Takes time, though .

By the way, by accident I discovered WE now also offers very fine stropping sprays. I’d already gotten them from Ken Schwartz, but I think it is a good move – this is the best you can get on the market. (The accident is that the Dutch reseller of the WEPS also sells these stropping sprays. I was hugely amazed to see that these sprays are available in a shop that is only 40 km from my house.)

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[CliffCurry]

Thanks guys!  It was indeed just a labor of love done for the fun of it because I can sort of thing and to use as a sort of business card when meeting people.  I know it will never be used hard so figured why not go deep(or narrow in this case).

I met an old local friend last week and showed him a blade that would pop hair off your arm, he begrudgingly said it was “pretty sharp” and that he’d seen sharper sort of thing…this may get his attention and his business in the future.  I think when I say I sharpen knives some people think Im scraping them on a rock in my driveway…

There’s no mystery to the video technique….I just placed my cell phone in the bench and moved the blade up & down.  The zoom is disabled when filming for some reason but focused decent enough.

Mark, I have 1u & .5u emulsion sprays and a .25u stinky smelling paste from Ken.  I just trying to find a strop material I really like for the final final light stropping.  I got frustrated in the past because a single micro particle of contaminate with put scratches all over a flawless surface.  With the disposable alO2 films you get a fresh piece every time.

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Mark76

[CliffCurry]

Readheads wrote:

Cliff, real nice. Could you post a couple of your magnified pics to get a view of the edge ? Now I’m getting excited.

Heres a quick video I made yesterday after the 1500 & 2000 grit wet/dry just as I was starting the final lapping film progression.  My super elcheapo x400 scope($20?) doesnt take great photos but the live images are usable when shifting angles.  This was shot on low magnification too btw.
I have another side project to get the best quality optical magnified images on a budget I can, but thats a work in progress. 

It definitely scratches a certain OCD itch for me.  Im doing several more videos and hope to cover my equipment setup soon.  In particular the inexpensive nylon inserts remove much of the worry about multi-faceting the bevel.  If possible I hope to document that and talk about how to fix and better yet avoid in the first place.  Im a video rookie so nowhere to go but up I hope!  I was a sharpener rookie and a photo rookie too all within about the last year. LOL

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wickededge

[Anonymous]

I have another question… I may be as dumb as I look, but I am smart enough to ask questions….. this whole sharpening idea, has so many interesting twists and turns… But here is the question…. it has to do with the edge, and not the bevel…

!) isn’t it the edge that does the cutting, ( of course it is ) the actual cutting occurs at the apex and not .125 inch from the apex.. whether or not the bevel is mirrored or scratchy.

Isn’t it the angle of the tip  and the straightness that does the cutting, more acute cutting easier, but more susceptible to distortion. More obtuse, being less susceptible to distortion but with more resistance to cutting easily.

I know these are simple question… I also understand the relation ship between at action created by to different bevels depths.

I can see the value of a pretty bevel, mirrored, but does it have any practical application in the act of cutting. I’ve used #600 grit stones as my final finish, with a toothy edge and was able to scare myself with the sharpness, when using a test tomato.

So whether or not, my edges conform to some micro tolerance that can only be seen under heavy magnification. Does this quest only feed the ego, or do you people show off your edges to other and bring along a microscope.  These micro tolerances seem to have little effect on the actual cutting process.

If I show off my EDC to someone, I would rather it be mirrored ( something that they can see ) than it be dull and scratchy.

In my opinion, this quest would be like taking a potato, and cutting it into exact squares with exact 90* cuts, and all with the same specific gravity. So they are uniform in the fry pan.  They look good in the pan, and should all fry in the same way, insuring exacting softness/ hardness, etc.  as long as the heat is uniform. I know its a far cry from a knife edge, but just an analogy… A knife only has one function, cutting. It also has aesthetic value.  So the question is, how much emphasis is on the cutting process, and how much is on the aesthetics.  are these aesthetics , for personal gratification? because to the average person looking at your knife, they could not appreciate the aesthetics, anyway.

Please keep in mind, that I mean no disrespect to those seeking this high water mark for sharpening… I just don’t understand the motivation. That’s why I used the cutting the potato in  perfectly cut and weighed cubes. No one would know but me…

Bill

Just adding some discussion, to help me understand all this calculus, deflection and geometry to something designed to cut a tomato.

[tcmeyer]

Bill:  Depending on what you are cutting, a polished bevel will slide through the media more easily than a more roughly finished bevel.  I find this is especially true with flesh.  A 600 grit edge will certainly bite you, but a polished edge will cut deeper before you notice it.   Try it out with a tomato.

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CliffCurry

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