Thomas
@vicentecgn
active 5 years, 3 months agoForum Replies Created
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The light reflecting off of the apex in your photos says something isn’t quite right. Except for the procedure you describe, my first guess would have been that you are leaving a burr on the edge, or you’re not really achieving an apex. I would hold a light directly over the edge and look straight down on the edge, looking for reflected light. A clean apex should reflect no light. I’m guessing that there’s a possibility that you are rounding over the edge with your strops. For leather strops, you should reduce the angle by 1 – 2 degrees. The compliance (softness) of cow leather can tend to conform to the sectional profile of the edge, undoing a good bit of the effort you’ve put into it up to that point. A simple test is to check the edge’s sharpness before and after the stropping step.
Hi there,
thank you for your answer. At least it’s good to know that there is something wrong. The question is now: what I’m doing wrong?
It may be the stropping but I don’t think it’s because of the angle. I don’t use the leather strops delivered with the WE but this one:
The angle I use looks like this:
I use only two strokes for each side of the knife (alternating). But I will test what you suggested and control the sharpness before and after stropping.
So, there are two possibilities left:
First, if I leave a burr on the edge though I do 50 edge leading strokes on each side with the diamond stone then how much more do I need? Or should I switch to edge trailing? Or are there even other ways to remove a burr?
The second possibility is that I don’t achieve an apex. I can feel the burr with my fingers and I see it when I use a piece of cloth or cotton. What can go wrong then? Are there different types of burrs? Do there exist false burrs? Or do I have to do more strokes even after I feel the burr?
Thank you very much,
Thomas
Hello and thank you for all the Feedback.
If even lacquer thinner isn’t a problem my brake cleaner should be perfect, too. I need it often to remove oil from screws.
I can’t wait to start sharpening, my WE was delivered today. Sunday I can hopefully start with the first knife. 🙂
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In my opinion, use a very fine grit. You’re only removing marker to see where you are hitting the bevel. I typically use my ceramics. My finest diamond is 1000. No need to introduce a deep groove when trying to find the sweet spot.
Hello Mike,
sorry, my question may have been a little bit inaccurate.
Of course you are right, to find the sweet spot i use the finest stone I have because I just want to remove the marker on the bevel.
What I wanted to ask: after I’ve found the “sweet spot” and 90% of the knife’s given bevel are covered in this clamping position (so only 10% need’s to get the profile adjusted) what stone do I begin with to sharpen the knife?
I hope that’s more understandable – sorry for my bad english.
Thank you all for your answers!
Sorry for the late reply but there were other things taking my time.
You can see the damage that needs to be removed by inspecting before you start, and then during you can see if you have removed enough steel to fix the area and then nearing the end you can see that you have removed most of the scratches of all the previous stones. During the sharpening session I will inspect the knife several times during each grit but I don’t take photos every time I look.
Hello airscapes,
thank you for your pictures! I’m sure it’s great to repair knives but as I’m more interesting in cooking than in sharpening knives I’m not sure if a microscope would be really useful for me. Would the damage in your pictures have an impact on how good the knife slices tomatoes, onions or cutting meat or how long it stays sharp?
Keep this in mind for a long time solution because it really does make a difference.
Hello Richard,
to you also thank you for the Pictures. Perhaps I’ll add a microscope later on when I have more time. At the moment I would like to Keep sharpening knives as simple as possible. I know myself – if it get’s too complicated I won’t ever start with it. 😉
And to be clear for new members of the forum, the “sweet spot” method of finding an optimal mounting position is intended to match the existing or factory bevels. Not necessarily the optimal bevel profile for a given knife.
Hello!
Thank you for your opinion. That it’s a little bit risky to use a loupe I’ve never thought about, thank you for the good hint. At least I’ll be very careful.
I’ve read the tutorial about finding the sweet spot (otherwise I wouldn’t have known that there is such thing). So I know already what it’s for: finding the optimal clamping position that covers most of the already existing bevel so that the part of the bevel that get’s a new profile is as little as possible.
There come’s another question to my mind:
What stone do I have to start with when thanks to the sweet spot 90% of the existing bevel is covered? 400?
Greetings from germany,
Thomas
Hello airscapes,
thank you for your welcome and the detailed explanation! 🙂
Of course you are right, if it would be only one knife I want to take care of it would be easier to send it to its manufacturer to sharpen it. Especially as I’m no “obsessive compulsive perfectionist” regarding knife sharpening.
I just want to have sharp kitchen knifes whenever I need them. So sending them to a pro is not really an option for me. Also I want only sharpen the knifes that are in use, I don’t want to give them a new profile or transform dull knifes into shiny and mirror-like knifes. I just need sharp knifes to work with them. Therefore I hope I don’t need 2-3 hours just for one knife. Thinking about professional cooking chefs – I can’t imagine they spent more than 10 minutes for each knife to keep it sharp!?
I’ve already read und understood what has to be done to find the perfect clamping position for each knife – of course this takes some time but that’s only once for each knife. Also I understood that the first shapening with a WEPS needs a little reprofiling for each knife – so the first sharpening may take some more time what is ok for me.
But 2-3 hours per knife each time would be a problem for me because in september I start a very time consuming project (private Pilot license). Although the break-in period disturbs me because I only have about 6 knifes that I use regularly. So my question is if I can produce sharp (not shiny) knifes during the break-in period already?
I hope I find some experience-reports from other users so I can make the right decision.
Thank you,
Thomas
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