I have found for the German knives I've sharpened they do best at 20-22 degrees and a 1k edge stropped with 3.5um paste.

Man I sure do enjoy using me WE so far in the last week I have had one tip repair and 15 knives to sharpen for customers. I sharpen as a little side job. Nothing too big or fancy, but enough that my WEPS has paid for itself! I recently got some awesome feedback from one of my customers that was really the words I have been looking foreword to hearing for quite some time. Not that my feedback ever isn't good it just seems most people just don't really are more than the fact that the knife is sharper than its ever been works better than it ever has and that's all they need. Well this certain fellow is a hunter that I know and his wife was a meat cutter for a number of years. Both of them can sharpen a knife fairly well but when I let him use my EDC to cut something on this years hunting trip he was so impressed that he asked me to sharpen all of his hunting knives for him. So of course I obliged and while we were in camp put a nice balanced toothy/polished edge on his knives. He thanked me and the trip ended with none of us getting an opportunity to fill a tag. Well this week his wife got ahold of me and wants all of their kitchen cutlery done along with her meat cutting knives, so we work out a deal then she says to me, "oh one more thing Brien can't stop talking about how sharp his knives are now. And that he's actually scared of them they are so sharp. He's used to just being able to whip a knife out and not really have to worry if it comes in contact with his skin. But now since he just about cut his finger dinking around he can't stop talking about how scary sharp they are."
I just smiled and said thank you. That's probably one of the best compliments I've had so far.

Thanks for the help everyone. Since I don't have the new arms I wound up just honing the razor freehand on the WE stones and strops. I started with the 600 diamonds and worked my way up to .5 micron CBN. I shaved a little but with it but didn't push it too much being that I don't have any skill is using a razor. But it did work really well I was pleased.

Hello all,
I was just given an old straight razor by a friend of mine that he asked me to sharpen for him
Now I don't think he is going to be shaving with this as it is being used as a prop for a video trailer for a book of hers.
So my big question is am I capable of getting this razor shaving sharp with the WEPS? Right now I have the pro pack plus a set of 1k-2k Shaptons, and the ceramics. I slap have strops down to .5 micron.
Will I be able to produce an edge capable shaving facial hair with this set up? And is it going to be best for me to clamp the razor or use the spine of the razor as a guide and do it freehand?

Thanks,
David

I wasn't really sure where to post this but I figured I'd pass it along.
knivesshipfree is having a nice sale on some bark river and blackjack knives right now for those that may be interested.

I have done a similar thing as you with some of my knives that I want to have a nice polished edge with some bite. I'll polish them up at a shallower angle then put a micro bevel on the knife with the desired edge I want.
Also I hear a lot of talk about rounding the edge stropping, and I think of rounding the edge as the micro convexing that occurs, and rolling the edge to be the bad one. You definitely don't want to strop and roll the edge. To me I think rounding is ok. Did we all get the two terms mixed up at some point, or is it not good to round the edge now either?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the Cephalon Katana series is VG1 not VG10.
And like others said the heat treat makes a huge difference in the performance of the metal.

cbwx34 wrote:


+1, definitely get the pro pack.

I understand your frustrations. But if I were you I would just call them. I have always had better luck calling them than I have emailing.

Clay,
How do you suggest flattening the stones? My 1600 stones seem flat with each other. But the 1200 stones are definitely dished fairly significantly and only after doing 5 knives with them. Granted I did not check them for flatness before I started using them.

Hi,
Yeah I am getting white powder off of them. Actually when I first unwrapped them I had to wash them off because they had a good bit of white powder on them. I have tried lightly rubbing them together a few different times and they dont seem to be getting any better. I think I will call WE today and let them know what I am experiencing. Here is also some pictures of the "pitting" I am seeing on my stones. At first I thought it was just different colored flakes but upon using them and closer inspection it started looking more and more like pits in the stones. Also im not sure how much or how fast they should be filling up with metal shavings but they were pretty black so I washed them lastnight with hot water and a little dish soap like I do with my diamonds and the 1200 grit stones started fizxzing out of the pores of the stone. Almost like I had exposed baking soda to vinegar.

