What am I doing wrong with my Micro fine ceramics?

[Derek Williams]

So I am pretty new to the WE product and love it. I have watched a ton of videos and have sharpened around 10 knives over the past week or so. Lets take a reprofile for this example and I am hoping someeone might be able to help me with what I am doing wrong.

Start with 100, create the bur just fine, then on thru to 1000. All is well and the edge looks great with my untrained eyes. Since I haven’t recieved my super fine ceramics I am using sandpaper, 1000, 1500, 2000 and finishing off with 2500. At this point the edge looks super viewing with a loupe. To me it’s just a great edge.

Here is where I must be doing something wrong. I go to the micro fine ceramics (course then fine) because I have them and figured it would only enhance what i already had to that point. This is were the edge, in my opinion, goes from very clean to no so good. Not sure how to describe no so good but it has way more scratches and only some areas that seemed to getting better. Just inconsistant. I then go to strops 5, 3.5 , 1mu and 0.5 mu and that recovers a bit, the edge i just seemed to degrade with the micro fine ceramics.

Last night I did the same process but skipped the micro fine ceramics, straigt to the strops and it was my best edge by far. Beautiful mirror and very sharp indeed. I could not find any flaws (like with the ceramics) but am new to this so someone else who is not a novice proably would have seeen several things they didn’t like. I was extrememly happy with the result.

Maybe I am not using enough pressure or strokes with the ceramics or something else. Should I be using up and forward, forward and back, up and down or a combination with these micro fine’s. I will be replacing the sandpaper routine as soon as the super fine ceramics show up. Although I am extremely happy with the sandpaper but it’s kind of a pain apply them.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Derek

[cbwx34]

Hey Derek…

You might try something simple first. Rub your ceramics stones together a little, and then try them. They might just have some extra abrasive on them that need smoothing out a bit.

[Mark76]

I don’t know what exactly is going on, but I did notice something odd.

Sandpaper is usually graded on the FEPA-P scale. That’s a different scale than the ANSI scale used for the Wicked Edge stones. Sandpaper P2500 is coarser than ANSI 1000. You can find a Wicked Edge grit comparison chart here and a more extensive chart here.

I agree with Curtis. Clay somewhere recommended rubbing the ceramics with diamond stones. This might make sense, since the ceramics are very hard.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Matthieu Methot]

I lapped my micro stones and they do preform much better but if you do lap your stones with your diamond stones make sure you go through all the grits and use every handle the fine ceramic is so hard it broke down the diamonds on the paddles I used and the ones I didn’t use feel like they are cutting more steel. On a good note it will break in your diamond stone. I am new to this still and I know there are people with better advice but this what I did. Also my micro stones weren’t very flat or not as flat as I liked.I hope this helps you.

[Derek Williams]

Thank you all for the advice. I would like to clarify a few things after reading your replies.

I understand the the sandpaper (P2500 as my sandpaper finisher) is on a different scale then the ceramics are measured. If I was going from P2500 to super fine (1200/1600 grit) then I believe i would bo going backwards. But since i don’t have the super fines (yet), i am jumping to what i do have (micro fine) (1.4/0.6 micron). So I think I am going from a rougher grit (p2500) down to a micro fine 1.4/0.6 micron.

On the “rubbing” the ceramics together, i would like to clarify if i am rubbing the micro’s together (course to course and fine to fine) and/or ceramics to diamond stones. Sorry for all the questions. It makes sense they may need flattening becuase I can see the more mirrored polish (after micro find ceramics) but only on a small portion of the entire edge (from the P2500 clean edge). Pretty much in the center of the entire edge. I am thinking, in the micros current state if i did 1000 passes then they might eventually hit the entire edge.

Thanks again for the responses.
Derek

[cbwx34]

Hey Derek:

Sandpaper wears pretty quick, so it will often produce a finer edge then it’s rated. I haven’t used sandpaper mixed in with other stones, so don’t know where they fit in, just thought I’d mention this.

You’re right, rub the corresponding grits together (coarse to coarse and fine to fine). If that doesn’t help, you can then lap them with a diamond stone. I lapped my MicroFine coarse with a fine diamond stone, and it performed much better. I think Clay went through a whole progression on his from the coarse diamond to the fine diamond. I tend to try the “least invasive” first, and see what happens. (Can’t add stone back!) 🙂

Hope that helps!

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