Organic

I think Marc is right on in his follow up question. The 1500 grit diamond is a stone that you will want eventually because it is a very efficient followup to the 1000 grit. The 1200 / 1600 progression gives a very similar result to the 1500 diamond stone alone. For that reason, I would recommend the 1500 / glass over the 1200 / 1600 pair. Diamond…[Read more]

I would defer to Clay.

https://support.wickededgeusa.com/portal/kb/articles/how-to-clean-your-diamond-stones

Simple green will remove the plates from the handles. It dissolves the adhesive.

I thought you’d come to that conclusion after seeing the results up close. The progression from 1500# to the 6 micron diamond lapping film has been well vetted. Adding the 9 micron film would be unnecessary for the majority of use cases.

I would encourage you to read this thread from when the 1500 grit diamond stone was first released. It contains a discussion about which lapping films are the best to use after the 1500 grit and Clay posted some very informative microscope images to guide the discussion.

I asked that in an earlier thread. Clay said no, but that we will see something new at Blade 2019.

Wicked Edge has their own manufacturer for diamond plates. They treat the identity of that manufacturer as a trade secret.

“We keep the source of our diamond stones a carefully guarded trade secret ;-). I can tell you that they are monocrystalline diamonds.”

https://support.wickededgeusa.com/portal/kb/articles/how-long-will-the-diamond-stones-last

60-70 knives is unreasonably short life for WE stones even if they are used with a lot of pressure. They do wear in and become much less aggressive during initial use. They may have mistaken their nicely broken in stones for being worn out.

This is a design change. They no longer put lock nuts with the guide rods. I don’t see why you would need to lock the guide rods into the ball joint thread. They don’t work their way out during use in my experience.

Man, my reading comprehension is low today. Yes, protecting the pivot on a folding knife is a good idea while sharpening. I was thinking specifically about using tape to protect the inner workings of the generation 3 style clamp when I made my previous comment.

Welcome Brian!

I would like to comment that I have not found any of the precautions you mentioned to be necessary for the proper functioning of my sharpener. The ball joints on my rod arms are every bit as smooth today as they were on day one and I have used them without any covering over a period of two years. The same goes for my generation 3…[Read more]

Have you read MarcH’s thread on how to find the sweet spot? The depth key holes are just a starting point and you won’t always end up with the knife resting on the depth key once you find the sweet spot. You did the correct thing by using the results to guide your clamping position.

That’s a seriously wide bevel. What angle was that?

It is easier if the knife is a flow through design. In that case you just need good lighting and close examination. If the back of the knife is closed then it is more difficult and I don’t think you can know unless you take it apart or find photos of the knife disassembled somewhere online.

One of the YouTube knife guys that I follow made me aware of that issue. He enlarged the sharpening choil on his Benchmade 940 and ended up ruining the blade because the edge was hitting the spine of the handle upon closure. He had to send it back to Benchmade to get a replacement blade (which they do for $25 if I recall correctly).

That will solve your plunge grind issue without a doubt. I think it is perhaps a little larger and deeper than I would have gone with, but it looks cleanly executed and like it could have been done that way from the factory.

I would leave the point for now. You have to be careful when doing these kinds of modifications to folders because…[Read more]

This is a problem with many modern knife designs. It is my opinion that a properly crafted knife should include a sharpening choil to allow for the end user to easily sharpen the blade. Like Marc said, you can add a sharpening choil to the blade without too much effort, but it will change the look of the knife.

You should add your photo to the Super Polished Edges thread.

I have the same experience. I don’t know enough to say for certain whether or not that is normal.

Strops do a lot to bring an edge to its fullest potential.

That looks good! What progression did you end up using?