Anyhow here are the pictures.

Thanks for the replies guys, they just really threw me off since they are nothing like any other ceramic finishing stone I have ever used. And with the visible craters in the stone I really wanted to make sure that it wasnt just my stones and there were no problems.
I will keep working with them and hopefully they will break in and start improving my edges. I'm sure using my shaptons on the knife before didnt help my reaction to a new hardly used stone either.

Hello all,
I have a question for those of you that have your ceramic paddles. Now I am aware that they are going to have a little bit of a break in period but mine really seem to be very coarse. My 1200 grit stones sound like 80 grit sand paper and have numerous easily visible pores in them my 1600 grit stones arent as bad but its almost like looking at the face of the moon. And I actually have some chips in the sides of my 1200 grit stones. Is this normal for the WEPS ceramics? They dont really seem to react or perform like any other ceramic stone I have ever used. Granted the only one I have ever used was the one in my GATCO sharpener I had previously.

Well since getting my Shaptons from Komitadjie a couple of weeks ago I have really been using any excuse I can to try them out. And boy do they impress. The feedback from the stones is absolutely fantastic. It's really like taking a piece of velvet across the edge of the knife. They work super fast and are much easier to set up and use than I thought they would be thanks to the help of my angle cube. If I had the ability I would take some microscopic pictures of my edges, but for now you will just have to take my word for it. It's really amazing looking through my loupe you can really see the difference in the scratch patterns from the 1k diamonds to the 1k Shaptons. And the Shapton 2k while it doesnt quite get you that mirror edge it still shines nicely. So far I have done a Benchmade Mini-Griptilian in 154cm. And a Gerber auto opener in S30V.

First heres the Gerber:
Sharpened at 23 degrees with diamonds up to 1k, followed by the Shaptons 1k, and 2k. Then stropped to .5mu. Then I put a 25 degree micro bevel on the knife with the Shaptons 2k and stropped it about 10 times per side with .5mu CBN. The edge came out super sharp and still has a nice bite to it. I thinned down the factory bevel a little bit roughly 3 degrees and micro beveled it because I know the person using it uses it pretty hard between work and the fire department volunteering. This was my first sharpening job of S30V and bothe the WEPS diamonds and the Shaptons performed wonderfully. It really didn't take me all that long to do the reprofile of the knife.






And now the Benchmade:
After doing the Gerber for a friend of mine I decided I wanted to redo the edge on my mini grip. I previously had a 16 degree edge that was taken to .5mu CBN. This time I followed Pretty much the same routine as the Getber only this time I reprofiled to an 18 degree primary edge with a 21 degree micro bevel at Shaptons 2k. While I haven't been able to do a lot of testing with this knife yet it really is crazy tree topping sharp. I managed to get myself with it a little bit just unclamping the dang thing although I am still not sure how I managed that. It slices and push cuts wonderfully and also tree tops arm hairs. I did a little slicing of small tree limbs with it today at work and it left a beautiful cut and made it through with ease. At this point I definitely see some more Shaptons and or Choceras in my future.

Thanks Komit! I look foreword to trying out my first set of water stones!

Responded back.

Pm Sent

I just got done prepping veggies for dinner and saw a good photo op!
So let's see if we can start a new thread.
Show us your knives doin work!

Where are you guys getting the leather to replace the damaged strops?

Hi Clay,
Here are my settings and progression.

Depth: 1(top)
Setting: A.5
Angle: 20 degrees according to the angle cube with a 23 degree micro bevel.

Progression:
Primary
100-1k diamonds
5u and 3.5u strops
1u poly diamond spray
.5u CBN

Micro
1k diamonds followed by 30 or so lite strops with .5u CBN.

I also copied and pasted this to the Facebook post.