Scott

[Scott]

BUT, please, use your knife… you can’t get there if you don’t try to cut things…

Phil

Phil,

I know, I know… It’s like driving a new car home from the dealer. Maybe you know what I mean, you park at the far end of the grocery store so no one scratches it with their carts, or you park it in the garage instead of leaving it out. I love the look of the knife. It has a stone wash blade and it is contrasted by a beautiful mirror finished bevel, the best I have been able to achieve. But now, it is time to start driving it in the rain (so to speak) and I need to get a few scratches on it. Because that is why I paid the big bucks for it and decided to carry it to begin with. I have just been having so much fun achieving the best edge and bevel I have ever been able to create.

So now, on to getting some of the use out of it that I wanted to. It’s interesting because Grayman who makes it is a military guy and makes his knives to be used under harsh, actually in theater war situations. He sends them out with a very very toothy edge which I polished and sharpened out.

So, consider me properly schooled. Not to sound like a cry baby, but I have been enjoying the sharpening for the sake of perfection on a certain level and now I need to bring some of the skill I have developed into creating a great all round use knife and maybe have it look a bit better than it did at conception.

Thanks for the bucket of cold water, I needed that. :ohmy:

[Scott]

Just for the record, I meant degrees where I used the % key. Sorry about that, let’s just call it a brain fart.

[Scott]

Ohhhh boy, you opened the real can of worms :silly:

Hey he he he! I love that you think so, I love opening cans of worms.

You guys have raised some good points and offered food for thought. I thought that a shallow bevel automatically made a knife sharper (assuming no rolling of the edge and sharpening to get a burr etc.). But in fact, it is the actual bevel or micro bevel at the apex that cuts. The bevel seems less important, although I would love to be proven wrong on this. I actually forgot about micro beveling when I posted because up to now I have just concentrated on honing the edge and re-profiling to get a shallower bevel than what the factory provided.

I love the look of a mirrored finish, but I have found that the mirror finish also magnifies scratches and it seems that cutting anything coarser than butter, causes scratches to a mirrored edge. So because I like the mirrored finish so much, I found myself carrying a big ol EDC and then hunting down my box cutter to break open boxes, (which I do frequently) because I don’t want to mar my beautiful work of art. Kind of like the old saying which was made into a popular song, “never make a pretty woman your wife, or you will regret it for the rest of your life”. I don’t want my EDC to be too pretty or I don’t get the most use out of it. But I still like looking at it, so I do have some knives that I carry from time to time that are black coated with mirror finished bevels. I guess you could think of those as my girlfriends. Yes, I guess you could say, I do cheat on my EDC. :whistle:

But I need to go back and revisit the mechanics of creating a micro bevel. Of coarse now I have the problem of a thick knife with a very shallow bevel that I re-profiled from a thick maybe 30-35% bevel to a 16% bevel that I now have to re-profile to a thicker bevel. Kind of a waste of good steel and a lot of time. Oh well, live and learn. That is why this forum is so handy to have. I can sometimes learn from the experience and reporting of others who have already made some of the mistakes that I will (or would have made) had I not read about it here.

So thanks for your responses. You never know what might come out of asking a question which may seem at least on the surface to be fairly simple to resolve.

[Scott]

You guys crack me up. This is great. They say your never missed or appreciated until your gone. Well, thankfully I am not gone. This has really become a great little community you guys are almost like the brothers I never had and your words are appreciated. I did read the water stone thread and you did a great job. When I can free up some (actually quite a large sum) money, I will indulge myself with the water stones, based in large part on your work and reports. For now Christmas and holiday travel will prohibit this. Plus as a result of Sandy back east, I have evaluated my survival plan and found it lacking, so I invested in a standby generator. And now my wife wants me to go to Paris (yes, with her) for vacation in the beginning of next year. So only so much to go around for now.

And I am surviving despite my little black screws.

[Scott]

Hey Scott,

I was just wondering about you this morning, thinking I hadn’t seen you on the forum for a bit. Have you got the smaller, black screws?

Well I am impressed that you even knew I have been absent for a time. I have dropped in to lurk occasionally but haven’t been sharpening because of some projects I been consumed by around the house while my wife was in Italy traveling on business.

