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I tried Al-O, with the same grit as diamonds. Diamonds are better. Al-O is getting filled with metal fast and it is virtually impossible to clean. With diamonds, all you need is wipe it with some alcohol. Diamonds last way longer than Al-O. So I would estimate, cost of use is approximately the same.

PS: Diamonds are expensive. I went to a quest to obtain a cheap films, only to find out – there is no such thing. Lowest price I got was $42 per 9″x11″ sheet (28 strips) $1.5 per strip. It’s bit cheaper than WE version, but it require some hoops jumping to get and you have to cut it.

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I don’t even use my strops any more. 400-600-800-1000 grit, then 60µ-30µ-15µ-6µ-3µ-1µ-0.5µ-0.1µ
And there is no dilemma with shiny vs sharp. It’s shiny and sharp. While it’s not perfect mirror finish, but it does look more than pretty to a naked eye.

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Snecx, M1rrorEdge

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Some feedback. I am in a similar situation. I tried lots of things for my kitchen knives. So far, I came up with following strategy – all knives are 15dps. Most of edge damage is coming from user errors. My wife hates me for pointing out all “bad” uses, such as cutting stuff on hard surfaces, throwing knife into sink and so on. With proper use, edge holds reasonably well. Even on X50CrMoV15. For the touch-up, I just mount knife to WE and give it couple passes with ceramic stone.

Initial sharpening is 100-200-400-600-800-1000, 60μm-30μm-15μm-6μm-3μm-1μm-0.5μm-0.1μm diamond films. 60/30μm is not really necessary. It is similar grit as 800 stone. I only use it, because my high-grit stones are still in break-in. Films give me more even surface.

That progression alone is enough for any kitchen use. Stropping might improve the edge by a tiny bit, but I really don’t see it’s effect on soft steel with narrow angles, so I don’t even bother.

It’s different with VG-10. I was working on Shun Classic couple days ago. After all diamonds, I also went through 14-10-5-3.5-1-0.5μm strops. And finished it with 0.25 Poly Diamond spray/0.125 CBN spray over kangaroo leather. It was whittling hairs with ease.

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SalisburySam, NotVerySharp

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It worked! I was surprised how easy is snapped back in. Just a little pressure and glass clicked into the slot.

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wickededge

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I tried 15µ first. It does create shiny edge. Not a mirror, but definitely an improvement over 1000 grit. My stones are fairly new, so I tried even lower grits films. 60µ and 30µ. That was interesting. Similar to 800/1000 grit, as far as I can eyeball it. May be when my WEPS stones are fully broken-in, 30/60µ won’t be necessary, but it does help for new stones.

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I got an email, WE will send a replacement. Thank you.

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wickededge

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Thin black line? It’s a marker on the back of diamond film. Glass size appears to be fine. Film fit it with zero tolerance. It simply looks like it was glued to handle tiny bit off center, so glass didn’t go in to plastic slot on one side.

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I need an advice from experienced mirror-edgers 🙂 So far, I am unable to get rid of 1000 grit scratches. My stones are fairly new, so I hope, this is a temporary issue.

At first, I was trying to do 1200/1600 ceramics, followed by 1.4/0.6 ceramics and then followed with strops. Now I am doing 15μm film after 1000 grit. It takes out ~90% of scratches and leaves me with pretty much mirror finish, with only several hair-like scratches. My plan is to try 60/30μm films. I wonder if that can do the trick.

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wickededge wrote:

I’ve moved away from using mine most of the time because I have easy access to lots of lapping films, but if I didn’t and the cost of the films was prohibitive, I’d definitely still be using my ceramics.

Clay, have you tried any other lapping films, besides of diamonds? I found that 3M is offering 268X series (Aluminum Oxide) and 468X (Silicon Carbide) PSA-backed films. I wonder how it will perform for sharpening?

Thank you.

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Same deal, I just got my set. Yup, it’s definitely feels like that special sauce, I’ve been missing for mirror finishes.

My set is bit more aggressive. It’s 5X steps. 15μm, 3μm, 0.5μm and 0.1μm, so it might require some extra work, but I clearly see the difference.

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OMG! What a tip! Amazing. How did you do it?

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Thank you! Great tip. Actually, I ordered diamond films from WE, so I have something to test against. I will also try sandpaper and AlOx films.

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What about sandpaper? As I understand, films are more durable, but a sandpaper is whole lot cheaper. I wonder if it makes more sense to grab 3k/5k/7k grit papers for ~$10 for 2 sheets each and produces 24 strips of abrasives. Even if it lasts only one use, it is still ~9 times cheaper than film strips from Wicked Edge.

1 sheet of film = $30, it contain 10 strips, $3 each, last 5 sharpenings = adds $0.60 per grit.
1 sheet of sandpaper = $1.88, cut to 24 strips, $0.07 per sharpening, per grit.

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