Ribstabsheart

You strop after every stone progression? If I recall correctly, you keep it at the same angle as the stones and take lots of care to not nick the leather.

After talking with you last time, I realized that I was rushing through things and started examining my bevels with a scope and taking my time to remove all the scratches. That really made a…[Read more]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>I dont see a “pack” of 1u/2u strops like the other ones, so I’ll probably get them separately. Given that I currently have 5 and 3, would make more sense to get those two vs the cow leather + emulsion bundles of 4/2 or 1/0.5.</p>
 

Is the softer kangaroo leather mostly used for finer grits? It would be fun to try, but…[Read more]

Thank you so much!

I can definitely tell the difference when I work slowly and alternate strokes (while I apply light pressure). At first, I was just kind of quickly doing it with long strokes, which is a very dangerous game to play when it comes to leather!🤣.

If I wanted to try out the emulsions, should I get anothet set of leather strops first? Not sure what…[Read more]

<span style=”color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”>Thank you, Marc!</span>

<span style=”color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”>I have noticed the pastes to be kind of flaky and tricky to work with, but I assumed that was mostly due to user error. Maybe I should give…[Read more]

Thank you for the clarification. I have to remember that while it looks catastrophic under the microscope, I can barely see it with my naked eye. Maybe I’ll try a couple swipes just to see how the edge changes under the microscope to better understand.

Thank you, Marc! I will read this post and take some notes. The file would probably be…[Read more]

Thank you! I think I’m just going to live with it for now (as its already a skinny paring knife), but filing down the edge makes a lot of sense considering how much I already worked at it and it has only slightly “shrunk”. Wondering if maybe a cheaper handheld file might be a better option (opposed to working down my 800 grit)? If I keep running…[Read more]

Spent a good amount of time getting familiar with my WE, and got the 1500/2200 grit stones yesterday. Still breaking them in (the one knife I used them on didn’t seem much different), so I’m withholding judgement on those for now 🙂 Overall, spending lots of time learning the different strokes, inspecting my work with a microscope, and being more…[Read more]

I know I’ve already said it a hundred times, but thank you once again! I felt like I was going crazy noticing a slight variation between the sides, and your explanation makes it all make much more sense. I put that knife aside to wait for your response, and noticed about a 1-degree difference when working on another, smaller blade. I’m sure that…[Read more]

Makes a lot of sense, thank you! My scope is similar, but seems to be “fixed” instead of able to zoom, so I may have to get another.

What is an indication you might need to angle the tip of the knife upwards/downwards? I’m working on a large chef knife currently, and the positioning of each side seems different. I can move the blade forward and…[Read more]

Thank you! I spent a good amount of time working on a few more of those steak knives, and took time to look at the edge to better understand what I feel. My scope can’t get much closer than that, but I have a pair of magnification goggles that I tried using and that let me get a little closer. It’s a little perilous putting my face so close to the…[Read more]

Thank you for the tips! Going to try out a few different ways to find the sweet spot when it comes to those bigger knives. I’ll send you a PM as well!

Went back to the basic steak knives I started with when I got my WE and tried to apply some of your tips. Started with 400 grit to get the burr going (since I already sharpened it once at…[Read more]

Thank you kindly! There’s so much good information here, need to keep digging for gold 🙂

Thank you so much for the offer! Having a way to securely lock the arms into place beyond the notches would be very handy; once I figure out how to PM I will do just that. Sounds like it just helps it “grip” from both sides? I’m definitely still working out how to find the sweet spot but am getting a little better at finding it with every knife…[Read more]

Wow! Thank you so much for taking the time to respond in such detail! I really appreciate it, and will do my best to go over everything and learn as much as possible 🙂

It is a relief to hear I’m not stuck with the depth key holes or the individual notches on the WE120.  I didn’t know that I could go outside of the 30-degree notch and still keep…[Read more]