So, watching this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2tJxdp1ALc
Clay mentioned he started at 10 degrees, and works his way out (up a degree at a time). But from what I can tell (I don’t have mine yet, it’ll be here on Friday), the degree markings/notches start at 15. So… is this just a matter of mounting the knife in the top spot, and using an angle cube?
Thanks!
Essentially, yes. The taller the knife is, and the higher up in the clamp you have it, the lower the angle will be. I set one of my cleavers in the top just to see what kind of angle I could get and it was 7 degrees. On the other hand, I cant get my Leatherman’s blade lower than about 18 degrees, because it just isnt tall enough to let the stones clear the clamp below that.
That’s pretty much what I figured. So, did you use an angle cube to get that measurement, or your phone, or…?
I was curious about my leatherman blade… when you do it, do you remove the blade from the leatherman, or just mount the whole thing?
Thanks!
I use an angle cube for all my measurements.
As for the Leatherman, I just mount the whole thing. It would be better to remove the blade but I cant be bothered 
It still turned out well, though.
Makes sense. So, I just ordered an angle cube. Was going to try using my iPhone, but the case is a pain to get on and off, and I am not sure how accurate it would be IN the case.
Can’t wait! Must. Sharpen. Everything. =D
btw, awesome edge on your leatherman. What progression is that? And what angle (18?)?
Yep, 18 degrees each side for 36 inclusive
Progression was
Diamond:
100
200
400
600
800
1000
Sandpaper taped to the 1000 grit diamond stone:
1000
1500
2000
Balsa Strops:
5
3.5
1
.5
.25
.125
Cow Leather Strop
.025
blank
Awesome, exactly what I needed. Means I can pull off most of that (Pro Pack 1 with some 3m 1000/1500/2000/2500 sandpaper).
I would assume you use the sandpaper dry (since loading shouldn’t be much of an issue with metal, as opposed to paint)?
Ya I use it dry, the only thing I add water to are the diamond sprays on balsa. While the pastes stay slightly moist and don’t really need maintenance, the sprays dry out and work better when slightly wet.
Just be careful while stropping that you lower your sharpening angle a degree or two and dont use too much pressure. You can get a blade to pass the HHT/whittle hair after 2500 sandpaper, but it’s easy to go backward with bad stropping.
[quote quote=“MathewWhaley” post=5547]Yep, 18 degrees each side for 36 inclusive
1000
Sandpaper taped to the 1000 grit diamond stone:
1000
[/quote]
I’ve read more often that people use sandpaper. Any idea how the 1000 grit sandpaper compares to the 1000 grit diamond stones?
Where I live I can get sandpaper up to 2500 grit. However, thats the (FEPA) P-scale, which is different from the ANSI scale that Wicked Edge use for their stones. You can compare the scales here.
I don’t have access to a microscope to give a real side-by-side comparison, but I can tell you that after the 1000 grit diamonds, the surface is still scratched and toothy, whereas after the 1000 grit 3M sandpaper, it starts to take on a mirror finish and lose its teeth. I don’t know WHY this is, just that it happens.
To be honest though, unless I’m feeling particularly OCD on a given day, I skip the 1000 and 1500 sandpapers, and go from 1k diamond to 2k sandpaper. It doesn’t get rid of every scratch, and it takes awhile longer, but it’s such a pain cutting out little rectangles of sandpaper and taping them to the same stone three times for each knife.
I think the answer is the hardness of the diamonds vs the abrasives on the sandpaper along with the friability of the abrasives on the sandpaper. The diamonds don’t give at all and cut deeper grooves. They also don’t break down easily (though they do break down somewhat) and most likely the abrasives on your sandpaper do break down quite quickly into smaller particles.
[quote quote=“MathewWhaley” post=5561]I don’t have access to a microscope to give a real side-by-side comparison, but I can tell you that after the 1000 grit diamonds, the surface is still scratched and toothy, whereas after the 1000 grit 3M sandpaper, it starts to take on a mirror finish and lose its teeth. I don’t know WHY this is, just that it happens.
To be honest though, unless I’m feeling particularly OCD on a given day, I skip the 1000 and 1500 sandpapers, and go from 1k diamond to 2k sandpaper. It doesn’t get rid of every scratch, and it takes awhile longer, but it’s such a pain cutting out little rectangles of sandpaper and taping them to the same stone three times for each knife.[/quote]
Here is a link to a great chart on grits of different materials. It includes the WEPS diamonds and the FEPA P abrasives.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/856708-The-Grand-Unified-Grit-Chart/page3
Notice that the P1000 paper is 18 microns.
P2500 is 8.5 microns.
WEPS 1000 grit diamonds are listed at 7 microns.
I used to use sandpaper before I got stones to cover my progressions. I too noticed that the p2500 and eveb the p1000 paper would give me a much better polish and less tooth than the diamonds. I also noticed that the paper wore down much faster than I liked. I tend to think that Clay has to be right on this. The abrasive on the paper is breaking down to finer sizes. It is another example of how it is hard to choose a sharpening material simply based on the abrasive size. In fact I would go down to 0.3 micron 3M lapping paper taped to my 1000 diamonds. I never could get the level of polish nor edge refinement doing that as what I can do with the CHosera 10K which has abrasives sized at about 1.7 microns.
[quote quote=“mark76” post=5557][quote quote=“MathewWhaley” post=5547]Yep, 18 degrees each side for 36 inclusive
1000
Sandpaper taped to the 1000 grit diamond stone:
1000
[/quote]
I’ve read more often that people use sandpaper. Any idea how the 1000 grit sandpaper compares to the 1000 grit diamond stones?
Where I live I can get sandpaper up to 2500 grit. However, thats the (FEPA) P-scale, which is different from the ANSI scale that Wicked Edge use for their stones. You can compare the scales here.[/quote]
