Jacob
@firesharp
active 4 years, 3 months agoForum Replies Created
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Thanks. Guess I’ll just pony up and buy the 1500 stone!
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Total noob question but I can’t figure out how to mount my WE120 to the paperstone base. The base came with two small washers but no screws. There was two screws in the WE120 package but aren’t long enough when used in conjunction with the washers. Am I doing something obviously wrong? Missing the proper screws? Feeling annoyed….
Just got a 120 about a month ago. Mine also wouldn’t work with the washers
amd is exactly as you described. I just mounted it without the washers and it worked fine. This is what I did:
Tragic. I just joined and he was so helpful to me!
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When I first got my Wicked Edge it was hard for me to determine what type edge worked best. I tried everything: low angles, obtuse angles, strops, no strops, micro-bevels, super polished edges. I was sharpening knives only for myself. The bottom line was I just wanted to play, learn and experiment. The downside was I never left anything well enough alone, and long enough to use it to really determine what worked well. Now a few years later down that road I do practice a little patience. I do sharpen for others so I can see what works on a knife that is used for some time, between sharpenings. Now I do use my blades for a while to give myself an opportunity to see how they perform. A micro-bevel does have it’s place. When I use one I do like a 17º-20º pair. I apply the microbevel with about three light strokes with the microfine or ultrafine ceramics followed with a quick light strop at 18º. You can barely see the bevel and it seems to share attributes of both angles. It cuts well and has a little more durability.
I can definitely relate to where you were at in the beginning because that’s exactly what I’m going through! I have a few that I’ve sharpened that I wish I would’ve done differently. I don’t want to change it without using it but I also want to try different things!
Patience is a virtue and I need to practice it lol
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I’ve done a lot of the 17/20 microbevels, but I’ve gotten a bit less enthused by them. There are supposedly two benefits provided by microbevels: Less prone to chipping and the addition of a bit of “tooth” to cut into slippery, tough materials. While it’s not usually pointed out, there’s a third benefit. Microbevels can make the touch-up of the edge very easy. I haven’t seen an improvement in “chip resistance” with microbevels, so I only use them for special applications, like filet knives, again, with the 17/20. I also put a microbevel on most skinning knives, but the angles are greater, maybe 20/24. The objective is to easily cut the connective fibers with the toothy microbevel and the higher angles are to help avoid accidental cuts into the hide. I usually create the microbevel using three very light strokes per side with my 1000-grit stones. In most cases, the owner can’t even see the microbevel, other than the lack of reflected light when compared to the main bevels. Some have reported success using as low as 200-grit for a microbevel. With very thin blades, the main bevels may be so narrow that a second touch up of the microbevel would remove almost all of the main bevel.
If I sharpen my pm2 at 17• every time the blade is gonna start getting some serious metal removed after not too long. When I need to resharpen do I just do a few strokes at the microbevel angle? Sorry if this is a silly question, I’m still learning and trying to get the best edges possible without wasting metal!
I think that more acute angles will result in deeper damage to the edge. I believe you are spot-on in the inference that 17 dps will result in more metal being removed per sharpening. If you continue to do touch-ups with the microbevel stone, the microbevel will continue to grow, until it entirely replaces the main bevel, at which time you can revert to the lower angle to re-establish the main bevel. You can save a bit of metal here by not trying to reach all the way to the apex with your main bevel grit. That’s all metal that will be removed by the microbevel anyway.
Do you strop after the microbevel passes?
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Hey Jacob, I do utilize a micro bevel on most edges but not all. I do most of my maintenance with a steel for kitchen knives and use a strop every fourth or fifth steeling. Edcs I maintain mostly with strops on a WE or a hand strop but use the last stone used when sharpening every so often and strop after. Even on the knives I use the most I don’t have to resharpen or touch up with a stone more than every 6 months or so and even then I’m not taking much metal like you do when you sharpen a knife for the first time with the WE. A touch up with the last stone used when sharpening in most cases will reset the bevel and make it good for another 6 or so months. I don’t go thru the whole progression when re-sharpening and don’t remove much metal at all unless there is damage that require a new edge to be created. The 2 angles that I use the most are 15 deg with a 17 deg micro, and 17 deg. with a 20 deg. micro. The 15/17 angle I use for most of the kitchen knives except the paring knives. For paring knives and most of the other edges I do 17/20 is the one I use the most. For me a 2 to 3 deg angle difference works as good as anything I’ve tried. In this configuration when you steel and/or strop you will create a convex bevel over time because the high point is where the bevels meet so when stropping and steeling the union of the 2 bevels is where the most metal comes off initially. I think a micro bevel is way more forgiving when maintaining by hand especially and I am certain that for me helps with edge retention. If your edcs are going dull on you quicker than you would expect then play with the angle up or down and see if a different angle will hold the edge longer. When maintaining on my WE, I only need to strop it and usually no a crazy amount. I think you should be able to keep your knife sharp without having to re-sharpen every couple weeks. What angle are you working with on your edc ? This is not a silly question at all. After learning to put a great edge on a knife the most important thing after that (other than safety) is learning to maintain an edge at the sharpness you desire without taking a crap load of metal and wearing the thing out in a few short years.
I’m still in the learning phase of “what angles to use” on my knives. Currently I’ve been trying to match the factory edge but so far I have yet to find a knife that has the same angle on each side. It’s caused a bit of confusion when trying to select what angle to sharpen at. So I’ve been doing some sort of reprofiling on most of my knives.
Most of my edc knives are Spyderco’s so I’ve been using around a 17-18 degree bevel it seems. My ZT 0562 had a very wide bevel, I think 24 degrees per side.
Bekng able to select my angle is new to me. Before, when I had a sharpmaker I couldn’t really choose. Now I can choose and it’s opening up a whole new world!
Also, that makes sense about touch ups. I was thinking I would need to go back through all my grits every time and I realize that is a waste of metal.
Good discussion!
I achieved my first “wicked edge” last night on a 7” santoku kitchen knife. I’m up to 6 knives sharpened on the system and I am getting more confident. I think I have not been getting a true burr formed. This last knife I kept sharpening on the initial stones until I felt a big burr.
Im starting to think that what I think is a burr is not actually a burr.
But Wow! This knife is sharp. I was slicing grapes paper thin.
