I sharpened a Maestro Wu folding knife to shave ready using the WEPS Chosera 1K, 3K, 5K, and 10K stones and finishing with Ken Schwartz’s .125 CBN. This is the shave - videos of me sharpening the knife are coming next!
Next up is the actual tutorial! This is part 1, where I introduce the stones, and discuss lapping/cleaning along with accounting for the angle differences between the stocks and the Choseras.
Part 2 actually sharpens a knife from 400, 1K, 3K, 5K, and 10K Choseras, finishing with .125 CBN and leather.
It’s long, but I didn’t edit out the beginning few stones so that you can get an idea of what really happens. Later grits are edited for time reasons.
Great stuff, thanks for posting these. I like the way you put in the photos from your progression blog too.
Great post Tom!
Great videos, Tom! A must-see for every Wicked Edge user!
Thanks, guys! I hope you don’t mind the long second video too much! :unsure:
Thanks Tom!! I’m so glad you did this video series… haven’t gotten to watch them all yet, but rest assured that I will very soon. Can’t wait to experience the edge first hand soon =)
Thank you, those videos were very good 
i havent done circles since i used the my early days on the lansky kit, i stopped for some reason and i dont know why..
i have to try it on the weps
Just got done watching your vids Tom… excellent info! I realized my primary mistake when trying to get a “shave ready” edge was that I was using too much pressure and too many strokes. Question… after the end of the sharpening process (the 2nd vid) did the edge pass the HHT? I saw you just checked it on a napkin… but it looked like it shaved real well in your shaving video. Is that all you did to it?
Thanks for watching, guys!
I didn’t check the edge for the HHT after the leather. My guess it probably wouldn’t have popped right off, but would if I ran it up and down the length of the edge.
I did not do anything to the knife after the clean leather - that was a true shave right off the clamps. The shave was fine for the grit level, although I like a little more refinement in general. This knife went out to a customer, so that is why I used the 20 degrees and finished the knife a little “coarser” than what I would normally prefer to shave off of. Overall, there was no pulling, and the shave was pretty clean and smooth with no burn when the aftershave was applied. My biggest problem was that the mirror was about 5 feet away!
On the contrary! I whish I could have watched a video like this when I started sharpening with the Wicked Edge. It also shows you that and why you cannot completely reprofile a knife and have it shave-ready in five minutes. And the information about the strokes, the pressure, etc. is also very useful!
(Only now you’ve completely ruined my shaving ambitions with a normal knife. When I saw your Maestro Wu cleaver shaving video I thought “at least I can try to shave with an ordinary folder”. But now that has been done too… I guess the only challenge left is shaving with an axe :lol:.)
I know speed is an attractive selling point for a lot of people. In all honesty, the speed of the WEPS is certainly faster than most other sharpening devices simply because of the diamond lineup.
But as you see in the video, perfection does take time and a lot of strokes. I wanted to document the realism in the video because an edge off the WEPS will be even better when you take the time at each level. To make matters even harder (time-wise) a shaving edge requires a whole different approach in regards to pressure and generally an even larger amount of strokes.
The WEPS really does deliver. B)
Tom, thanks for both videos. I’m a new straight razor shaver (no pocket knive shaves yet) and I’m a relative newbie to the WEPS too.
Your stroke progression worked very well for me with just the diamond stones and leather strops (3.5, 5 micron). I set the bevel with the 800 grit stone as it was very close to being set to begin with. I got my best edges to date, close to mirror, and near hair whittling. Next up is experiments with lapping film (a chosera set would be nice but I need to slow down with sharpening purchases).
I’d been on the fence about keeping the WEPS but now it’s a definite keeper!
Thanks again,
Mitch
my Youtube channelI just got the lapping video back from my camera guy - I’ll be uploading to in the next 24 hours!
I’ll post it here, too! B)
Tararara…
Here she is! Lapping the Shapton and Chosera WEPS stones using the Wicked Edge diamond plates as well as using the full size Atoma plates for lapping.
Enjoy!
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVNFEAiMjzU&feature=relmfu[/video]
Thanks a lot Tom! Very useful! Particularly for someone who has doubted whether the WEPS diamond stones are suitable for lapping… Glad to know they are (although not ideal, but lapping plates are further away on my shopping list).
Tomorrow I’ll lap my Choseras for the first time in their life! :cheer:
(And, uh, do you do requests, too? I know a particular type of stone I would love to see a sharpening video about… B) )
Good luck on the lapping! as you saw from the WEPS diamonds, it can take a little time - just go slow until all the pencil marks go away.
I’m open to requests, BTW
Lapping the Choseras was a breeze! It works quite well with the 1000 grit stones. As you show in the video, if you go slow, it is no problem at all. And even though I went slow, it actually did not take very long time. Fortunately the matrix binder is not too hard.
I was wondering whether it is also possible (well, useful) to lap the WEPS ceramic stones. They do not show a lot of wear yet, but maybe a little bit. And those stones do get dirty. Ajax or other any abrasive doesn’t really get them clean. Then again, the matrix binder in the WEPS ceramics seems very hard and I don’t know whether lapping the stones is useful or will even do harm to the stones.
Well… the stones’ name starts with and S and end on an N… It’d be great to be able to see how to use the high-grit ones: how many strokes, what pressure, etc. Since at 15K or even higher you are dealing with a very thin edge, I can imagine you should almost caress the edge with those stones. (On the other hand, you still do want to remove metal.)