Anarchy84
@anarchy84
active 2 years, 1 month agoForum Replies Created
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Good call on the angle cube, Marc. A definite must have. A chisel tipped Sharpie, some painter’s (or aluminum) tape, and a few good microfiber cloths are also very helpful.
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Personally, I would avoid ceramics. As a relatively new user myself I don’t really see the point with the recent introduction of the 1500 grit diamond stone. My recommendation would be:
100-1500 grit diamond stones
2 sets of blank glass platens
Diamond lapping films (9, 6, 3, 1, 0.5 micron)
Kangaroo / balsa strop with emulsions or sprays
I have gotten incredible results on my Gen 3 Pro using this progression.
Just my two cents
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Sorry to hear this, Mark. Get well soon!
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That’s some great looking work! It’s pretty amazing how fast someone can go from being a new user to obtaining results like that.
Thanks man. I agree completely. A month ago I had never sharpened a knife in my life. Just strops and Spyderco Sharpmaker to maintain my edges. Pretty wild how easy the Wicked Edge makes it for a novice to get good results.
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Just for informational purposes, the progression I’ve settled on is:
100-1500 diamond stones
Jende diamond lapping films – 9, 6, 3, 1, and 0.5 micron
Kangaroo strops loaded with 0.25 and 0.1 Jende diamond emulsion at 0.5 degrees lower than primary sharpening angle
This has worked insanely well for me.
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nope…Mark76, only what you bought… What are you guys looking to achieve using the DLFs? Besides doing these tests looking for problems, why are you using films? Unblemished mirror shine? or super thin sharp edge? I don’t think you can beat strops for smoothest, cleanest, shine. IMO
I’m not too concerned with perfect mirror edges, personally. I want my knives to be as sharp as possible while also being sharpened to a degree / grit applicable for my intended use.
I have a fixed blade that I use for yard work that I sharpened to 200 grit and then stropped. The edge isn’t pretty, but damn does it cut.
On my higher end folders I am perfectly happy with the shine that comes straight off the diamond films. It’s not a perfect mirror, but it’s screaming sharp and reflects light well enough. Still, I will lower the angle by 0.5 – 1.0 degree and do a few strokes on the strop. I feel it helps cutting performance on EDC folders.
I have Wicked Edge films in 6, 3, 1, 0.5 and 0.1. I recently picked up a set of Jende films in 9, 6, 3, 1 and 0.5 micron. My results have been much better with the Jende films. I don’t think it’s because they’re better, necessarily. I attribute it to going from 1500 diamond to 9 micron film. That jump seems to be more fluid in the progression.
For what it’s worth I end my progression (after the 0.5 film) with 0.25 and 0.10 Jende diamond emulsion on kangaroo strops. This has worked extremely well.
Greetings, airborne!
As a relatively new user myself, I feel your pain in finding informative videos. There are plenty of videos showing people sharpening a knife, but very few that show the nuances of the system itself.
As far as finding the sweet spot, this is what I do:
1. Put the knife in the clamp, rest it on the depth key, but do not clamp it down.
2. Put a fine grit stone on the guide rod.
3. Let the stone go all the way down to the bottom of the guide rod and then rest the stone against the flat portion of the blade.
4. Using your thumb (or a piece of tape), note the exact location where the stone is touching the blade.
5. Move the stone along the blade and watch how the spot marked by your thumb / piece of tape interacts with the blade. Move the blade forward or backward in the clamp until the spot you marked hits the blade edge all the way to the tip.
Make sure you keep the stone at the bottom of the guide rod throughout the process. No need to move the stone up and down the rod.
Please note that your piece of tape may not make perfect contact with the entire blade edge on every knife. It depends on the size and shape of the blade. This procedure is simply the best way I’ve found to quickly locate the general area of the sweet spot. It’s not always perfect, but it will get you very, very close.
You can use the sharpie trick outlined in the user manual to fine tune if necessary.
Hope this helps.
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