I do have the smaller black screws. Thanks for the update, I appreciate that you are working on it with all that you have on your plate. It is greatly appreciated. Look forward to getting the proper parts when you can. I think it will make a difference.

[Scott]

There was some talk about replacing the screws that came with the original Pro Pack 2 kits. Has anything been happening with those? I haven’t seen anything here or received mine. Was wondering if I missed something. Still waiting to hear from WE.

[Scott]

Thanks guys… I used to be sharper (pun intended)

[Scott]

So I’ll just say it, what IS new?

[Scott]

oops, sorry guys, didn’t mean to peel a scab. I think because I have more than one computer that I monitor the forum on, the old
– karma must have been cached into the memory or what-ever after I thought it was deleted. I was only joking, making light of something I thought was a bit lighthearted to begin with.

I hope no one took it in any other way. Forums are for free flow of thoughts, ideas, observations, experience, sharing, bragging, having fun, or just killing a bit of time with “friends”. There is bound to be differences and even disagreements. Kind of nice to see all the passion and engagement between members, it kinda makes this like a real family in a weird way. I remember some real knock down drag outs with my siblings when I was young, but we always came back together afterward.

[Scott]

He he he…. It’ssssssss baaaaack. there goes all my karma.

[Scott]

I jumped in all the way and got them all. My initial thought was 800/1000 and 2k/3k were enough. Based on a lot of feedback I decided to get the 400/600 to back that course to get the diamond scratches out. After that I decided might as well get the 5k/10k too. At least those should save some stropping time. Probably still a good decision, may not use 10k on every knife but probably will use 5k all the time.

WOW! That is way cool.

I will also be very interested in your experiences with them. I sure hope you will share what you learn. I really wanted to get some Chosera’s but could not pop for the full set since I am sooooooo heavily invested in my PP2 + several extra strops, and two extra sets of ceramics and the 50/80 stones. I was playing with the idea of getting just a set of 5k/10k Chosera’s to finish off my mirrored blades after the ceramics. So it will be very interesting to me to hear if you think you actually need to go through the whole Chosera progression or just use the 5k/ 10k after the ceramics to get a nice mirror. Anyway, enjoy and know that I am at least a little jealous.:unsure:

[Scott]

Andrew,
Which Chosera’s did you buy?

[Scott]

Thanks Phil,
I can always count on you to put things in the proper perspective. I guess the truth will be in the actual user experience when I am able to switch out the screws to see if there is less movement. I only bring this up because we (I) are (am) dealing with scratches that are microscopic and in attempting to get that mirror finish with as few visible scratches to my eye possible. When the angle changes, even 0.2 or 0.3 degrees, it can have an effect.

Anyway, as always thanks for your response. I appreciate that you thought it was significant enough to take the time and spend the energy to experiment on your own system to respond.

[Scott]

Not to beat a dead horse, but I was a bit late to the party when it was discovered that the screws that locked the angle guide arms in place did not seat into the dimpled bar under the riser. I sort of think that this is at the core of this problem since the guide arms are being subjected to different dresses and vibrations with each stroke and since they are just depending on friction against the flat part of that steel bar instead of sitting inside a dimple or cup to hold it in place it is inevitable that it will drift a bit this way or that. So that is why between each stone I find that the angle is off enough to effect the flatness and accuracy of the bevel on the blade under the apex.

So, I think that this should be remedied when Clay gets the new guide rod hardware out to lock those arms in place more securely. I think once in effect, when you set the guide rods, you can be confident that they will cause the stones to strike and drag over the blade at a consistent angle each time, assuming the thickness of the stone is within a tiny fraction of the others. As the diamond stones are.

At least I hope this is the case.

[Scott]

Thanks very much for taking time to experiment and report your observations. It is very helpful and appreciated. It certainly shortens the learning curve and at least for some may save money so they don’t have to buy stones or accessories they won’t need or allows some to add stones that they may not have been aware of or get results that otherwise might have been unobtainable.

This goes to all who take the time to experiment and share. Or just share their knowledge or experience.

[Author]

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