Chazz

Travis, you might want to run a piece of tape lengthwise down the knife from the ricasso or guard back to the heel covering the knife hinge, locking mechanism, liner and folding space.  This will keep any sharpening debris and steel dust out of the inner workings.  I think it’s easier to keep it clean then to clean it after sharpening it.

Hi Dusty,  Welcome to the Wicked Edge Forum.  Yes you’re right in your readings.  W.E. stones do have a bit of a break-in period.  Usually it takes about 10 knives for the stones to start giving their true results, and, usually it takes about 10 knives worth of effort, experience and practice for new users to figure it out how to do it.  The bigg…[Read more]

Welcome to the Wicked Edge Forum and Community Ozarks2.

Let me say this first off, the numbers engraved in the square bar are for reference only.  They are not calibrated to match every size and shape knife.  If you are using them as a reference point to start where you set the mini “L” brackets and also using the Digital Angle cube you may not s…[Read more]

Paul If I was taking a 4 months used edge I would first look at it under the USB microscope and determine it’s condition.  With the scope you should clearly see the difference between edge roll, damage and edge wear VS a burr you never removed.  That is, if you’ve used the scope enough during your sharpening practice to gain the experience to k…[Read more]

Travis I sent you a Private Message.

That made me chuckle.  I can tell you I carefully and respectfully handle my kitchen knives.  When I lay them down when prepping food I am very careful to place them where I won’t inadvertently bump the knife edge.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cut myself over the years when making a salad just by barely bumping against the blade of a kn…[Read more]

Here’s a copied and pasted email correspondence I sent to a Wicked Edge user and Forum member in an attempt to answer his question.  It is right in place in this forum thread so I thought it’d be appropriate to include it here:

There is something like you described you’re wanting, drawings showing how the knife clamping position affects the…[Read more]

Nice and unique knife, Travis. Looks good.   I think we all get to know our knife edges pretty intimately while they’re clamped in our WE vices blade up during our lengthy and deliberate sharpening sessions.  We see and learn every cm of steel over and over from every angle.  Sometimes, maybe often, we really didn’t take the time to look at wha…[Read more]

Maybe just clamp it on the round steel blade and rotate the handle in front of or behind the vice, depending on how you choose to position the round disc in the vice jaws.  Maybe you can draw a line with a sharpie marking the circular blade similarly to how the leather knife is shaped.  This may make it easier to mimmick how you clamp the l…[Read more]

You might purchase an inexpensive wheel pizza cutter to practice with.  This one’s close to your perspective knife’s diameter. If all you’re looking to do is learn the WE stone technique to sharpen a round blade this may be an inexpensive way to do that.  You may want to remove the handle, or not.

That’s all that really matters is that your happy with the results.  What angle did it match at?  D2 steel has a wide range of hardness, from 55 to 62, on the Rockwell C scale, depending on how it was hardened and tempered.  So the steel could be from what would be considered soft to pretty hard on the other end of the scale.

I’ll be curious to…[Read more]

If you exercise proper technique with the Wicked Edge, with successively finer grits in your progression the burr will work itself out and go away.  A few edge leading strokes towards the end of your step wise progress with each grit will remove the burr.

The only time I can imagine needing a belt sander/grinder is when your actually grinding…[Read more]

William I personally have never done a blade like this.  If I were to attempt it, I would think I could do it in two steps. I’d clamp it between the handle and the curved wing, on the back side of the vice.  I’d orientate it to give me full access to the about 2/3 thirds of the blade from in front to behind the handle and off the back edge.  I’…[Read more]

I have one sprayer that’s cracked, unusable and clogged.  I apply the emulsion by unscrewing the cap and painting it on with the sprayer straw.  I don’t care for that method because it seems like an easy way to cross contaminate the whole bottle.  I though about using a dropper top bottle from the crafts store but there’s really no efficient wa…[Read more]

Mutt,  I hold the sprayer so opening just touching the leather.  Then, for me, it sprays,  really,  applies a dollop of emulsion on the leather.  I do in five little spots down the length of the leather strips, (both sides).  Then I rub the same grit sides together in an attempt to spread the emulsion evenly across the entire leather strip…[Read more]

Ed, I sent you a private message.  To read it click the blue message notification on the black stripe at the very upper right of your browser window.

Thanks

Ed, I was really asking the question in relation to the pictured Forschner 40020, but I’m glad you answered it in terms of general practice.

I’m surprised by the variance in the readings along the edge of the “Old Timer” looking folding knife.  I see it’s almost double from the rear portion close to the handle as compared to the curve of the…[Read more]

NotSharpEnuf would you be so kind as to share us, Forum readers, the bevel angle and sharpening progression you used to achieve that difference in cutting performance.  Do you test or check the edge reading in more then one place on the knife edge to verify your technique is consistent across the entire knife edge?

Eric I believe you’re thinking you are grinding an angle on the knife.  You are grinding a flat plane, (i.e., the knife bevel), at an angle relative to the knife’s vertical position, on the knife’s edge.  The flat plane of the bevel moves parallel to the previous plane as each stone grit is removing steel every so slightly as you refine the b…[Read more]

Ian, the F & S Pro and the WE130 are exactly the same devices except for the vice mounts.  Also, the WE130, the F & S Pro and the Gen3 Pro, all three, utilize the same vice and clamping systems.  The mount is the portion that contacts the base or the table.  The WE130 is designed with a modern Euro Style sculpted blue anodized aluminum base in…[Read more]