Drew

I was seeing this from stone to stone. The 50-80 was too course to tell, and each grit was easy enough to correct for with enough scrubbing. The 800-1k was just where it got too difficult to correct for, and it dawned on me what I was seeing, and how serious a problem it was.

That is an excellent test. I’m going to digest for a bit, hydrate,…[Read more]

I’m real sorry if I’m just not seeing something simple, right in front of me. Like trying to tell a driver the car won’t go cause the parking brake’s on, and them not getting it.

I’m going to take a break from this, and reread the posts with a rested, fed, and watered brain.

My brain hurts, but I’ll try. Tell me if this is correct figuring:

If the blade’s locked in, but off center by 2 degrees, that’d just make an assymetrical grind. 13° one side, 17° the other. This’s been ground from raw stock at 15° per side. As long as it doesn’t jiggle, you’d have a 13/17 split, with similar contact between all flat st…[Read more]

Listen, I do appreciate the feedback and troubleshooting.

This has been a uniquely bad day, and it’s probably showing itself through my text.

I will probably bring this up to WE customer service. I can’t seem to tighten anything else without these changes in angle happening between grits.

Thank you all for your suggestions. Keep them…[Read more]

I’m not noticing any play, and the hex screws are tight tight, as is the lever for the cam. Angle cube isn’t registering any weirdness.

This is the position it’s been in since the 50 grit. I haven’t removed it since the start of the project.

Here’s another experiment: same as before, but with both paddles. First pics are the 800, 15°,…[Read more]

Second rotation:

I’ve actually done a post on convex scratching that looks to have been this issue. I changed my stone holding grip, and the issue of scratches remains.

The knife isn’t moving, the cube registers nothing unusual.

Here’s an experiment I just did: I blacked the bevel, cubed the 1k to 15°, removed the marker which showed the part of the bevel…[Read more]

PS, not sure if helpful before I check everything: I can use the 600, right is low, left is high. Scrub to a reading if 15° flat from apex to back of bevel. Take an end reading of 15° solid. Wipe and switch to 800, cube to 15°, scrub, and the problem is reversed: right is high, left is low.

I’ll go through the screws, tightening them.  It’s weird: I can scrub, then check the cube, and it’s right on 15, or just off by .05. I’m not seeing evidence of play.

I’ll check to tighten everything I can. My thought is, if it’s clamped and secured, not moving, could there be something up with the cube, or the wear in each grit of stone? If…[Read more]

Unfortunately, I’ve adopted the habit of always holding at the bottom, and never letting my finger-top from going above the apex. This was after your all’s suggestion to do so a few weeks back. It’s consistent.

So, barring slop in the stones and rods, what else could it be? When consistent with form, clamp nice and tight with no play in the…[Read more]

Marc: I imagine more experience has a lot to do with it. I’m just grateful to have eliminated that .3° rock in the paddles. I swear the scope shows cleaner bevel edges. I keep cringing when I think that I’d been putting the equivalent of a .3 microbevel on just parts of the blade…

Here in a few months, I’ll look into one of those cubes. The…[Read more]

Ok, I did a few days of convexing, holding the stones at the bottom, and taking readings from the bottom of the stones. I’ve got to tell you, I will never hold the stones up high again as a default technique again. I can feel the shape of the edge so much more finely, and my bevels have never been so crisp.

I highly suggest telling newbies about…[Read more]

I just checked, and with knife contacting center of stone, there’s .3° change between top and bottom pressure… Just spent 10 minutes staring at the WE, going “…huh.”

I sure as sin’ll be holding from the bottom now, but it complicates using the cube on the 1.5k stone. I’ve always taken readings from top closest corner. I didn’t find any…[Read more]

MarcH: Gotcha. That’s a really good suggestion. I’ll pay attention to the finger placement on the stones, and find a position that’s comfortable and repeatable.

The neighbors must think I’m either a tweaker or on the spectrum. In my hut on the pitch black lava, headlamp on, scratching arcs over and over for hours at night… Maybe I do have a…[Read more]

MarcH: Seriously? That’s a juicy tidbit. Main pressure on the top three finger indents, or fingers placed from top, then palm lower?

I wonder if this has been throwing off the cube, too. I measure each time from top level with stone. Do you place cube top to measure, or mid stone?

I know I’ll be changing a bunch of variables at once, but I’ll…[Read more]

tc: got it. And the 1k on up doesn’t remove much steel, like you said, so you don’t have to worry about erasing each bevel when you go through polishing. It sounds like a smart plan.

I’ll apply it this afternoon instead of the 14° apex, 20° apex, + 2 intermediate bevels method.

Actually, on rereading your first post, it sounds like you do all the bevels below at 800, with 400 suggested on machete. I’ll bet I was using to aggressive a grit and scratching the bevels above.

tc: I’ll definitely try that. I have to experiment with alternating scratch patterns. I’ve been focusing solely on scrubbing and up-forward strokes, but it sounds like too good of a skill to pass up.

How do you determine the lowest grit to start each bevel below the primary? I want to avoid scratching the main bevel each time I drop down in…[Read more]

Tc: that’s an interesting progression. Very possibly a high-contol method. Good God, 8 bevels… Though, I’m intrigued by the possibility of only 4 strokes per grit per bevel. I had been finishing each bevel up to 6um platens, thus the scratching on the apex bevel by the 600 grit used just below it…. If one were to finish off polishing grit for…[Read more]